Update 2: Last night, the team at Mad Mushroom got in touch to confirm that I had indeed spotted an error with the regional pricing of Hell Clock’s expansion, Cursed War.
Worry not, Dear Readers, because now the price has been adjusted to £9.09 and 10,25€ on PC Steam, bringing it to where one would expect, considering the $9.99 price in the US.
What’s more, if you overpaid, you’re being instructed to get a refund and rebuy the content at the new, lower price. Here’s the statement shared on Steam, which explains in more detail what went wrong and what you should do:
First of all, thank you so much for the incredible support on today’s launch of Cursed War. We’ve been closely monitoring your feedback, and we noticed a lot of players reaching out regarding regional currency conversion issues for the DLC on Steam.
You were absolutely right—the regional conversions were incorrectly set at launch.
What Went Wrong & How It’s Fixed
Our original intention has always been for the expansion to cost roughly half the price of the base game in every country, following the exact same fair regional conversion rates we used for the base game launch (matching the $9.99 USD DLC price tag relative to the $19.99 USD base game).
We have just updated the system, and the correct regional pricing should now be live globally.
How to Get a Refund If You Overpaid
If you bought the DLC earlier today before this correction went through, please don’t worry! Steam has advised us on the proper protocol to ensure you aren’t overcharged:
- Go to Steam Support and request a refund for the Cursed War DLC.
- Once the refund is approved, simply re-purchase the expansion at the newly updated, correct price for your region.
We sincerely apologize for this hitch right at the starting line! Thank you all so much for bringing this to our attention so quickly.
— The Hell Clock Team
Update: The Cursed War expansion for Hell Clock is live now on PC, and on console, where it has been bundled with the base game.
Having said that, I’m not really impressed with the pricing of the new content and the way it has been put on console. Maybe I’m just being a grump, but both UK and European gamers are paying over the odds for the content, and newcomers on PC are being treated especially unfairly, in my humble opinion.
For example, at launch on Steam PC, the new Cursed War expansion is $9.99 in the US. Given the exchange rates, it should be around £7.50 here in the UK. Instead, it’s either 14,79€ or £12.79. Even if you have the base game on PC, which I do, there’s no discount.
It’s not much better on console, where the expansion is bundled in with the base game. It’s $24.99 / £19.99 on PS5, but if you’ve got PS Plus, you can get a discount and buy it for $19.99 / £15,99. If you do have PS Plus, then you’ve got the best price possible on console, but non-subscribers have to overpay at first.
On the other hand, everyone on Xbox enjoys the benefit of the discount, although it is slightly more expensive there, at £16.79. After the time-limited launch discount, however, it goes back to $24.99 / £20.99, at which point UK-based Xbox gamers are paying the most on console. Lucky them.
Finally, a word for potential PC players who are completely new to the game. You lovely folks get to pay $19.99 for the base game and then $9.99 for the expansion, in the US. But, if you’re unlucky enough to live here in the UK or in Europe, however, you’ll have to pay £16.75 + £12.79 / 19,50€ + 14,79€ – that’s roughly $40 for the full game…
Anyway, here’s a launch trailer, I guess.
Original: The developers of Hell Clock have confirmed that the game’s big 2.0 update and Cursed War expansions are ready ahead of schedule.
The release date for Hell Clock’s free content expansion is July 9th, 2026, which also happens to be when the game is landing on PS5 and Xbox Series. The paid-for Cursed War expansion, on the other hand, adds new story content and lands on the same day, on all three platforms.
The free update is more mechanical and will bring a wealth of new content, including an expanded endgame and some extensive gameplay rebalancing.
The patch notes are already available over on Steam, if you want the full skinny before the content rolls out, but among the highlights is a new Journeys system. This is a pressure-free alternative to seasonal content, which makes sense given how they market the game as an Exile-like roguelite.
Beyond that, there is going to be a new endgame system called Endless Nightmares, which has randomised dungeons that take you to new biomes and throw scaling challenges at you.
Progression should also speed up a bit for new players, and some of your abilities – Ignite, Bleed and Shock – are generally more effective.
In other news, the paid-for content is going to be much more story-based. Cursed War is a prequel act that will take you to the Paraguay War, and in terms of systems, it’s limited to a few new skills.
Finally, if you’ve not played Hell Clock yet, PC players can already get started with a 40% discount on Steam ahead of launch. Console kids will have to wait until July 9th, but that’s not very long now, is it!
