Bethesda’s Fallout 4 season-pass price hike has it on top of Steam’s best-seller list

Jacking up the price of downloadable content could turn into a new form of marketing.

Fallout 4’s season pass for all of its upcoming add-ons is the top-selling product on the Steam digital-distribution platform today, and that’s likely because its price is about to jump from $30 to $50 starting tomorrow. This has created a sense of urgency among anyone who wants access to all of the open-world role-playing megahit’s expansions for a “discount.” And this move, which mirrors a successful strategy we saw from Dying Light developer Techland in November, shows that developers can get fans to spend a lot more by making them feel like they must act immediately to avoid missing out on a great deal. With console and PC gaming worth tens of billions of dollars, game companies stand to make a lot by maximizing the value they derive from each of their customers.