Video games to up their prices, consumers rejoice

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

The answer to this is basically no. The AAA studios are always chasing the next GTA5, forgetting that GTA1 was a much lower budget product that kicked off the cash cow.

Well... GTA3 kicked off the cash cow aspect, but yes. They should be making new IPs at lower budgets to avoid risk while testing concepts. Make something smaller that's a big hit with people, then make a AAA follow-up. Outer Worlds is maybe a good example of this currently, assuming MS make a bigger sequel which I'm guessing they will.

That's not how you do it. Let indies test new concepts on their own dime, then look at the top 10 best-selling indie games and make an AAA clone of the most interesting one out of the bunch.

Then invest $100kk into the marketing and stress the 'innovative' aspects, and don't forget to pull the 'no one has done it before' card.

And then you'll still get beaten to the market by a dozen other clones, find the marketplace is really crowded, and fail to make much money.

Who cares? With enough marketing budget, you can still make tons of $$$ by selling anything as the latest cons00mer product.

At worst you can acquire the developers behind this popular game and their clones and shut them down.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Indies never pioneered popamole games, the industry came up with this idea completely by themselves.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

And then you'll still get beaten to the market by a dozen other clones, find the marketplace is really crowded, and fail to make much money.

Landfills are flooded with failed DOTA and WoW clones by desperate corporations, but they do seem to be having more success with battle royal games like Apex Legends and Call of Duty Whatever.

This is entirely a different phenomenon unique to online games. There's a very limited amount of room for online games in any genre, and displacing the current leaders is nearly impossible once they're there.
The same doesn't hold for singleplayer games for a multitude of reasons. Singleplayer games typically stop getting regular updates a year or two after launch, there is no community holding you to it, and you eventually finish a singleplayer game.

 

[DalekFlay]

This is entirely a different phenomenon unique to online games. There's a very limited amount of room for online games in any genre, and displacing the current leaders is nearly impossible once they're there.
The same doesn't hold for singleplayer games for a multitude of reasons. Singleplayer games typically stop getting regular updates a year or two after launch, there is no community holding you to it, and you eventually finish a singleplayer game.

All those examples were online games dude.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This is entirely a different phenomenon unique to online games. There's a very limited amount of room for online games in any genre, and displacing the current leaders is nearly impossible once they're there.
The same doesn't hold for singleplayer games for a multitude of reasons. Singleplayer games typically stop getting regular updates a year or two after launch, there is no community holding you to it, and you eventually finish a singleplayer game.

All those examples were online games dude.

...and that was my point.
Clones of online games are doomed to failure.

 

[DalekFlay]

...and that was my point.
Clones of online games are doomed to failure.

Well my point was battle royales don't seem as prone to that, since EA and Activision both jumped on the train late to immense success. So I'm not sure why you're replying to me talking about singleplayer?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Well my point was battle royales don't seem as prone to that

Battle royale isn't even a real genre.
e.g., this is one of the first articles I get for "list of battle royales": https://medium.com/@MayorReynoldsTV...how-they-rank-from-best-to-worst-2804b30196d3
Most of these games have nothing in common, any sane person would just refer to a lot of it as "PvP modes"

 

[DalekFlay]

Jesus Rusty, just take the L. "Battle royale is different because Pub G and Fortnite started the craze but EA and Activision jumped in later and were very successful with Apex Legends and Call of Duty." YEAH BUT SINGLEPLAYER! YEAH BUT THESE OTHER DIFFERENT GAMES YOU'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT!

Who cares? It's irrelevant. The point is, with actual 100 to 1 with shrinking zone battle royale at least, you can take a successful concept by another company which dominates the market and make a corporate copycat competitor that actually makes you a ton of money. I don't know what the secret formula is, but it can be done.

 

[AscendedFlames]

Gamepass is for schmucks, just like facebook or any "convenient" fad. The prices will soon explode and they will steal and control your data. It is well known that Microsoft cancels accounts for imaginary reasons, and many people lost access of their library for no reason at all. one day you will wake up and realize that your digital balls are inside a giant vice, but then it will be too late.

