Manor Lords Dev Explained Why The Price Hasn't Been Revealed: 'It's a Bit Complex'

ign.com:

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’ve expected to see some sort of update by now, it’s still not clear how much Manor Lords will actually cost to purchase. Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender explained why fans have been left waiting in a Reddit post. He explains that the issue is a matter of managing expectations.

“Manor Lords, like all other games on Steam, will not have one price,” he says. “It will have regional prices that distribute across the world. These aren’t just different currencies — there are large regions of the world where Steam uses US Dollar pricing but in a different way.”

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 that of the US in order to provide some help for local customers be able to afford the game given the prices and wages in their country (though inflation is making that more and more difficult when local currency cannot be used).”

Hooded Horse says these examples are why it wants to stray from announcing price before launch arrives. If the US price were to be announced before Manor Lords launches, players in other territories may fear that they won’t be able to afford it. The company worries that too many potential buyers would “lose hope and feel the game won’t be affordable in their country” even if it was to attach disclaimers to a price announcement.

However, this is only one of a few major concerns Hooded Horse has tied to pre-release price announcements. Bender also references the company’s fear of scammers that may try to take advantage of excited fans who want to pre-order Manor Lords.

“They don’t have any keys, and they aren’t going to be getting any from us,” he says. “But