Manor Lords Warns Players Not To Preorder, Hides Pricing From Public

Summary Hooded Horse chooses to reveal Manor Lords' price at launch to prevent confusion with regional pricing on Steam.

The publisher avoids discussing prices early to prevent gray market scams and to ensure players pay for the game post-release.

Manor Lords, a popular city-builder, will release into early access on April 26. It will also be available on Xbox Game Pass.

While Manor Lords may already be one of the most popular games on Steam, publisher Hooded Horse wants the community to understand the rationale behind its silence regarding the game's price and the lack of pre-order offers. The ambitious city-builder, developed by Slavic Magic, is set to be released into early access on April 26 but despite its looming release date, players have yet to be informed on how much they're expected to pay for the game. While this may sound suspicious to some, the reason is actually very understandable.

Writing on the game's Reddit, the Hooded Horse CEO, who simply goes by Tim, explained that the publisher has held back on discussing price due to how Steam implements regional pricing on its catalog.

To avoid any confusion and disappointment, the company elected to rather only reveal Manor Lords' price once it launches to prevent misunderstandings caused by exchange rates, promising that it intends to stick with a cost that's fair, reasonable, and reflective of an early access game that's not a AAA experience at release. Furthermore, Hooded Horse wants to cater to those who may still have to pay for the game in United States dollars, even if they live in a different country that doesn't have its currency supported on Steam. They write:

"...sharing the US price alone will lead to misunderstandings. People will be concluding the game is unaffordable in their region when at launch they will have pricing that will work for them. And whatever disclaimers we’d attach would probably be dropped when it is repeated elsewhere causing a bunch of people to lose hope..."

Hooded Horse Wants Manor Lords To Succeed

Related Manor Lords Release Date, Trailer, & Gameplay Details The strategic city builder/real-time tactical game Manor Lords is coming soon. Here’s everything to know about the medieval town sim ahead of launch.

Moreover, It Wants Players To Be Happy With The Game

In the same post, Tim goes on to explain that another reason Hooded Horse hasn't disclosed the price of the game is to avoid "gray market/scam stores" selling non-existent pre-orders for Manor Lords, even though the game doesn't have an official pre-order system in place. Tim elaborates that the team made the decision to explicitly avoid implementing pre-orders because they feel it's only fair to take players' cash once the game has been released, not before its launch. The announcement has been received well by the community, which has praised the publisher for its transparency.

Holding the title as one of the most Wishlisted games on Steam yet, Manor Lords is shaping up to be yet another sleeper hit in 2024 which has already seen its fair share of surprises in the forms of Palworld and Helldivers 2. The medieval city builder tasks players with building up their own empire and spreading it across the world, engaging in deep construction mechanics while also engaging in tactical real-time strategy battles. Slavic Magic is insistent that an early access release is necessary because the sheer size of the scale will require plenty of player feedback.

To sweeten the deal even further for those interested in the game, Manor Lords will also be available as a Day-One release on Xbox Game Pass. The Preview version will seemingly be the same as what's available on Steam, so console players will be able to partake in the same dramatic rise to power. The game arrives on April 26, so make sure those fields are plowed and the castles prepped!

Source: Hooded Horse/Reddit