Today marks a huge shift for The Bazaar. After months in open beta on the Tempo Launcher as a free-to-play title, the game has finally made the jump to Steam… but it’s not coming for free. In fact, just about everything in the monetization model has changed.
Whether you’re a long-time Bazaar player or thinking of buying in for the first time, here’s what you need to know.
Goodbye Free-to-Play, Hello Premium
On Steam, The Bazaar now costs $45 USD. That price gets you the base game and the three original heroes—Vanessa, Pygmalien, and Dooley.
If you already had an account on the Tempo Launcher before August 8, 2025 (by 12:30 PDT), you can still keep playing there for free. If you want to transfer to Steam, then you will need to buy the game on steam and link your account. You will get all the heroes that you had unlocked in the Tempo version. They will run a special discount in the first 3 days of launch with a bundle that includes the base game and Stelle for just $19.99, so that might be a good time to invest in it.
New players, however, can no longer make free accounts on The Bazaar website.
New Heroes Come with a Price Tag
Starting now, all new heroes—beginning with Stelle—will be sold as paid DLC at $20 USD each. And here’s the kicker: you can’t buy them with gems anymore. It’s cash only. That has raised many upsets especially among the veteran players or players that do invest a lot of time in the game and even casual players that were saving the hard earned currency just to buy the new hero. This change makes those saved gems far less valuable, and it’s unclear now what the primary purpose of gems will be – will they only be for cosmetics?
Many, including myself, think that if this decision had been announced back when Mak was released, people could have adjusted their expectations. Dropping it right with Stelle’s launch feels abrupt.
Ranked Mode is Now Completely Free to Play. Normal mode gets chest rewards
One of the better changes is that Ranked mode no longer requires tickets. No more grinding for dailies or spending gems to enter. If you want to play Ranked all day, you can do so. Any unused Ranked tickets have been converted into 100 gems each. Rank progress will still reset each month so the players can still earn Ranked rewards. In addition, Normal mode will award chests just like Ranked. The chest rewards will increase to 2/4/6 from 1/2/3
Prize Pass, Seasonal Unlocks and Subscription changes
In the old days, you had to reach around tier 15 and tier 30 of the Prize Pass to unlock the season’s new expansions and items. That’s gone.
Now, when a new season starts, you get all the new items right away. The Prize Pass is purely cosmetic and entirely free—no skips, no hero unlocks hidden behind it. They also change the chest so include all available cosmetics, including all previous boards and albums from past seasons.
Subscriptions will not be renewed anymore. Existing subscriptions will continue until they expire, earning double XP and up to 12 chests each run until they expire
My Take on the Premium Shift
I think this will ultimately be a good and healthy move for The Bazaar. Removing free-to-play restrictions, like Ranked tickets, and making seasonal content instantly accessible is going to make the game more enjoyable for those who already own it.
That said… the upfront price of $45 for an autobattler is steep. Yes, The Bazaar is probably one of the best roguelikes out there, but it’s still a niche title without a widely recognized name. I’m afraid that the jump to premium will hurt its ability to pull in new players the way it did as F2P.
One idea? Offer a limited free version—maybe just Vanessa unlocked—so new players can try it, get hooked, and then pay the $45 to unlock everything. That would at least lower the barrier to entry while keeping the premium model intact.
Why the Change?
Reynad (Andrey Yanyuk), creator of The Bazaar, says the move is about making the game better:
“This is going to let us get rid of a lot of annoying free-to-play things in the game and just make a better product, a game that’s more fun.”
Developer Toby also explained on Reddit:
“The motivations for pricing have not been to ‘make tons of profits’ but just ‘to keep the game running.’”
Community Friction
It’s also worth noting that some players say they’ve been banned from official Bazaar communication channels for voicing criticism about the monetization changes. That’s never a good look—especially during such a sensitive transition period.
Final Thoughts
The Steam launch is the start of a new era for The Bazaar. It’s a cleaner, more straightforward game now—no tickets, no grind walls, no tier locks for gameplay content. But that simplicity comes at the cost of accessibility.
I hope this model gives the devs the stability they’re aiming for, but I also hope they find a way to let more people try the game without committing $45 upfront. Because for as great as The Bazaar is, a great game still needs players.
The full announcement can be found on The Bazaar website
