The Industry’s Rush to $80 Video Games Has Stalled — For Now
The Industry’s Rush to $80 Video Games Has Stalled — For Now
www.bloomberg.com
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
7 comments
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In 2004 $50 was the going rate for a AAA game. When you plug that into an inflation calculator, it comes to about $80.
However, today's AAA games do not hold up against AAA games of 20 years ago. That graphics might be better but that is about it.
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Also keep in mind all the cost of the disc (or for some Nintendo products, cost of the cartridge), printing the manual, box art, and all other physical products required to deliver the game, all that cost used to cut into the game cost. Nowadays publishers mostly sell digital for the exact same price, meaning all of that cost is converted into pure profit.
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Not if I have anything to say about it. I'm putting a cap at $59.99 for must have AAA titles with tons of replay value. I will wait until they meet me there. Most games don't meet that standard for me, so most I will be waiting much longer.
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7 comments
Publishers really are stupid. They don't get it Gamers want to give you our money. We want to open our wallet and shower publishers with money. But we want to do that for gaming experiences that at a minimum equal and surpass gaming experiences we used to get 15 years ago.
Games nowadays do not feel even equivalent to games we used to play. So we aren't giving you our money. Honestly, if there was a game that was $80, but it was so groundbreaking it was like Halo CE, or Halo 2, or Super Mario 64, or anything like that, then people would pay it.
No games now have the same impact. Therefore, they are not worth such a high cost.
That’s just rose tinted glasses, there are loads of unique games that are leaps and bounds above Mario 64 or Halo, even from AAA studios. Off top of my head (so probably skewed toward recent releases): Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Tears of the Kingdom, Unicorn Overlord, Helldivers 2, Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Elden Ring, Returnal, Half Life: Alyx. Saying there are no impactful games is disrespectful to amazing work that’s still being done. They don’t have as much of a visible impact because new generation of gamers chose to play Fortnite and Genshin Impact instead.