Opinion: "Console pricing has gone terribly wrong" - Rob Fahey | GamesIndustry.biz

[CaptainToad]

I thought this was a decent article.

Monster Hunter is a hugely mass-market game in Japan (and it's getting there overseas as well, especially thanks to the success of World and now Wilds), and it got there essentially by appealing strongly to teenage players who had aged out of Pokémon and leapt on the PSP versions of the game as something to play co-operatively with their friends.

Around the tail end of the 2000s, the phenomenon of Monster Hunter was unavoidable in Japan; every mall food court in the country had at least one table of teenage boys taking down monsters together on their PSPs.

The game now has a significant adult contingent of players, of course (as does Pokémon, for that matter), but those were its roots – and the affordability and accessibility of the PSP platform in the latter years of its lifecycle were fertile soil in which those roots were planted.

That soil now risks becoming entirely barren.

Console pricing has gone terribly wrong | Opinion

Monster Hunter Wilds is one of the best-selling games of the year – which makes it all the more notable that Capcom pre…

www.gamesindustry.biz

 

[Retro Doomer]

Game and Console pricing has gone trough the roof with some exceptions like the Xbox360 and Ps2 where many games are still affordable with some crazy outliers.
Anyway I blame the Scalpers who buy the games and consoles in mass and jack up the prices to rip us all of.
I also did just find a Videos regarding this

I also like Hidden Gem videos but I also hate them at the same time as I can say shit that price is now gonna shot trough the roof.

 

[Frickinfrik]

And if you buy an expensive console nowadays, everyone will hate you and want to kill you for some stupid ludicrous reason. Just ask this guy. Twitter is such a vile place.

 

[ScriptorFaust]

i wish not every article would start with "prices, compared to back then, are lower" when the cost of living of basically everything has gone up. I know that many are often going to explain this in the next couple of sentences but there are people who stop at that, take to Social Media and trumpet that everybody should shut up, we are the lucky chosen and entitled.

Regardless, I think he points out some very crucial things to consider for consoles in regards to smartphones and past cultivation. I did have a TV in my room, we never owned a PC (bought my own laptop with first job money) and so I was used to playing consoles for many years. This shifted when I got my PC because games were cheaper and nearly everything has a way to be played backwards compatible (and it even runs console games in emulation). Now I would never consider to buy a new console, regardless of exclusive titles. If margins are that thin, chances are extremely high for us to see the game release on PC anyway, which is already happening for games like the third part of FF7R. We still have a SNES and a PS2, which is plenty of opportunity to let my son play old games on these if he doesn't want to play them emulated. If I wouldn't show him these systems, I don't know how and why he would actually get in contact with a new console, which will always have inferior specs to our PCs. I do also own a Steam Deck which works extremely well as both, handheld and portable console, with a SD full of classic games.

The industry might have overlooked facts like aging target audience and games that turn into eco systems on mobile phones and older systems (Fartnite and Roblox). The need to upgrade the system isn't there.

The last bit about BF6 makes me think about the release of BL4 right now. The game seems to be good but offers abyssmal performance, even for people atop the minimum specs. My 4070Super should be easily able to handle it but I'm holding off for now. What bothers me about that game is, to artificially (literally) inflate the minimum specs, DLSS is always a given. But I don't want this crap. I hate input lag, I hate blurriness and motion blur in general. On PC, we can at least adjust many settings but I fear for console players when Sony decides to deflate their prices by putting hardware under the hood that's only able to run certain games with the help of FSR -- and you can't turn it off.

 

[qw90700]

What a rubbish article, and what a rubbish mentality stupid as dishwasher Capcom have. In short Capcom blame their console games can't sell much because console prices are "too much", but in reality it's a luxury item and for luxury items price of luxury items doesn't matter, what matters is if it worth to even buy. They may complain about PS5 and PS Vita and may question why people don't buy them as much as they did buy PS2 and PSP, and the answer is not in their price but in the way they give no reason for lots of people to buy them. PS2 and PSP has amazing library which is why it sold that much, and Switch 1 has interesting library that is most importantly can even attract random woman who never played a game before that is business success moment here, and they didn't question its price at all when they saw an interesting game to buy on it which is what matters.

Another bollocks POV of Capcom is they act like people don't play games on PC, you already sell your games on PC that really works ok even on PCs that is old and not designed for gaming so on paper you have no issue. I imagine people play their beloved Monster Hunter games on Switch too.

However Capcom is stupid for praising Switch 2 just because of price and whatnot alone when it's a rubbish console for a little better than previous gen consoles when next gen consoles almost became "previous gen" already and most importantly people don't wanna risk their console bricked for nothing when Nintendo seem to wanna have an excuse to brick your console just so you can buy another one.

Capcom thinking too backwards about it because they are an old company and they are a company. They don't think like a big company, they think like a grocery shop mentality lol. Meaning, companies have standard way of operating in the context of trying to make subjectivity of society turned into mathematical understanding in the context of human sciences to use past data to predict future. They also use past to comprehend now too which is Business 101 moment. But then Capcom also think about it only in context of cost and profit like a grocery shop lol. Back then video gaming was expensive but most importantly video game console gaming was popular. It was cool to have them and it was only way to play games. Now smartphones dominate lives so much people wanna use smartphones for everything. It makes people spend their money on smartphones instead and they question "why I cannot play my Switch game on my smartphone" and they say "I ain't gonna buy a Switch when I already have a smartphone, it's an unnecessary expense". So key here is now we live in a world that we wanna buy lots of expensive things, and technology is so advanced "it doesn't make sense" to buy a video game console at this point because people are too busy with smartphones.