This is why I don't buy even from Steam, if you see my library it barely has any games. And the games I do own I got it dirt cheap. Think about it like this, say that you didn't have internet for whatever reason, you just wanted to disconnect from all the diarrhea infested wasteland that is the online world, well now you just lost access to probably the vast majority of games on PC. There is no other way to acquire those games than to be online. You just cannot go to a store and buy the physical discs, you can do so, but the boxed copy will require you to go online and download the rest of the game files through Steam, forcing you to having Steam installed. Not to mention the massive decline that has become PC physical game copies. At least with consoles, you can remain offline and go to a store and pick up the game, or wait for the inevitable GOTY Edition and whatnot. I have never liked the current trajectory that the majority of consumers are doing in giving up ownership for the goods that they pay for.

I don't own a PS4 nor an Xbox One because frankly this gen didn't have games that appealed to me much, but I do remember that even in the PS3/X360 era games were often cheap after the first month, after the third month you'd find those games for about $20 or less, I never understood why Steam is the only platform recognized for selling cheap games. Your options ranges dramatically from retail store, Walmart, Gamestop, Target, Best Buy, Craglist (second hand) etc. One would naturally assume that the $70 price tag is meant for whales.

 

[karoliner]

Some of you people are old as fuck.

 

[Melcar]

Goddamn old people.

 

[Lord Commissar Alexer]

I'm afraid the AAA fucks will win since sadly too many people are retarted sheeps.

 

[SkinnJakka]

Uhm gaymers? You gave me only 70$, you forgot to tip.
Also support our small indie studio of 1000 on patreon, without it the gaming industry simply will not survive.

 

[throwaway69420]

Damn, pirates and multiple year late sale-buyers can’t stop winning. Stay Financially Dominated, MSRP cucks.

 

[fantadomat]

Muh it doesn't affect me .

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

I'd be surprised if prices don't get jacked up again in 3 years. The plan is to phase out game "ownership".

 

[Bad Sector]

The plan is to phase out game "ownership".

While this might be the case with a few (mostly high profile "AAA") games, i do not think this will happen for all games. There will always be at least a few indie and mid-tier studios to create games you have control over, at least as long as sites like GOG and itch.io that provide DRM-free games exist (and TBH i think that in general there is more interest nowadays for DRM-free games than it ever was at the past).

However we need more game stores to promote DRM-free gaming, just in case - Humble began like that but after they got bought they became way too happy to shovel Steam keys everywhere.

(yes, some stores - like Steam, EGS, etc - do have DRM-free games but you only know that after the fact and only if you try and they do not really push for it... at best they do not bother implementing it at all, like EGS, but they do not forbid developers from implementing it either)

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

As always, as the quality goes down, the price goes up. Considering the kind of shit is being made now in 2020, they should pay us to play it.

 

[Volourn]

"$69.99 may be the new standard pricing for next gen titles,"

That's cute. Kanadian prices have been higher than that forever. LMAO

I wish new games were just $70 here. :p

 

[vortex]

So the rest of the world will be as advanced as Canada in 2021? That's the prediction.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Good thing I never liked games to begin with.

 

[DalekFlay]

While this might be the case with a few (mostly high profile "AAA") games, i do not think this will happen for all games. There will always be at least a few indie and mid-tier studios to create games you have control over, at least as long as sites like GOG and itch.io that provide DRM-free games exist (and TBH i think that in general there is more interest nowadays for DRM-free games than it ever was at the past).

Where do you get this idea people care about DRM all of a sudden? They bitch about Denuvo because of the perceived performance impact, but I don't see any movement to denounce Steam and whatever else. Even small indie games that launch on GOG the same day, Steam still has an insanely high market share.

Call me a pessimist but I'm sure subscriptions will take over games just as they are movies and music (and they've always been around for TV). Even here on the Codex tons of people talk about playing this or that on gamepass. As much as it baffles me, consumers love that payment model. I'm sure games will be available to buy for a good while, but eventually competing services will want exclusives just like Netflix does. Indies offered a payday will take it. None of this should be unexpected.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

While this might be the case with a few (mostly high profile "AAA") games, i do not think this will happen for all games. There will always be at least a few indie and mid-tier studios to create games you have control over, at least as long as sites like GOG and itch.io that provide DRM-free games exist (and TBH i think that in general there is more interest nowadays for DRM-free games than it ever was at the past).

Where do you get this idea people care about DRM all of a sudden? They bitch about Denuvo because of the perceived performance impact, but I don't see any movement to denounce Steam and whatever else. Even small indie games that launch on GOG the same day, Steam still has an insanely high market share.

Call me a pessimist but I'm sure subscriptions will take over games just as they are movies and music (and they've always been around for TV). Even here on the Codex tons of people talk about playing this or that on gamepass. As much as it baffles me, consumers love that payment model. I'm sure games will be available to buy for a long time to come, but eventually competing services will want exclusives just like Netflix does. Indies offered a payday will take it. None of this should be unexpected.

Because Steam is largely seen as non-intrusive DRM that can easily be worked around if needed. The perceived benefits of the Steam client itself outweigh the negatives of Steam's DRM from consumer perspectives. Things like Denuvo do not have the upsides Steam has from consumer perspectives.

 

[DalekFlay]

Because Steam is largely seen as non-intrusive DRM that can easily be worked around if needed. The perceived benefits of the Steam client itself outweigh the negatives of Steam's DRM from consumer perspectives. Things like Denuvo do not have the upsides Steam has from consumer perspectives.

No shit, but he's specifically talking about DRM free. Steam is not DRM free (99% of the time).

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

While this might be the case with a few (mostly high profile "AAA") games, i do not think this will happen for all games. There will always be at least a few indie and mid-tier studios to create games you have control over, at least as long as sites like GOG and itch.io that provide DRM-free games exist (and TBH i think that in general there is more interest nowadays for DRM-free games than it ever was at the past).

Where do you get this idea people care about DRM all of a sudden? They bitch about Denuvo because of the perceived performance impact, but I don't see any movement to denounce Steam and whatever else. Even small indie games that launch on GOG the same day, Steam still has an insanely high market share.

There isn't any because everyone who felt that way has already stopped buying anything that touches Steam. Except that was a drop in the bucket for the companies that sold their games on it and now everyone is a bit bitter about it. Don't you remember the minor outcry that happened because some copies were just selling Steam keys in a box? All I want to buy a PC game and not have to download some random bullshit or 50GBs of anything. At least however much like computers consoles are these days I can still play games without connecting it to the world wide web.

Call me a pessimist but I'm sure subscriptions will take over games just as they are movies and music (and they've always been around for TV). Even here on the Codex tons of people talk about playing this or that on gamepass. As much as it baffles me, consumers love that payment model. I'm sure games will be available to buy for a good while, but eventually competing services will want exclusives just like Netflix does. Indies offered a payday will take it. None of this should be unexpected.

...I wouldn't call you that. That sounds like a reasonable take. I think that will devalue games even more than they're already. It'll divide things into two camps. Those that buy their games and those that don't. Just like with other industries. I remember some fan of The Office talking about remembering DVDs, before streaming services. This was a fan of it. Not owning the DVD. We live in an age where the most fanatical can not only fathom not owning the actual thing on media, but straight up not owning it. But the joke will be on those that don't, whenever something they enjoy leaves their streaming service. But we're living at an interesting time for video streaming services. There are far more than any one person can reasonably be subscribed to, and I suspect we'll see some shutter soon enough. Will these lessons be learned whenever every major company starts up their own streaming service? Am I blind to how many there are? I will find whatever happens amusing, but sad. Like a very dark comedy.