Upcoming Game Subscription Price Changes

[LordChristof]

Hello everyone,

We want to inform you about an upcoming price change for subscription services for two of our games: Hearts of Iron IV and Europa Universalis IV. There are points that we want to make you aware of in the leadup to it:

• The new price for the subscription services will be $7.99 for 1 month subscription and $14.99 for 3 month subscription. Going forward we will no longer offer the 6 month subscription package.
• We’re currently targeting January 16th for the price change to come into effect. If you’re a current subscriber, you’ll receive an email from Steam, giving you an option to continue your subscription at a new price, or opt out of it.
  • 6 month subscriptions will be available until January 16th, but not possible to purchase afterwards.

We’d also like to provide you all with a little more context in regards to this price change.

Firstly, we want to acknowledge that this heads up is coming late. It’s not ideal and as you might know from our other updates on pricing, we always inform you all early about commercial decisions like these. We’ll do our best to continue giving you information like this sooner in the future.

Secondly, you’re probably wondering why we increase these prices at all? The current prices for these subscriptions were set two years ago. Since then, we’ve released more DLCs for our games, and the amount of content included in these subscriptions is simply higher now. That’s why we’ve decided to increase the subscription price for both games.

On a final note, we’d also like to clarify that this price change is unrelated to the regional currency adjustment that we communicated back in December. Both changes are intended to come into effect on January 16th, but are two separate matters.

If you have any questions, please ask. We’ll do our best to help.

 

[Alakdar]

How much of an impact will this price hike have on regional prices? I am specifically interested in Russia, Ukraine and CIS region information.

 

[Deterock]

Hi there!

Happy New Year, by the way, thanks for a heads up. Will this change affect the regional prices? What will be the prices in RUS, UA, KZH and CIA regions?

 

[CountCristo]

Since then, we’ve released more DLCs for our games, and the amount of content included in these subscriptions is simply higher now. That’s why we’ve decided to increase the subscription price for both games.

Eu4 has gone from having 18 to 21 dlcs in that period. It seems a little off to suggest that this 16% increase in DLCs merits a 60% price hike.

Is this the kind of rate of increase we can expect to see going forwards? A 60% price increase every two years as long as new DLC continue at the same rate?

The subscription was and is a great deal for people that don't own any DLC and I've often recommended it - but that's a pretty staggering rate of increase, and makes the value proposition very different, since buying the dlc locks in the price you pay - where as it seems subscribing is opening yourself up to future large increases.

 

[PrimusNephilim]

Lets be honest, Paradox's stock has been in the red since August of last year, announced to your stock holders that Cities Skyline 2 was going public (even thou it wasn't truly ready) and the stock took a bit of a jump in October, but wasn't enough, to keep the trend, we're now getting cost increases for subscriptions. Playing the market sucks sometimes.

 

[Arheo]

Eu4 has gone from having 18 to 21 dlcs in that period. It seems a little off to suggest that this 16% increase in DLCs merits a 60% price hike.

The subscription was and is a great deal for people that don't own any DLC and I've often recommended it - but that's a pretty staggering rate of increase, and makes the value proposition very different, since buying the dlc locks in the price you pay - where as it seems subscribing is opening yourself up to future large increases.

I can only speak for HoI here, but this is precisely why the value proposition for the longer-term (3 month) subscription plan has remained very similar (or exactly the same if you were using the 1 month sub) to the previous pricing. The intention behind it has always been to provide a way for players joining us late in the game's lifecycle to have an alternative option for long-term access to the catalog.

 

[LordChristof]

How much of an impact will this price hike have on regional prices? I am specifically interested in Russia, Ukraine and CIS region information.

Hi there!

Happy New Year, by the way, thanks for a heads up. Will this change affect the regional prices? What will be the prices in RUS, UA, KZH and CIA regions?

Hi Alkadar, Deterock. The subscription prices for these currencies will follow the new regional pricing policy which we communicated back in December and we intend to implement on January 16th. You can expect similar regional currency valuation for subscriptions as in the case of other products.

Eu4 has gone from having 18 to 21 dlcs in that period. It seems a little off to suggest that this 16% increase in DLCs merits a 60% price hike.

Is this the kind of rate of increase we can expect to see going forwards? A 60% price increase every two years as long as new DLC continue at the same rate?

Hi CountCristo. We realize we may have oversimplified this in our initial statement. The increased amount of offered content is one of the main driving factors for this increase, but not the only one. There are other macroeconomic factors that tie into our pricing adjustments, such as inflationary pressures. (I will adjust this in the initial message)

As for what kind of price changes to expect in the future, it’ll vary case by case. These prices are set individually per product and all the above factors, as well as other circumstances can impact our future decisions to a varying degree.

 

[CountCristo]

Hi CountCristo. We realize we may have oversimplified this in our initial statement. The increased amount of offered content is one of the main driving factors for this increase, but not the only one. There are other macroeconomic factors that tie into our pricing adjustments, such as inflationary pressures. (I will adjust this in the initial message)

Thanks for clarifying

16% DLC increase + Swedish inflation over the last two years (8.37% and 5.8%) gives us a 33% increase if we compound all three increases. Still quite a long way from 60%. (Cost of labor hasn't kept up with inflation, so these numbers are intentionally over high)
I think it would be more fair to say that half the price increase is due to inflationary pressure and content increase, and half is due to, well, just an increase.

