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Once again, I'm here to remind you that every argument in favor of $70 games is wrong.

sainraja

Member
Most games that adopted microtransactions also changed their pricing to free. There have been some where you had to deal with both but future entires of those being worked on are planned to be free to play most likely so I mean, game pricing did up to $70s. They also went down to $0 (F2P) and they also went to a $10/$15 a month pricing. So we've got all sorts of ways to play a game now.
 
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Jormatar

Member
I'm not limited to anything. I have plenty of digital and physical games to complement what I get through GamePass. Can't remember ever dropping $70 on a title
By only playing Game Pass games you miss on the gems on other ecosystems. So no, for most people playing games on Xbox only is not a solution at all.
 
I just bought Horizon 2, Ratchet 2, Miles Morales and Demons Souls remake for $80 used. Its crazy how fast physical games drop in price. I did buy GT7 day one but that's cuz I waited years for that.
 

teezzy

Banned
By only playing Game Pass games you miss on the gems on other ecosystems. So no, for most people playing games on Xbox only is not a solution at all.

Learn to read. I literally said I have both physical and digital games I also own on Xbox.

With that said, yes, you also get Xbox's big releases day one included with your subscription.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
fetchimage
 
What you do is get an Xbox and let Microsoft buy the games for you.
After seeing the games on GamePass lately and zero AAA first-party games all of 2022 (which is mind-blowing), no thanks.

That's like being eight again and having to count on family to pick out games for me. I want Elden Ring. I get Powerwash Simulator. I want God of War. I get Peppa Pig.

Then, my cool uncle finally lets me borrow a few good Yakuza games. But he takes them back and next birthday re-gifts them to me.
 
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mortal

Gold Member
I can't imagine what they'd do going out to a semi-decent restaurant. Or a movie. Or, heaven forbid, a sporting event or concert.
I share your sentiment. Although I would still say it's a relatively expensive activity.
Whether you buy multiple games a month, at launch. Or want to own several consoles, a gaming PC, or all of the above. In addition to good displays for gaming etc.
 
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BlackTron

Member
Just to add some more thoughts. I don't think TLOU is a good example of why games shouldn't be $70. Because it's an old game. It's a great example of why TLOU should not be $70, and really, it shouldn't. Vocal complainers made a good point that TLOU should not be $70, and Sony conceded. Good on all of you, really.

But what the hell does that have to do with a new game being $70? Absolutely nothing. If TLOU was worth $60 when it came out, then a quality brand new game is worth $70 today. Because $70 is the same amount of money now (actually, a bit less, but let's not push it right?)

This is a great case for how different games should charge a different price for the value given. Sony tried to charge full price for a facelift on an old game, and gamers called BS. Just because an old game shouldn't be full price doesn't mean that a new one shouldn't lol.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Can't agree more.

Especially for the case of TLOU "remasker", they can put their 70€ deep in a** with this illegal joke price.
People finding reasons to pay this price are weak or/and have too much money.
There is no way this game worth 70€, NO WAY, and when you have to publish "a list of improvements" to convince people, you know something is wrong.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I will pay £70 for games I want to play because I really enjoy great games. I need and support Quality over uninspired fodder.
I dunno, when i go to a movie theater and i pay 10 dollars for a ticket i get quality and i didnt even need to pay 7x that

you are getting fleeced, and you should demand better. Didn't you hear that the customer is always right?
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Like...if you ask me "do you want to pay more?" Obviously the answer is "fuck no". But do I get why games are more expensive? Yes, I do for sure.
I also get why games are more expensive. It's not because of inflation. It's because they can get away with it, and they want more money
These are corporations. They want nothing more than your money. Why do you genuinely believe they're raising the price "because they need to pay their employees?"
Don't you realize how much of a lie that is? They don't pay them jackshit to begin with, what makes you think the extra 10 dollars will suddenly go in their paycheck? Wages have stagnated for years, are video game developers suddenly going to get a pay raise all of a sudden??

This microtransaction excuse is BS too, MTX are a huge moneymaker for most companies as it is, why would they suddenly agree to raise the price of games and take them out when they know the profits from 70 dollar games won't be as good as a 70 dollar game (or even a 60 dollar game) with MTX, day one DLC, season passes and so on?
 

DaGwaphics

Member

Inflation calculators like that miss the mark on most consumer products. Inflation rarely tracks in that linear of a fashion outside of "necessity" items.

A quick look at the BF archive will quickly demonstrate many items that didn't rise in price nearly as much as the calculators would have you believe is acceptable. At Walmart in 2004 a 20" bike would cost $25, in 2020 $29, via the inflation calculator $34 (in 21 they wildly outpace the calculator at $60). For many items the prices have lowered (a TV is cheaper today than in the past and so on). While other items (like food) will out pace the calculator.

Games have a lot more revenue streams available today and have much longer tales thanks to digital. Also, most of the big gaming companies are earning a higher percentage of profit today than they were in the 90s.

With that said, games are freakishly expensive to make now, so, if charging the early adopters a bit more allows devs to be less risk adverse that's great.
 
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sainraja

Member
Prices have gone up since after the PS2 generation and they will most likely go up again. I have said this earlier but there are many ways to get into gaming now and not all of them involve paying $70 dollars. You can wait for a sale, you can play a F2P game or you can join a subscription service for $10-$15 a month.
 
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pramod

Banned
Having said all that, if Capcom made Capcom vs SNK 3 I would buy a digital copy for 70 or even 80. Heck i would even preorder it full price.

Or if Sega made Phantasy Star 5 or remastered Panzer Dragoon Saga. I would pay almost a body part for that.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Having said all that, if Capcom made Capcom vs SNK 3 I would buy a digital copy for 70 or even 80. Heck i would even preorder it full price.
lmao i can understand. it's been so long since we've seen a good crossover fighter from Capcom.
 

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Games were 70.or up in the 90s.

I'm not rationalizing nor am I buying as many games these days but given where we are now and the cost of goods even after the peak of COVID, I think it's where we will be for many years.
 

Pelta88

Member
I dunno, when i go to a movie theater and i pay 10 dollars for a ticket i get quality and i didnt even need to pay 7x that

you are getting fleeced, and you should demand better. Didn't you hear that the customer is always right?

You come across as hurt and upset by how another person spends their own money.

Seek help if necessary.
 

Hoddi

Member
I don't much care about a $10 difference but it's silly to compare the current market with the 90s. Distribution costs are way down and the market is many times larger now.

Either way, video games are 100% luxury goods and that makes them especially sensitive to price increases. Many modern games are now selling 5+ million units which would almost certainly not happen if they cost $100 like some people are suggesting.
 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Yep.
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Games have been $60 for roughly 2 decades. Prices were bound to increase at some point. OP, you will make a bigger impact by simply not buying them vs trying to get everyone to agree with you. Anyway screw game price complaints....I'm more perturbed that I spent ~$300 on groceries today when 3 years ago it would have probably been ~$200.......and that was a necessity, unlike video games.

I'm going to point out the obvious flaw which is the steadily increasing install base for two decades, games keep breaking sales records because as time goes on it has become easier to sell games because more people own a console.

It's not perfect of course but in 2002 you had the Gamecube, Xbox etc, after the Wii generarions consoles become far more mainstream, and there is constant high demand, not just at launch.

So while games have increased production costs, the amount of potential return it much much larger than two decades ago.
 
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There is no law or agreement that games had to be a certain price.

You can already spend hundreds of dollars for useless collected editions with badly made goods attached. I find it insane to act like there is some mandate to make games 70 dollars. If you refuse to pay 70 dollars then the price would go down. But no one owed you in needing to keep games at 60 dollars either.

There are so many free games, cheap old games that are still good to play, and indies, that you would only be "forced" to pay a certain price because there was some singular AAA game you desperately want to play and had no alternative. And if you want to play that one game so badly, then you got to pay for the privilege. Games are not vital to survival, they are a luxury good and always were. Videogames are the most expensive type of gaming, always were. You just didn't notice until now because of the good economy in the last decade. Money was too cheap for too long. Now money is valuable again and you need to be more selective about what you buy.
 

Fbh

Member
I've said it in other threads but I was OK with the $70 pricetag when it came with the expectation of actual next gen games.

Instead 2 years into this gen it's stuff like:

"Pay a $10 premium to take advantage of the hardware your already paid for and unlock basic ass features like higher framerate and resolution in cross gen games. "

"Here's a 10 hours Ratchet game with almost the same old gameplay and which was probably cheaper to make than TLOU2 or Ghost of Tsushima. Or how about literally a PS3 game with nicer graphics "

"Here's a remake of TLOU1 with PS4 graphics and no multiplayer"
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Yeah £70 is to much.

However if budget is a big concern, you can buy a game, complete it in a few months then sell it for like £55-60
So i have essentially rent it for a few months for £10-15.

and then u can buy cheap down the road if u want it.
 

Hoddi

Member
I'm going to point out the obvious flaw which is the steadily increasing install base for two decades, games keep breaking sales records because as time goes on it has become easier to sell games because more people own a console.

It's not perfect of course but in 2002 you had the Gamecube, Xbox etc, after the Wii generarions consoles become far more mainstream, and there is constant high demand, not just at launch.

So while games have increased production costs, the amount of potential return it much much larger than two decades ago.
That's exactly it. I recently read some paper that suggested that cartridge costs + licensing in the SNES/N64 era could be as high as $30 per copy. Meaning that if a publisher wanted to make one million extra copies then they would have to pay through the nose for it and regardless of whether it sold or not.

Today, the cost of making one million extra digital copies is literally zero. Yet, people are acting like the cost to the publisher is the same.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Cant remember I paid full price for a full budget game by myself.

Even if someone is itching for a game on day one, it cant be that hard to find a trustworthy friend or fam member to do home sharing and you agree to split the costs.
 
I haven't bought a single game at that price. All it takes is to wait a few weeks and get a physical copy for cheaper. If you wait a couple months, you could get it for much less as they drop prices quite quickly.
 
Cant remember I paid full price for a full budget game by myself.

Even if someone is itching for a game on day one, it cant be that hard to find a trustworthy friend or fam member to do home sharing and you agree to split the costs.
I'm glad I don't know some of you in RL. I've known some cheap people and they are some of the absolute worst people to hang around.
 

bitbydeath

Member
At least it was only a $10 increase in the US, unlike the $50-$60 dollar increase we got in Australia.

I’d expect to get a statue included at this new price, instead I’ve just stopped buying games at release.

It’s no longer worth it.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Wait until the OP finds out what a $90 N64 game in 1998 would cost now.
..And not that many bought them (at least here in my country where the exchange rate made it even worse).

The infamous reason for those prices btw was cartridges and very expensive logistics chains and middle men compared to today. Together with a massive increase in users and low piracy impact, plus gaas plus mts and dlcs the gaming industry is making more money than ever before.
 
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Raising the shield against $70 games is laughably pointless in the face of people dumping hundreds to thousands into GaaS titles. You might not, but clearly enough people are and more importanly will continue to do so.
 
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