I'm Tired of Overpriced Games

[@DestinL]

Do you think $100 games are overpriced? Why or why not? Let me know and please consider subscribing! kzbin.info Become a Member here kzbin.info/door/gUOWrjLEhmHE9tqYtoeS_gjoin/join`11`

[@chickenwings6172]

Canada has been pay for $90 for the base game before tax for 5 to 10 years. Ultimate editions are $160 before tax. I can imagine what New Zealand or Australia is paying. If games go to $100 for the base game i am done with current games. Im 43 so i was their since the re launch of video games with Sega master system and NES.

[@ryhanon7]

$100? Heck, $70 is too much for almost every game out there. There are very few games worth more than $50-60 these days. This is why I never pay full price anymore.

[@SpaniardNL]

60 is already a scam, especially for triple a

[@LegionzGG]

41 year old in norway here. We Have The same prices.. Standard is 90usd up to 150 for The deluxe editions. Swapped to game pass and only buy ps5 games i really really want. But much less than before. ​@@chickenwings6172

[@MintBerryCrunch]

We don’t get less games like donkey Kong and Mario are able to be beat in under 8 hours. My problem with this video and this argument is people like you and other journalist also say voice actors and artists and devs should make more money. Games cost way more to make today even without the physical media because the outrages wages that lead to insane game costs to make and distribute. If you truly believed games shouldn’t cost more than you would push for more layoffs and wage changes. Games used to be made by great developers and now almost anyone can make them and demand high salaries. Blizzard put out crap games and fired people for it then sites like ign complained they laid off and said how horrible it is

[@topshonuff]

No Manuals, No plastic Covers, No Disc, No Shipping, No Posters. Aren’t they Saving Money?

[@judah_macabe]

Yes however there's this thing called inflation. A 50$ game in 2004 would cost 83$ today, so getting it for 60 or 70 is a savings. Also, costs to produce games are much higher, as is the time to develop a game. You'd have games come out in a year or two back then, now it's 2 to 3x longer on avg.

[@cypher2365]

​@@judah_macabe inflation sucks...

[@judah_macabe]

@@cypher2365 it does but is a necessary component of a growing economy, when it's at 2ish percent.

[@sam805236]

The devs get paid too much, nobody wants to talk about it but that's the cause.

[@sam805236]

@@judah_macabe Inflation is the short answer but game development is digital, it's not a restaurant. Its wages, not inflation.

[@todda152]

Another thing people forget is back in the 90s, the gaming population was much smaller. Back then I was a teen and me and a few friends openly talked about video games. Everyone else just looked at it as something 'nerds' do. Now gaming is everywhere and more people are gaming. You don't have to raise prices if your customer base grows.

[@EggEnjoyer]

Also the technology was way more expensive. Making a cartridge that could hold memory on it was genuinely an expensive thing. Today games don’t even need to pay for discs to be printed. Games don’t even come with paper book manuals anymore 😂. They’re making a killing

[@t3chfx13]

That not how that works at all and you can't be dense enough to not know that...... Your comparing a time when "AAA" games cost thousands vs several hundreds of millions without accounting for marketing or potential IP licensing fees (which both can be in the tens to hundreds of millions). We are at a time when the free updates we get for SP games likely cost more then an actual game to make back in the 90s. I mean just between 2012-2018 AA games went from 5-6 million to 15-20 million to make according to InExile so imagine where that is now post Covid with everything rising in cost.

[@SWOTHDRA]

Gaming was never nerdy in the blk community, we all played games but most just casual, sport games, fighting games etc. Ofc not the J-RPG's and nerdy PC shit, I was into 🤣, but that was ok. I could move in both worlds, I was heavy into sports too. Men/boys need to broaden their view, why can girls be hot and good in games, but us guys need to become a full on asmongold 🤡.....to git gud....hell nah

[@EggEnjoyer]

@@t3chfx13 Accounting for marketing? You realize marketing is something that makes the devs money? So why would the consumer have to pay for it? They spend money on marketing to make more money. At the end of the day, your petty arguments for why games should cost more make no sense. Prices aren’t dictated by entitlement. They are dictated by what people are actually willing to pay for the product. And the fact remains is that most people are not willing to spend $80 US on a video game. Do you think games are $60 out of the kindness of their hearts? No they’re $60 and $70 because they can’t get away with higher pricing for just the base game And notice how you keep talking about cost but ignore the revenue made by having. Most profitable entertainment medium on the planet bud. They make more and more money every year

[@jayjay6156]

People also knew what a woman was in the 90s

[@Boss_Fight_Index_muki]

20+ years ago, PC games came in a A4-sized full color printed (embossed) cardboard box and included a printed manual, pins, cloth maps of the game world (if RPG), and the disc. Eventually, it turned into a 7inX4.5in mini box (non-embossed) and the disc came in a sleeve rather than a case. And no extras. Now there's no box (embossed or otherwise), no manual, no maps, no pins, and no disc.

