Thoughts on the rise of prices?

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

I don't take side in this topic, I'm only aware of facts. Since my personal opinion doesn't matter in this context of the topic all I can write is what I think is objective:

1) Video games are a luxury item. Technically they can ask any price for them and it will sell because technically again in the context of the whole world video game audience are people who can easily afford video games even if the base price is $200.

Market precedent matters a lot for these type of things. If people have been accustomed to pay 60 dollars for a video game and you price a new game at 70 or 80, it better be a damn good one or it will get backlash.

2) Oddly the price of video games wasn't increased before. As time pass value of the money decreases therefore people raises the amount of money they ask. Once you could buy a home for $20, now you can hardly afford a hefty grocery shopping with that amount of money anymore because value of the money changed a lot. The price increase is very realistic.

3) However the price increase only impacts the generation of people who got used to pre-ordering games for $60. New generation of people will think the new prices as normal because this is what they will get used to.

4) The price of video games doesn't have any negative change for discounts at all. Discounts only depend on the greedy practices of video game companies. Certain video game companies prefer to lock the prices of their video games to $60 for decades and seldom allow more than %33 discount. In that case this is a problem of the video game company to consider by making potential customers push away and forget about the game.

5) However our world doesn't work by logic because people are not just logical life forms. They are also emotional. Because of their emotions current trends and how they live their life changes. The current social climate of the world is very rebellious and politically driven. Meaning price increase will have a negative backlash for a long time making video game companies have to prepare for a potential future where they cannot profit a lot as they used to because people will choose to stop pre-ordering, wait for huge discounts and politically decide not to buy every video games of certain video game companies. People can easily ignore whole existence of the whole video game company and their games anymore because there are tons of alternatives.

Eh, blaming the customer emotions for not getting on board for price increases sounds like someone's privilege talking. If someone has to choose between groceries and a 20 dollar video game or a 70 dollar game, they are picking the 20 dollar one.

Now for my personal opinion:

That high price raises an expectation, rather a sense of entitlement to expect way better games that has "the whole universe in them" but for a decade video game quality dropped to new lows even technically. People won't think it's acceptable for video games being sold that high but have even a tiny bit of bug in them. No, sir. My way or the highway. If you release the new GTA video game for such a high price then you better put all the cities GTA universe has to offer or just backrupt like I care. After playing GTA San Andreas playing the rest of the newer GTA games feels like driving a donkey after you enjoyed the sense of Ferrari lol. I basically don't really have any interest in new video games for years therefore I can just wait for a huge discount if I wanna buy a game. The price increase really doesn't bother me or have any change in my life. If a video game is really good it wouldn't be a problem for me to pay $200 on it.

This is very true.

I also think messing with customers after such a high price causes another risk for video game companies. If your audience is rich and you mess with them, then they have enough money to ruin your life. Putting bombs on Tesla just to attempt to destroy video game companies' buildings is not a realistic future for me lol.

So video game companies raised the stakes therefore they are responsible for a new era of video game industry and customer reaction they never saw before. Complaint of people will be beyond negative reviews on Steam. After paying $100 and feeling like a scammed can be enough reason to start killing some CEOs lol.

There is already a trend to make fun of Ubisoft in social media, way more than EA games ever faced. Considering what kind of new generation kids we having in this BS world I expect kids to bomb video game company's buildings just to increase their Tiktok viewers ayy lmao.

That already happens. A lot of people overreact over everything and now they have a platform and a way to monetize their outrage.

 

[Sleepstate]

I have a massive backlog to chew through, and will probably focus more on that then new games moving forward. I also have... other means of getting games that I'll likely use more now too.

honestly the best thing a gamer can do right now unless the companies don't want to turn a profit if enough people don't buy prices will have to lower to encourage sales maybe idk I'm to naive

 

[Retro Doomer]

Sleepstate well unless the start to print Money they will run out of Money eventually.So they have to please to customers sooner or later unless they want to lose all there Money Sony/Nintendo/Mircosoft are not the first Companies to go bankrupt and they won't be the last unless they start to get there acts together.Sony and Nintendo used to be great back in the day and they should return to there roots.​

 

[fake-kun]

inb4 this thread turns political.

