Manor Lords brings its in-depth medieval city-building to Early Access in just two days, so publisher Hooded Horse took the time to explain why it hasn’t announced pricing information yet.
While many players would expect to see some sort of update by now, it’s still unclear how much purchasing Manor Lords will actually cost. Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender explained why fans were left waiting a post on Reddit. Explain that the problem is a matter of managing expectations.
“Manor Lords, like all other games on Steam, will not have a single price,” he says. “It will have regional pricing that will be distributed around the world. These aren’t just different currencies – there are large regions of the world where Steam uses US dollar pricing, but differently.”
He continues: “For example, parts of Southeast Asia, many CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions, Turkey, many Middle Eastern countries, Argentina, many South American countries… all have prices in US dollars but different from those from the United States in to provide help to local customers so that they can afford the game given the prices and wages in their country (although inflation is making this increasingly difficult when it is not possible to use the local currency). ”
Hooded Horse says these examples are why it wants to move away from announcing pricing before launch. If US pricing is announced before Manor Lords launches, players in other territories may worry they won’t be able to afford it. The company fears that too many potential buyers will “lose hope and think the game won’t be affordable in their country” even if it attaches disclaimers to a pricing announcement.
However, this is just one of a few major concerns that Hooded Horse has tied to pre-release pricing announcements. Bender also references the company’s fear of scammers who might try to take advantage of eager fans who want to pre-order Manor Lords.