[@SWOTHDRA]

PC gaming has been a rip off since 2008 and steam

[@MrRawnch]

...now they charge you $50 - $150 to give you the privilege of owning the stuff they took away. 😒

[@Sir_Newkirk]

I miss big box pc games

[@chadisnotachad]

$100 games and no physical ownership is what happens when morons justify microtransactions in $60 games and price hikes.

[@DNDaMD]

Also what happens when morons buy mtx and pay 100 bucks for games. Sad state of affairs. Majority of players are beta cucks that are crawling over eachother to give these devs more money for an inferior product.

[@urazz7739]

I was fine with $70 with no microtransactions but they did not do that so I very rarely buy $70 games.

[@manrightchea]

Even though I agree with your ideology overall, what I will say about physical ownership is that it was eventually going to end anyway. Reason being is that games were becoming too large for physical media. Even a Blu-ray dual layer is not much storage space. It was so much data that reading the actual game from the disc is impossible. Even the physical disc is just an install for this reason so even though it might look physical. It's basically a digital installation stored on a physical disc. Games are hundreds of gigabytes now, a laser cannot parse that kind of the data in a manner quick enough to support gaming. $100 game versions should never have been a thing. They became a thing because people we're willing to support bullshit. Had publishers been punished for not putting in enough content, they never would have existed. He was saying that they sell more which is a shame. I don't buy those type of versions of games anymore. Neither do I buy the standard version. With the standard you know you're missing out compare the to the super ultimate mega version. So now what I do is just not buy brand new games. I'll make a mental note of a game I want to play and then I'll wait for that Super Ultimo version of the game to get cheap enough with multiple sales and then buy it. Sure I'll give you 30 bucks for your super ultimate version 8 months after it comes out.

[@isturbo1984]

uhh... you forgot to mention that most "modern" games are garbage made by no talent hacks these days. thats the biggest driver here. people would absolutely want to spend $100+ on fantastic games.

[@arjun220]

Started playing video games in my 3rd grade back in the 90's and up to now never I have ever spent a dollar on a microtransactions but what can one man do versus the millions of kids buying every skins in fortnite , lol or any mxt in a tripple a game.

[@Sunbreaker7]

People fail to realize that we are heading to an era where indie studios will be able to make AAA level of games very soon, forcing big studios to start providing actual value due to increase in competition. Indies are about to flip the market.

[@veganbadassTTV]

I hope so. Indie games are killing it right now. It's exciting.

[@Trymeplays]

I agree

[@DARKZONE-ul2mx]

The price of games are going up but the Quality of the games are going down or games are to Short for the price

[@SWOTHDRA]

Exactly or woke af

[@proggz39]

They’ve gone up $10 since 2005 while most are way longer than before and in many cases, too long

[@tacothunder2298]

When a $70+, 200GB AAA graphics game is shorter and shittier than a $30-$60, 15GB Japanese AA anime game you know big companies eff'd it up.

[@proggz39]

Japanese develop games are better than Western games 9/10 times, nothing new there

[@El-Chav0]

The issue is that salaries have not changed much. Cost of living has gone up more than salaries so if they raise prices, video game sales would suffer tremendously.

[@raskolnikov6443]

Well then the AAA market will mostly just disappear. Makes sense.

[@El-Chav0]

@@raskolnikov6443 basically they will reduce and indie studios will grow which is good for everyone

[@infernas]

I feel like a lot of content creators add to the problem of games being overpriced/full of scummy microtransactions. We always say to "vote with your wallets" but then content creators buy $70 games and go all-out whale in cash shops even when everyone knew the game would be shit, "for the content." Content creators have no appreciation for money they spend because as long as they keep churning out content they'll always make that money back.

[@proggz39]

Sometimes. A lot of them get the game and content for free as a breathing advertisement

[@infernas]

I'm happy that content creators are finding success in what they're passionate about, but I hate that a lot of them are being trivial about their popularity. They have the potential to become good role models and use their voice and platform for good, but instead they choose to chase clout. What's worse is that folks tend to follow these dumbasses.

