The Kingdom Hearts series is coming to the PC for the first time, and it'll be available as an Epic Games Store exclusive. Over the years, players on other platforms have been vocal about getting the chance to experience Sora's adventures outside of Sony consoles, and that time has finally come. There's only one problem, the titles are being sold piece by piece for the price they released at when the games were new.
Before the Kingdom Hearts series was announced for PC, the main entries were only ever available on PlayStation consoles. The only exceptions were Kingdom Hearts 3, also released on Xbox One, and the spin-off titles, released on various Nintendo and Sony platforms.
The Epic Games Store will house Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 ReMix, Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue, Kingdom Hearts 3 + Re Mind and Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory. Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5+2.5 Remix will retail for $49.99, and all other titles will be $59.99. This comes as a shock considering last February, Square Enix released Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package for $49.99 on PS4, with the only missing entries being the Re Mind DLC for KH3 and the then-unreleased Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory.
The Kingdom Hearts All-in-One Package goes on sale frequently, even regularly selling for as low as $29.99 from many retailers. It's understandable to split the series up if players only want a portion of the story or want to purchase the titles as they have time to play through them. Still, the price they're being offered at seems astronomical, especially when considering that some of these titles are one or even two decades old.
If players were unhappy that the Kingdom Hearts series was a PlayStation exclusive before, how will they feel now that they have to overpay to enjoy these games? If a player wanted to experience the entire Kingdom Hearts story, they'd be shelling out $230 before any applicable local tax. That's nearly the price of a new PS4 and very possibly what some might pay for a refurbished or pre-owned console if looking at options like eBay.
It doesn't make any sense for the Kingdom Hearts titles to be sold for as much as they are just because they're now available on a new platform. Even though there's more wiggle room in pricing for physical copies of games, the cost is just too high for a series that's being sold nearly $200 cheaper on another platform.