Xbox Birmingham Cross City Too Expensive

Birmingham Cross City is too expensive I think DTG should reduce the price to and keep every DLC between $14 to $17 if you keep raining the prices no one will buy the DLCs if you lower the prices people will buy DLCs

 

That would be too cheap for dtg considering how much work they put into each dlc. They still have to pay rent and pay their employees. And everything else has been increasing in price so dtg can't keep on keeping stuff the same price forever. What I'm trying to say is that dtg won't change the prices and it's up to the buyer to decide whether to buy it or wait for a sale. That's the reality we'll have to face in the world we live in today

 

1) cost of living crisis in the uk
2) don’t buy it if you can’t afford it
3) dtg can’t pay their staff with Oreo’s and gummy bears

 

£30 is fine by me.
Each DLC is a game in it's own right, with it's own scenic, station and rolling stock assets and timetable
Your perspective on value and affordability may be different

 

So. Wait. For. A. Sale.

 

Why put this in an Xbox subforum ?

 

You might as well wait for hell to freeze over.

 

you just gotta be patient and hope that you will get a sale lol

 

I wasn't bothered by the £30 but don't you have the game pass which takes it down to £26.99.

 

You’ll see flying cars before seeing an xbox sale sadly

 

Its only a couple of quid extra look at some games out there it could have been worse aka destiny £££.

 

Fair enough it's £30 but there is no consistency in detail in these route's. Almost like they spend alot of time in one area and not alot in another.

 

Don't even get me STARTED on how Bungie literally named their business model after Disney's horrendous cash-milking practice with their time-limited home video releases that they'd stop selling for years and then repackage and sell to you again for another limited time with different features, years later.

 

Which is absolutely true. Likely they spend a lot more time on BHM than some station out in the sticks. Problem for the locals is they have as much info about these outlyer stations as they do the main ones so they notice

Indeed this is true of most lines in game. If you look at St Pancras in game on SEHS it looks fair enough, but then you go to Swanscombe and notice it's not built right at all

Either way, the point is more a case of whether you as an individual think £30 is good value, and I happen to think it is...

 

I'd concentrate on things within your control, and leave the business decisions up to DTG.

If you feel it's too expensive, it's no more difficult than no buying it.

 

Is this route backwards compatible for TSW2?

 

No - TSW3 only.

 

Nope, BCC is TSW 3 exclusive.

 

All new dlc will only be for tsw3

 

30 quid is pocket money!

 

Not for everyone!

 

I'm new here, been looking around, and noticing you like to say the "Cost of Living Crisis™" as rebuttal. I don't l know why, when it doesn't really come into it dude and you don't explain why you say it (try cost-of-covid-lockdown-halting-the-economy & printing-money-crisis).

Sounds more like a case of 'I'm sick of hearing people whine about increasing prices, so be quiet peasant'.

So, people have less spending power is the point, and the inflation rate in the UK is at 11%, seems a bit douchey of DTG to set the apparent bar of coming routes at twice that rate. If we're splitting hairs, it seems like they just rounded the number up to £30 rather than £27.50. I mean the Game Pass discount takes it close to that but yeah.

Given that sales are so rare on Xbox, you can forgive people for not buying the usual 'they don't control the sales' retort, ardent peevish defenders usually trot out with barely anything beyond that line. You may be right, they probably don't have total control, but they've never disclosed the full details of that either, in fact there's practically zero direct info on that. They're a private company, they don't have to. But judging from what info I can scrape from the Partners programme from Microsoft, they may well be given control on sale percentage reductions and applying for inclusion into upcoming sales. I dare say the deal with Game Pass is part of their strategy.

Nobodies saying that they shouldn't pay their staff what they deserve, but there's nothing wrong with asking the question as to whether it is opportunistic gouging on a captive audience with few options. Indeed, there's nothing we can do about that really, but don't pretend you have all the answers, when all people want is a dlc sale more frequent than once in a blue moon for a game they want to enjoy.

 

Inflation is indeed 11% per annum
The price of DLC has not gone up until now since TSW was released 4 years ago

BTW, you mention game pass discount so I presume you are a Game Pass member. If so, then I hope you are collecting plenty of reward points, which you can use to reduce the price still further. I used £20 worth and got it for £6.99 hard cash.