[@Mrzombieman]

ive been saying this for years now and its about time other people are starting to see it that now that we are all digital all the time, they cant use the "well games are more expensive to release now" argument anymore.

[@TheBean87]

Except they can use the games cost more than ever to make argument.

[@Ghostlynotme445]

It means we got a right pirate the game since the developers wanna make it more expensive

[@wutiix]

​@@Ghostlynotme445 How do you pirate a game on console ??

[@isturbo1984]

only neo gaymers say that. back in the 360 era when the topic of all gaming going digital only, everybody was talking about how it would lower the price of games because distribution was out of the picture. everyone. kids these days enter the convo and just parrot corporate talking points.

[@TheBean87]

@@isturbo1984 you mean when games cost 20 mill to make yet still cost $50-$60 bucks?

[@joshuabagwell6695]

Seeing as digital does not need box, paper art or disc why we paying same price

[@konamiscode8727]

because the cost of making triple A games has gone up exponentially, so to continue to break even and make profit the price of said game needs to go up.

[@Suhadisgood]

Depending on what it is your paying for I don’t buy every game for $70 some I wait until the price drops

[@parkerburrus289]

Same

[@reapersasmr5483]

I only buy 2 or 3 games a year anymore .. and most I don't buy on launch day ..as every game drops broken

[@Tenacityfromtheglass]

I dont even buy dlc anymore. By time i clear out my backlog they remaster the game with all dlc included on top of being on steam sale for under $10

[@vandji8792]

there are so many overlooked strategies like this... "day one with gamepass" well actually no.. it's day four with gamepass. People get so hyped up with the marketing campaigns of new games that even though they have gamepass, they feel the urge to buy a premium version of that game besides their subscription to play 3 days earlier. The reason why gamers get tired of it really fast, is that every game nowadays is an investment, you buy a game, which essentially from the first minute you play it tries to trigger you to spent more money. Controversial take on this from my end is that gamers also feed this themselves besides dropping the money for a game.. prior to a release they hype is so immense for a new game, a week after the release, nobody talks about the game anymore. With this short hype cycle for a game nowadays they either need to make enough money up front to cover cost or make sure you either invest in a battle pass or w/e which makes you log in over and over since you already spent money up front so you want to get your enjoyment out of it.

[@biohazardousbacon]

That report at the start is in reference specifically to RECORDABLE blu ray disk production, as in blank disks that you can burn data on to. NOT printed blu ray disks like you'd get when buying blu ray movies - those aren't going anywhere.

[@VEN0M415]

Yeah a bit of missinfo there, same with the 90% digital sales metric he mentions cause that also accounted for games that dont sell physical games so its skewing the numbers of games that are sold with a physical.

[@wobbudude5404]

This is why I will always support a physical games option.

[@WarlanderTV]

New games in Canada have been $102 after tax for awhile now.

[@manic_misfit9722]

Only if you're foolish enough buy them at launch. Wait a few months and buy them at a deep discount....unless they're Nintendo (which never go down in price.) Another benefit of waiting is they'll be sufficiently patched to be playable.

[@Ghostlynotme445]

Now it be $202 thanks to the greedy developers

[@WarlanderTV]

@@manic_misfit9722 Yeah, its been a long time since I bought a new game at launch. Hard to justify $100 when I can load a cart with 20+ games I've never played for that.

[@VEN0M415]

I've not seen $102 but its weird standard prices went from $79 to $84 (first I saw doing it was Forza MS 8) to $94 (first I saw doing that was Yakuza Infinite Wealth) in less than a decade. Granted those price increases were on steam and if I look for say the physical of Infinite wealth its normal price is cheaper than on steam so in all honestly were being played fools even on steam and its why I will still support physical as long as I can so I can at least make back some of that money if need be.

[@VEN0M415]

@@manic_misfit9722 If it brings it the game to a 60 dollar price tag then its worth getting imo, Like the Yakuza Infinite wealth game I mentioned in my other comment; I got it a couple months later for half off, applied a gift card to it and got it for 40 bucks, Did the same with Final Fantasy VXI and got it for 24 bucks new, patience is a virtue.