If Capcom and any other video game company feels like Capcom then they will combine their power to release a Gamer Smartphone (GSP) which would be the new cool shit for kids to flex in school lol. "Oh you still playing Angry Birds? My poor boi, Imma play Resident Evil Requiem on me GSP and you just watch!!!" lolol.

TL;DR: Ancient Capcom mistakenly believe the only issue of PS5 is its price which is why they cry like a baby for console pricing is in their way of gaining more customers to sell more when what matters for consoles for real is it having library people like, which is why PS2 and Switch sold that much for example. Capcom also should give up on consoles, they should invest on PC market further and see necessary future in gaming smartphones.

 

[Dany28]

Monster Hunter Wilds is the best-selling game of the year who would have thought that but on the other hand it doesn't surprise me.

 

[Zeo]

With the price of everything in the clouds is not a surprise that less people want to spend so much money on a console that doesnt have a game list just like the PS2 back then and just go for a PC that not only gives options for use, you can upgrade as time goes

Reason for why we see that games gets more PC versions compared to exclusives (nintendo being paranoid and overprotective with their ips wont let their game outside their own consoles. Something that makes you wonder if they know how much money they could had got...)

Not to mention that smartphones now days can run games and even emulators with almost no problem, something that back then wasnt a thing making them another gamer choice (PC still better, but even a cheap decent smartphone can give you quite the run)

And the final nail, this wont get better, like at all. As time goes, prices will continue to go up

If the game companies decided to make consoles more "easy to get" but fail with the library then whats the point?

A cheap console with no games is the same as an expensive console with no games, just a big paperweight

And let us not start with the prices of the games too. I mean, you must give me one hell of a reason to spend more than 100 punches in the wallet for a game other than "them graphicz of new generation".... that only last 10 hours.....

 

[Retro Doomer]

And if you buy an expensive console nowadays, everyone will hate you and want to kill you for some stupid ludicrous reason. Just ask this guy. Twitter is such a vile place. View attachment 110635

Well I can understand why people get pissed at people who support the shady behavior of nintendo by buying there expensive shit and contributing to the problem we nowadays face.I never would call anyone slurs over it though I think its bad for gaming as a whole to blindly consume and become whales for shitty companies but each there own I guess the uninformed costumer is the favorite costumer of the companies after all but please don't call those people slurs it will help nobody in the end.

 

[qw90700]

Reason for why we see that games gets more PC versions compared to exclusives (nintendo being paranoid and overprotective with their ips wont let their game outside their own consoles. Something that makes you wonder if they know how much money they could had got...)

And Nintendo believe they will lose huge amount of console and game sells due to PC piracy + I don't think Nintendo would wanna hire or rent a developer team who can port their games = Nintendo wouldn't care to release their games on PC at all. They seem to think PC market is unnecessary for them to make money lol. But at least they understood the fact that so many people bought Switch and their games but they played the games on emulators instead because Switch offers low quality when playing on PC is better. Because of it they tried to satisfy PC Master Race gamers with Switch 2 as much as they can lol but they still lost the plot.

Society using a smartphone instead of even a TV and having a PC (a smartphone is a personal computer enough!!!). Smartphone also replaced paper notebooks. People don't even buy physical books when you can read it on a smartphone. What is walkman when I have Spotify here? Smartphone is in our lives in "full way", it replaced so many technologies and even way of living we used back then in our daily lives (people just turn on light of their smartphone instead of turning on the room's light and some shit lol), however its effect mostly present among new generation young adults that even their phones replaced their mother ("Tell me AI what to do if I accidentally drank bleach?" lolol). Imagine their home, there is only 1 mattress and they only have a smartphone!!! This is their way to keep buying "brand" phones, clothes, pizza and whatnot to don't stay behind peer pressure BS they learned in school and brainwashed with. I personally know such a guy that even his car is rented but from outside you would think he is rich (he works in a taco place), he has only 1 mattress at home and he is a "gamer" but he only plays free android games lolol. People even say "they are gamer" these days as if otherwise you are "abnormal". "Gamer hobby" became like "yeah I read books and watch movies" generic response when you ask "what are your hobbies". Nintendon't and Crapcom gotta see that future and realize video game consoles have no future, at most all you can do is gamer smartphone with "smart augmented reality glasses" to integrate a video game console and futuristic tech to a smartphone to evolve video gaming!!!! Naturally when you look at this new generation "smartphone people" it's no rocket science to predict how they will find a way to integrate automation and robots in their lives to carry the human race to new horizon of laziness. "Why go to grocery shops when a robot may buy and bring me my stuff?", "I hate to talk to people so I just want a pizza store that you select a pizza and boom pizza come to me without any human interraction possible" and whatnot shit. When this future knocks on your door existence of video game consoles seems like using birds to send messages lolol.

 

[iamthemilkman]

And if you buy an expensive console nowadays, everyone will hate you and want to kill you for some stupid ludicrous reason. Just ask this guy. Twitter is such a vile place. View attachment 110635

So is Reddit, Bluesky, etc. I saw more celebration of death on those sites over the last week than should be permitted. Anyone celebrating murder or encouraging murder, self-harm, etc., should be instantly banned.

Anyways, yes, console prices, as well as game prices, are too high. Like I've said on this forum before, the PS3 was $250, a $350 price drop since its launch, with a larger hard drive 5 years into its life. Now a PS5 costs more than it did at launch 5 years later.

 

[Zeo]

For that reason i just decided to take my good old PC, wait for when Steam, GoG or Epic gives free games and enjoy my free time playing

Once you are an adult this is your real worry: