With Hole Knight: Silksong out now, many gamers are celebrating its unexpectedly low $20 price ticket. However some unbiased builders are mentioning that nice as this can be, it may lead to unreasonable expectations for different indie video games that may’t afford to promote for that low.
This comes from a lot of threads on social media from builders of video games equivalent to Unbeatable, Dorfromantik, and others. In a single Bluesky thread, Unbeatable director RJ Lake says that Silksong ought to value $40, “and I am not even joking.”
However Lake is not upset at Workforce Cherry for charging $20 – that is their perogative. However it can have an effect on gaming audiences. As Lake explains:
“tens of millions of individuals will in all probability purchase silksong on day one, and it was a sport that had a really ‘low’ funds, as a result of the funds is ‘these devs labored on it with out direct pay for nevertheless lengthy they needed to try this,'” Lake writes. “it had a ‘these devs are independently rich’ funds of ‘successfully zero {dollars}.’
“they will value nevertheless low they need, in consequence. their return on funding is infinite it doesn’t matter what they do. however by charging such a low quantity, they’re inflicting lizard mind indicators to fireplace off saying ‘this sort of sport is value twenty {dollars}. it’s best to anticipate this sport for twenty {dollars}.’
“if sufficient of these lizard mind indicators fireplace, some sorts of video games with precise budgets to pay individuals who want to dwell are going to get priced out of existence except they will get the form of natural groundswell you may’t plan for”
Lots of different indie devs suppose Lake may need a degree right here, together with folks from Deck 13 and Red Squirrel Games. Over on Twitter/X, Basti Games, the developer of Lone Fungus: Melody of Spores, requested the viewers how a lot Lone Fungus ought to value given Silksong’s $20 value. Basti had initially been planning on making Lone Fungus $20, too. However as a result of it is shorter in size than Silksong, ought to it’s cheaper?
As a dev making a smaller Metroidvania than Silksong, which I initially although could be pretty priced at 20 USD… what ought to I value it now?
It’ll be a 10-15+ hours sport, but it surely was made by one individual with restricted dev time and funds, I can not afford to give it away free of charge. https://t.co/FFcgz6TI1z
— Lone Fungus (@BastiArtGames) September 1, 2025
Luckily for Basti, the replies overwhelmingly encourage them to value it at $20 if that is what’s required. “Dude cost 20$,” wrote one fan. “Price is just not concerning the sport is about context. They’re ready to value 20$ for an even bigger sport as a result of they steem to obtain one million occasions the price. You’re a small firm, dude cost 20$ you deserve thst”
One other wrote, “10-20 is completely truthful imo. Workforce cherry might have made silksong 40 and nonetheless bought hotcakes, the actual fact they did not simply means they’re cool as fuck. Do not maintain your self to requirements of giants, or else you will have to climb a staircase.”
Nonetheless, different builders are apprehensive too. In an Eurogamer article on the topic, Dorfromantik developer Toukana’s co-founder, Zwi Zausch, stated that the studio’s subsequent sport, Star Birds, would have its pricing impacted by Silksong.
“We’re making an attempt not to compete too straight with Silksong, each by way of launch date and pricing. In fact, these are two very totally different video games with doubtlessly totally different participant bases, however there’s undoubtedly some overlap. That makes issues difficult, particularly since Star Birds is a joint challenge between two studios, collectively using extra individuals than Workforce Cherry.”
Indie sport costs has traditionally been a difficult topic, as groups stability needing to guarantee all their members are adequately paid, uncertainty round gross sales numbers, and the volatility of audiences in deciding not to purchase smaller video games at costs they understand as too excessive. As AAA sport costs climb fro $60 to $70 to $80, there was renewed dialogue on the place indies ought to fall – many cannot afford to go decrease than $20, however many may also lose gross sales if they do not.
“Folks have much less cash now and are shopping for fewer video games,” says Mike Rose, founding father of No Extra Robots, “so you could have to set your self up to hopefully be that one sport they purchase after they do have cash. And if you’re the next value, it is now really a bit offputting.”