 

[gokusmacksmyds]

in4 this thread turns political.

sorry buy video games cost $10 more so the world is basically cooked and we need to destroy everything, dunno what to tell you

 

[Retro Doomer]

in4 this thread turns political.

Did I miss anything how is this Political well given it can turn Political but I at least try to keep it narrowed it down to the Companies with out talking about the broader politics of them all.And to be honest its not even necessary as the whole drive those Companies have is greed whatever policy they try to use as a scapegoat is just that a scapegoat they just want to make money and lots of it.

 

[fake-kun]

Did I miss anything how is this Political well given it can turn Political but I at least try to keep it narrowed it down to the Companies with out talking about the broader politics of them all.And to be honest its not even necessary as the whole drive those Companies have is greed whatever policy they try to use as a scapegoat is just that a scapegoat they just want to make money and lots of it.

This thread is about rising video game prices. This is related to economics, which is closely related to politics.

 

[Retro Doomer]

This thread is about rising video game prices. This is related to economics, which is closely related to politics.

In most cases, I would agree that politics can play a role, but even if we had the best financial system and a strong economy, gaming companies would still find reasons to raise prices. I don't believe it's necessary to bring politics into the discussion about their pricing decisions. In my opinion, many of these companies are simply greedy. They often use politics as a scapegoat to justify their price increases, but I think they have wanted to raise prices for a long time and just waited for the right opportunity and excuse to do so.

 

[Naltic]

This thread is about rising video game prices. This is related to economics, which is closely related to politics.

Well, everything nowadays is political, can't go a day without hearing something about some political leader doing this or that.

 

[Kamako]

Why do no political candidates ever promise to keep game prices from rising huh? Scared to stand on bidnis I tells ya

 

[Retro Doomer]

Well, everything nowadays is political, can't go a day without hearing something about some political leader doing this or that.

It's a bit annoying when everything becomes about politics. I wish they would keep politics out of the video game world, as video games should be a retreat from reality—not a constant reminder or lecture us.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 8:52 PM

Why do no political candidates ever promise to keep game prices from rising huh? Scared to stand on bidnis I tells ya

Well, at least they're honest about that, which is a rarity. I mean, they can promise many things, but actually keeping those promises is another matter. And quite frankly, gamers are a minority—most people just don't care enough about video games, especially not that retirement home called the government.

 

[Esidemoken]

It has been years that it is impossible for me to justify the price of games at 60 usd and now that they are reaching 90 even less.
For me no base game should cost more than 40 usd, no matter how AAA it is.

 

[ThePeon]

Well if blowing 80 euro on a game still does not mean I own it. Pirating the Frack out of it is still not steeling.

The only thing higer game price will mean is more pirates which = less sales which = they need to make it even more expensive until not a single person buys and they go under.

So if they wanna make games more expensive than the 80-120+ we already paying for a game + DLC. Well let them. Maybe Nintendo doing this means they will soon die and we can have 120+ 4k Zelda on PC with mod support.

At least I can pray Nintendo the fracking pricks they are joins Sega.

 

[Elwiwi]

What do I think about the prices of games ? Well I ask another question.
What do you think about cutting your leg off ?
The answer for both questions is " HELLLLL NOOOOOOO"

 

[throughdarkness]

It's fair for anyone that creates anything to charge any price they wish. The problem then is pricing it in such a way that people will pay. But I think there are a lot of overlapping themes at play here that explain why it's happening

I grew up in the 80's & 90's and I'll preface this by saying, we regularly saw games go for $75 to $90 back then as well. Back then though, people didn't buy 100's of games. A typical family would get a few a year maybe and play the hell out of them.

Today it's a totally different landscape. People are inundated with entertainment. 100's of games are released every day. Monetization of gaming addiction has reached a point where companies are charging $59.99 for a base game (usually tiered into several editions for $10 or $20 more), then charging upwards of $40 for a skin, of which there are hundreds. And people pay it. A general state of mind for most companies today is that if they are not growing, they are stagnating, and that stagnation is death.

We're in an interesting situation where mental health issues are widespread and the basic ability to keep attention is at an all-time low. People pay real money for digital items faster and faster because they need the hit more and more. Developers have taken queue from food scientists and marketing specialists as a way to leverage against that weakness in people. Their design, sounds, UI, characters, color palettes, and everything else, is made to elicit engagement (addiction) from their audience.

