Is KSP too expensive?

[BudgetHedgehog]

The $40 cost is so when it's on sale for $30 or $20 people buy it. If it cost $20, nobody would buy it unless it was on sale for $15.

And so we get the most basic psychological tactic - anchoring. If something was marked £100 but with a 50% discount, it's seen as a great deal as the thing must be worth £100 but they're selling it for £50. Sell it for £50 straight out with no previous interaction and it's too expensive.

[SkyRender]

Oh boy, one of my favorite discussions, the illusion we call "monetary value". One of the hardest lessons of economics is the one that undermines the entire concept: a product or service is worth exactly what the customer is willing to pay for it. This little phenomenon is pretty much at the heart of every "anomaly" in economics, from bubbles and busts to swindling and sale prices.

For what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that KSP has become more than worth what I paid for it, and would still be worth it at its current price (though I would probably wait for it to go on sale, that's more to do with the fact that Steam has conditioned me to never buy anything at full price even if I do consider it worth it).

[Jonboy]

Well since I bought it back in 2013, it's cost me about a cent and a half per hour of play. Considering a two hour movie can set you back 15 bucks nowadays, I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

Even at the current price, you could easily spend that much money on a nice dinner or a night at the club, and you'll only enjoy those purchases for a single night.

[Superfluous J]

And so we get the most basic psychological tactic - anchoring. If something was marked £100 but with a 50% discount, it's seen as a great deal as the thing must be worth £100 but they're selling it for £50. Sell it for £50 straight out with no previous interaction and it's too expensive.

Yup. And it's essentially Steam's entire pricing scheme.

[r4pt0r]

Yup. And it's essentially Steam's entire pricing scheme.

but damn does it work

[bakanando]

I would have payed $30 for 0.24.

I wouldn't pay $20 for 1.0

[MGCJerry]

I paid $27 for KSP. Honestly for what KSP has done for the amount of time in it, it has been way more cost effective than any other single game I've ever owned (including Fallout 3, and the Mass Effect series, not to mention Starcraft:Brood War, Diablo I & 2, Unreal Tournament (99, 2004) & Total Annhilation). Knowing what I know about KSP now, even if it was $40 I would have bought it. Considered buying it again just to help support the devs.

However, as far as new players. With a demo there is no excuse for them to pay $40 into something they don't know anything about. For me, no demo = no buy. That's how I see it. I'm too poor to throw money on something I may not like.

[boxman]

Totally agree - the defenders are converts: newbies need to be converted. Put it this way: we know its a great game 'cos we took a punt on it when it was cheap, so forgave its "quirks". Later, we really got ito it & now its an addiction (well, it is for me). But, $40 for a comparatively unknown indie game is a big ask for a newbie, & it looks overpriced (especially when you consider its far from the "finished article").

Exactly. The people who buy it at current price are probably mostly people who are already highly interested in this type of niche genre.

During early access when price was lower all kinds of people gave this game a shot and quite a few of them was completely converted even though they had little to no interest in space sims besides blowing up a few kerbals. These people will probably now be scared away by the price point, especially when they see the screenshots/graphics.

[Kilmeister]

KSP for me ranks as one of my best purchases if we're doing basic hours played per money spent. I bought KSP for $23 on early access and have 761 hours played on it (3 cents per hour). Knowing what I do now I'd easily plop down triple A money for this game, but if I had never played it... $40 is a tough sell for an indie for me, but not unheard of but still around upper limits on it. It wouldn't be an impulse buy, but judging by some reviews I've looked at I'd probably go for it.

Oh and by comparison, probably worst purchase I've ever made was Simcity (2013) which was my final straw with EA... $80 for 10 hours of playtime.

And best would be Tribes 2, no counter, but it's been 15 years with that damn game

[Tankman101]

40 dollars for 400 hours...

Yea, I think it's worth it.

[Bomaye]

960h and counting.........it's too cheap!

[xiombargdei]

I bought KSP on a special steam sales at 20€ if i remember correctly, back on v0.21.

I feel a bit ashamed now, and wish i could send more money at them.

I considered buying goodies, but 45$ on a shirt and a small sized mug seem far too much on the other hand.

[Rakshasa]

I remember paying less than $10 or so, quit whining.

[Snarfster]

If I recall correctly, I bought KSP in the store for something like 24 USD.

