Yesterday, we finally found out how much the box price and subscription fee for Ship of Heroes will be, and the news was not pretty on the pocketbook: $60 to buy in for the box and the first month, then $15 a month to subscribe, though sub fees are discounted for multi-month packages. Reaction to this news was almost immediate, with our comments section blowing up with immediate negative reactions that has spread across genre fans.
Steam has been a hotbed of pushback, as has Reddit, while the MMORPG’s official Discord has been semi-silent, and what’s there is mostly what could be considered disbelief. “So for a year sub & the game it will cost $200? Talk about being way out of touch with your community,” reads one response within the general chat. “[City of Heroes] is F2P? What are we doing SOH? Honestly so disappointing but cant say I’m surprised.”
The wave of confused and skeptical replies and threads on Steam is where one of the game’s developers, Integral, elected to chime in, first by suggesting to one response to subscribe intermittently as finances allow, while another reply acknowledged that fans are entitled to their opinions but the studio believes in its decision.
“You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. We have had a dozen alphas and betas along the development that has given people the advantage to see inside the game. We have had more than 60 video updates showing the game and over 100 newsletters showing the game in detail. This is far too much for anyone to claim that we are an unknown.
“If you personally need the assurance that a studio has made other games for you to buy from them, you are entitled to this opinion. But please understand that others may feel differently. Each price point and structure will garner a different base of players with different purchase behaviors. We hope we have selected well for our desired results.”
Another reply in that same thread went a bit more off the rails, when its OP argued that having more players at a lower price point would be more fiscally responsible for Heroic Games.
“We understand your financial constraints and respect them,” reads Integral’s response. But while the dev was probably just being polite, that post ignited its own firestorm, as successive replies in the thread and reaction on Reddit interpreted Integral as calling the OP too poor to afford SOH. “Launch day will be the day when you fall off your high horse,” reads one such reaction.
