Video games to up their prices, consumers rejoice

[DalekFlay]

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.

Of course there's some small percentage of people out there who actually boycott DRM'd games, from Securom up through Denuvo, but I think they're pretty rare. Companies have decided to mostly write them off, and maybe get $5 from them on GOG someday, and it is what it is.

...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.

As an 80's kid I agree with you 100%, but owning media was actually kind of a brief blip in history. Before VHS you just saw shows when they aired or saw movies during their theatrical run, and that was it. Even with VHS I think the vast majority of people rented from Blockbuster. The big DVD collecting boom was kind of an outlier, and now you could say things are returning to "normal" with streaming subs and rentals. It bums me out, especially since I love 4k Blu-ray and worry how many releases it will actually get, but I can't deny reality. I doubt my kids or their kids will even relate to the idea of owning media at all, video games included.

 

[Comte]

Video games are for kids who cares?

 

[puur prutswerk]

I didn't read the thread, but consumer paywalls for software need to be eliminated completely.

 

[puur prutswerk]

Video games are for kids who cares?

Children and their parents are being impoverished. We should care because they will shape the future.

 

[AW8]

Maybe they wouldn't need to ask for so much money if they didn't motion capture Hollywood actors' faces

 

[Bad Sector]

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.

Not everyone cares about DRM-free (some even do not care about Denuvo) but from the gaming sites forum visit i see more people caring about games being DRM-free and comments about supporting that than at the past. It isn't something that can pinpointed at any particular time, just a thing i notice over multiple years.

Note that i wrote that there is more people who seem to care about it, not that there is any majority or that even people who care about games being DRM-free will boycott DRM platforms. Personally i do care a lot about DRM-free games but i'd buy a game on Steam if i really want it and it is really cheap, but i'll show a clear preference and priority to a DRM-free version (e.g. i bought a few games, like Greedfall, once they got released on GOG but if they were available on Steam i'd wait until their price dropped below 5 euros).

Companies have decided to mostly write them off, and maybe get $5 from them on GOG someday, and it is what it is.

I do not mind getting a game later if it is DRM-free (especially at $5 :-P).

 

[DalekFlay]

Not everyone cares about DRM-free (some even do not care about Denuvo) but from the gaming sites forum visit i see more people caring about games being DRM-free and comments about supporting that than at the past. It isn't something that can pinpointed at any particular time, just a thing i notice over multiple years.

Anecdotal forum comments are all well and good, but I don't see any real evidence of anything changing from the "DRM is fine as long as it's not annoying" state we're in now. If anything I see DRM getting stricter as we move toward subscription models that can justify monitoring your access at all times.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

People on forums are in general a dying breed. Doesn't really matter if a subset of 10000 or so people don't buy that shit as long as there are millions who will.

As an 80's kid I agree with you 100%, but owning media was actually kind of a brief blip in history. Before VHS you just saw shows when they aired or saw movies during their theatrical run, and that was it. Even with VHS I think the vast majority of people rented from Blockbuster. The big DVD collecting boom was kind of an outlier, and now you could say things are returning to "normal" with streaming subs and rentals. It bums me out, especially since I love 4k Blu-ray and worry how many releases it will actually get, but I can't deny reality. I doubt my kids or their kids will even relate to the idea of owning media at all, video games included.

I hear you, I enjoy more obscure stuff, the kind where getting pulled from a streaming service is a real possibility. So physical media is just a practicality on my part. You could be right, you could be wrong. Digital killed off magazines and music. When Gone With the Wind and Fawtly Towers got pulled, people flocked to buy them It was nearly impossible to pick up a copy for a few days. Those are special circumstances I admit, but it shows that there are people who still care. Books after all, are still a reality too. Movies, despite falling sales are still a reality. Specialty places will be, however scalper-like they turn into. There will always be people for whom streaming is inconvenient. A noticeable number. They will continue to be catered too, however slightly, as long as a difference between suburban a rural exists.

 

[Bad Sector]

Anecdotal forum comments are all well and good, but I don't see any real evidence of anything changing from the "DRM is fine as long as it's not annoying" state we're in now. If anything I see DRM getting stricter as we move toward subscription models that can justify monitoring your access at all times.

Well, one is about what people seem to increasingly prefer (more DRM-free games) while the other is about what (big) publishers seem to prefer doing, the latter often do not do what the former would want them to do. After all i do not think anyone really prefers microtransactions to DLCs (let alone full blown expansions), yet here we are.

In any case, as i wrote above, i doubt we'll ever see a *move* towards subscriptions for the entire industry. There are way too many developers, publishers and outlets involved and many of them wont even want to do that - for smaller developers and publishers it might not even be in their interests since something like subscriptions would require resources they do not have and they'd rather sell you a product and be done with it.

