One of the best games on Steam suddenly costs Russians €173 instead of €9: “Nasty Behavior”
The strategy game Factorio (PC) is one of the best reviewed games on Steam. The strategy game has 98% positive ratings. But on July 14, the developer increased the price of the Russian version of the game almost 20 times: instead of 520 rubles (€9), Factorio should now cost 10,000 rubles (€173). Some Russians saw this as a political statement by the developers against the Ukraine war and fought back with angry reviews. The price was later corrected drastically downwards.
What kind of game is this?
- Factorio is the dream come true of strategy players who love production chains and logistics: A futuristic economic simulation in which you are stranded on a strange, uninhabited planet and build a factory that mines and refines raw materials. You keep expanding the factory until it finally produces a rocket with which you can leave the planet that you have meanwhile exploited and polluted.
- The special thing about the game is that you have to build an automated factory from scratch. The player has the task of building a kind of clockwork that runs automatically and brings the desired results.
- Factorio has been in Early Access since 2016 and was released on Steam in 2020: It is one of the best rated games on Steam ever, with 98% positive reviews. It’s safe to say that if you like this type of strategy game, you’ll love Factorio. If you don’t like this kind of game, don’t even play it.
Factorio is extremely popular:
From 9 € the ruble price goes up to 173 € – without explanation
This was the price increase: Of the Steam database you can see the worldwide prices for Factorio:
- Normally Factorio costs 520 rubles in Russia since the release, which is about 9 €. Factorio costs the same in other countries around the world, such as Uruguay or Mexico.
- In other currencies such as euros, dollars, Swiss francs or pounds sterling, you have to put down the equivalent of €30.
- But the ruble price suddenly shot up to 10,000 rubles on July 14, that’s €173: the game became 20 times as expensive for Russians overnight: Factorio isn’t that expensive anywhere else in the world.
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Some Russians see the price increase as a political statement against the Ukraine war
How was that perceived? Although there was no comment on the drastic price increase, Factorio’s developers published a post in March that they stand by Ukraine.
Therefore, the price increase was now seen in two ways.
- Some believed there had been a mistake – and an employee had inserted one “0” too many when trying to increase the price to 1,000 rubles
- But others thought it was a targeted statement by the Czech developers against Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine. They would have followed up their statement from March with a tough price policy
In any case, Factorioa received hundreds of negative reviews on July 15th, especially in Russian:
- on July 14, 304 negative reviews appeared
- on July 15 even 925 negative reviews
- in the weeks before, Factorio had received practically no negative reviews at all
Some Russians apparently felt deliberately discriminated against by the price increase and saw a connection to the post that they were supporting Ukraine.
People were upset that the Czech developer was making a political statement here and hitting the wrong player, the player:
Bringing politics into games is one of the worst things developers can do and should be ashamed of themselves. I’ve always been trying to get my friends into this game, basically wanting to bring money to them so it can flourish. But now to see this nasty move from them is just gross.
Steam rules prevent review bombing for Factorio
Did that affect the rating? No, Steam is now used to such “review bombing” with which players want to express their protest and excludes such abnormalities from the statistics.
The intervention of Steam prevented review bombing, and negative criticism was ruled out as “not objective”.
Factorio’s reviews remained positive at 98%.
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Price was probably a mistake, falls back to €17.42
How did that turn out? In fact, Factorio’s price in Russia apparently just had one 0 too many. Meanwhile, the game costs 1,000 rubles on Steam, about €17.42.
Although Factorio is twice as expensive as before the price increase, it is still a good 42% cheaper than if you bought it in euros.
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Reference-mein-mmo.de