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[Punished Miku]

Just a reminder that the new Prince of Persia is one of the best games of the year and brought the price DOWN.

You guys are clueless and mostly ignored the game.

 

[aclar00]

Naw, cutting cost is a better strategy. Becareful what tou wish for though, they may instead subsidize thebcause by in game commercials...just just product placement.

 

[Schmendrick]

Game prices have already increased...not necessarily the base price, even though that was raised by 10$ this gen, no I´m talking about more and more content being hidden behind paywalls.

 

[existensmaximum]

It would make sense to have a bigger variation in game prices for sure.

 

[schaft0620]

I spend ~$8,000/year on gaming.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

We already do. Consoles have never been more expensive, and games are now $70 base price, Nintendo is even adopting that as they head into the next console.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

I spent $1600 on my 4090 GPU.

Naw, I think I'm paying more than enough

 

[Little Chicken]

Subscription for games is a cancer. People who subscribe and don't buy games are helping destroy the industry. MS create gamepass to turn around industry but instead they are conducting videogames to a big crash.

Would love to see proof of this much parroted claim on NeoGaf. Even just saw a tweet by Mat Piscatella calling subs additive (rather) than cannibalistic. Who to believe

 

[Tajaz2426]

I cannot believe I’m hearing someone say let’s give a rich company more money on top of the base game, microtransactions, battlepasses, DLC, etc.

Am I even in the real world anymore?

 

[JohnnyFootball]

We already do. Consoles have never been more expensive, and games are now $70 base price, Nintendo is even adopting that as they head into the next console.

Yes they have. Go and look up what a NeoGeo and Turbo GrafX 16 cost in the late 80s....and then account for inflation.

Also, go and look at the prices of N64 cartriges from the the 90s.

 

[Saber]

This smells like "blaming the consumer".

Sorry but a big fucking nope. Everything is already excessive expansive in my country, not my fault if people live in a bubble where they pretend other countries doesn't exist. Only a fool thinks companies wouldn't be willing to lay off people despite good earnings.

 

[Senua]

No stream deal or gamepass no buy!

Imagine being against being a smart consumer. Consoooooooom

 

[RoboFu]

Ooorrr. Developers should stop chasing interactive photorealistic movies and just make games. Most people in the world don't care about bleeding edge graphics and feature length cutscenes.

 

[lifa-cobex]

I pay according to the value of the product.

Skull and bones £50------No.
A game that is less than it's 11 year old predecessor.

Helldivers £35-------Yes.
Original, fun and challenging. I will support future DLC so long as quality is up to spec.




Gaming company's have set their own bar in terms of expense.
They did it to themselves. You don't need this over the top, BAFTA winning story with insane graphics.

Helldivers, Vampire survivors, Pal world, Stardew Valley, This war of mine, etc etc have all proven this.

Don't be a simp OP

 

[FeralEcho]

You can't be serious with this shit...

This industry is making record profits.
Now they are laying off thousands of devs and somehow it's the consumers fault for not buying shit to make them profitable to sustain the thousands of employees necessary to make gaas games made specifically to nickle and dime the consumers or the 100+ hour open world garbage filled with filler to extend the life of the game artificially.

Maybe don't make 100 hour games that take 10 years to develop in the first place so your game doesnt need 30 million copies sold just to break even or build gaas games that make or break a development team and force them to keep developing content for it for countless years even if the game is a failure.

 

[LRKD]

 

[Chastten]

While I'm not against a pricehike if necessary, I'd rather the industry would look for different solutions to get healthy again.

The ratrace for photorealistic graphics shouldve ended years ago as it's not a viable business model. Spider-Man 2 sold a gazzilion copies and barely broke even. That's not healthy. Higher prices won't fix that issue as more people would just wait for a sale instead of buying it at €90.

I'd prefer if more studio's followed the Nintendo/KoeiTecmo route. Both release some of my favorite games and usually are already profitable at a couple of hundred of thousands sales.

 

[R3TRODYCE]

Nay

 

[Fermbiz]

Let me know when its on sale

 

[Sanepar]

Would love to see proof of this much parroted claim on NeoGaf. Even just saw a tweet by Mat Piscatella calling subs additive (rather) than cannibalistic. Who to believe

You can see sales number fox Xbox games everywhere.

 

[nush]

Buying day one is for suckers. I'll only pay £20 or under for 99% of the most popular games because they all hit that price if you wait. A great game suddenly does not become shit if it gets a couple of years old.

 

[Stuart360]

A lot of games are already underperforming as it is, putting prices up would kill some studios.
We gamers are not telling studios and publishers they have to have 300mil budgets.
What is it with this place always caring more about studios and publishers over us gamers and consumers?.

 

[Punished Miku]

Imagine being against being a smart consumer. Consoooooooom

This whole sentiment didn't exist until this gen, from PS5 consumers only. Every single other gen was dominated by a hunting for the best value, the best sale. If anyone is to blame for prolonging this endless diseased budget bloating, it's people that don't care at all about value of price hikes. If we had 2 companies aggressively competing on price, this would never happen. But we don't. We have one competing on price, and one that just raises it over and over while millions cheer it on. Not a coincidence its this same consumer base pushing for the most over budget games in the whole industry to be made, and to stick consumers with the bill by trying to shame them.

 

[Mephisto40]

Development costs will go down in the future with the heavy introduction of AI in development, at least it should

So I don't think now is really the right time to be putting prices for the consumer up

 

[Jesb]

Lmao it’s already 90 for a new game here. I already don’t even buy day one anymore.

 

[Tajaz2426]

Would love to see proof of this much parroted claim on NeoGaf. Even just saw a tweet by Mat Piscatella calling subs additive (rather) than cannibalistic. Who to believe

You have, Microsoft said it themselves in court. Not only did they say it would cannibalize games, they also said they were worried about putting activison games on gamepass because it could severely hinder sales.

I think they would know considering they actually have gamepass. I’ll take their word for it in court over some dude in a suit looking at a spreadsheet.

 

[dorkimoe]

Just when you thought the takes couldn’t get any worse.

How about stop hiring celebrities to do voice work, nobody cares just use cheaper people. Stop making massive scale games, small is ok.

Manage your costs better and fire all management

 

[ToadMan]

Fuck no. Every company can die before I consider $120 a game lol. What an absurd strategy.

You're funding rich west coast devs going to knitting clubs lol. Keep your money.

This is why I love Gamepass. I literally would be fine with indies and backlog. It can all die.

With this attitude, gaming of the type we talk about here is not for you.

 

[Banjo64]

Dumbest take ever.

From a first party perspective Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo now make hundreds of millions per year for simply allowing their players access to play online. They also now make 30% from all digital transactions on their store.

From a third party perspective in game monetisation is now rampant amongst the biggest players with the biggest costs associated to game development. EA, Take Two, Ubisoft - creaming it for digital items.

The answer is not more cost to the consumer. Studios aren’t budgeting appropriately, are focussing on areas in games that don’t matter and can’t produce games within reasonable timeframes. So they can suck it up and fuck off.

Nintendo and From are all the evidence you need that you can be highly profitable and churn out banger after banger. End of.

 

[MikeM]

Helldivers 2 is the first game in years that makes me feel like I stole it. I’m planning on buying the premium version. I HAVE NEVER DONE THAT.

Money comes to those who make good games. Make the game first, then sure increase the price of admission. It just has to be worth it and put the gamer first, not shareholders.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Just a reminder that the new Prince of Persia is one of the best games of the year and brought the price DOWN.

You guys are clueless and mostly ignored the game.

Shit, I missed that.

Where's the steam link so I can purchase?

 

[AJUMP23]

The market if it is free normally dictates the price that can be tolerated by the customers. They have data showing what people will pay and that is why they do the things they do.

 

[Punished Miku]

With this attitude, gaming of the type we talk about here is not for you.

The price hikes are shrinking the industry already lol. Wow, that was fast.

Shit, I missed that.

Where's the steam link so I can purchase?

Steam lol? I definitely do recommend the game.

 

[balls of snow]

I did my part buying AA and indies at full price and lots of day 1 AAA game that peaked my interest.
Looking at Supermassive games in particular, I have no regrets and my conscience is clear after supporting the Dark Pictures games. Whatever happens is beyond my control and im ok with that.

 

[Alebrije]

Videogaming as hobby is expensive, no way will pay 100 for a Game. Specially for something that once the servers are down won't work.

Prices are fine now, problem is over supply , we have more games aviable than time and money. Tons of developers will dessapear next years.

 

[IDKFA]

Oh my God! You're right, OP!

GTAVI is going to give me hundreds of hours of entertainment. I really hope Take-Two charge me £150 for that game. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep at night knowing I only paid £70

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Basically, seeing all these layoffs and hearing part of the reason is the risk and small margins...well, there's one simple solution: games need to cost more.

Over here in New Zealand, we currently pay $90-$120.00 or thereabouts a game, games have nearly always cost this much...going way, way back to at least the 90s. I don't really understand why video games are immune to going up in price (apart from the recent $10 USD bump), I mean...if it meant less lay offs, a healthier industry and people still wanting to work in the industry, surely us taking a $20-$30 bump on the chin is worth it?

I probably am not the median gamer in terms of earnings and such, but even when I was a broke Uni student in the late 90s & early 2000s, games were still $90-$120.00 a game here - and I paid it and was happy....that's like $200.00 now adjusted for inflation lol, so yeah, why do many feel SO strongly against games increasing in cost?

I've gotten $200 of value from Hell Divers 2 already, $500 of value from Cyberpunk etc etc - it just feels like it's a crazy good deal, but are we hurting our own industry by not being open to a price hike?

$80-90 USD a game, I'd go there - if it means the industry keeps on smashing it (that's mean $150.00 NZD for sure, painful, but worth it).

Immortals of Avenum tried to charge $70 for their game, now the studio's bankrupt. People aren't willing to accept that as the standard price for all types of games. Even Prince of Persia had a tough time at $50.

 

[ToadMan]

Not when most publishers can report profits.

Followed by

And I'm sorry but the general quality of games has gone down.

It seems you have identified the problem. Yes they make money... by reducing the quality of games.

Ill happily pay more for better. You won't. Fine by me.

 

[cormack12]

Not every game is worth £70. They need to adopt a fairer pricing model.

Top tier games are fine in that bracket. Games like destruction all stars never will be.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Yes they have. Go and look up what a NeoGeo and Turbo GrafX 16 cost in the late 80s....and then account for inflation.

Also, go and look at the prices of N64 cartriges from the the 90s.

Or SNES games from even before that. Makes me think a lot of folks in here are young. I paid $75 for Super Street Fighter II on the SNES at 13-years-old in 1994.

 

[mayham2199]

Hell no. We are already paying More. Subs, dlc, season passes, microtransctions ... Etc!!

$60 o $70 is just an entry fee

That's kind of situational. DLC, Season passes, and microtransactions have almost never got my money. I actually stopped paying for DLC packaged games because I never do it. I'll play the base game and just move on. I'd rather pay $5-10 dollars less and just get the base game. Season passes and microtransactions I can't even remember the last time I did either of these.

I paid $60 for Elden Ring and played it for 99 hours. If that's an entry fee that's one hell of deal I just got. Last time I went to the movies with my wife and ate dinner I paid over $100 easily. That was 3 hours of entertainment. I think game prices need to go up and I can see them doing it next gen.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Yes they have. Go and look up what a NeoGeo and Turbo GrafX 16 cost in the late 80s....and then account for inflation.

Also, go and look at the prices of N64 cartriges from the the 90s.

Your dollar went a lot further back then though. That's a big difference.

 

[Stuart360]

Are people forgetting that unfortunately these publishers make a killing from all the mtx infested in modern games?.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Its time America pays more. The rest of us already pay 100 for a game. They'll live.

Yup.

$95 CDN + 13% tax in Ontario is closing in on $110.

And that’s despite the avg US and Canadian getting paid about the same average wages per year of around $55,000 or whatever it is.

Al lot of stuff in the US is dirt cheap. And state tax in most places is roughly only around 7% if you skim all the states and try to average it out.

 

[Generic]

Games should cost less.

 

[nikos]

Gaming is an incredibly cheap form of entertainment compared to most other things. A full priced game costs the same as a dinner, a few drinks, a movie for two, a couple of hours of bowling, etc., at least in my area. My point is, a night out is going to cost more than full priced game.

Even with a top end PC setup it's still a cheap hobby compared to many others, especially when you consider the amount of time good hardware can be relevant for.

There's no sense in arguing this though. Most "gamers" don't seem to get it because they don't do much else. They have don't have enough experience to make a comparison.

 

[M1chl]

Yeah you pay more for a game, that extra cash is far more likely to go to marketing than the actual product...

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

sensibly yes, everything gets more expensive, literally everything, even basic necessities increase in price every year, but somehow videogames have been priced the same for like 30 years lol.
I believe it's also exactly because of this people are unwilling to pay more, they've been accustomed to what the price has been, unlike every other product or service that just increases slightly every year.

 

[Tsaki]

Publishers can up the price of their games however much they want (+20% or +30%), I'll still buy them on deals that I'm comfortable with. It doesn't help their case that they have some nice Backward Compatibility with software more than a decade old. You can find many masterpieces at -80% deals every month or used physical games for $10.
I'm not paying more so that some game "dev" can keep their job, especially considering their average political leanings.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I think you're insane "requesting" to pay more. What a hard life you have to not pay enough, have you considered moving to the "third world" ? Your wishes will come true.

More seriously, problem is not games prices but ridiculous development costs from studios, the more you give, the more they take. It's a never ending game, ironically.