Silksong may subsequently create problems for indie developers.
The long-awaited release of Hollow Knight Silksong recently took place. The game offers a lot of challenges and content, while costing only $20.
Other indie developers are watching Team Cherry's example, and such a low price causes them some concern. Various specialists, including the authors of Unbeatable, participated in the discussion.
In their opinion, the fact that the authors of Silksong decided to sell the game for $20 will inevitably affect how players perceive this price.
The game director of Unbeatable believes that Team Cherry can afford to set any price, including the minimum, since their investment in the project will still pay off. However, this approach will create a perception among gamers that games of this level "should" cost $20:
«Honestly, Silksong should cost $40 and I'm not kidding. I'm not going to argue that [the low price is] bad, but! It will have consequences, and not all of them will be good.
Personally, I'm glad it's so cheap. It makes buying it obvious. The problem is that gamers have a very poor understanding of why things cost what they cost. Millions of people will probably buy Silksong on the first day, and it was a game with a very "low" budget because the budget consisted of "these developers working on it without direct payment for as long as they wanted."
They had a budget based on the principle of "these developers are financially independent" — "effectively zero dollars." As a result, they can set the price as low as they want. Their return on investment will be infinite, no matter what they do. But by setting such a low price, they trigger a primitive signal in the brain that says: "this kind of game costs twenty dollars. So you should expect such games to cost twenty dollars"».
According to representatives of the indie segment, if enough of these "signals" are received, then "some games with a real budget," from which people who need something to live on receive a salary, will simply disappear from the market, "unless they can get such organic support [from the community] that cannot be planned."
However, examples of some developers, like the author of Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores, show that players still understand the peculiarity of Silksong.
At first, the author shared his concerns: "As a developer making a smaller metroidvania than Silksong, I initially thought that $20 would be a fair price for it... at what price should I sell it now? It will be a 10-15+ hour game, but it was made by one person with limited development time and resources, I can't afford to give it away for free."
And soon he received words of support:
«Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts, now I feel confident that many people understand: the reason Silksong is priced this way is because Team Cherry is cool and distributes their game at a low price because they can afford it. This will not necessarily affect the prices of other games in the same genre...».
