itch.io Community » itch.io » Questions & Support

Do Players Lose Access to Paid Itch.io Games After Price Increases

A topic by FluffyStudio created Jul 10, 2025 Views: 2,412 Replies: 19

Viewing posts 1 to 4

FluffyStudio156 days ago

Hey everyone,

I’m a developer and have been publishing my game on Itch.io for a while now. With each major update, I increase the price of the game slightly, and I upload updates using Butler.

Recently, a player contacted me saying that they had purchased the paid version of my game two updates ago, but now they’re being asked to pay again to download the newest version. He was quite upset about the price increase and insisted that this is just how Itch works.

I had always believed that once a player purchases a game on Itch.io, they retain access to all future updates of that game—regardless of price increases—unless it’s set up as a separate purchase like DLC or a new project.

Am I misunderstanding how this works?

Do players who bought the game at a lower price lose access to future updates if the price increases?
If not, what could be the reason this player only sees the free version available via their download link?
And is there a way for me to verify or help the player get access to the version they’re entitled to?

He did provide me with his download link, and it only shows him the free version, not the full paid version.

Any insights or clarification would be really appreciated! I just want to make sure I'm doing things correctly and that my supporters get what they paid for.

Thanks in advance!

No Time To PlayModerator156 days ago

No, you got that right. You don't have to do anything special.

FluffyStudio156 days ago

The issue from what I was finding out is, my game is priced individually not as a whole.

No Time To PlayModerator156 days ago (1 edit)

If you mean you have a file with a special price on your project page, that's the wrong way to use it. You're doing it the other way around. Set a minimum price per project, and if you want to offer some files for free, mark them as demos. See the Pricing FAQ.

FluffyStudio156 days ago

Yes. I was individually pricing the game packages. From what I understood. If I put the game as paid and then increase the minimum price, it will not affect people who had bought it at a lower price?

No Time To PlayModerator156 days ago(+1)

Yes, that's right, like I said and like you saw. That's how pricing on itch.io is designed to work.

redonihunter156 days ago(+1)

Itch should overhaul or abolish this feature. It is confusing and does not work intuitively. People cannot even increase the amount later. Buy game for 10 and later decide to also get the bonus soundtrack at indiviual price of 15? You can't do that. You would need to buy for 15 again.

You do not set the price of the files, no matter what you think or what is written in the faq, or how this feature is misleadingly called.

Users buy a project. Or access to that project's paid files to be precise. They gain so called ownership. And this does not change, no matter how they obtained ownership. At a discount, at a lower price, a higher price, with a promo key from the developer, whatever.

And there is optionally a method to make files only be available, if the actual paid price currently is above the "individual price" of the file. But it is not a price. It is an unlock tier. The amount you paid does not care, if those files exist or not, or how many of those files there are or if there are several tiers. You can't buy those files individually. They are not priced. Access to them is unlocked.

Switching such a project to a non zero minimum price should work, since any amount at all that was paid will grant access to all the project's files - except those individual files.

It is better to create two projects, instead of fudging payment options into one projects. Like the soundtrack I mentioned as an example. I do not even know, what happens when people buy on a discount. Or in a bundle. Or in a discounted bundle. I asked in community, but never got an answer.

FluffyStudio156 days ago (2 edits) (+1)

I changed my project to paid, instead of 0 or Donation. I honestly thought, people would keep ownership over the files they bought. It was a shock moment, when I was told. People were pissed and rightly so. I wished they got pissed before. It's paid now and from my understanding, if I now increase the minimum pay of the project, it will not affect people who bought it before. I will never again touch the individual pricing. Also I send an email with a code, for buyers to get the game for free. It's great that itch has that function.

But you have brought up a great point. My game was in 3 co-op bundles and also I had now a couple of sales. Does this mean, those people actually own the game? How does that work? I am still not sure, if I am doing it right, right now. I hope when increase the price again, it will not affect anyone, because it's not fair, for people to have to pay multiple time for one game. Thats stupid.

redonihunter155 days ago

There is a section in your library that contains all the "owned" games. If you download a game for free, it will not appear there.

