Announcement of price change for the main package around 7/15
Announcement that the price of the main package will be changed around the end of July.
The other day, we received a suggestion from English-speaking players that we should write the store page like this, and we actually received the text, so we made changes to the store page based on that text.
Then, sales of the main package increased significantly in English-speaking countries (about 2.5 percent).
I felt this was very dishonest to those who have not been following our recent exchanges on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord, so I'm going to announce it now, although the schedule is a bit vague.
◆This contradicts previous declarations and announcements. but we REALLY wanted to make it free, so I will make the main package free from 7/15.
(Due to the procedure and the speed of work, this schedule may be earlier or later. Sorry for the vague declaration)
◆People who have the paid main package will receive the Chapter-8 DLC(steam key), which will be available on 7/28, for free as a compensatory payment.
◆The main package may be returned within 2 weeks of purchase.
If you have already bought the main package recently but would not have bought it if it was going to be free, or if you have no intention of buying the DLC in the first place even if the DLC that will be free is cheaper than the current main package, please submit a return request.
◆We are conducting a survey on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord in advance to make it free.
(but I think people who bought recently didn't know anything about the whole process. Sorry.)
[More details about the free and Chapter-8 DLC]
◆When Chapter 8-2 is completed, the Chapter-8 DLC will be sold and the main package will be made free.
(We had originally planned to sell the DLC after 8-3 was completed, but we wanted to make it free as soon as possible. ......)
[reason explanation].
.
This is due to the fact that the majority of players who bought the main package have only played the game for less than the demo, despite having a demo that allows them to play for dozens of hours.
As you can see from the reviewers, this game can usually be played for thousands of hours or more at this point.
We have also learned in recent months that there is a huge difference in cultural backgrounds between Japan and the rest of the world (especially the US), which is why this price point was provoking emotions, especially among foreign players.
----
TacticalNexus is an extremely expensive game, but we're not going to extort tens of thousands of dollars from people who don't play the game.
We have been declaring for several years now that we "will not be selling the game at a discount for some time," but we never intended to make a profit on it in the first place.
For reference, here are the sales figures for the first few months of TacticalNexus sales.
.
We were already working quite diligently on the Chapter-3 and Chapter-4 DLCs at this time, when there were no sales.
(TacticalNexus became known rapidly in April 2020.)
We will of course do our best to incorporate any feedback we receive and make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it, but essentially, we are trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it. However, in essence, we do not need players and revenue for our development.
In Japan, games for "enthusiasts/niche" players are sometimes sold at high prices, but I have learned that such high pricing is perceived as "exploitative" in other countries.
(I recently learned that there are probably very few countries like Japan where the management class and the working class are not in conflict.)
We were marketing this game to a niche audience in the first place, and it doesn't matter if we make money or not.
Of course, we are willing to look at player feedback and find a path that seems compatible with our mutual goals. But it is a fact of life for us that we lose months, sometimes years, in game development, and we develop the game the way we want to.
But now the game is well known and the majority of players have never heard of Tower of the Sorcerer.
We can develop the game ourselves, and if only a niche audience enjoys it, that's fine with us, but we hate the idea of making uninterested players pay for it.
However, we have said for years that we will not reduce the price, and we cannot make the main package free and receive direct refund requests from those who bought the game long ago. (Due to the procedures and the amount of work involved......)
I've been wanting to do something about this for a long time, and I feel like I can solve this to some extent in the form of a SteamKey for the new DLC, so I've decided to do it that way.
Considering the psychological hurdle, if the main package is free and the DLC is paid for, I think it would eliminate the "I don't play the game, but I pay for the game." Or rather, it should be so.
As I said, there should be no players who buy DLC before they have played the main package, which has hundreds of hours of gameplay. Or rather, I hope they don't exist.
So that's why, contradicting previous statements, the main package will be free around 7/15.
(But we often delay updates so much that the DLC sales themselves could be even later.
We wanted to make the announcement after we had a bit more time to finalize it, but we felt that the main package was selling a bit too well and that this was a bad idea, so we made the announcement.)
