Wardogs has become a breakout hit on Steam even at a relatively steep $40 for early access. According to Joe Brammer, the outspoken CEO of developer Bulkhead and executive producer on the game, the developer is charging what the FPS is worth, and the price is going to continue to increase as the game improves during early access.
“We have scaling pricing,” Brammer tells GamesRadar+ in a Gamescom interview. In 12 months, which is around the time they plan to reach “0.5,” the price will increase to $49.99. In 24 months, the price will hit $59.99. “If you don’t want to get in now, wait for there to be more content, more stuff, buy it later,” Brammer says. “You want to buy in cheap now? That’s fine too. But really, we just think it’s fair to scale the price as the game becomes bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Bulkhead straddles the line between “indie” and “AA,” Brammer says, acknowledging that “no one knows what these mean. But you can see this isn’t just an indie FPS game.” Producing high-fidelity graphics and physics for a game like this “takes time and costs a lot of money.”
“Our thing is like, ‘Look, we control our salaries and we don’t want to blow them out the water or anything. This game costs a lot to make. If you want to play a cheaper FPS, you may go and play a cheaper FPS. That’s absolutely fine. But this is what our game is worth. Our game is worth this, and if you don’t agree with that, please don’t buy it.'”
Brammer knows that the studio is setting a “precedent” with this kind of pricing, and says “players should expect the quality that we deliver for that price.” He even acknowledges that some players will take issue with early access price increases when “we haven’t fixed this and that.” But for the devs? “We believe that our price needs to go up to make this game sustainable. Otherwise, how can we support the game long term? It is a big FPS game that costs money to make. The end.”