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

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.
Yeah, $70 is a great deal for a high-quality AAA titles. But only if that gives you the full game and never attempts to squeeze more money out of you.

Hell, I'd be fine with $80 or $90 if it meant the end of DLC, paid xp boosters, content spread out months or years after release, etc.

Some games give us the full experience at $60 or $70. But way too often, that's just the entry fee and the game is set up to ask for more and more, if you want the "true experience".

There's way too much crying about fair and upfront purchase prices and way too little concern for hidden costs, nickel and dimeing or having to settle for a lesser experience.
 

GreatnessRD

Member
God bless you, OP.

These $70 prices are garbage especially when gaming has never been more popular as it is now and the exposure it has. With that said, there is the argument that you can just not buy the games at $70 and wait for a sale. That's the approach I personally take. These Publishers and Devs are out they fucking mind thinking I'd pay full price for the garbage they release these days. OUT THEY FUCKIN' MIND, SON!
 
All those $70 games will eventually be $60 and then $50 and then $35 and then $19.99 in holiday sales.

It's called a pricing curve, and the whole point is that you buy in at whatever price you feel you can stomach.

The only issue I see is with gamers not voting with their wallets and instead insisting they MUST but every game they want day one, because of FOMO.

We're three years deep in the gen and I already have more games in my backlog than I can reasonably beat for the rest of the gen. So if many gamers are like me and have already built up a sizeable backlog, then just draw down on your backlog until the newer games come down in price (or get added to GamePass/PSN+).
 

Pimpbaa

Member
If you buy a $100 PSN gift card where I live in Canada, you can’t buy one of the higher priced new games because the price of the game plus tax puts you over $100. When games where 80 bucks here it was no problem. Thankfully games do go on sale quickly enough if you are patient. Still though, it’s pretty inexcusable.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
And also remember $70 supporters, that full priced game you bought is a digital transfer costing probably a nickel to transmit from their e-store servers. Even if you buy a BR disc, that game box with disc is probably $2 of costs.

At least with games costing $60-70 during the 16-bit and N64 days, the cartridge itself cost a lot. Something like $20-30. So to make money, they had to sell them for a high price to stores, who also jacked it up more so they could make money too. And if there was a wholesaler involved, there's another $5 costs added to the value chain.

Now platform holders hoard the entire amount of sales, where they get a 30% cut of every third party sale (even DLC). And the game company gets 70%.

Even if you dont believe or care for value chain profits, just remember the big companies have never been more profitable. And thats due to a combination or mtx, cutting out stores, and virtually zero manufacturing/inventory costs since digital sales are like 75%.

Dont fall for the shit like "Hey gamers, development costs are so high, we're going broke here with our 300 person studios". The big companies are all getting big profits. Notice how they never tell you that on Twitter. Only time you hear about it is quarterly reports, which you'll miss unless you keep up with Wall St news or a forum user posts their financials.

Used game sales have dried up too. Digital killed it. So people wanting to play a game will just buy it themselves. That's more sales, which the old theory of "used games kill studios" is now dead.
 
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I don’t really care how much games cost to make, that’s not my problem - I only care about what they’re worth, and $70 as a norm is ridiculous. Anything north of $50 and I’m waiting for a sale/subscription.

Don’t games sell a fuckton more now (if they’re any good) than they used to? And there’s money for timed exclusives, marketing rights (whatever the fuck that means) subscription deals and digital distribution… So I don’t buy the inflation argument - it’s not a like for like market…

All you turkeys need to stop voting to save Christmas/Thanksgiving (delete as appropriate). A fool and their money, etc…

Edit, streetsofbeige stealing my thunder a bit there! Well said.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I don’t really care how much games cost to make, that’s not my problem - I only care about what they’re worth, and $70 as a norm is ridiculous. Anything north of $50 and I’m waiting for a sale/subscription.

Don’t games sell a fuckton more now (if they’re any good) than they used to? And there’s money for timed exclusives, marketing rights (whatever the fuck that means) subscription deals and digital distribution… So I don’t buy the inflation argument - it’s not a like for like market…

All you turkeys need to stop voting to save Christmas/Thanksgiving (delete as appropriate). A fool and their money, etc…
Yup.

If you look at game unit sales during the PS1-PS2 era (all consoles in it) someone poasted some sales charts of each console's best sellers a week or so ago. Aside from some top sellers being 5M or so, most of the rest of the best sellers sold maybe 2-3M. That's it. Frogger (believe it or not) on PS1 was one of the better sellers at 3M.

