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BHVR are trying to pull the wool over consumer eyes with the price change (Math inside)
Just like with Nic cage, they have started forcefully bundling cosmetics in order to jack up the price on steam. This is so you are forced to buy auric cells, which were more expensive than the average DLC price on steam if you wanted both characters.
Here's some quick math to prover my point:
Average DLC (1 killer 1 survivor). price on steam: £5.49 or $7
Auric cell cost: either £3.75 x 2 (£7.5) for two 500 bundles or 7.50 for 1100 auric cells.
DLC cost with bundled cosmetics: £9.99 or $12.99.
This is NOT okay, for those who said it's still the same price - no it is not. The prices have gone UP and they are trying to pull the wool over people's eyes by bundling in content to justify it
Comments
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I’m going to be straight forward, this is quite okay. They at least are compensating the increase with a cosmetic.
They could just increase the prices by a dollar or two like everything else in todays world.
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This is exactly why consumers are constantly screwed over "in today's world"
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If they always intended on doing an increase anyways, then they picked a really good time to Trojan Horse it in with three licenses in a row.
People are going to want to participate.
Good luck with your boycott.
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I don't really get why people defend blatantly greedy practices tbh, or why BHVR need to be so underhanded about it
Either way as long as people know that this is a thing i don't really care what they decide to do after the fact. People can make their own decisions after all
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You know who came with an extra skin at no extra cost? Lory, Tapp, Quentin... Sorry, but this is an unjustifiable price increase.
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I think the more insidious part of this whole thing is the fact that no matter what you have to pay extra for the content that was previously cheaper
The steam version's had their price jacked up and buying auric cells is more expensive by default for two characters
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First FOMO and now this crap.
Now imagine if we get chapter with 2 survivors.
Killer + 2 survivors + 2 costumes
They will ask 20 bucks for it? Maybe even more like 25 bucks?
This is greedy strategy for increase chapter prices.
If we accept that, they will dare even more greedy strategies.
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There is no doubt in my mind that double character chapters are going to be more expensive as well, going forward
First it was solo character DLCS (Nic cage)
Now it's regular DLCs (1 kil 1 surv)
Not to mention the fact we have another solo character DLC coming in October. So yeah, this pattern will def hold true imo
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I bought all chapters except Nic Cage. Now i am skipping Alien too even i am so excited and hyped for it.
It's kinda imposible but hopefully Alien sells fails and people actually force them to stop this crap strategy. But i have no hope on community tho.
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I'm conflicted as well, I was looking forward to Alien as the content seems well made and I like the franchise
But at the same time I am not buying into this blatant double dipping greed. What, we really gonna pretend like BHVR isn't making enough money or something?
We really gonna pretend they aren't making a movie, have several other games in production and own one of the biggest horror gaming franchises now?
Like come on now.
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I think genuinely the worst feeling is
I like DBD, I like the developers of this game. I want to support their work
What I don't like is whatever greedy corporate entity (no pun intended) they have in charge of pricing/DLCs/cosmetic FOMO policies. Whoever they are, I want to give them as little of my money as possible.
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I did not and i am not gonna buy.
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Since April 2022 they've opened several new offices (Toronto, UK South, and most recently Rotterdam) as well as acquired SockMonkey studios for UK North and Midwinter Entertainment for Seattle. DBD players are basically funding BHVRs expansion.
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im gonna buy it im on xbox anyways
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I brought this up on the reddit, and my post was IMMEDIATELY removed for "oversaturated content" even though I have not seen one post about it.
I'm honestly surprised to see posts here have not been suppressed as well. The community seriously needs to speak up about this.
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It's cheaper with auric cells.
If you don't want the extra stuff in the chapter, just buy the characters with auric cells
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Inflation tho.
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That is how business works... I don't want to spend £4 on a block of cheese but as costs go up that passes to the consumer
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It should have been $6.99
Does someone really have to explain to you how $10 is still more than $6.99?
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They could have done that in other ways that aren't anti-consumer gatekeeping content bullshit. They could have added more value to the game in other ways instead of FORCING you to buy a bad skin. Why aren't there custom moris? I know people would eat that crap up willingly and it would make BOATLOADS of money.
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How is 7 bucks for a killer and a survivor in any way your idea of fair pricing?
Some of you are way too proud to be cheap.
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Because DBD already has nearly $200+ worth of DLC excluding cosmetics that likely draw in way more revenue then chapters do and it was them who decided on the 5.49 model
To make it clear, I'm not against them changing the price but they shouldn't do it in such a scummy underhanded way with no communication whatsoever
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That was the usual price for a killer + one survivor. However, since you've only been playing for a year, you don't know that and you obviously didn't read the posts either.
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why should it be? who decided that? who made it a rule?
