Square Enix once again ignores regional pricing as Forspoken PC preorders go live

Square Enix fans had a great weekend this month. With the Game Awards wrapping up, fans got significant announcements. This included the upcoming Square Enix title Forspoken. Made by Luminous Productions, it is heading to Steam next year.

While the game looks stunning and can be pre-ordered, the price set by Square Enix shows a blatant disregard for regional pricing. In countries like India, the dollar amount converted to local currency makes such games on PC a luxury.

---

Square Enix set to make a significant push behind Forspoken

Forspoken is an upcoming open-world action RPG made by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix.

The title's price has routinely upset its base (Image via Square Enix)

Quite a few gameplay videos have been made public by Square Enix. The game is officially taking pre-orders as well. Buying Forspoken for PC in India will cost:

• Standard Edition: Rs. 4,799
• Digital Deluxe Edition: Rs. 6,799

This made the community feel that Square Enix overlooks the importance of regional pricing to a considerable section of the base.

Current sale price (Image via Steam)

For a general comparison, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, a game published by Square Enix in October, costs Rs. 2,999 and goes as low as Rs.1,949 on sale. While it's still not in line with regional pricing standards, it's far better than Forspoken will be sold for.

---

The curious case of regional pricing

This is not the first time AAA developers like Square Enix have not adjusted pricing to align with Steam’s regional pricing format. This feature lets developers and publishers adjust prices for games based on the purchasing power of a particular country.

To understand this in more detail, Reddit user u/megagapple made a highly informative thread in 2017, which still holds. You can read it here. Long story short, publishers can adjust the pricing if they choose to. So one can only conclude that Square Enix decided not to adjust their pricing for some reason.

Fans have voiced displeasure with the pricing (Image via Square Enix)

One reason motivating Square Enix could be the routine exploitation of the regional pricing system by players who bought the games from comparatively cheaper options in other countries. It might be beneficial for Square Enix to make all players pay the full retail price and avoid any loopholes.

However, regional price issues are not an isolated case in India. According to the website Aroged, the Russian Steam price for Forspoken is between 5,719 ₽ and 7,489 ₽. This is higher than the regional pricing setup for Russia.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see if Square Enix will adjust its pricing in the upcoming months. Users on Forspoken's Steam forum and Twitter threads are certainly not entirely happy with that pricing.

Forspoken's steam forum (Image via Steam)

Forspoken is an upcoming action-adventure Open World RPG to be exclusively available on PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam.