Fans accuse OTK and Moistcr1TiKaL's new venture Starforge Systems of price gouging despite announcing $100 price cuts

Moistcr1TiKaL and OTK group recently announced their pre-built PC venture Starforge Systems to much fanfare. However, many fans have criticized Starforge for what they describe as "price gouging." The allegations against the company for charging high prices for their pre-built PCs did not subside even after they slashed almost everything by a hundred dollars.

A Redditor going by the moniker "DudeWhereMyWednesday" commented on the issue in a thread about the pricing problem. Referring to the recent price cuts, they sarcastically said:

---

Fans not happy with Starforge Systems as they deem their products to be grossly overpriced

One True King (OTK) and Charlie "MoistCr1TiKaL" White Jr.'s announcement of their new joint venture, Starforge Systems, sent the internet into a frenzy. It marks the American streamers' entry into the pre-built PC market.

Customer service is another area where Starforge Systems will pay a lot of attention because it is still a problem for many PC makers. A few custom PCs have also been given away globally by the project to chosen winners.

The streaming community was massively hyped about the launch as big streamers such as MoistCr1TiKaL and Mizkif touted their products on their social media and Twitch streams. According to an official tweet by OTK, the custom builds will be livestreamed on their channel as an added bonus for those who can see their PCs being built online with thousands of others.

The overwhelming hype, however, quickly died down as more and more fans started questioning the pricing. MoistCr1TiKaL also addressed the issue before the official Starforge Twitter handle announced a price reduction for all of their prebuilt lineups, saying:

"We believe these changes better reflect our goal of providing competitively priced PCs while still allowing for the uncompromising quality and customer support that Starforge Systems was built for."

In that regard, the low-end Horizon PC will now be sold at $899.99 and will probably have a better processor than its current Core i3. However, many fans and critics have stressed that most of the parts chosen for their builds are either highly overpriced or don't seem compatible, which may cause bottlenecks.

---

Price comparisons and why fans are livid

Current price list for the pre-built PCs after price reduction (Image via Starforge Systems)

Starforge faced a lot of backlash for their lower-end build Horizon. Initially, they were charging $1000 for a PC with a meager 10th gen Core i3. The backlash was enormous, with many dissing them for outright scamming customers:

The price change has had people warming up to it, but they still reckon a more recent CPU is the bare minimum upgrade that should be provided:

Fans also did not appreciate the pricing for the higher models, with many providing links to well-established PC stores and websites such as NZXT, IBP and PC Parts Picker to compare the costs:

The main reason behind the backlash, as summed up by MoistCr1TiKaL in his response video, is because the company was selling parts marked at their old prices. The co-owner took to Twitch to address the issue yesterday, before the price change was announced:

"It was brought to our attention that these prices aren't the same now as they were eight months ago... Tomorrow there will be a post that will go more in detail about what changes are coming from the builds to the price, all of that..."

And while the company has reduced the price of all of their products, many still feel that a $100 off is not enough to justify the purchase. It is, however, also true that a substantial number of fans have expressed delight at the price change and have shown considerable interest in buying from Starforge Systems.