valor mortis devs admit the $40 price is because gta 6 and this fall is packed

GameSpot ran a piece on Valor Mortis and the devs straight up admitted the $40 price tag is because this fall is stacked, with GTA 6 being the giant shadow over everything. One More Level and Lyrical Games said the 20-hour story could go toe-to-toe with full price titles, but there's high demand for time and money right now.

For context, Valor Mortis is a first-person souls-like set during the Napoleonic Wars. You play a revived Grande Armée soldier named William, fighting monsters spawned by some plague-like stuff.

They also mentioned a Deluxe Edition with unique weapon skins and a story expansion coming in 2027. Lyrical Games boss Blake Rochkind told The Game Business they're one of the only new IPs launching in what he called the craziest fall in history. He listed GTA, the Zelda remake, Control, Silent Hill: Townfall, Phantom Blade Zero, Gears of War, and Call of Duty. His reasoning was that $40 makes Valor Mortis an 'and game', something you toss in the basket while buying one of the expensive titles later this year.

Day one on Game Pass helps too. Rochkind said there are 'Game Pass gamers' who wouldn't have bought it anyway, so he's not worried about cannibalization. For every game that gets cannibalized, another gets word of mouth. That's a fair point.

I get why a new IP would do this. You're not beating GTA 6 in November, so you either find a niche or get buried. $40 plus Game Pass is a smart way to stay on people's radar. I might actually check it out while I'm saving every cent for Leonida.

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Source: GameSpot · Curated content.