[@daniellcruikshank7922]

The benefit of physical media is that you don't need a internet connection to watch a movie just one off payment of the movie and the player not monthly subscription fees and monthly bills from your internet provider, and if it's a TV show or movie you like to watch multiple times in a year why would you waste your money renting it on streaming services which is basically what you're doing when you're using those services. physical media on games consoles is dead most of the games aren't entirely on the disc you still have to download a huge chunk of it and in some cases there's nothing more than a small file on it.

[@chrisj320ac3]

Doesn't apply to games anymore

[@daniellcruikshank7922]

​I wasn't really talking about the physical games media but you're right physical media for games has been dead for years, PC is proof of that nothing but steam and epic games and places like that which is a shame that in many ways some games deserve a physical copy

[@Ratt1eHead]

The games that were $70 plus back in the day had a different board in them. They had a battery onboard to keep the save. Those carts were always more expensive. I remember paying $80 for Dragon Quest for Nintendo.

[@proggz39]

NES games were $40 in the US at the time, not counting inflation or shortages

[@TheOldest]

Finally, someone breaking it down. Been trying to explain this since Xbox One was coming digital was shaking up distribution. When PS3 and Xbox One began releasing game with day one downloads there was an agreement reached with all the physical retailers regarding it. The demanded sales parity with physical copies or they would nolonger distribute physical copies of consoles. Physical stores take 30٪ due to storage space, physical distribution/shipping and in store advertising. Digital Stores taking 30% is because physical store did also even though they don't have the same cost. Digital games should be realistically half the cost they are now with more of that going back to developers.

[@ryanjackson7387]

This is the realest Video you 've ever done for me personally, You Nailed it and could not be put any better its complete nonsense how far this has gone. Its really effected every aspect of the gaming industry.

[@guardianali]

This is OUR fault...not the corporations. So heres the thing. Cost is based on what people are willing to pay...,not what they bitch about. The reason they charge these costs is cause people pay them. A value of a product is dictated by what someone will pay. So a 100 dollar game is worth 100 not because of percieved value but because people were willing to and do pay that amount. Until people actually stop paying for it ....and not say they will acting all pravado on the internet and then buy it anyway....but actually not buy it...and enough people do so....they have no reason to lower the cost. Im a consumer..but if I was a for profit company, and i can sell something for 50 and people buy it..and I sell it for 100 and people buy it...why would I leave money on the table. Id absolutely sell it for 100. So I dont blame these 'mega corporations'. I dont. They are doing a common sense thing. If people will spend that money, they will make it that cost. If people dont spend that money they lower the cost. WE are the problem. Not them. Cause despite our words, our actions tell them that the game IS worth 100 cause that is what we are willing to spend.

[@protoshell]

Yep, exactly this. They charge 100 because the majority of customers are buying it for that price. If the majority stopped paying the 100 asked companies simply had to lower the price. Problem is: The ones who don't buy into it are the minority here. We don't make a difference. I'd say most people don't know anything about pricing and the industry. They just want to play the next damn game. They might lament about the price, but their tiktok-brain and general lack of self worth and self discipline makes them still pay that 100. In short: Companies can charge 100+ on a game because people are stupid.

[@proggz39]

Most people aren’t buying the more expensive version, it’s there for the few whales that will buy it for that price. Everyone else pays $70 or waits for a sale

[@tigga2300]

Charging 70 plus dollars on games that often aren't even finished because of all the bugs these developers push it out with and then overtime patch it up with multiple updates. Ridiculous.

[@SWOTHDRA]

Youguys were against crunch.....this is the result , badly finished games and games which barely get released

[@proggz39]

I buy a few new games a year and have yet to buy a broken one at release but I do my research. Anything by Xbox, Ubisoft, EA, Square Enix is likely to be broken at launch

[@chrism8860]

​@@SWOTHDRAEveryone is against crunch, except the publishers. Also, more development time is the same as crunch. It's been proven that productivity falls off after 30 hours

[@angelomattei2304]

He forgot about physical advertising like signs in stores and in magazines that almost do not exist anymore

[@attitudeare2012]

I think it’s still good to have a disc because if you if it cost too much to buy the games of digital, you can buy them on disk format might be a lot cheaper

[@keeysOST]

I can count on one hand the amount of devs I'm willing to give anything beyond $60 for a game. If the game is $70 with dlc or an in-game store, I'm waiting for a sale. I don't even preorder anymore now that everyone wants to be priced at $70

[@nonyabusiness-f9e]

the only time i am fine with a game increasing its price is after early access/kickstarter/beta or whatever. if you tell people " hey the game is 10$ right now as a thanks for supporting us in early access, but when we launch the game will be 14.99", that is perfectly reasonable.

