Video games to up their prices, consumers rejoice

[Infinitron]

Hot take: Codexers should welcome this news. Why? Because it could mean that the audience for video games isn't expanding as quickly as it used to, so publishers need to compensate by raising prices to make more money from their existing audience. Fewer new gamers entering the hobby means less casualization.

 

[janjetina]

Did the Pirate bay increase their prices?

 

[ScrotumBroth]

The worst console ever. The controller was the stupidest thing I ever saw. Back in high school when I started dating my wife, her younger brother challenged me to matches of Golden Eye and I literally could not manipulate the controller; I, who was the champion of my school's Quake LAN games. (Ironically, this seeming indulgence of the kid perhaps put me in better esteem with the rest of the family, though it led to a deserved lifelong contempt from him.) In short, no. I reared the kids on NES and SNES, the consoles of their parents, but then skipped straight from there to Switch, the Nintendo console of their peers.

Looks like one embarrassing encounter got you pretty jaded. It's by far and large considered the best Nintendo console ever, with Golden Eye paving the way for future PvP shooters. Not to mention the best Mario game and OG cart. Also, emulators work perfectly well with an Xbox controller. But even back in the day, controller was not hard to master, provided you could do it in your own time and not on the spot, like in your case.

 

[racofer]

Did the Pirate bay increase their prices?

They have readjusted prices by 15% this month and I am ok with that.

 

[deuxhero]

 

[Alphard]

i think there is a double reason to up the prices . the most obvious one is to milk whales and fans of the franchise/publisher who who d1 purchase, the second is to increase profit from the tail sells on sales. so people who thinks they will be unaffected because they buy on sale are deluding themselves,because the price cuts will remain percentage based and the discounted price obviously will be increased

 

[Dickie]

If more game devs would live off of roots, game development budgets would be in the 10s of thousands instead of 10s of millions, and the games would be better. This is the only way out of this mess for developers.

 

[DalekFlay]

I really wouldn't mind paying more for a huge AAA production of a game I really loved. The problem for me is, very few games given that kind of budget appeal to me enough to pay that, because they're designed for a more console focused and mainstream taste I don't share. There are exceptions, like say Dishonored 2. I would have paid $70 for that game. However it's extremely rare, and if they shoot for that price with everything it'll just mean I wait for sales on AAA stuff more often than I already do, which is most of the time.

In contrast I often think indie titles are too cheap for the content they offer me.

 

[Alphard]

I really wouldn't mind paying more for a huge AAA production of a game I really loved. The problem for me is, very few games given that kind of budget appeal to me enough to pay that, because they're designed for a more console focused and mainstream taste I don't share. There are exceptions, like say Dishonored 2. I would have paid $70 for that game. However it's extremely rare, and if they shoot for that price with everything it'll just mean I wait for sales on AAA stuff more often than I already do, which is most of the time.

In contrast I often think indie titles are too cheap for the content they offer me.

why the heck would you want to pay more for aaa titles that are already profiting millions. and if indies set a given price it means devs have a return on investement on that game given the expected sales.
do you want gaming to become luxury more than already is with hardware cost and exhorbitant undiscounted price tags of aaa?

 

[turkishronin]

Back in high school when I started dating my wife

i dont understand how did you date your wife in high school??!!

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

i dont understand how did you date your wife in high school??!!

Now now TR, don't be jealous.

 

[Humanophage]

Console/AAA gaming should become a luxury because it hurts the development of good games. PC gaming is not luxurious because 3-10 USD is a reasonable price for a game. Games whose developers failed to name a reasonable formal price are free, so not a luxury either.

Oh, and the real price you pay for gaming are the opportunity costs. With your high intelligence and privileged background as a straight white male, every 10 hours you spend on Underrail, you could be spending on starting a business or working towards an exciting chemical engineering degree!

 

[MRY]

Back in high school when I started dating my wife

i dont understand how did you date your wife in high school??!!

We met in our teens and married in our 20s.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Not buying AAA crap at all and even Codex approved ones at sales, don't know if its age or games going to shite but only game I actually finished lately was ATOM RPG, with less sales at least we can expect the games to be as whole once more so its actually . There are also tons of free mods for old tittles like Rome TW, Medieval II, PC 1, etc... so why to spend shekels for new shite? Buy your kid ice cream or air gun instead white goy.

 

[Mastermind]

I'm willing to pay as much as 300% more for all the shit I pirate.

 

[DalekFlay]

why the heck would you want to pay more for aaa titles that are already profiting millions. and if indies set a given price it means devs have a return on investement on that game given the expected sales.
do you want gaming to become luxury more than already is with hardware cost and exhorbitant undiscounted price tags of aaa?

Up your reading comprehension. My whole point was that while I "wouldn't mind" paying $70 for a rare gem like Dishonored 2, very few games are worth that to me. So while I have the money to buy my absolute favorites for that price, I'd mostly buy less on day one. I would assume others would feel the same according to their tastes. Someone who loves Assassin's Creed would still buy it day one but wait on Dishonored 2 for a sale, etc. etc.

The real question is how many sales they could lose on day one while still making more than they did before due to the higher cost. Dishonored 2 supposedly disappointed in sales, same with the last Deus Ex, so while you say they make "millions" you really have no idea what their dev cost to profit ratio was. I doubt for games like that a higher cost would really help them out, but a massive seller like Assassin's Creed could probably clean up.

It will probably just broaden the divide between AA and AAA, honestly.

 

[TemplarGR]

 

[RuySan]

ZX spectrum games were about 5€ or less when Nintendo games were almost 10x that. And I still play zx spectrum games where NES games for the most part are boring, formulaic and predictable. You could change for indie and AAA and it would still be true.

 

[Mark Richard]

Doubtful. Half of Activision's revenue comes from microtransactions, and EA made $1 billion on microtransactions last quarter. 'Surprise mechanics' rake in the dough at an obscene rate as enough players are disconnected from the action of pushing a button and their bank account running dry, because the payments are so small individually. There's no such obfuscation with a high upfront price. Even drug dealers have enough business sense to lower the barrier for entry by making the first one free.

Haven't bought an AAA game in years anyway, and I wouldn't mind paying a bit extra for good Indi products. Though I still wish our local ATOM fans would stop openly telling the developer to raise his prices!

 

[Falksi]

Good stuff, just the boost the Indie market needed

Sadly indie game prices are relative to AAA and will probably go up as well.

No bad thing, they deserve to and will still remain reasonable.

On the back of that Indie devs will get more funding, and before you know it muscle the AAA's out.

Or so we hope.

 

[Delterius]

i think there is a double reason to up the prices . the most obvious one is to milk whales and fans of the franchise/publisher who who d1 purchase, the second is to increase profit from the tail sells on sales. so people who thinks they will be unaffected because they buy on sale are deluding themselves,because the price cuts will remain percentage based and the discounted price obviously will be increased

so the the reason to increase prices is that everyone who buys games end up paying more

incredible

 

[Sranchammer]

I'm okay with this. As long as it doesn't affect my only fans donation budget I'm happy to pay.

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

If more game devs would live off of roots, game development budgets would be in the 10s of thousands instead of 10s of millions, and the games would be better. This is the only way out of this mess for developers.

I'm not english, so I have no clue what the expression "would live off of roots" mean. Care to explain? Geniously interested.

 

[sser]

Physical distribution costs are cheaper than ever, if being used at all as most product is shifted digitally. The reason they're doing this is because they can.

 

[vortex]

You are all wrong. That 10 bucks more means better writing, better story, better gameplay overall 10% better game. Win-win.