To be clear, you are totally welcome to increase prices (obviously you don't need me saying that, I just want to be clear I'm not hating on you for doing so). I'm just speaking to the reasons for doing so.

 

[Midway123]

So does this mean that if I purchase a dlc package on steam right now. I would have to pay for a new one after the 16th.

 

[LordChristof]

So does this mean that if I purchase a dlc package on steam right now. I would have to pay for a new one after the 16th.

If you buy a 1 or 3 month subscription now, it will last until the end of the period you paid for. At which point you'll be able to subscribe again at a new price.

I'd also like to elaborate on the date of 16th of January. It's our intention to start the process of updating our subscription service at that date, but it might take a few days or weeks for the change to affect all subscribers.

 

[klingonadmiral]

I see no reason why people should pay more for worse DLCs?

 

[King Henry V]

If you buy a 1 or 3 month subscription now, it will last until the end of the period you paid for. At which point you'll be able to subscribe again at a new price.

I'd also like to elaborate on the date of 16th of January. It's our intention to start the process of updating our subscription service at that date, but it might take a few days or weeks for the change to affect all subscribers.

Question: If we have the 6-month subscription (mine refreshed in December), do we keep it until the end of the 6 months? And what happens after that? Does it continue to refresh for 6 months or will we have to switch to the 3-month subscription?

 

[BabyBuffalo]

It's always somewhat upsetting to see prices rise, but it makes sense. Inflation is a bitch and the cost of eveything ha gone up significantly over the past few years. It's not surprising you had to raise the price, especially considering the rest of the subscription and video game market have done it as well. At least with Paradox games it's still a great deal.

 

[Deterock]

Question: If we have the 6-month subscription (mine refreshed in December), do we keep it until the end of the 6 months? And what happens after that? Does it continue to refresh for 6 months or will we have to switch to the 3-month subscription?

I suppose you can keep your subscription until the end of it and then it will be canceled or you get the option to renew it for 1 or 3 month with new price.

 

[LordChristof]

Question: If we have the 6-month subscription (mine refreshed in December), do we keep it until the end of the 6 months? And what happens after that? Does it continue to refresh for 6 months or will we have to switch to the 3-month subscription?

While the 6 month subscription will no longer be available for purchase after January 16th, we intend to let subscribers keep it. At least for the foreseeable future it will be renewable for current 6 month subscribers. Having said that, we can't promise if you'll be able to keep renewing it indefinitely, and it's possible that at some point in the future we'll stop supporting it. If that happens, you'll be able to switch to 1 or 3 month subscriptions (which of course you can also do now, if you choose so).

 

[redeye271]

Cancelled. You're just milking your customer base for your shareholders. Again.

 

[Tullaris]

Cancelled. You're just milking your customer base for your shareholders. Again.

So how do you propose to fund future development of games, some of which will inevitably flop?

PDS has about 5 LIVE games (HoI4, Stellaris, EU4, CK3 and Victoria 3) and a couple of other unannounced GSGs in development. Thats maybe 7-10 teams of developers some of whose work might never get profitable.

I mean, as a fan, I want more GSGs being developed rather than less.

 

[Trensicourt]

Consistent quality and not rushing poor gameplay mechanics?

That's how Imperator Rome fell apart. PDX last minute saved Victoria 3, which had the same issues as Imperator Rome.

And considering DLCs, there's quite a few that did flop, mostly due to crazy amount of bugs and expecting players to do most of the bug testing.

Are these games more fun now? Yeah, but paying for a poor initial experience costs exponentially more to recoup than an outstanding consistent hit. For every hour that went into a poor launch, a dozen more has to be made up.

Personally, subscription model pricing should be a long-term solution for games nearing the end of its development cycle. Jacking up the price is counterintuitive. Victoria 3 had a lot of interest (which let's be real, PDX almost messed up) because Victoria 2 was so cheap and gained a considerable modding base.

A strong start but mediocre and consistent development is almost always better than a poor start and recouping years of amazing development to get to the same page.

 

[Midway123]

If you buy a 1 or 3 month subscription now, it will last until the end of the period you paid for. At which point you'll be able to subscribe again at a new price.

I'd also like to elaborate on the date of 16th of January. It's our intention to start the process of updating our subscription service at that date, but it might take a few days or weeks for the change to affect all subscribers.

Thank you for your reply.
I have one more question. Would it be possible to pay for 2 months of subscription right now, at the current price? I will not be able to play games starting march, so I feel like a 3month subscription will be a bit of a waste.

 

[TransStarGamerGirl]

I just resubscribed, and now you raise the price. this isn't the way to keep new subscribers. Want a revenue boost? make your other games good. I want I:R to be good so bad. I would buy DLC for that game if their was any worth it. dont milk your most successful games. Dont be an EA