But it's worth what you're willing to pay for it.

Judging the hours of fun I've had playing it so far, to me it would be worth the 40 USD. That's a decision everyone has to make for themselves. When in doubt, look at YouTube or Twitch.

[Two]

I consider 40€ way too expensive for this game. It is definitely extremely fun to play, but it certainly lacks quality (bugs, crashes). IF the game would be a lot more stable and bug-free, then yes maybe that price would be ok, but not for the beta version this game still is.

Luckily there are places on the Internet where you can get it for as low as 16€.

[The Destroyer]

Hell no. I've had 1500 hours or so of quality entertainment. My most expensive purchase, Elite Dangerous, (70 CAD) got so far 150 hrs, maybe 500 hrs by next year.

It's also taught me orbital mechanics.

[serolrom]

I think we are wrong when calculating how much it costs per hour. In that case, it can get dirty cheap.

But the price is what you pay *before* you have the game (*)

Based on this, I'm on the same boat as many here:

- It has quite a high entry price. I wouldn't buy for 40$.

- It quicly gets cheap overtime. Having bought it, I would pay more than 40$.

(*) Fortunately there is a demo. This is priceless. There is no demo for Elite:Dangerous and so I wasted 50 bucks. If only I could give it away, even for free, to someone that enjoyed the game, so that those 50 bucks were not just wasted, thrown away. Thank you for the demo, KSP.

[asmi]

I think we are wrong when calculating how much it costs per hour. In that case, it can get dirty cheap.

But the price is what you pay *before* you have the game (*)

Based on this, I'm on the same boat as many here:

- It has quite a high entry price. I wouldn't buy for 40$.

- It quicly gets cheap overtime. Having bought it, I would pay more than 40$.

See - this is a problem. All the people who know it's worth $40 already own it (and almost all of them didn't actually pay $40 to get it - I bought it for $18 back in days of 0.17), but for new players it's rather steep price. I know it's above my personal limit for "throwaway" money - which I can spend and not care if the game will turn out to be a total crap.

And no, the demo wouldn't help advancing my own case as it fails to demonstrate modding aspect of the game - I know for sure that stock is not and will never be the game for me, so modding is the only way for me to get things the way I want them.

Edited June 2, 2015 by asmi

[WOODY01]

I got it for Around $20 and think it is worth the $40 price tag. However if I just discovered this game recently I do not think I would spend $40 on it.

[Majorjim!]

It's £30 in the UK and that is too much in my opinion for an largely unfinished game. KSP is probably my favorite game of all time. I love it. But it is unfinished.

The new parts where made by one man and it shows. They are not AAA quality by any means. Sound effects need changing, fairings need fixing, Unity 5 promises much, may deliver nothing. The aero model will change, again.. Performance is terrible, there are no environmental effects. there are bugs, big bugs, memory leaks, graphical glitches, nothing to do on planets except come home again, and I still bloody love the game but charging £30 is too much. I say £15 is more realistic.

Yes I have played thousands of hours on this game but others wont. We are the hardcore. Most players wont go to all the planets, they will give up after a while.

[Nookos]

I m not complaining about it costing 40$ but I would have prefered to pay 20$ for the stock game and happily give away another 40-60$ to the modders who make the game about 3-4 times better. Just my 2 cents but without the modding community I wouldn t even buy the game or would regret it if I did. Stock game is simply not worthy of 1.xxx version label in my humble and worthless opinion.

Back in my days, games came on a cartridge and there was no patch, update, fixes, or mods allowed!! the good old days of finished product or nothing.

[Ravenchant]

Yes I have played thousands of hours on this game but others wont. We are the hardcore. Most players wont go to all the planets, they will give up after a while.

And most players who didn't think it was worth it won't post on the forums. We have sampling bias going on.

[Rdivine]

The devs have came a long way in the development of KSP, and definitely had spent countless hours coding and writing lines of code over and over again. They deserve every single dollar of profit.

[Red Iron Crown]

Not too expensive in my opinion. It's far from perfect, but the gameplay is compelling and the challenges deep enough that it has delivered tremendous gaming value for me. I bought it long ago when it was cheaper, but if it had followed a regular development model and only became available at 1.0 for $40 I would have bought it in a heartbeat.

[GusTurbo]

1.0 feels more like a beta version than .90. That's a bit of a problem.