Now, even shit games will end up selling millions of copies, with the heavy hitters doing 10M, and the top dogs doing 20M. And back then there was zero mtx which boosts profits even more for modern games.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
You come across as hurt and upset by how another person spends their own money.
maybe i'm upset because you told me to seek help after telling you to demand better from the corporations you buy your games from. what kind of fuckin response is that?! I'm saying you should demand better because you deserve it, you clearly support these studios very much judging by how passionate you are for 'quality' games, you tell me to get help. You're an asshole.
 

Rippa

Member
PP3VNFq.gif


OP never experienced SNES games at $80.00
 

Hoddi

Member
And also remember $70 supporters, that full priced game you bought is a digital transfer costing probably a nickel to transmit from their e-store servers. Even if you buy a BR disc, that game box with disc is probably $2 of costs.

At least with games costing $60-70 during the 16-bit and N64 days, the cartridge itself cost a lot. Something like $20-30. So to make money, they had to sell them for a high price to stores, who also jacked it up more so they could make money too. And if there was a wholesaler involved, there's another $5 costs added to the value chain.

Now platform holders hoard the entire amount of sales, where they get a 30% cut of every third party sale (even DLC). And the game company gets 70%.

Even if you dont believe or care for value chain profits, just remember the big companies have never been more profitable. And thats due to a combination or mtx, cutting out stores, and virtually zero manufacturing/inventory costs since digital sales are like 75%.

Dont fall for the shit like "Hey gamers, development costs are so high, we're going broke here with our 300 person studios". The big companies are all getting big profits. Notice how they never tell you that on Twitter. Only time you hear about it is quarterly reports, which you'll miss unless you keep up with Wall St news or a forum user posts their financials.

Used game sales have dried up too. Digital killed it. So people wanting to play a game will just buy it themselves. That's more sales, which the old theory of "used games kill studios" is now dead.
Pretending that all games cost $60 in those days is a massive misrepresentation.

The average game costs on PC/Amiga/Atari ST was closer to $20-$30 in those days,. Those games didn't have the insane costs of cartridges and people are only using these numbers to justify their idiotic agendas.
 

Gamerguy84

Member
I used to cheap out on everything, trash bags for example. Pay a few dollars more and you get a higher quality bag that can hold more and not rip.

You can buy a 50 inch Vizio 4K HDR or an LG C1 for quite a bit more and you get a much higher quality.

This is probably true for millions of goods/services

A lot of times you just get what you pay for.
 
anybody is free to price their product for as much money as they want, you can criticize it as much as you want but at the end of the day every user will decide if he/she buys it or not, there are free games that require you to spend more than $1000 to have all the content for example but you are not required to buy everything and there is a market for it, if you belive in free market you have to accept they are free to put whatever price for their product, I am not paying $70 for a TLOU remake but if a game convinces me I will pay whatever they ask for it, that depends on me as a consumer
 

ZehDon

Member
AUD$125.00 is simply too much to ask for most games. That's a statement that'll be true or false to each individual, with some games easily worth that asking price.

It's Sony in particular that has priced me out of their games, while Microsoft is tripping over themselves to give me their games on Game Pass. TLOU1 is a low value proposition in and of itself. It isn't only the third release of a 10 year old game, it's now missing the entire multiplayer component. Then you consider it's releasing next-gen only, yet, looks on par with last-gen titles, and features virtually no gameplay improvements, and AUD$125.00 is simply asinine. I'll wait for the PS5 Slim and then pick up second hand copies on discount, because I simply cannot afford Sony's day one releases.

In a world where MTX, DLC, Season Passes, Battle Passes, XP Boosts, and "convenience fees" ladden full price retail releases, while publishers are posting record profits year after year after year, there is zero justification for AUD$125.00. Arguing in favour of AUD$125.00 is corporate apologetics, and I think less of anyone doing it.
 
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nkarafo

Member
Wait until the OP finds out what a $90 N64 game in 1998 would cost now.
I grew up paying a lot more for Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Snes and N64 games..

OP posted all the dumb reasons. Dumb thread.
You forget how these consoles used expensive to produce cartridge ROMs. Wasn't that always the excuse about console games being too expensive? How much did PC and Amiga games cost then you think? Member the Amiga/PC owners back then complaining about expensive console games? I do, because they were expensive. That's why we all had, like, 10 games max in our collection and not 200+ games in an account where 80% of them are labeled as "backlog".

Additionally, gaming was more niche back then. The player base was much smaller. Member when a game reached 1 million sales and that was considered a success?

And lastly, nowadays they don't even have to print as many physical copies as before since the majority of sales are online, in their digital stores. And even those few physical releases are much more minimal than before, you rarely even get a proper manual.
 

njean777

Member
Gaming is a hobby, it isn’t something that is a necessity to live. If you don’t like the 70$ price then don’t pay, if you do not care, then buy whatever you want for 70$. It isn’t hard. If you do not like the price, then don’t pay. Wait for sales, or don’t play the game.
 
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FalsettoVibe

Gold 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.

Sorry, but this logic doesn't work. If I understand you correctly, your argument somewhat boils down to:
Since games are selling more due to higher install base, prices should not be higher.
Now, I'm not gonna pretend that I know the balance sheets at any of these companies. but I'm sure it runs much deeper than that. I mean......with that logic I could say......
The install base for the United States(as an example) was 287.6 million people in 2002. It is now 332.4 million in 2022, yet EVERYTHING costs more and you get less for your money.
Tons of products have more people purchasing them now vs then. But guess what........Inflation does not care. And videogames don't escape this because we love them. Demand has always been the driver.

You have to take into account that not only have the scopes increased for many of the game we love, but also the salaries have increased for the people who create them(due to inflation). It's not just, "they sell more copies, so they should be good". Like I said, it's deeper than that. Man, I want cheap prices like everyone else but I also understand the reality of things. Best way to send a message is to not buy if you're not happy.
 
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S0ULZB0URNE

Member
You forget how these consoles used expensive to produce cartridge ROMs. Wasn't that always the excuse about console games being too expensive? How much did PC and Amiga games cost then you think? Member the Amiga/PC owners back then complaining about expensive console games? I do, because they were expensive. That's why we all had, like, 10 games max in our collection and not 200+ games in an account where 80% of them are labeled as "backlog".

Additionally, gaming was more niche back then. The player base was much smaller. Member when a game reached 1 million sales and that was considered a success?

And lastly, nowadays they don't even have to print as many physical copies as before since the majority of sales are online, in their digital stores. And even those few physical releases are much more minimal than before, you rarely even get a proper manual.
And you forgot how many years later today is (inflation says hello!!!!) and how much larger todays budgets are.
 
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Chronicle

Member
I'm not sure I understand your argument here. You state you don't want games to cost more money and then give several reasons supporting why games potentially cost more.

Also, I don't think anyone supports higher prices on anything but yet we choose to accept it. Another thing is that just because someone is stating reasons why games cost more and they're okay with it doesn't mean it's what they particularly want but once again accept. They choose to put up these arguments because people get crying about game prices and they're just stating facts (not that they agree).

Lastly, tlou is a ps3 game and should not cost 70 bucks!

For me higher game prices suck hard but I'm more worried about buying meat atm.
 
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Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
If you think $70 for 20+ hours of entertainment is too much then find another hobby. Good riddance.
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
It's OK to be wrong.

If you think $70 for 20+ hours of entertainment is too much then find another hobby. Good riddance.
Or you can find the very same game giving you also 20+ hours of pure entertainment for 9.99€, ie 60€ less expensive.
That's not too much, that’s a waste of money.

But, it's also OK to be wrong and enough rich to throw money, after all, it's your money.
 
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It's OK to be wrong.


That's not too much, that’s a waste of money when you can find the very same game giving you also 20+ hours of entertainment for 9.99€

But, it's also OK to be wrong and enough rich to throw money, after all, it's your money.
Go play that version then, or wait on a sale. Most people in here have said they always wait on sales anyways so I’m confused why they’re so mad at the $70 price to begin with. Also, what am I wrong about? Whether the game is worth $70 or not? How can you say something subjective is wrong?
 
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nkarafo

Member
And you forgot how many years later today is (inflation says hello!!!!) and how much larger todays budgets are.
I just explained how games are now less niche (which means now there's more people buying them) and how they saved money from not having to produce ROMs anymore.

Aren't those enough to cover today's bigger dev budgets?

Also, even thought the actual game dev budgets have increased, that still doesn't stop game publishers earning more profits that they ever did, and their CEOs being richer than ever.

Also, i don't buy development budgets have increased that much for all games. Sure, big games like Cyberpunk or GTA V, that use more assets and take 5+ years to make, could cost more. But i don't know why all "AAA" games need to cost as much as that.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
This thread is one big reason why gaming will never be as fun and interesting as back in the PS2 days. Have fun with your MTX filled NFT games. We got noone but ourselves to blame because while we „gamers“ don‘t want to pay a dime for games the commoners keep sinking money into MTX….
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
how can anyone argue against this....
I mean, I'm literally the "just don't buy it or wait for a sale" type of guy but that phrase alone made me think, and I completely agree though still keeping my mindset... That's probably why I've liked AA way more this gen since they are more focused on what matters to the game
 
So?...do you need validation or something?
Seems like this WHOLE thread is validation for not paying $70 for TLOU I…I feel trolls just need an excuse to hate TLOU and Naughty Dog…nobody had an issue with Demon Souls remake or GTA 5 being released 10646643 times…or $75 dollar Duel Sense controllers but “oh noes TLOU I is T00 MuCh MoNies” I’ve never seen this much pettiness towards a another game or company when they are top tier in technology and have arguably the best looking, playing, animating and sounding game ever made…TLOU II was a milestone in technical achievement and narrative period… “its $10 or $20 more than I want OMG!” Cut it out trolls…
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
I just explained how games are now less niche (which means now there's more people buying them) and how they saved money from not having to produce ROMs anymore.

Aren't those enough to cover today's bigger dev budgets?

Also, even thought the actual game dev budgets have increased, that still doesn't stop game publishers earning more profits that they ever did, and their CEOs being richer than ever.

Also, i don't buy development budgets have increased that much for all games. Sure, big games like Cyberpunk or GTA V, that use more assets and take 5+ years to make, could cost more. But i don't know why all "AAA" games need to cost as much as that.
With all of what you are saying I see it evening out and if anything with 30+ years of inflation... we are paying less these days.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
I've seen plenty of hand wringing over game prices through the years and the best response is "too much? Don't pay!" IMO.

I choose how to spend my money, you can do the same. Nobody needs to buy videogames.

There's no need to examine sales figures, number of staff or hours of entertainment. If it's not worth it, don't buy it.
 
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farmerboy

Member
My sister just bought a $700 Louis Vuitton throw cushion, that I swear is worth $20 real dollars, tops.

Value is subjective. The market will decide.
 

EDMIX

Member
$70 is fine for folks that want to play on day one. Patient gamers can usually get the game for a lower price later on.

As it should be.

Its why I have no issue with $70. Gamers seem to live in this bubble, where reality seems to not exist and its almost as if they are children or something where a character dies in a game and they go on this war path crying over the dumbest fucking shit and to any sane adult, thats a normal night watching some drama on HBO, Netflix, Amazon etc, to a gamer...they have this comic, Saturday morning cartoon mindset where the hero lives, gets the girl, bad guy goes to jail annnnnd alllll is well lol

So I'm not really shocked that they don't fucking get basic economics, where looking around other mediums, their prices have moved along with inflation normally, while gamers had their hands held, training wheels on and treated with kid gloves. We are lucky to have had 15 fucking years with the same price point, (No other industry btw can even claim such a thing.) but it has consequences and it takes a toll.

The rise of DLC and MTX.

We've had expansions before on PC, its a normal concept, but during the generations where that price point stayed the same, what turned into a once in a while thing, become a mandatory concept for those publishers to make a return. That digital content making them that money helped with that low price point which brings me to my next point.

The push for digital.

Publishers looking to combat the used market to make money to fit that difference would start to focus those efforts on digital, so we started to see those day 1 mtx type things, that whole Deus Ex pre-order situation where you start seeing a bunch of digital art books, sound tracts etc as its not enough to JUST buy the base title.

The rise of pay to win or free to play in general.
When the price point remained low, for some publishers it made sense to just give it away for free to gain a massive install base to sell a bunch of mtx to instead of providing value and quality with a full priced purchase...a full price purchase to them is the tip of the iceberg..


The rise of games needing to sell unrealistic numbers to break even.

At such a price point, we started to see games moving 5 million units or so as being in danger of not getting sequels, where when I was a kid, that was a 100% "its getting a sequel" type figure, now to day...a game moving 5 million might still have us question if it made enough or if we'll see a sequel or something like that if its some new IP with not that much of a base. For Square to even say this for Tomb Raider at almost 4 million units sold very much questions if this price point makes sense to continue if THAT is now a "fail" in sales. The fact that Resident Evil 6 damn near almost put Capcom out of business, yet moved massive units....yet not enough is very fucking worrisome (I'm happy they were able to survive all of that btw)

We've see games dead ass move some of the most crazy numbers over the past few gens with this price point. GTA V, any Call Of Duty.

Of the top 25 best selling games of all time...19 of them came out after 2005. We factually, objectively have a figure to show us that gamers had no issue with that price point, to fucking pretend $10 more suddenly is going to kill anyone is laughable. I'd rather the increase and buy the game on sale or used, then keep seeing great titles not get sequels cause they can't sell 6 million units to break even. Something needs to give and its clear games can survive going up in price if they thrived at $60 for 15 years. No indication even remotely suggest that was too much or games failed to sell and no one bought games or something cause it was too expensive. If anything, $70 might even be too cheap if you consider its not even keeping up with inflation, buy hey if we want to continue this season pass, DLC, mtx, free to play and mobile extravaganza.... have at it.

Who knows if we would have even gotten all that shit if the price just keep up to match inflation.
 

GymWolf

Member
It you buy online many times the price is lower.

The other day i saw tlou1 remastemake at 64 euros instead of 80 (so around 55 dollars).

But yeah this nextgen tax when the cunts still produce crossgen games is some supreme bullshit.
 

EDMIX

Member
It you buy online many times the price is lower.

The other day i saw tlou1 remastemake at 64 euros instead of 80 (so around 55 dollars).

But yeah this nextgen tax when the cunts still produce crossgen games is some supreme bullshit.

but the games still cost money to make, those developers are not getting some discount on their bills, gas, groceries etc Thus, to increase those wages to keep games being made, clearly the price of games must too go up.

Think long and hard on this one.....still produce crossgen games and raise the price? You mean make MORE VERSIONS of the game that still cost money to put out each version? Why would that cost them less? I'd argue that would be yet another reason for them to raise the price. We can't just go on 3 decades of the same price point, that is beyond ridiculous and the records broken by many titles argues more then enough gamers have the money to support that increase.

Buy used, buy on sale, buy on a deep discount.

That makes much more sense then pretending the game industry is immune to basic economics.

edit. we haven't even begin to discuss the demand of those next gen features. Ray tracing, more textures, faster load times, better character models, larger more detailed worlds, oh yea but all for the same price? What fucking world are some of you living in where any of that sounds normal for the price to remain the same while all those demands go up?

Thats like saying you want a better Big Mac in terms of quality meat, bigger, you want it delivered my them and FASTER by a McDonalds employee.......oh yea keep the price the same. None of that makes sense. I feel the gaming community seems to live in this bubble where they don't understand this isn't a normal, sustainable thing. Its probably why we even have mtx and dlc even from publishers that used to rarely do this ie Nintendo, Sony
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
Seems like this WHOLE thread is validation for not paying $70 for TLOU I…I feel trolls just need an excuse to hate TLOU and Naughty Dog…nobody had an issue with Demon Souls remake or GTA 5 being released 10646643 times…or $75 dollar Duel Sense controllers but “oh noes TLOU I is T00 MuCh MoNies” I’ve never seen this much pettiness towards a another game or company when they are top tier in technology and have arguably the best looking, playing, animating and sounding game ever made…TLOU II was a milestone in technical achievement and narrative period… “its $10 or $20 more than I want OMG!” Cut it out trolls…

This is such a bad take, and it's super easy to disprove because fortunately this is a forum and threads stick around.




No, no one has ever complained about the 70 dollar price point before, its all just TLOU haters.

*rolls eyes*
 
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Ozzie666

Member
$70 seems insane when digital store prices are the same as brick and mortar. That tells me the storefront owners cut is way to high and almost like price fixing. That's my problem, because $70 game digitally has no trade, resell or collecting value. It can be taken away at anytime when a server goes down. So to me it's important you distinguish between Physical and Digital.

Also I'd argue more and more options are available on PC X86 architecture, more markets and revenue streams than ever. As seen by Sony venturing onto traditional PC. So that is new revenue they are chasing.
 

ANIMAL1975

Member
I mean, I'm literally the "just don't buy it or wait for a sale" type of guy but that phrase alone made me think, and I completely agree though still keeping my mindset... That's probably why I've liked AA way more this gen since they are more focused on what matters to the game
I know a lot of people is going to think that I'm not being serious, and that I'm just playing around with the topic, but i shit iu not _ since RDR2, never again bought a game full price if it doesn't give attention to details like testicles shrinking with the cold.
 
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EDMIX

Member
You must be joking. Gaming is one of the cheapest hobbies around. Do you have any other hobbies you can compare to gaming? I guarantee you they cost more than gaming does.

lol I agree with both.

I feel gaming indeed is cheap for what we are getting relative to other mediums and I do get that other hobbies can factually be cheaper too.
 
I spent on things that are of value to me, not anyone else. I would spent 70 on a Detroit Become Human sequel with all the improvements and bells and whistles I expect of a sequel. I wouldnt spent more than 30 on a jrpg.
 

yazenov

Member
I don't understand this mentality. If its expensive for you then don't buy the game day 1 and wait till they reduce the price. The more you wait, the more the price decreases.

Or you can wait till it comes to the subscription services down the line.
 
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