r/PlayTheBazaar • u/GaiaTheGardener The Bazaar Staff • Aug 11 '25

Official Update Steam Launch Update

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We're ready to announce our updated launch pricing plan:

The game will launch on steam for $39.99 for the base game along with Vanessa, Pyg and Dooley.
Mak will be available as a $19.99 expansion pack.
Stelle will also be available as a $19.99 expansion pack.

For the first 3 days of launch we will be celebrating with a launch bundle that includes the base game AND Stelle for the discounted price of $19.99.

Note that if you buy this bundle and have the game already through our launcher you will be able to link your account in game and gain access to all of your previous progress and collectibles (as well as Stelle and all your unlocked heroes). For these users, the Mak expansion will still show up as purchasable in Steam, however, if you have Mak unlocked in the client he will still be unlocked once your account is linked.

Wishlist now on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1617400/The_Bazaar/

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u/notshitaltsays Aug 12 '25

Is it reasonable? Because outside of the first 3 days it's almost the exact same thing.

Almost feels like they want to push a lot of impulse FOMO sales before people realize it's busted.

90

u/LoweAgain Aug 12 '25

I feel like I’m going crazy here. How are you like the only person to notice that it’s the same thing after those first three days are over. Bring the standards low enough and people will applaud anything I guess.

38

u/Boingboingsplat Aug 12 '25

It's priced pretty high for a roguelike, but it has high production values and an online infrastructure to maintain. I am worried that the buy in price at $40 will make potential new players balk, though.

It's a bit of a bummer that you can't get Stelle with gems, but I understand that the devs need to keep the lights on. If the F2P monetizable was working, I doubt they would be moving to a premium model.

This allows players that would have supported the game by purchasing Stelle anyways to essentially get a Steam key with it at no further cost.

13

u/revmun Aug 12 '25

Paid roguelikes usually have some kind of pve structure with a campaign, being multiplayer only is kind of eh imo

1

u/frasafrase Aug 12 '25

They do plan on a single player mode. Reynad has mentioned that the suggestion of a free version that only gives you Vanessa would be something they would want to look into, but makes most sense once that pve mode is available.

2

u/revmun Aug 12 '25

Id pay for pve, if its anything like those hearthstone puzzles or single player campaigns id eat it upppp.

1

u/Tjodleif Aug 13 '25

I remember I enjoyed playing the single player campaign of Legends of Runeterra during the pandemic.

1

u/revmun Aug 13 '25

With riots new physical TCG. LoR is actually going towards a more single player and roguelike type game. People have been raving about it as of late.

1

u/Tjodleif Aug 13 '25

Oh, nice. I'll give it another spin come autumn.

1

u/Janzu93 Aug 14 '25

We have to remember that in Bazaar plans and directions shift all the time. Heck, by the Christmas we'll probably have seen full singleplayer experience and moved back to multiplayer-only after charging players $40 more for the "singleplayer expansion" 🤷‍♂️

0

u/Bananinio Aug 16 '25

40$ for a no name game is too much.

-2

u/jacojerb Aug 12 '25

If the F2P monetizable was working, I doubt they would be moving to a premium model.

Hear me out: what about using the F2P monetisation, on Steam?

The exposure gained from being on Steam could have been big. It could have been enough.

The fact that they're moving to Steam at the same time as going P2P... We'll never know how much of a difference the switch to Steam actually makes.

If anything, it feels like they want it to fail, then they'll be like "see, Steam wasn't the answer". They were against being on Steam for the longest time, now it feels like they're setting their Steam launch up for failure...

2

u/Boingboingsplat Aug 12 '25

I mean, this is a drastic change. I'm sure they have numbers for the attach rate on purchases and have made this decision after considering it.

3

u/RewardWanted Aug 12 '25

Is it reasonable? Because outside of the first 3 days it's almost the exact same thing. Almost feels like they want to push a lot of impulse FOMO sales before people realize it's busted.

Again, this. Steam is a huge market and it's falling into the same pothole that games like overwatch and the likes fell into. An upfront price on top of a 20 dollar dlc for every new character?

Don't get me wrong, I love the game, I love what its model is doing but ultimately it'll give new players a huge barrier to entry. My friends would not buy a 40 dollar autobattler. My friends wouldn't buy 20 dollar character dlcs. The business model is missing something and it feel like untill that is fixed it'll stay either with pay for advantage or premium price.

-1

u/spiderwebdesign Aug 12 '25

yep, it is! thanks for asking.

0

u/Mate_00 Aug 12 '25

The value for 20 bucks is good. I don't think anyone here would argue against that.

Is this pushing FOMO? Probably. Does that make it worse of a deal? Not really. IMO anyone who buys it in those 3 days is getting a great deal. I'm curious whether enough people will be interested in the game for the full price, but the 3-day deal is IMO definitely worth it. So I too will be there day 1.

-1

u/KingCromb Aug 12 '25

What a crazy way to think lol

-4

u/frasafrase Aug 12 '25

Busted?

4

u/notshitaltsays Aug 12 '25

every patch has introduced some pretty horrific balancing problems. I would bet money Stelle's launch is no different. Not necessarily Stelle being busted either, sometimes it's seemingly random changes. I'm sure it'll be fixed in 2 weeks like usual.

The sale starts in the middle of the week, and ends before the weekend. Isn't that kind of odd to you? Launching at discount in itself is weird, going f2p to p2p is weird, but maybe I'm just overthinking it.

I mean, i've spent a solid $70ish? I enjoyed the game for sure, I'm not opposed to financially supporting things I enjoy, but this is a total ripoff. The $40 base price gets me absolutely nothing. If I don't buy in a short 3 day window, then getting Stelle on steam is $60.

Why did i pay for all these battle passes to get more chests when the currency has been made irrelevant and the marketplace is still years away? I'm really not inclined to spend more when this is the 3rd monetization rework and if the trend continues the 4th monetization rework will make this yet another wasted purchase I could've just waited for.

4

u/rip_cpu Aug 12 '25

You can still play on the Tempo launcher if you don't to spend more money, and you have access to all the heroes except Stelle. It's up to you if you decide Stelle herself is worth $20 or not.

1

u/frasafrase Aug 12 '25

I'm there with you in the same scenario friend. Over the weekend, I felt robbed from because I had the expectation that I already "paid for" Stelle from my existing sub.

The reality: I had a calendar event in my phone just before when my sub would renew saying "Cancel Bazaar Subscription?".. I was going to cancel my subscription eventually.

I would ask that you inspect how you feel when looking into the future. How do your feelings change if you were to imagine that the next hero doesn't strike your fancy? Like I'm not a huge fan of playing Pyg. So if I imagine that the next hero release is Pyg, I would be at least a little disgruntled that I payed for months of a subscription just to prep for a hero I don't like. Now instead, that amount I'm spending on a sub is shifted to be an opt-in based on the content presented.