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Because that's the price of literally every other DLC except solo character or duo survivor chapters
Either communicate with your consumers that you're changing your prices or don't change the prices. Stop with this wishy-washy "we're not changing the prices, we're just charging you more for more value" it's a load of crap that anyone sensible can see right through
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UHHHHHH because literally all the other DLC's are??? Since the beginning of time, 1 surv + 1 killer has been $7. It's been that way since the beginning because they didn't want people to gatekeep people from essential gameplay content, but now you're forced to buy it for either 12 or 10 dollars because they added a skin. It's why skins are so damn expensive in the store, because their optional, and they should have STAYED optional. This move is blatantly anti-consumer and greedy. BHVR is not strapped for cash. They have their boatloads of money from the gatcha game, and have two AAA games in development AND a movie coming out. If they wanted to make more money, they should have done that by adding actual value to the game like custom moris or better cosmetics that people can actually CHOOSE to buy instead being forced to get this ######### bundle with their gameplay dlc. How can people not see how they're getting ripped off with this??
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You aren't entitled to BHVR telling you they are going to increase DLC prices nor do they need your approval to do so. Not to mention the Auric Cell cost is still the same.
Does it suck that steam DLC prices are more expensive, sure. But you don't have to buy the DLC and you always have the ingame store option over steam.
Prices have been going up for products in general, so this hardly is as big of an issue as you guys want to make it out to be.
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Do you literally know how economics works? So because something was one price ages ago means it needs to stay that price? What a terribly basic view of the current world. How do you know it costs that much now just because a skin was added. Do you not think they had to increase the price due to increasing costs and they're adding a skin for free to sweeten the deal a little bit? Maybe the license with the Alien folks TOLD them to make it that price, maybe they want higher cut of the proceedings. A lot of factors at play here. A lot of people are getting triggered over about £2-3 which comes around after a handful of months.
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This 100%. Thank you for talking sense.
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"Ages ago"
End Transmission release date: June 2023
Price: £5.49
Hmm something's not adding up here chief
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Well one is licensed and one is not... do the math LOL
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Okay, and...?
They were always the same price. The 5.49 price tag was used a few months ago, not "ages ago" lmao
I did the math chief, they've hiked the price up.
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My god. You do know buying the rights to something costs more money right? And then you need to sell it for more money right? And if day to day costs, employee wages, IT infrastructure costs etc etc are more expensive then you need to charge more right? Dude if you don't understand how the economy works just say. It'll save the embarrassment of you digging a deeper hole for yourself.
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I'm sure BHVR the small indie company that pulls in 336.2M worth of revenue each year really needs that slight increase of money. They clearly are struggling to pay the bills, which is why they are branching out and are making a movie. Ahaha, jesus christ man if you're gonna do damage control for BHVR, at very least make them pay you for it
I'm not digging any hole, by the way - the people digging the hole are the ones who just let companies walk all over them 24/7 with no pushback. I'm not saying that about you or anyone in this thread, I mean in a general sense.
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so they can't just say "this is the price"? they need to say it before the dlc comes out for some reason?
funny... that was never the price I saw for any dlc. it was always 8$+. 5$+ for individual characters.
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Hey again, I wanna say I'm not against them raising the price if it's somehow necessary - my problem lies in their methodolgy. They removed a steam users option to buy the DLC normally without paying extra (The outfit bundle), so their only option is to buy auric cells which for both characters is more expensive than the usual DLC price.
Basically that is my biggest gripe with those whole thing, It's not "This is the Alien DLC, it costs £7.99" it's "This is the alien character pack - it includes the alien DLC AND an outfit you may or may not want, it costs 9.99" and if you want the 'normal' price you have to buy auric cells
Hopefully you get what I mean.
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fair enough. it would be nice to have a "just the characters" option. you do get a full costume that is worth 1080 auric cells. so I say the price can be justified.
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This is true, but the BHVR isn't entitled to the consumer just quietly accepting it. Nor are they entitled to perpetually growing profit margins. Drawing attention to pricing changes and discussion about them (including conjecture/questioning about motivations), as well as advocating for organized pushback is totally acceptable in forums like these.
So in a very real way, BHVR does need our approval, it's only that approval is expressed in the form of purchasing.
More than acceptable, in fact. They can raise their prices, and the consumer can reject the changes by abstaining from purchase, and by encouraging others to do so, if they feel they are unfair. This is how the market should work.
Additionally, this is how unjustified pricing changes get pushed off on people, and the fond hope of the company is that they will be quietly accepted.
And make no mistake, while inflation is a thing, a whole lot of what we have seen over the past few years is more collective price gouging/collusion that natural inflation. We had a pandemic supply chain crisis that actually passed pretty quickly, but many unscrupulous companies decided hey could just keep on going with unjustified price increases. Even for companies that were totally immune to supply chain/pandemic labor issues. This has long since graduated from conspiracy theory to a fact acknowledged by most economists.
They just count on you to quietly accept burgeoning prices and chalk it up to whatever the narrative of the day happens to be. Always question these things.
People can just roll with these changes if that's their prerogative, but we shouldn't try to quiet/suppress those who want to point out problems with them.
