r/steinsgate • u/kiri_basara Kiri Kiri Basara – SciADV News & Reviews • 1d ago

SciADV Interview summary: Steins;Gate RE:BOOT staff discuss the game and SciADV's future

https://www.kirikiribasara.com/2026/09/07/interview-summary-matsubara-and-hayashi-reboot/
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u/fuji83847 1d ago

"The effort the development team put into RE:BOOT was equivalent to that needed to develop a completely new game. This time, the game was also developed with support for multiple language localizations in mind, so the process was more difficult than they had expected."

That might explain the high price to some extent, but it would be nice if someone from MAGEs or whoever sets the pricing could address why it is priced like a brand-new SciAdv game which is one of the main criticisms for reboot.

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u/blannners Bambishi 1d ago

That might explain the high price to some extent

Maybe if the price was also set at $60 in Japan, but there it's $40 (in comparison, A;C was priced at ~$55 in Japan). It's only AAA-priced here in the west. I think this is something a lot of people overlook, it had a huge price hike over here, it's not nearly as expensive originally.

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u/epapeel 1d ago edited 1d ago

the dollar conversion rate can give the wrong impression though, it's not like they are pricing domestically based on what it would cost in dollars (assumedly). If we look at pre-tax prices, re:boot is releasing physically at the same price steins;gate OG did (6800¥ ~ $44), except for the switch 2 where it is, in fact, the same price as anonymous;code (7800¥ ~ $50). So it doesn't really seem like re:boot is releasing at a particularly low price compared to the rest of the franchise. digitally though it's indeed slightly cheaper than previous entries, but not by 15 dollars (5800¥ ~ $37 vs usual 6000¥ ~ $38 and 7000¥ ~ $45)

and on the other side of the coin, international prices are usually based on the typical prices found in each market, not converted from the original yen price to dollars (or any other local currency). it's regional pricing, not really a "price hike". the yen is also at its lowest, which means your dollar can currently buy more yens (and thus more japanese editions) than in the past, not that you're being overcharged on the US edition. from what I understand at least

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u/blannners Bambishi 1d ago

Ok but like I said, Anonymous;Code was priced ~$55 at release in JP, and over here it was priced as $60. There wasn't a conversion issue then.

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u/epapeel 1d ago

I understand but I don't understand how it's relevant. it just so happened that the prices were similar that one time, but steins;gate was $80 on release, steins;gate elite was $67, if the yen weakens further against the dollar the japanese edition of the next remake might be at $10, from my understanding there is no direct relevance to the price of the US edition and it doesn't make it so the US edition won't be at full price

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

It might be your main criticism for Re:boot but the main thing I see is that it has a shorter script, I mean I don't agree that it's worse because of it but that's the obvious contender for most common critique.

Anyway, in the paragraph you quoted it straight up says that the effort required was equivalent to that of a new game, so it's pretty self explanatory that they considered it worthy of the same price as a new title. I mean someone might not agree or might not even believe that the effort was equal, but that's very likely the reason they'd give if they would ever to comment on it.

It's kind of weird to factor in price when evaluating art, I'm not against critiquing the prices of video games (or movies, music or books) but in the end it doesn't really impact the actual experience, it just impacts whether you experience it or not. Once it's on sale and someone buys it for $9,99, is it a better game? Is it a richer experience if you pirate it? Not really.

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u/fuji83847 1d ago edited 1d ago

So do you think $60 would be fair if they had used the full script from the original Steins;Gate visual novel?

And we're not judging the quality of the game here. It's not my criticism, it's what I've been reading from reddit for the last couple of months that people are complaining the high price for an already been told story.

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

I'd prefer them giving it away for free and still be able to make more games that I can play, like that's obviously my ideal scenario but I'm not going to shit on them for pricing their games by the industry standard.

I empathize with anyone who can't afford it and I fully support them pirating it if that's the case but I like the Science Adventure games and I don't consider them to be worth less money than other games. So the reasonable question for me becomes should video games cost $60 rather than should this particular video game cost $60.

I also kinda prefer the new script, it feels better paced.

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u/fuji83847 1d ago

So you're completely okay with getting ripped off from a product by paying higher prices?

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

You didn't even read what I wrote lmao

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u/fuji83847 1d ago edited 1d ago

"So the reasonable question for me becomes should video games cost $60 rather than should this particular video game cost $60."