 

The "cost of living crisis" doesn't just affect people who play games, though. It affects developers, 3D artists, licensing administrators, HR, managers... everyone who DTG pays a monthly wage will be asking for pay rises on top of the spiking heat and power costs at the studio. Where's that money going to come from, if not from selling the product all those people contribute to making?

As junior hornet points out, there hasn't been a price increase for years - so don't try and tally it off against what the inflation currently stands at - DTG have been absorbing inflationary rises for the whole time the price hasn't moved.

Also, I'm sick of hearing people whine about increasing prices, so be quiet peasant

 

I mean inflation peaked the last high of around 3% last year and hasn't gone down since, so a price increase was always gonna be on the cards eventually. I get that. And true, the points build up is a juicy incentive on top of having access to a bunch of big titles for a fraction of the cost.

 

Ha nice. It's the 'out of nowhere' nature of it that stands out. Some transparency is all I seek, not rearranging where a price should or shouldn't be in relation to the labour costs. The value prospect is another matter entirely, as it's subjective.

 

All those crappy £4.99 games are still £4.99
The £16.74 games are to all intents and purposes are still £16.74.
Same goes for the £24.99 games.
astragon games are still £25 or £35.
Atari reloaded games are still £7.99
WRC is £10 cheaper this time around.
Saber Porto released Dakar Desert Rally at a competitive £34.
And further afield EA games are still £70

Looking at the preorders, I haven't noticed one single game that has had any inflation based price increase even though they're effectively still in development and could be affected by an even harsher economy when they're due to be released.

So...all things considered, *if* this price increase is a direct result of the current economy (which I very much doubt it is) then don't you find it mighty strange that it only seems to be DTG who have been affected by the higher cost of living!?
Have you actually stopped and considered that the reason DTG have increased their prices might just as easily be because, despite it's inclusion in Gamepass, TSW hasn't gained the traction they anticipated it would and prices have had to be been offset to compensate for increased staffing? In other words you're paying more for pretty much the same product because the more sensibly minded opted against paying silly money for barebones content.

Look, if you're happy with the way things have transpired then that's great, it's your money and you're free to spend it as you please...but don't start knocking people who may well want to continue supporting the game but simply cannot justify the new asking price in order to do so. £24.99 was already a huge ask for anyone but the seriously dedicated so £30 is bound to be completely out of reach...a point which you should be much more inclined to remember before playing the obligatory "whine" card and being just a little bit too disrespectful towards those who don't share your views and opinions.

 

None of these are affected by the UK's increases of up to 25% in food prices and 80% in gas and electricity costs. This is a distinctly local problem affecting the UK as a result of a decade of bad decisions running head on into the global impacts of the pandemic. UK studios are in a uniquely unfavourable position of facing a perfect storm of suddenly having extremely higher operating costs and consumers having vastly less disposable income even before you account for the highest inflation the country's had in the last 40 years.

 

You really need to consider your facts. As of October 2022 inflation in France was 7.1%, Germany 11.6% and Potrugal 10.7% so don't for one second think this situation is exclusive to the Uk because it isn't...This is a global recession. Besides, DTG started upping their prices to £30 during the last government when inflation was half what it is now and although it was on the rise nobody had any inclination as to the severity of what is now occuring.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/docum...uro area annual inflation,, the rate was 4.4%.

 

It is indeed, as I said, but the UK spent years doing everything possible to make the next recession that hit it that much worse than for neighbouring countries. Even on inflation, France next door is at 7% while we're at 15%.
Choosing not to invest in measures that would make the economy more resilient, making international trade more expensive, adding a massive backlog at the border on food and other imports BEFORE the supply chains got hit by the pandemic (Not helped by government ministers not realising how important channel ports are to our imports and exports because they forgot we're AN ISLAND), and faffing about on energy investment because imports from Russia would forever be cheap.

