ORIGINAL: young turk
too expensive for me. i won't be buying it.
too bad, too, as HTTR is one of the best games I have ever played.
I guess you will find out if Matrix knows what it is doing charging the bejesus out of its customers.
It may seem indeed expensive, but on the other hand, you have to know the economics of the wargaming niche. Wargaming titles aren't obviously blockbuster titles such as Grand Theft Auto or Splinter Cell which sell millions and millions of copies in all consoles and PC. Wargaming is for an educated and very limited audience and crowd, and that's why it is a small niche limited to small sales. All things being equal, if you sell less of something, your production costs per unit sold are higher, everybody knows that.
However, people will argue that developing wargames do not require the giant staffs that major league developers like EA or Ubisoft have (staffs or up to or over 100 people per game for 2 years). OK, let's do the math here. We know it is sold at 60$ a piece. Let's say they will sell 10 000 units (believe me, I think I am being very generous here with 10 000 copies for a wargame). It makes a total of 600 000$. Just 600 000 friggin dollars. Even though the development staff is limited to 5 or 6 individuals, plus add to that a couple of other individuals on the publishing side, 600 000 is not much to cover the salaries of everybody as well as other expenses such as equipment, admin expenses, travelling to shows, etc.
Often wargame titles will sell much less than 10 000 copies, so it is barely enough to afford a decent living to everybody, and give you an incentive to continue churning out quality titles. And wargames are extremely risky business. You always have more chance of losing money on a title than making it.
That rationale and economic explantaion does not make the 60$ US any more easy to afford for people with lower income such as students, but the 60$ is justified and is definetely not "charging the bejesus out of its customers" - you could say that if these guys were all driving Ferraris and living in luxurious mansions, but that is not the case.