In their defense, the cost of developing a high quality AAA title has gone through the roof. One failure can destroy a company. To top that off, the majority of high profile developers have moved to a games as a service model. It's basically necessary to sustain the high costs and continual employment of their staff.

I am trying not to pick a side here, it's really just a reality we live in at the moment. We also live in a time where it's very cost effective for an indie creative to get their idea out there with little risk. We've seen some incredible work come out of that scene. Then there are the exceptional teams of people that create incredible accomplishments, like Baldur's Gate 3, without monetization or even excessive prices, and to huge success. But requires massive herd appeal.

TLDR; I think we will definitely see costs continue to increase and morally ambiguous monetization attached to that get even worse. I don't think there is a ceiling either. There is a market for very expensive games (Ever heard of ExA-Arcadia?) And that is fair, despite how much I may not like it. As long as it is lucrative for them, it will continue. Speaking for myself, the increased prices are probably good for me. It forces me to be more disciplined about what I spend my time and money on anyways.

 

[valosagutas]

Why do no political candidates ever promise to keep game prices from rising huh? Scared to stand on bidnis I tells ya

Are you proposing a new political party called "Gamer Party" that aims to fix gamers' lives in this society? That is a wicked idea!!! I demand that Steam allow anyone to add only one any video game they want into their libraries for free per month no questions asked. After all video games are one of the basic needs of Homo Ludens! We are vulnerable minorities just trying to exist!!! #MakeVideoGameIndustryGreatAgain!!! Our motto: Either MVGIGA or GTFO ayy lmao. I hereby declare today to be Homo Ludens' awareness and visibility day so let's stand in various places in wherever we live so people can see us like this lol:

 

[Tortuga]

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

It's a bit annoying when everything becomes about politics. I wish they would keep politics out of the video game world, as video games should be a retreat from reality—not a constant reminder or lecture us.

Everything can be political. Including video games. We may wish to escape it, but it is ever present in almost every aspect of our lives.

 

[WesternYokai]

It’s making not wanna spend money on games again, frankly. Just spend time playing what I already have, which is plentiful.

This.

And games may drop in price eventually or are available in some way or another. I had my ideals about collection but not anymore.

 

[χKai]

As far as I can tell, emulating has always been free.

 

[Clippy]

The market will regulate itself I feel. Everything is getting expensive and wages aren't even trying to keep up. The price hike will either alienate too many people to be worth it and we'll see a return to $60 baseline or it will turn out that enough folks will be able to take it on the chin and we'll have a new baseline. Doesn't really matter to me much since I don't buy games at full price. My backlog is too big and my wallet too empty for that.

 

[Cardboardtubeknight]

Why do no political candidates ever promise to keep game prices from rising huh? Scared to stand on bidnis I tells ya

I don't know if a candidate promising that is something I would hear positively or not

 

[Dakarus]

I don't care really, I got a good paying job and don't buy new games very often these days

 

[IyoTheHelpfulWolf]

Everything can be political. Including video games. We may wish to escape it, but it is ever present in almost every aspect of our lives.

True, but there's a time and place to tackle it, and there's a time and place to take a breather. Games like Cyberpunk 2077 or the Metal Gear Solid games are expected to feature political and social issues in some capacity. Then there are games like GTA that base their satire on real world issues, even if the depiction in game is a cartoonish exaggeration. At that point you pretty much asked for it.

Then there are games where there are themes applicable to the real world, but they are heavily adapted to the game world. Elden Ring features a powerful old establishment bickering amongst themselves while emerging entities, such as the player, seek to take over the remains and rebuild. This is a thing that happens in real life as empires rise and fall, but the situation in the video game's world should make sense in that world. A canonical in game protest featuring real world flags or close knocks offs, for example, would be really fucking jarring and immersion breaking.

If one were to purposefully include political or deep philisophical statements in something lighthearted and silly like Mario Kart or Animal Crossing, it would be detrimental to the tone of a game clearly meant for joy and escapism, even for those who wholeheartedly agree with the message conveyed.

 

[χKai]

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My god, if only
I  love Japanese text-based adventure games