Should video games be free

[Taukyrie]

No, but i feel like platforms should require every game to have a free demo of at least an hour or two so people know whether or not its a game they want to spend their money on

This so much tbh.

I think games should definitely be at a reasonable price and that digital versions should cost at MOST half of the physical price.

 

[Bakuma1997]

No, but i feel like platforms should require every game to have a free demo of at least an hour or two so people know whether or not its a game they want to spend their money on

What happened to the era of free Demos? i expected Internet to make them more accesible than a disk, but now i barely find them even on Steam

 

[Clippy]

What happened to the era of free Demos? i expected Internet to make them more accesible than a disk, but now i barely find them even on Steam

Can you imagine what would happen to sales figures if people could see what unfinished, broken mess they're getting BEFORE they have to fork over their money? Boy oh boy that would not end well. I dunno if storefronts other than GOG and Steam offer refunds and Steam's refund policy barely qualifies in my eyes. That would be a lot more lost sales than piracy could ever hope to inflict.

 

[RageBurner]

Can you imagine what would happen to sales figures if people could see what unfinished, broken mess they're getting BEFORE they have to fork over their money? Boy oh boy that would not end well. I dunno if storefronts other than GOG and Steam offer refunds and Steam's refund policy barely qualifies in my eyes. That would be a lot more lost sales than piracy could ever hope to inflict.

You are right, but demos should still be mandated by law if you ask me. Companies are always looking for new ways to make consumer rights null and void. If they can't offer a true vertical slice of the product they are letting us "borrow", they don't deserve the money and should be smitten by heavenly fury.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Can we just go back to retro games being $5 USD or less again?

 

[LightningmanEXE]

Can we just go back to retro games being $5 USD or less again?

that seems reasonable, but I also think that should apply to n64 and psx games at most.
anything older should just be freely distributed.

 

[Bakuma1997]

that seems reasonable, but I also think that should apply to n64 and psx games at most.
anything older should just be freely distributed.

And allowing patching them, come on, wanting to play the Og version doesn't mean i want to drag myself over a relatively obsolete game

 

[GingerBwC]

Biggest problem I can see with the hour(s) length demo is that (and this has happened before, LOOKING AT YOU TODD HOWARD SHARTFIELD) you run the risk of developers being put under Corpo-duress to intentionally implement "game design" that forces you to run over the Steam standard of "2 hours to get your refund" - Although Steam has offered refunds for games after the fact due to varying circumstances. I forget what it was that was fairly recent, but Steam basically was like "Fuck that, we'll let you refund it," but at the same time Steam was like "Lol, game = temporary digital license we can take away at any given time, eat shit."

Which spurred GOG to go "Nah, FUCK YOU. YOU BUY A GAME, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY IT REGARDLESS IF IT'S DELISTED, ETC."

Fucking hate shit-tier, unethical, abhorrently greedy business practices. Shit's unnerving. It's not like the entire world isn't already out to nickel-and-dime me at any and every turn or anything ffs (especially the government)...

 

[Deleted member 401284]

It should at-least lessen in the range of pricing, the video game industry falls underneath corruption akin to the music industry.

 

[GingerBwC]

This so much tbh.

I think games should definitely be at a reasonable price and that digital versions should cost at MOST half of the physical price.

nothing says "Go fuck yourself" like Nintendo charging 40? 50 bucks? for Mario Galaxy on the Switch, only for the shit to eventually be taken away from you cause "muh digital license/we're too lazy to provide a stand-alone program to run the game"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[Noon]

The audience talks about Game devs money the same way children talk about their parents money.

 

[GingerBwC]

The audience or the consumer? One of these things is not like the other.

 

[Noon]

Whichever one a person thinks they currently are is the one I’m referring to.

Post automatically merged: Apr 4, 2025

I was wondering what the price of the original NES in 1985 and looked it up (in CAD pre tax) it’s about $270. The minimum wage at the time was $5-$6, so it would take 54 hours of work (at $5) to buy (pre tax) an original nes in 1985.

In 2020 the basic ps5 disc edition was $680 pre tax, minimum wage (cad) was $15. So it would take 45 hours of work (at $15) to buy (pre tax) the ps5 in 2020.

Does anybody remember the price of like a brand new psx game and the year they bought it? Comparing Prices confuses me, my older brother said he remembers his friend buying $70 games for the psx when they were young.

 

[GingerBwC]

Whichever one a person thinks they currently are is the one I’m referring to.

Post automatically merged: Apr 4, 2025

I was wondering what the price of the original NES in 1985 and looked it up (in CAD pre tax) it’s about $270. The minimum wage at the time was $5-$6, so it would take 54 hours of work (at $5) to buy (pre tax) an original nes in 1985.

In 2020 the basic ps5 disc edition was $680 pre tax, minimum wage (cad) was $15. So it would take 45 hours of work (at $15) to buy (pre tax) the ps5 in 2020.

Does anybody remember the price of like a brand new psx game and the year they bought it? Comparing Prices confuses me, my older brother said he remembers his friend buying $70 games for the psx when they were young.

Gotta take inflation into consideration as well.
The launch price for the N64 was $200 USD.
It launched in 1996.
Money just ain't worth as much as it used to be.

Spoiler

Thanks Keynes, you stupid economic major fuckwit.
Friedman was right.

 

[Yuniheim]

No, it's a product, in order to produce/make something, someone needs to pay for it, it's just like buying bread or your average shampoo.
People need to do something to survive after all, people work to make games, they get paid for it, the company sells and you buy it for entertainment. It keeps balance in the world, it's been like this for many years.

However they should be more accessible, unfortunately this roots to problems involving the corporate world and country politics which happen to be very complicated in many countries. It's a bigger issue.

 

[Noon]

Gotta take inflation into consideration as well.
The launch price for the N64 was $200 USD.
It launched in 1996.
Money just ain't worth as much as it used to be.

Spoiler

Thanks Keynes, you stupid economic major fuckwit.
Friedman was right.

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I love those old dorky ads that’s not the initial price though, it dropped to remain competitive with the psx. I think also $200usd I’m not sure what the exchange rate was for usd-cad at 1996.

inflation is a fact of life for everyone now, game devs shouldn’t have to have deficient prices just cause it looks uncomfortable for us right now. But minimum wage (in Canada) is above $17cad right now, that’s 3.4 times more than $5 ($6 in somplaces) in 1985 when the nes first released, even with inflation it takes less minimum wage work time to buy game consoles.

It’s weird too that like Microsoft office 2024 can be $170 right now, but I feel a lot $90 games have way more programming in them, we right it off cause it’s “just a video game” but it doesn’t change the amount of work it takes to make it, especially when the balance of production values has to be so bleeding edge of tech.

but really that bleeding edge tech and way too much content are 2 things that game devs could really cut back on to make the price better.