LogInThekla Inc. has announced the official prices for the upcoming game from Jonathan Blow. And they are pretty high.
According to the official Twitter of Thekla Inc, the upcoming game from Jonathan Blow (the creator of Braid) will cost $39.99 / €36.99 / £29.99. Pre-orders start today. The demand is so huge, that the game’s official website crashed.
$40 is huge money for an indie game. If you compare it to the most recent indie success story Punch Club, which costs $7, it’s almost 5.7 times more. $40 is actually more expensive than The Witcher 3 ($29.99), Just Cause 3 ($29.99) and recently released Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen ($21.99) in some of the regions (Witcher is still almost $60 in US). Even the upcoming The Division from Ubisoft is less expensive ($37). It’s a big price tag for an indie production.
The Witness is a hauntingly beautiful puzzle/exploration title. The player walks around a huge island filled with mazes and strange mechanisms. The game’s development started back in 2009. The project was supposed to be published in 2011, but the release date shifted to January 2016. The product was financed greatly by the money earned with the Blow’s previous title Braid ($4 million as of April 2014). Perhaps the long development process and the creation of the proprietary game could justify the high price of the final product. But so far this pricing seems to be a bit higher, than we’d expect from the independent project. Hardcore puzzle $20 cheaper than Fallout 4? Seems really bold. Can’t wait to hear the first sales numbers. With the incredible demand it seems like The Witness will make its first million with pre-orders only. The Witness will be available for download on the 26th of January, 2016. Source: the-witness.net