The other day, we received a suggestion from English-speaking players that we should write the store page like this, and we actually received the text, so we made changes to the store page based on that text.
Then, sales of the main package increased significantly in English-speaking countries (about 2.5 percent).
I felt this was very dishonest to those who have not been following our recent exchanges on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord, so I'm going to announce it now, although the schedule is a bit vague.
◆This contradicts previous declarations and announcements. but we REALLY wanted to make it free, so I will make the main package free from 7/15.
(Due to the procedure and the speed of work, this schedule may be earlier or later. Sorry for the vague declaration)
◆People who have the paid main package will receive the Chapter-8 DLC(steam key), which will be available on 7/28, for free as a compensatory payment.
◆The main package may be returned within 2 weeks of purchase.
If you have already bought the main package recently but would not have bought it if it was going to be free, or if you have no intention of buying the DLC in the first place even if the DLC that will be free is cheaper than the current main package, please submit a return request.
◆We are conducting a survey on Twitter (now self-proclaimed X) and Discord in advance to make it free.
(but I think people who bought recently didn't know anything about the whole process. Sorry.)
[More details about the free and Chapter-8 DLC]
◆When Chapter 8-2 is completed, the Chapter-8 DLC will be sold and the main package will be made free.
(We had originally planned to sell the DLC after 8-3 was completed, but we wanted to make it free as soon as possible. ......)
[reason explanation].
.This is due to the fact that the majority of players who bought the main package have only played the game for less than the demo, despite having a demo that allows them to play for dozens of hours.
As you can see from the reviewers, this game can usually be played for thousands of hours or more at this point.
We have also learned in recent months that there is a huge difference in cultural backgrounds between Japan and the rest of the world (especially the US), which is why this price point was provoking emotions, especially among foreign players.
----
TacticalNexus is an extremely expensive game, but we're not going to extort tens of thousands of dollars from people who don't play the game.
We have been declaring for several years now that we "will not be selling the game at a discount for some time," but we never intended to make a profit on it in the first place.
For reference, here are the sales figures for the first few months of TacticalNexus sales.
.We were already working quite diligently on the Chapter-3 and Chapter-4 DLCs at this time, when there were no sales.
(TacticalNexus became known rapidly in April 2020.)
We will of course do our best to incorporate any feedback we receive and make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it, but essentially, we are trying to make the game as enjoyable as possible for the players who purchase it. However, in essence, we do not need players and revenue for our development.
In Japan, games for "enthusiasts/niche" players are sometimes sold at high prices, but I have learned that such high pricing is perceived as "exploitative" in other countries.
(I recently learned that there are probably very few countries like Japan where the management class and the working class are not in conflict.)
We were marketing this game to a niche audience in the first place, and it doesn't matter if we make money or not.
Of course, we are willing to look at player feedback and find a path that seems compatible with our mutual goals. But it is a fact of life for us that we lose months, sometimes years, in game development, and we develop the game the way we want to.
But now the game is well known and the majority of players have never heard of Tower of the Sorcerer.
We can develop the game ourselves, and if only a niche audience enjoys it, that's fine with us, but we hate the idea of making uninterested players pay for it.
However, we have said for years that we will not reduce the price, and we cannot make the main package free and receive direct refund requests from those who bought the game long ago. (Due to the procedures and the amount of work involved......)
I've been wanting to do something about this for a long time, and I feel like I can solve this to some extent in the form of a SteamKey for the new DLC, so I've decided to do it that way.
Considering the psychological hurdle, if the main package is free and the DLC is paid for, I think it would eliminate the "I don't play the game, but I pay for the game." Or rather, it should be so.
As I said, there should be no players who buy DLC before they have played the main package, which has hundreds of hours of gameplay. Or rather, I hope they don't exist.
So that's why, contradicting previous statements, the main package will be free around 7/15.
(But we often delay updates so much that the DLC sales themselves could be even later.
We wanted to make the announcement after we had a bit more time to finalize it, but we felt that the main package was selling a bit too well and that this was a bad idea, so we made the announcement.)