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EA's upcoming multiplayer dogfighter Star Wars: Squadrons is launching October 2 for $40/£35, and now we have a clear reason for the lower-than-usual price tag.
In an earnings call Thursday (via PC Gamer), EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen explained that Star Wars: Squadrons is designed to satisfy a very singular appetite: navigating gunfights in a starfighter. For that reason, it's smaller in scope and lower-priced than a typical new release from EA.
"Games all have different scales, and most of our games right now have a huge scale. We designed this game to really focus on what we heard from consumers, which is one of their greatest fantasies, and that's to be able to fly an X-Wing fighter or TIE Fighter, and be in a dogfight," Jorgensen said.
"And so it doesn't have the breadth of some of our games, but it's still an incredible game. And so that's why we chose to price it at a slightly lower level—and to also allow access to as many people as possible who had that Star Wars fantasy," Jorgensen explained."
EA CEO Andrew Wilson also chimed in to explain that the publisher's games are priced across a spectrum to meet the "motivations and expectations" of players. Games like Plants vs. Zombies, he notes, are free to download because they're designed for younger crowds.
"In this case, this is a very deep and immersive game, and $40 felt like the right price point given the breadth of the game," he said. "We wanted it to be a wholly self-contained experience that was deeply immersive in that fantasy."
Seeing as you'll be spending the vast majority of your time in Star Wars: Squadrons inside a starfighter, it's handy that EA recently gave a comprehensive overview of the different starfighter classes and abilities, plus some interesting details about the original trilogy's influence on their designs.
If you're planning on picking up the game, check out our comprehensive guide to Star Wars: Squadrons pre-orders.
