Over the past few months, video gaming has become a rather expensive hobby, with hardware and game prices rising consistently, risking pricing out more and more gamers as the worldwide economic situation remains challenging. However, not every publisher is set to increase prices, and some, like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publisher Kepler Interactive, are set to continue employing a pricing strategy that is respectful of gamers' money and time, a lesson the industry is unlikely to learn from looking at the game's success.
Speaking with the BBC, Kepler Interactive's CEO Alexis Garavaryan commented on the company's pricing strategy, which has "kind of taken the opposite action" to what most major publishers have done in recent years.
Elaborating further, Garavaryan said: "When we decide on a release and when we price our video games, we try to think what do we think the price should be and then we price it lower so that when players buy a game from us they feel like they're getting a bargain. We want them to feel like we are respectful of their money, respectful of their time and that fundamentally every time they buy a game from us they're getting a great deal."
"We're excited for players to be able to play five, six different experiences with the same amount of money than a traditional AAA game would bring them," Kepler Interactive CEO concluded, delivering a small ray of hope amidst the general price hikes that show no sign of stopping.
Looking at the smashing success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, whose art style is so convincing that some authorities in the Middle East believed the game's artbook belonged in a museum, Kepler Interactive's strategy has a high chance to make many of the games it will publish in the future quite popular.
While reaching the same level of popularity as the game developed by Sandfall Interactive will be a tall order, gamers have shown time and time again how they are willing to embrace all sorts of gaming experiences if they are of high quality and are priced accordingly. Hopefully, other publishers will follow suit and prevent video games from becoming something only a few can enjoy.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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