(Germany is also feeling the hit from similar energy decisions, but not nearly as badly, after likewise failing to invest in nuclear power 20 years ago when it was needed. Had the UK government spent then, as originally planned, the amount it is spending NOW to keep energy bills from rising for 6 months, it could have built enough nuclear power plants to cover 100% of current energy usage for the next 100 years on our existing supply of spent fuel from 2nd gen reactors, and households and businesses - which are not able to receive the government relief money households are getting to cover the cost of living increase - would not be seeing that 80% rise in energy prices)

 

As a side note, I was pretty much the only one of my friends who had cupboards full of food when the early waves of the pandemic hit and shop shelves began to be bare. I'd spent the time leading up to that essentially becoming a "prepper", getting a varied bunch of stuff in that was long lasting and easy to store, buying a few extra things on top of each weekly shop while it was still readily available rather than panic buying all at once, all in anticipation of the inevitable border crisis (the great KFC crisis of 2018 was quite the chicken in the coalmine for predicting what to expect, when a single point in the distribution chain failed, and that's probably when I began steadily stockpiling dried goods) which had only just started to impact us when the pandemic gave a double whammy with the supply chain shock.

Having that buffer really helped.
I certainly miss the days of being able to guarantee that basics like milk, cereals, bread, meat, etc. would be in stock at local supermarkets on any given day though. 50% of my weekly shopping list wasn't available or substitutable in my last shop.

 

Not sure where you're based, but the UK government seem to have been doing everything in their power recently to tank the economy. The Brexit effect is starting to show itself as the rest of the world is pulling through the Covid dip well ahead of us, and we've just had the all-time worse ever PM trying to drive us off yet another economic cliff - she came 'out of nowhere' too!

 

I never thought I'd see quite such an example of a straight-up drive-by shooting on the value of the pound, but there you go.

 

The worst thing about it was that it was by design, they shorted it for their own gain.

 

...yet despite the rise in inflation in all these countries not one single dev team has felt the urge to jack up game prices accordingly. My argument isn't politics or who did what with the economy (there are other, more appropriate places to argue right wing claptrap), my argument is the fact that DTG increased their prices when nobody else did.

Look, during the last official stream even Sam said that the best place to buy addons is in the sales because it ensures a better developed product at a more respectable price - a statement that in itself speaks volumes as to the actual value of a full price, day one addon. I have absolutely no problem with those who feel that £30 represents good value for money but I (like many, many others) feel that this price increase is a step too far - and as an XBox gamer who will NEVER have the benefit of the frequent sales that Sam talks about, unless I go completely against my principles my options as to how I want to invest in TSW are non-existent.

Anyhows, my qualm isn't with you, it's aimed solely at the person who chose to use the word "whine" because he felt offended by those who don't follow his ideals and/or excercise a little more care in the way they spend their money. It was shameful stuff.

 

Isn't this the same as people who say it's better to wait for the paperback version of a book to come out because you end up paying less for the same basic product?
If you're not willing to wait for a reduction you pay a premium, this is the same in many many industries, but in the end how DTG price point their products is up to them and if people are willing to pay that premium (and I bet many many people are willing to) then DTG obviously get a bit more money

 

If the book was badly written you wait til it's amended accordingly...that's common sense.
Surely only an idiot would buy an overpriced book full of missing or misspelt words!

 

Erm... millions of books are sold every week which are probably "substandard", and I gave up calling people out on misspelled words years ago, both in publishing or on forums. Every seen the film Idiocracy? We're heading there fairly quickly it seems sometimes

 

These people are not necessarily idiots. You can focus on the story and don’t be too much bothered by minor errors or deficiencies. For me, most DLCs are good enough. I know they are not perfect, but they give me the gaming fun I am looking for.

 

Huh! I was just pointing out that a book full of spelling errors is a bad product. And yes, I have seen Idiocracy. It's an ironic movie mocking a 'superior' society driven by greed and power, leaving (for want of a better description) trailer trash to populate the world. We're not heading there at all because this so called superior society is been taxed to high heaven so they may as well just give up, breed and move into a council estate. Besides, they still managed to spell "St God's hospital" correctly so despite their 'lower intelligence' they got it right first time without the need to fix it at a later date.

 

If that's a shot at me, read the post and note the direct quote of the post above. I guess some people are well past humour on this subject.

This whole thread is baffling, not least the fact that it's still trundling on and going round in circles despite being started by a ridiculous "I'd like to pay $14 for a DLC" statement. I'd like to get a new Porsche for £10k, but that's just not what they cost.

