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Star Wars: Squadrons will cost $40 to “allow access” to as many players as possible

"$40 felt like the right price point given the breadth of the game"

EA has explained why Star Wars: Squadron will only cost $40. The lower-than-usual price tag is to make the space game easier to pick up for more people.

Speaking on a quarterly financial conference call (cheers, Twinfinite), executives at the publisher discussed why it makes for the Star Wars game to come in at a cheaper price. “We designed this game to really focus on what we heard from consumers; this is one of the greatest fantasies, to be able to fly an X-Wing or a TIE-Fighter and be in a dogfight,” chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen explained. “So it doesn’t have the breadth of some of our games, but it is still an incredible game. That’s why we choose to price it at a slightly lower level, to also allow access to as many people as possible who have that Star Wars fantasy.”

Chief executive officer Andrew Wilson elaborated, then, by saying that EA has a malleable approach to pricing, and that player expectation is key through-out development. “We have games across the spectrum of pricing, whether that’s free-to-play, or $60, or $60 with an additional life service, or as part of our subscription offerings,” He said. “At the end of the day, as we think about it, we start with the player, we start with the motivations and expectations that they have, and we build the game. 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.”

We’d previously heard that Star Wars Squadrons won’t have any microtransactions. A lot of detail is going into the galactic dog-fighter, from the on-board power management systems, to the cockpit screens. A “hardcore mode” will be included for the space savvy pilots who want a deeper challenge.

We have the roster of ships revealed so far here. Star Wars Squadron will hit Steam, Epic, and Origin at lightspeed on October 2.