Valheim’s Price Jumps to $30 With 1.0 Launch, Ocean Biome’s Future Unclear
Valheim will cost $29.99 when it officially exits Early Access on September 9, up from its long-standing $19.99 price, developer Iron Gate Studio has confirmed. Valheim will receive a new price of $29.99, with the change made since Valheim will transition from an Early Access game to a full release, offering a full experience. The same FAQ also confirms the game’s new Deep North biome won’t touch the long-neglected ocean, disappointing a chunk of the community that had hoped for a naval overhaul.
Just over five years since its early access launch, Valheim will hit 1.0 on September 9, and when that happens, the $20 Viking-themed survival crafting game will cost $30, with a new ice-themed Deep North biome added. The price change applies across Steam, Xbox and PlayStation, marking the first adjustment to Valheim’s cost since it launched in Early Access back in February 2021.
Deep North Closes Out Valheim’s Original Biome Roadmap
The Deep North is being pitched as the final biome Iron Gate originally promised for Valheim, a frozen expanse populated by hostile Gammeltrolls and new dungeon types. According to GamingBolt, besides finally leaving Early Access, 1.0 marks the game’s debut on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, expanding a title that had previously been available only on PC and Xbox platforms. Full crossplay is promised across every supported platform once the update lands.
Existing owners won’t need to pay again for the update. Iron Gate’s FAQ notes that current save files will carry over into 1.0, though while your world will receive new content even if it was created before the update, biome generation will only work properly on areas that have not yet been explored, so the studio recommends starting the game over from scratch for the best possible experience.
Ocean Biome Confirmed Untouched, Frustrating Long-Time Sailors
The most contentious line in the FAQ addresses years of speculation that Valheim’s sparse, largely empty seas would finally get an overhaul alongside the final biome. Iron Gate ruled that out directly, stating no, the 1.0 update focuses on the Deep North biome, and while there is some new content for the rest of Valheim as well, nothing is specifically focused on the Oceans.
PC Gamer reported that the biggest sticking point among devout Valheim players is that the FAQ rules out an update to the ocean biome in 1.0, an area of the game that has changed little since it first shipped in Early Access. Massively Overpowered’s coverage of the same FAQ echoed the point, noting that the newly released 1.0 FAQ this week clarifies the $29.99 plan for pricing, teases achievements, promises saves will be safe, confirms some cheats and mods may not be compatible, and warns there won’t be a public test.
Iron Gate Won’t Commit to Content Beyond 1.0
Perhaps more significant for the game’s long-term future is Iron Gate’s ambiguous stance on what comes after launch. The studio wrote in the FAQ, as quoted by PC Gamer, “We will continue to improve the game with bugfixes and quality of life stuff, though for exactly how long the game will continue to receive updates is currently too soon to say.”
On whether entirely new content might still arrive, Iron Gate added: “Likewise, it is too soon to say whether or not there will be more content added to the game in the future—but as always, we will be sure to announce any news on our channels!” That noncommittal wording has left plenty of the game’s Reddit community reading between the lines about whether Valheim’s active development era is winding down.
Achievements Won’t Retroactively Count Past Progress
Steam and console achievements are arriving with 1.0 for the first time, but veteran players with hundreds of hours logged won’t get credit for past milestones. Iron Gate’s FAQ states that the achievement system will begin to track statistics from the moment players download the 1.0 version, meaning an achievement connected to killing the boss Eikthyr will require players to kill Eikthyr again, even if they’ve already done so hundreds of times before.
On the performance side, Iron Gate is promising smoother play rather than a dramatic overhaul. The FAQ says the studio plans to continue working on making the game run even smoother after 1.0, with optimisations including decreasing the microstutters that occur when loading new zones in and out of memory, faster saving, and other minor optimisations. Players running sprawling bases, however, have been warned not to expect much relief there.
For Australian and New Zealand players, Iron Gate’s FAQ notes only that there may be regional differences to the new $29.99 USD price, meaning local AUD and NZD storefront pricing hasn’t yet been locked in on Steam, Xbox or PlayStation. With the Switch 2 debut also on the cards for the region, Valheim’s jump to 1.0 is shaping up as one of the bigger survival-genre console arrivals of the year locally, even as the studio stays quiet on how much support the game will get once the champagne settles.
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