News Formula Fusion gets permanent price drop on Steam Early Access

Formula Fusion, a futuristic anti-gravity racer in development by startup studio R8 Games as a spiritual successor to WipEout, has been given a permanent price drop on Steam Early Access. Originally released for £22.99, you can now experience some WipEout-style anti-gravity racing for £14.99.

In a frank update on FaceBook, R8 Games’ CEO Andrew Walker admits that sales for Formula Fusion haven’t been as strong as they would have liked, which has unfortunately resulted in layoffs – as is often the harsh reality of independent games development. “Since we delivered on Early Access, which was a version of the game that represented moving out of pre-production and into production, I will be honest with you, we ‘were’ expecting more sales,” the post reads.

“But at the same time we fully realised the predicament we had put ourselves in – going out at the high price point we set – which was in reaction to our kickstarter campaign and not wanting to piss you good people off. In doing so we kind of shot ourselves in the foot. The content doesn’t justify the price point (I think that’s pretty obvious) – but still – we’ve had a great reaction so far and we also have nearly 5500 people with the game on their wish list, which is fantastic and whilst content is a concern we have proven we have a good base to work from.”

“We had to make a few tweaks in the office recently including letting a few people go in favour of concentrating on the core development side of things and protecting the product. That included Aaron, the community manager (unfortunately) as it was felt that we could cover that aspect, at least until we have a more stable cash flow. I think you can all appreciate that staying independent is a rough task and to get this point is no mean feat, but I made the mistake of ramping up too early to try and meet the demand for content on steam and this was the consequence.”

“As an independent studio we have to react month by month – strategically – to make sure there’s enough cash in the vaults to support our plans, it’s a constant juggling act based on our ambitions and the reality of where we are right now. I always said I would prop up the studio by selling equity if needed but recently we had to stem the costs of the studio and bring things back in line with a more realistic approach until we get the level of investment we need to push on like crazy people again.”

After consulting with the community, it is hoped that the price reduction will attract more early adoptors. Given that the current build only contains one craft and one track with three varients, a price cut certainly seems like a wise move.

Moving forward, R8 Games are focusing on developing the multiplayer component, while work continues on securing boxed and console releases of Formula Fusion along with the digital PC version which is still planned for release in Q2 2016.

You can look forward to our first look at Formula Fusion coming soon.

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