Paradox Interactive to raise regional prices by 40-70% in currencies that fluctuated off its benchmarks

Crusader Kings III

Paradox Interactive announced the changes on December 5, saying that game prices will increase for markets and currencies that “have fluctuated off our pricing benchmarks.” The new prices will come into effect on January 16, 2024.

This will mostly affect live games, which the publisher continues to actively support. Here are the main changes:

• Five regions — Thailand, Russia, Malaysia, Ukraine, and South Africa — will see an increase of 40% to 70% on average;
• “More moderate” increases are expected in certain countries in Asia, Latin America, and Middle East, including Singapore, Peru, Colombia, Kuwait, the Philippines, Japan, Kazakhstan, and India;
• Smaller increases are expected in currencies such as the CIS USD, South Korean won, Canadian dollar, and Chinese yuan;
• The following currencies will see no increases: US dollar, Euro, Pound sterling, Norwegian krone, Polish złoty, Swiss franc, Israeli shekel, Australian dollar, New Zealnad dollar, MENA USD, and LATAM USD.

Live titles are the core pillars of Paradox’s business. It currently considers five of them endless hits — Europa Universalis IV, Cities: Skylines, Hearts of Iron IV, Stellaris, and Crusader Kings III — and has plans to increase their number by refocusing its strategy towards “its core niches within strategy and management games with endless qualities.”

In addition to the changes listed above, Paradox will significantly increase prices in many currencies for its so-called legacy titles (not actively supported with updates and new content). As the company’s head of sales Mattias Rengstedt said, the “prices of most of these games are much behind our pricing benchmark in some markets,” meaning the publisher needs to “adjust their prices significantly in many currencies” to have them with its overall pricing.

There is no exact range for price increases for Paradox’s legacy titles, but some hikes will be really huge. For example, Age of Wonders: Planetfall and Battletech will rise in price by only 10% in South Korean won, but by 150% in Indian rupee.

This is not the first time Paradox Interactive has increased prices for its games. Last year, the company raised prices in Turkish lira and Argentine peso by more than 300%, saying that “these two currencies have become too disconnected from other markets over time.” This is the same move many developers and publishers have done in 2022.

Exchange rate volatility in Argentina and Turkey was also one of the reasons why Steam decided to recently replace the two currencies with the new regionalized USD pricing, MENA USD and LATAM USD. As Valve explained in October, “pricing games in USD for Steam customers in Argentina and Turkey will help us provide greater stability and consistency for players and partners, while also enabling us to continue to offer a variety of payment methods to Steam users in those countries/territories.”