[@thepews1511]

0:58 🗣️THIS POST GOT COMMUNITY NOTED🗣️ Its specifically recordable Blurays discs so unless yall been burning DVDs lately it doesnt effect you at all.

[@abeaconintheoffice]

I have read that KZbin plans to roll out a Community Notes system like Twitter did. It should be interesting to see exactly just _how_ it is implemented.

[@thepews1511]

@@abeaconintheoffice Xbox channels going out of business.

[@thegamegeezer5424]

And it only applies to the market in Japan

[@IfYouSeekCaveman]

Wait, so is it Blu rays or DVDs? They are not the same thing

[@thegamegeezer5424]

@@IfYouSeekCaveman only RECORDABLE discs (I.e. DVD-R, CD-R and BD-R)

[@RoboGlitchGames]

What's really crazy about MTX's in live service games (which as you stated is all games these even if it is a single player game or multiplayer game) is that any of the cosmetics or items that people buy (myself included) is we actually have zero ownership of these items which is the exact same as the games we purchase digitally. For however much I love the digital age for everything that we have but we no longer own any of our digital media any more, no software of any kind and this model needs to change before we all get taken for granted more than what is being done to us now. The digital world is really horrifying.

[@Corfield81]

I think movie cinemas people dont go as much now cause it takes a month or two before its on bluray / streaming anyway. Our home TVs now are huge, my tv is 65" and OLED so looks so nice... yeah a cinema is MASSIVE but unless its a blockbuster I dont NEED to go see it and pay a ticket to see it once.

[@misfitwookiee3177]

I waited for the deluxe edition of BG3 for Xbox specifically for the physical copy because (not that I'd ever think Larian would) I don't want to purchase something that later becomes unplayable because the developer decided to stop supporting it. I'm also purchasing blu-rays and CDs specifically so I don't rely on someone telling me that I can only stream it with commercials or whenever they offer it. Yeah, kinda Luddite-like, but if I wanna watch Sons of Anarchy or listen to the band Hash, I can do it on my schedule.

[@ignaciochacon882]

I don't even pay $69 for a game bc it's absurd paying full price when you know months later is gonna be on sale and better optimazed. However, if everybody think like me, this industry would broke for sure lol

[@deeplaysgaming4754]

When i made this statement years ago about games all being downloaded froma server, no millions of cases and booklets made, no discs to make and ship and we are paying for distribution via ou internet fees, now everybody saying what ive been saying years ago, everybody is downloading the game froma server with a diffrent ID for each to register it to you and thats it, plus the fact the stores had to make money from selling the game etc also, thats why rhese gamestops are closing, theses companies have literally taken their margins and broke them becasue of digital downloads.

[@SotNist]

I caught this when you were halfway through the video, and yeah. I paid $84.99 + tax for Chrono Trigger, but that price was based on a few things. Cartridge costs, special chip, memory capacity, Nintendo fees and RPG's just being something of a specialty product at the time that you sometimes had to ask a store to order if you wanted it. Even localization cost for games with that much text and built in character-display limitations was a more specialized field at the time, which added cost as well. I never think this stuff means games should be so-and-so price, it's just always been part of my perspective over the years whenever I hear about price grievances, price hikes, what constitutes a game's "value" etc. Hell, I remember Phantasy Star IV being $99.99, but I didn't own that game until it was probably $10 used. Let alone seeing NeoGeo prices in magazines. The argument about distribution and manufacturing costs no longer being a factor is entirely legitimate, but complaining about prices going up started in the HD era and pre-date the ubiquity of digital distribution by at least 15 years. That said, it's not our responsibility to pay for things we don't want in order to cover ballooning development costs that could be solved by simply not making such massive AAA schlock. It's not me that told big publishers to hire 4000 people and have hour long credit rolls, which necessitate assembly line style franchise production.

[@PulaskiSkater71]

Yeah I’ll never pay that much for a game. See you in a discount

[@VEN0M415]

What isnt helping; and what many people dont understand when they say games cost the same or less as games back then, Prices inflated, but our minimum wages didn't, minimum wage if properly inflated should be double the current average. It takes longer to afford games, and with every other necessity in live jumping randomly in price, people cant buy as many nice-to-haves at a higher price cause they cant save as much as before.