If you're desperate to have the content right away, you pay the price. If you want the product at a lower price, wait for a sale. If you bought the wrong console and it's a long time between sales, that's on you. I get that times are hard, but as everyone keeps reminding us, it's a luxury product, not an essential purchase. If you don't want to pay the price, don't.

 

Most would agree. Some would say that the story is what counts. Lest we forget one of the greatest authors of all time made up words as he went along so maybe using words "badly" isn't always so bad after all

Funny enough several "very rich people" do seem to come across as slightly moronic (cough cough Elon Musk). Sometimes all it takes is some capital and the ability to talk others into giving them money rather than actual intelligence or a good work ethic

Well, except they did the sign so big it didn't fit on the wall properly...

 

I don't think I've ever gotten through a single book in my entire life where I didn't spot at least two spelling or grammatical errors that slipped past them in proofing.

 

While value is clearly subjective I can’t help feeling surprised that some on here think that 30 quid is a reasonable price for a single item of TSW3 DLC, but each to their own. Some of the single loco DLC is particularly poor value - just a single digital asset and a few programmed scenarios. Consistent with Sam’s comment the DLC is clearly priced to be discounted, and so it is on other platforms. Not generally on XBOX, however, and hence all the comments!

 

The way I see it - in TSW each DLC is basically a game in it's own right. Indeed if you only had the base game and that DLC each would work as a standalone product, whereas in other games DLC are addons to the base game, so if you didn't have the base content then those DLC wouldn't have anywhere TO work
SO to me I look at BML and think "Is that DLC worth £30?" and I can say yes, yes it is. Is it added to by having the HST,166,375 etc? Yes, but that's added value. The basic value is there. I can say the same for BCC, SEHS, even WCL
Others may look first to the negatives and talk about what's NOT in the DLC, but that way lies madness. Nobody who hasn't got a billion dollars going begging could build all the assets required to run a train network and have all the tracks and signalling laid out for it to work in the way people seem to expect

 

It’s better to sell a dlc at $14 dollars than never.

The amount of people who miss out. imagine you sold dlc for between $14-17 you’d make great sales in the long run.

Dtg would rather sell a couple of full price dlcs to die hards than try to capitalise on the broader public through game pass, capturing a much wider market of the dedicated and casual. I wonder how many game pass players never bothered with the game after the few initial routes owing to the expense?

 

I'd wager that would be the majority. The game sits at a 2 star in the Xbox store with plenty of comments about the high price of content among the other obvious flaws. Then again this game doesn't seem well suited to the casual gamer anyhow. More to somebody who leans towards simulation games and already that's a more niche market. And I bet sim gamers are a market segment used to paying higher prices than the general gaming population (i.e. the metric tons of cash that can be spent in flight simulator hardware and software). They probably have internal data to back up their prices to get that sweet spot of sales numbers vs least amount of effort.

 

Well I picked up BCC eventually as part of the Humble Bundle so it worked out cheap as chips.

Is it a good route? Overall yes but a bit rough around the edges especially south of Birmingham where there is still blatant problems such as missing lineside fencing (not checked for the out of alignment canal splines but probably still there).
It has a nice train in the shape of the 323 and it does actually take about 80 minutes to drive from one end to the other.
However therein lies the problem. It's very much a one hit (and largely one train) wonder. After you've done a couple of 323 drives there is no great desire to rush back and do it again. Glossop suffers from the same problem. Yes there are a few novelty layers but the variety is even less than Cathcart.
So I am quite glad I didn't part with £30 in the end, though if I hadn't grabbed it via HB, might have been tempted at 50% off in the Steam sale. As it stands, another route to revisit once a month or so, or if it turns up on the lucky dip quick plqy.

 

All dlc is expensive to be fair like sometimes you pay for a route with bugs and glitches and it's not fun. When paying for a route for £30.00 you would expect it to be lesser bugs and stuff.

 

I have no idea with the near 100% track record of routes being released a mess why anybody would buy anything day one. Let it release and simmer for a good 6 months and if it is well patched, you get it on sale at a bargain. I mean that goes for any video game these days. What would you really be missing if bought 6 months+ down the road? Same route but plays better. It's not like they're going to run out of digital inventory.