If you pay something, even for a free game, it will appear there and stay there. The mechanid behind this probably is the fact that one does not even need an account to buy on Itch. People get a download key. https://itch.io/docs/creators/download-keys#download-keys-and-urls/file-access

So anyone that paid anything for a project should have such a download key and be unaffected of any minimum price changes. This goes for bundles as well.

But I do not know how a bundle price is compared to those individual priced files, or how discounts are considered. If you buy a 2 item bundle for 10 and there are individual files for 10 on both projects, are those unlocked, or is the paid price distributed over the 2 projects. And what if you buy at a discount. General file access is clear: you have a download key.

redonihunter155 days ago(+1)

I honestly thought, people would keep ownership over the files they bought.

And that is why I rant over this feature. It is misleadingly named. A customer does in fact not buy the files individually. It should be called tiered bonus items or whatever.

It is an attempt of a dlc mechanic, without need for creating separate projects. Ok. But then they should have the functionality, to increase your tier. The feature is broken and unusable except for the most trivial use case: one payment and never changing prices and the user knows at first purchase, which bonus item tier is wanted - and there are projects with several tiers.

FluffyStudio155 days ago(+1)

But how can it be used as a way to sell DLC's without making a new project, if the the file price cannot be lower then the minimum price.
So lets say my game once its finally done is 10 euro and I create a DLC, how can I justify that DLC to be 11 euro, just because I cannot have it less then the projects minimum price? Its infuriating.

redonihunter155 days ago(+1)

If you have game for 10 and an individual priced file for 11, a user that pays 11 has access to the individual priced file. The price for the "dlc" would be 1. The problem is, that a user that bought the game for 10 and later decides to get the dlc, cannot do so without buying the game again for 11. And as you have found out, if you would later rise the minimum price of the project to 15, the dlc will no longer be available to anyone that thought to have bought it. Because their payment price of 11 will not match the new individual price of 15+1 = 16.

Having two items to sell is always more elegant with two projects. The individual priced file mechanic is very bad for this. People use it anyway, because it exists.

It might once have been meant as an incentive in the pay what you want scheme. Offer a game for free, give a goodie for 3, so people that do pay, pay 3 instead of 2 or 1. Something like that.

Straight from the pricing faq

itch.io lets you set minimum prices on individual files. For example, if you're selling a game for $1 you could offer the option to get access to the soundtrack when paying $2 or more.

You can even added priced files when your project is normally free. Encourage a donation by offering additional content like levels or music. For example, you could offer a level pack for $2 with an otherwise free game.

The example already is ... very bad. If you offer a soundtrack or a level pack, make a separate project with the soundtrack and create a bundle of the game and the soundtrack, so people can buy both at once, or the soundtrack later.

There is a difference between a demo version and a free public version, so I understand why many devs chose that pricing option. But it is inflexible for future price changes. And uncertain in regards to bundles and discounts - at least I do not know how this works.

FluffyStudio155 days ago(+1)

What I have done now, set my main Project to Paid, have the free version be as a Demo free in the project and future DLC's I will put in separate projects where I can use the Sale function, like if they have bought the Paid version they get the DLC 50% off. That's one system I really like on itch. They did a good Sales system.

redonihunter155 days ago(+1)

Ah, I read about that function, but never noticed it in action. The conditional sale or whatever it is called.

FluffyStudio155 days ago

Exactly. Where you can set another game as a condition, for them to have in their Library to be able to get that promotion. But, only those eligible will see the promotion, which is a point that is annoying. Would be great if it's public so everyone can see it and then maybe Increase your sales of both the game and the dlc.

Afloof.devModerator154 days ago(+2)

It seems this has been answer already, but in case this helps future readers, I though I’d share how the price system is designed.