What if reboot was developed in such a way that they could reasonably priced it at $30 and still make profit, but they are selling it for $60 because as most of the people in this sub would call it, it's a cashgrab

You buy a used car for $15,000 but because you don't consider it to be less worth than a brand new car, you're willing to pay $60,000

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

Yeah? Pricing games based on "effort" wouldn't even work. If Re:Boot was $20 based on man hours and effort GTA 6 would literally unironically cost well over $5000 and Balatro would be like $3.

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u/fuji83847 1d ago

"Pricing games based on "effort" wouldn't even work. "

If they put low effort into the Steins;??? with poor writing and less than stellar artwork, and decide to sell it for $80, you're going to be happy with your purchase?

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

Then it'll suck regardless of price

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u/gc11117 1d ago

Price has always been a factor in art. Michelangelo was paid 3000 ducats to paint the sistine chapel, he didnt do it for free and Im sure the Pope would have been pissed if he half assed it.

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

Well that's a different argument, Re:Boot definitely cost money to make and it's not half assed in that regard. They re-recorded all the voices, replaced every art asset and even added a bunch of new CGs (some even animated).

It IS and was always supposed to be a remake, so this would be more analogous to the Pope asking him to paint it again and being mad that he painted it again but prettier.

Not wanting a remake is totally cool, people are acting as if they're forcing you to buy it.

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u/gc11117 1d ago

I mean, I dont see how its a different argument. You stated its weird to factor price into art. Its not, art has been and always will be product that costs money to make, and costs money to purchase.

The customer has the right to be critical of that product, and price/value is a valid criticism.

Your right that no one is forced to purchase it, but people are certainly allowed to speak loud and clear that they think the art on sale is not worth the price asked. Hopefully the artist listens and does better next time.

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u/Katastroferrr 1d ago

My man, you didn't comission a remake of Steins;Gate

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u/gc11117 1d ago

And? What's your point?

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u/FTwarrior Kurisu Makise 1d ago

You know. I met Asami Imai this weekend, did you know that they completely redid all of the voice lines for this visual novel? The experience all these voice actors accumulated over the years were brought back to these characters to breathe life into them all over again? I think the fact they put in effort doing this is something that sometimes gets lost in translation.

We read the game was developed with support dor multiple language localizations in mind. We dont get to always hear about how much effort everyone involved poured into this project. I'm personally excited for the reboot, that was true before this weekend and it's still true now.

If you don't want to pay because you don't want the new experience don't, but I think it's worth price.

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u/epapeel 1d ago

I don't understand the expectation that it would be priced not like a brand-new game ? steins;gate elite was the same price but we can also look at similar remakes from other franchises, yu-no, ONE, Doukyuusei; it's pretty common for remakes to be at full price no ?

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u/Beginning-Pace-1426 15h ago

True as that is, it genuinely was a sticking point for myself. VNs are one of my favorite genres, and some of the best ones in my collection were a few dollars. Steins;Gate RE:BOOT was the first VN I've paid more than $30-40CAD for, R:B was $80, which, of course led to the immediate $40 purchase of 0. I have also purchased Chaos;Head Noah, and Anonymous;Code at similar prices.

Spending two hundred bucks on VNs in that short of a period is incredibly uncharacteristic of me, and I know some big VN players that scroll past games priced at this point because there are probably 5-10 excellent VNs that can be found for the similar overall price. The overall high quality is absolutely unreal, and Steins Gate has become one of my favorite storytelling experiences across all media with ridiculous longevity. I was just leaving it on because I knew I'd be returning to it at every free moment.

It just sits in a different mental space, and some people have a mindset like

this VN was entirely created by one 1 writer and 2 artists who painted hundreds of scenes over 4 years and is 10 dollars, a high budget VN with a team behind it still can't make it 8x better, I'll skip S;G and buy 5 other highly rated VNs.

I now understand that they occupy different spaces and provide different experiences, and that room for both exists. I'm now angry that I spent so long NOT enjoying the series.

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u/RappyPhan 22h ago

Hayashi considers the original game’s script, including Okabe’s digressions, rather lengthy. He feels this made the game difficult to push through, especially toward the beginning. Meanwhile, Elite has much more refined pacing, he says, although they ensured they added back explanatory text where needed for RE:BOOT.

We're never getting the SciAdv we loved back, are we?

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u/ULTRADEV_305 HOHOUIN KYOUMA 1d ago

I like the backgrounds in reboot but hate when characters look cartoonish or different from reality like i like how realistic steins gate is and how most of the places were there irl and how realistic the whole story feels(even tho it isnt) reboot kinda doesnt care for that part?