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Then don't buy the DLC if you don't think it's worth the value. No one is forcing you to purchase the DLC. BHVR can charge what they want for their DLC and if they price it too high and people don't buy it then they'll have to reduce the price.
BHVR does not need to write up a dev blog about pricing changes and make sure the community is fine with such changes ahead of time. Just don't buy the DLC.
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No they don't, but it's perfectly reasonable for people to make a forum posted pointing out what they see a problem with it. Or maybe they found something in the pricing they feel others might not (but should be) aware of.
Frankly, it's a better use of bandwidth than the 634,821st post on "why isn't BHVR fixing tunneling?!" or "pLz nerf [insert killer/perk/add-on here].
I don't necessarily agree with it, but it's just some consumer advocacy, and that's fine.
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one thing you seem to misunderstand is the fact that the pricing of DLCs may also be subject to change due to term agreements for the contracts that BHVR signs for in order to have permission to create the content in the first place. with that being said, they have to balance the costs and profits accordingly. they are a business at the end of the day, and the business' goal is to ensure that it brings in profit to continue to create and provide services for years to come.
you are not obligated to purchase the goods or be in agreement with these prices to continue to play the game. you are not obligated to pricing notifications as a consumer, and it is your responsibility to balance your own checkbook. if you're really that upset about a few dollars of an increase, personally write BHVR a letter for negotiation.
(edit: i forgot to mention that steam, epic games, windows store, xbox, etc. may also have agreements to fees charged for each sale of a product through their services. this is something BHVR also has to account for.)
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Listen, Im fine with buying the DLCs personally, however there is one thing I particularly take issue with, which is intentionally putting in useless content into the DLC/Bundle to artificially inflate the prices.
For those who dont know, the DLC costs 12 USD excluding tax, a price that is typically reserved for DLC that has 3 characters. They are able to charge this price for 2 characters because they intentionally included a Very Rare cosmetic set.
Recently a lot of games I know have been doing this, such as Warframe, which included Regal Aya in their Supporter Bundle to inflate the prices, but while I can give Warframe a pass since it was only a cosmetic bundle that can easily be ignored, Dead By Daylight on the other hand is a paid game, and DLC is basically mandatory because of how awful the Shrine of Secrets is.
This is scummy.
This must be called out. Im tired of it.
(This was it's own post but it got moved to this post as a reply.)
Post edited by Iron_Cutlass on5 -
You can buy the characters individually with Auric Cells. You are not required to purchased the characters via the steam store.
Post edited by Mandy on1 -
Problem: I am a charm collector.
While incredibly niche, Im basically forced to buy the bundle if I want to obtain the charm. I want the characters, I want the charm, I dont want to spend more for the outfit though.
Also this ignore the entire fact that the DLC would be cheaper than buying Auric Cells if they didnt artificially increase the price to begin with. And including outfits to artificially raise the price of DLC sets a bad idea going forwards, I dont think we should sit here and defend this.
Post edited by Mandy on5 -
It's really not about defending it. I'm just stating that if the price of the steam bundle is too high for you, there is a cheaper option available in the in-game store. And if you still don't like that, then just don't buy the dlc.
It's a video game at the end of the day. Hardly anything in the Alien dlc is required to enjoy the game.
Post edited by Mandy on0 -
Read these two posts by @Thusly_Boned they basically summed up why I even made this thread in the first place.
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With the Nicolas Cage situation you were completely correct that auric cells were cheaper than the base price
But it doesn't seem to be the case here, it's more expensive than usual either way if we're going by how each type of DLC is standardly priced. (5.49 for 1 kil 1 surv and so on)
Also I'm with you OP, I've also made a thread talking about this. Good on you for speaking your mind.
Post edited by Mandy on5 -
Considering the legitimate quality of this chapter, I'd say the price is fair. That being said, I hope prices aren't always high regardless of quality.
Post edited by Mandy on0 -
Yeah I mean speaking personally it's not that I have some kind of moral objection to paying a higher price, it's more so the fact they are being really underhanded about it by limiting consumer options (You can't buy it for the 'normal' price on steam anymore).
If it were on steam for 7.99 or whatever, I'd not have as big of an issue with it because at least it's not some weird "if you want the cheap price, you NEED to buy our currency".
Post edited by Mandy on2 -
the problem i have with this notion is that this is a common phenomenon with anything that goes up in price compared to what we are used to or is priced in a very unusual way.
i understand that individual's point, and there is nothing wrong with consumer advocacy. there is a reason as to why i outright stated that you should write BHVR a letter to negotiate this rather than solely using the forums (a place where people commonly air their negative responses to things) as a place for this sort of thing. what i was outlining was the fact that it is wrong to claim that a business is simply "pulling the wool over the consumer's eyes" without taking to account everything that can factor into the conditions of a price, including contractual agreements that contain conditions that are to be met by the party signing. this includes making up for the costs that come with providing a resource that's meant to fill a criteria (i.e, a requirement to meet a certain profit margin to indicate a success in a license in order to continue annual resales, or a certain percentage owed for a quarter of the first sale period, etc.).
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