If you set your project to paid, people can pay that amount to own your project. That means, no matter what happens to the price of that project, people will be able to gain access to its files. (Except individually priced files, see below)
Individual priced files are intended to reward people that support you by paying more than the project’s price and they work in a tier system. For example your project is set at £5, extra soundtracks are individually priced at £10 and some behind the scenes files for £15. That means that if someone pays £15, they will have access to your project plus any files with an individual price of £15 or below.

Having the game set as free, but in reality the full version is behind an individually priced file is not the intended way to do this. On top of the issue you mentioned on this post, this also confuses the algorithm as it displays your game as free to play which might not be the best experience for users.

I see you mentioned DLC on some comments. As far as I’m aware there’s no official way to do DLCs, but some other people have created new project pages exactly for that reason, with a link on the base game for users to find. This should eliminate pretty much the issues you’ve been having, but it’s up to you to decide what works best for you.

redonihunter154 days ago(+1)

I think the faq needs a clarification for users and developers.

https://itch.io/docs/creators/pricing#purchase-tiers-through-individually-priced...

https://itch.io/docs/creators/download-keys

How is the associated price of a download key generated (or compared to individual priced files), when the key is part of a bundle or at a discount or at a discounted bundle or at a discount in a discounted bundle?

The faq could also point out, that it is better to create extra projects if one has extra content to sell and point out the drawbacks more prominently. Like locking the price, or else lock out previous buyers. Which happened for OP's customers. I could imagine a suggestion to consider creating a bundle of base game and extra content, instead of price tiers. The biggest problem with the price tiers is, that you cannot increase your tier.

Afloof.devModerator153 days ago

My understanding is that bundles just give access to the project itself, but none of the individually priced files. This should includes discounts (either on bundles or the game itself).

Individually priced files can only be priced higher than the base project itself, so users can only gain access to them specifically by paying more for the project itself.

Thanks for posting those links, I think they are very useful to this discussion. There’s this paragraph that describes individually priced files in detail:

Individually priced files come with an important distinction regarding ownership: The buyer will only continue to have access to these files if the price they paid satisfies the minimum price you set on the file. This means that if you change the individually priced file to be more expensive, you may lock out access to that purchase tier from existing buyers. We strongly recommend considering how you intend to price your project in the future before using an individually priced file. Use individually priced files for quick bonus content, not to set the price of your content. Use the minimum price on your project to set the price of your product, as this will allow you to change the price at a later time without affecting ownership.

redonihunter153 days ago(+1)

My understanding is that bundles just give access to the project itself, but none of the individually priced files. This should includes discounts (either on bundles or the game itself).

Individually priced files can only be priced higher than the base project itself, so users can only gain access to them specifically by paying more for the project itself.

This does neither confirm nor deny any possible scenario in regard to those. Includes discounts. How.

Let's use a simple scenario for starters. A single game with discount 50%, price 5, individual priced file at 10. I can pay half, 2.5, to gain access to the project. That much is understandable, since the minimum price is lowered to be 2.5. No questions asked.

But I buy at a discount. As a customer I would expect the whole project to be on discount, including any extra files. So I would assume to have access to the file at 10 by paying 5 at a discount.

Another simple scenario. Two games in a bundle. No discounts. Both games cost 5 and both have an extra file at 10. The bundle costs 10, since there are no discounts. A customer paid 10, so the paid price might be 10 when comparing the paid price against the unlock price of the file. But buying both games outside of the bundle would not give access to either of the extra file, since you would have only paid 5 each. Which would result in a discount that only applies to the extra files, if the paid price of the bundle is applied to each game.

I think the faq should explain how these things work together on the bundle, discount and individual price pages. It currently does not.

FluffyStudio154 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

The FAQ regarding payment does need to change after I read your answer. The way you explained it, was clear and unmistakable. Even though it has been answered, I appreciate your comment. It's a great TL:DR to this thread. They should take your explanation and change the FAQ one, this way, Devs like me would not make these mistakes. In regards to DLC: Yes I will be making a different Project page, where it will be categories as a DLC and will link to the original game, with a clarification that you will need the original game files to play this.

This topic has been auto-archived and can no longer be posted in because there haven't been any posts in a while.