I can see the biggest of publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision going towards that direction, but while they make flashy and highly promoted games that everyone hears about them either they want it or not, they are a minority in terms of actual releases. A publisher like Devolver Digital has released several games during the time span it takes a single game to be made by EA (and IMO they are more likely to be interesting games anyway, but that is obvious subjective).

 

[DalekFlay]

I hear you, I enjoy more obscure stuff, the kind where getting pulled from a streaming service is a real possibility. So physical media is just a practicality on my part. You could be right, you could be wrong. Digital killed off magazines and music. When Gone With the Wind and Fawtly Towers got pulled, people flocked to buy them It was nearly impossible to pick up a copy for a few days. Those are special circumstances I admit, but it shows that there are people who still care.

There are several reasons I still buy movies on disc, and censorship concerns are one of them. Toy Story 2 recent got censored, among other examples, and I think it's only a matter of time until things like Jesse Ventura saying "faggots" in Predator is removed from newer versions.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Its worth pointing out that despite my mention of the music industry being dead, there are still albums being sold, even on CD. Vinyl came back too, even cassettes. But music is mostly only stuff no one has heard of or stuff everyone has heard of, even if its the most inane garbage humanly imaginable. The only difference between mainstream genres seem to be what accent the lead singer has.

I hear you, I enjoy more obscure stuff, the kind where getting pulled from a streaming service is a real possibility. So physical media is just a practicality on my part. You could be right, you could be wrong. Digital killed off magazines and music. When Gone With the Wind and Fawtly Towers got pulled, people flocked to buy them It was nearly impossible to pick up a copy for a few days. Those are special circumstances I admit, but it shows that there are people who still care.

There are several reasons I still buy movies on disc, and censorship concerns are one of them. Toy Story 2 recent got censored, among other examples, and I think it's only a matter of time until things like Jesse Ventura saying "faggots" in Predator is removed from newer versions.

What could Toy Story possibly have...

For the 2019 home media reissue, Disney removed a blooper scene from the film's mid-credits mock blooper reel that featured the Prospector suggestively enticing a pair of Barbie dolls with a role in Toy Story 3.[54] Media outlets inferred this change was a result of the Me Too movement.

Hmm...Is the Blu-ray pack of the first two Predators any good? I've got the first one on DVD, but now sounds like a good time to upgrade...

 

[DalekFlay]

Hmm...Is the Blu-ray pack of the first two Predators any good? I've got the first one on DVD, but now sounds like a good time to upgrade...

They have amazing 4k releases if you ever plan to upgrade. For Blu-ray Predator actually got hit really bad with the DNR (grain removal) stick in the "Ultimate Hunter Edition," but if you can track down the ancient first Fox release that one isn't bad. I remember Predator 2's Blu-ray being pretty solid. Those 4ks though... wowza.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Hmm...Is the Blu-ray pack of the first two Predators any good? I've got the first one on DVD, but now sounds like a good time to upgrade...

They have amazing 4k releases if you ever plan to upgrade. For Blu-ray Predator actually got hit really bad with the DNR (grain removal) stick in the "Ultimate Hunter Edition," but if you can track down the ancient first Fox release that one isn't bad. I remember Predator 2's Blu-ray being pretty solid. Those 4ks though... wowza.

Will the dedicated 4k releases like that work just fine in a regular Blu-ray player? I've got a Criterion Collection release of The Princess Bride that's in 4k that works just fine in my normal Blu-ray player, and several 2k Blu-rays, also fine. Dunno about the dedicated ones. Seems like it would be a wise choice on my part to future proof a little bit. And it seems like 4k TVs will hang onto the dumb TV status a little while, long enough that whenever my current TV bites the dust they should still be around.

 

[DalekFlay]

Will the dedicated 4k releases like that work just fine in a regular Blu-ray player? I've got a Criterion Collection release of The Princess Bride that's in 4k that works just fine in my normal Blu-ray player, and several 2k Blu-rays, also fine. Dunno about the dedicated ones. Seems like it would be a wise choice on my part to future proof a little bit. And it seems like 4k TVs will hang onto the dumb TV status a little while, long enough that whenever my current TV bites the dust they should still be around.

4k remasters (film scanned in 4k resolution) and 4k discs are two different things. Princess Bride is a 4k remaster, but the disc is a normal Blu-ray. 4k "Ultra HD" Blu-rays require a new player that can read them, sadly. It's mainly because of the HDR, which is the big appeal of the format IMO. Predator and Predator 2's 4k remasters are sadly only on 4k Blu-ray, so you'd need a new player. If you decide to get the old Blu-ray then this is the one you want, from 2008. The 2013 one looks like a cartoon because of the grain removal, which you can see here.

Honestly though I'd just wait until it you upgrade and get the 4k discs. The first Blu is okay, but not a massive upgrade. The 4k disc would be.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

How many small-budget games could have been funded with the cost it took to make Mass Effect: Andromeda for example? If even one of them became a breakout hit, it might have been far more profitable overall, but definitely less risky than putting all your eggs in one basket.

How many good small-budget games could the team that did ME:A have done? My guess is 0...

Probably more than a couple. Surely you don't think everyone in the hundreds of people who worked on it are untalented?

BioWare is an interesting case because both Neo Scavenger and Banner Saga come from ex-BioWare employees, and in the same year. It's kind of interesting to think of, like, if BioWare maybe had a different culture could these games have been made within the studio? It's not the ME:A team, but then I'm sure abija's statement could stand for the last decade of BioWare, and the Neo Scavenger guy would fall into that timeframe.

Video games are weird though. They're maybe the only realm of entertainment where losing talent, and letting talent waste away doesn't even seem to register. This whole video game prices are going up thing, and anyone saying they should go up, falls into that too. Video game budgets, for the most part, seem to fall into the range of low budget studio movies. Outside of what seems like a scant handful of games, the development cost of even the largest big blockbuster games fall into the range of last years Little Women and the third John Wick movie...while making far more money than those two movies.

 

[Norfleet]

I really don't see the logic of "vidya games should get more expensive". Everything ELSE about computers has gotten cheaper, so I don't see why vidya games should somehow be different.

 

[Bad Sector]

Everything ELSE about computers has gotten cheaper

Tell that to Nvidia :-(

 

[Zlaja]

Even here on the Codex tons of people talk about playing this or that on gamepass

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Everything ELSE about computers has gotten cheaper

Tell that to Nvidia :-(

crypto mining fucked graphics card prices and they never went back down

 

[Ol' Willy]

Its worth pointing out that despite my mention of the music industry being dead, there are still albums being sold, even on CD. Vinyl came back too, even cassettes.

Metal industry is alive and well. Even with vinyl and cassette releases for the ultimate connoisseurs. Underground rules, man.

 

[Viata]

Quoting the wise words of Gaben: "Piracy is a service problem."

Not for me. Piracy is a way of life.

 

[Silly Germans]

Not everyone cares about DRM-free (some even do not care about Denuvo) but from the gaming sites forum visit i see more people caring about games being DRM-free and comments about supporting that than at the past. It isn't something that can pinpointed at any particular time, just a thing i notice over multiple years.

Anecdotal forum comments are all well and good, but I don't see any real evidence of anything changing from the "DRM is fine as long as it's not annoying" state we're in now. If anything I see DRM getting stricter as we move toward subscription models that can justify monitoring your access at all times.

I was rather under the impression that some publishers are going both ways lately. New titles with drm or via subscription/service and old titles free of drm. 10 Years ago the situation was alot worse in my opinion. Many titles that were only available via Steam or Publisher Store fronts have been released on Gog lately. Overall i would say the drm free releases have grown unless my perception deceives me. Take the new XCOM titles for example. Only big AAA games are still under lock and key. I like this recent development, 10 years ago my outlook was alot bleaker.

 

[DalekFlay]

I was rather under the impression that some publishers are going both ways lately. New titles with drm or via subscription/service and old titles free of drm. 10 Years ago the situation was alot worse in my opinion. Many titles that were only available via Steam or Publisher Store fronts have been released on Gog lately. Overall i would say the drm free releases have grown unless my perception deceives me. Take the new XCOM titles for example. Only big AAA games are still under lock and key. I like this recent development, 10 years ago my outlook was alot bleaker.

I mean, I guess the quantity goes up whenever more old stuff goes to GOG, but in terms of day one DRM free releases I don't think the AAA games situation is any different than it was.

 

[Kev Inkline]

I'd never pay 60 euros for a game.

Then again, CP2077 is only EUR 59.99.

Spoiler

I'll buy it if even a miniscule fraction goes to Pondsmith, I've played CP2020 pnp throughout the past 25 years. Still with the same group <3

 

[Silly Germans]

I was rather under the impression that some publishers are going both ways lately. New titles with drm or via subscription/service and old titles free of drm. 10 Years ago the situation was alot worse in my opinion. Many titles that were only available via Steam or Publisher Store fronts have been released on Gog lately. Overall i would say the drm free releases have grown unless my perception deceives me. Take the new XCOM titles for example. Only big AAA games are still under lock and key. I like this recent development, 10 years ago my outlook was alot bleaker.

I mean, I guess the quantity goes up whenever more old stuff goes to GOG, but in terms of day one DRM free releases I don't think the AAA games situation is any different than it was.

Yes, but sometime around 2005 (just a rough number i am to lazy to make up a better estimate) it looked as if all games would end up behind launchers eventually. I am glad it didn't turn out like that. It is still true for AAA games but many smaller games get a Gog release even on day one. Take Spellforce 3 or Iron Harvest. 10 years ago they would have been locked up in Steam or some other launcher. The same goes for most rpgs that aren't triple AAA. I think the situation improved lately, but who knows how it will turn out in the long run. It could be just a small last rise before the long fall into service hell.