[@adamobrien1945]

You are reading the report wrong. Sony is phasing cd-r, cd+r, cd-rw, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and BD-R storage format and discs because they haven't been mass market relevant since 2010. The report is not a surprise for an antiquated home storage medium. This has NOTHING to do with physical based movies (bluray/ 4k Bluray).

[@dandaigle007]

Exactly!! 🤦

[@SamNewman1984]

10:25 - i noticed something interesting in the xbox store. if you select the standard version of a game , one of the first buttons is 'see other versions' where they have the $100+ copies. but if you select the $100 version from your search, theres no way to see other versions. you have to back out and redo your search

[@liamflan9553]

Not true, you can check see all versions all the time, you must not browse the Xbox store often. You always scroll down and see what’s included in the bundle or deluxe edition. Then get the cheapest version

[@Steve-Cap]

I don’t remember the last time I bought a game at full pop. Sales are where it’s at, usually pick up a hand full of games on Summer Sales etc….

[@zachgrim7416]

We got where we are now because of the “Cosmetic microtransactions are fine” idiots. It has now been taken to the utmost extreme.

[@sevenfacedsin]

One big part of this people are missing as well is the used game market. I remember growing up and going to GameStop for SNES games with my dad. They had bargain bins filled with cartridges for $1-$5. We don’t have this anymore. Firm believer that a thriving low cost used market helps keep new prices low. As the death of physical media accelerates, the cost of new games is just going to keep going up as there won’t be a way to buy cheap used games.

[@gvstleon]

People always miss the most important detail why games cost 80$ back then. In the 90’s memory was outrageously expensive and you can see it the drop in prices from snes/n64 to PS1. And there was more than memory, cartridges had things like super fx or lockout chips for anti piracy. You didn’t only pay for a game, the cartridge itself could cost up to 25-35$.

[@G.U.P.]

Who remembers when DLC was free?

[@ParadoxalDream]

The horse armour doesn't remember

[@proggz39]

DLC was not commonly free since the inception of it. A few companies would throw out freebies here and there, notably CD Projekt, maybe a free outfit here and there but any big dlc always costed money

[@Meson10]

Back then DLC were known as expansion packs

[@chrism8860]

I can't name many free expansions. Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 had many, but they were sizeable

[@Meson10]

@@chrism8860 yea most expansions packs weren't free but it was DLC that sometimes became free on the 360 Xbox live stores and PS3 PSN. It was very rare though. Map packs were becoming free more frequently years after the games launched.

[@SamNewman1984]

destin, everyone plays lip service to being consumer focused, but you always come across as sincere and passionate about it. thank you!

[@V3ntilator]

How the games are priced are insane now vs 1990's. Skull & Bones is a live service game only that cost 70$. Then there is games with 8-Bit NES graphics that cost the same as Skyrim, Doom Eternal, GTA 5 or whatever. Nintendo are now also charging full price even for low budget remakes and simple GBA remakes. I prefer the 1990's pricing when there were no standard. Low budget games weren't sold as AAA Games back then like they are today.

[@SWOTHDRA]

But they were priced like it

[@michaellane5381]

31:25 i agree the problem with accepting cosmetic MTX is we've now got bankers and banking reps in the game developement itself, you need security in the downloads because personal banking info is basically part of every interaction between entities, while if everything is free you only need to know it was paid for once and can keep that non-dev involvement to a minimum and security tight.

[@tenorenstrom]

Also in the 90s the second hand market was booming. I traded in one second game for another and only paid the store’s $10 markup. When all games were physical you could easily borrow games from friends as well. Gaming in the 90s was in reality cheaper. Sure, you had to wait a bit after the release to get it cheap. But because internet was in its infancy there really was no fomo.

[@nelsonbotelho3901]

I completely agree with you....I never buy any DLC when it's already in the game when it launches. It's just hidden behind a code that when you purchase it to unlock the DLC

[@corwinroberts4756]

Gamepass isn't overpriced,

[@DestinL]

100% truth

[@305backup]

The name Paystation becomes less of a joke and more of a fact with each passing month. Gamepass just keeps getting better.

[@AceKurd]

​@@DestinLit's 70% more Expensive On consoles VS PC

[@Nein99x]

YET.

[@SWOTHDRA]

Game pass creates gamepass level/quality games.....aka bad small games, go ask rockstar or cd project red if they could make gta 6 or the witcher 4 o a gamepass budget

[@DARKZONE-ul2mx]

I never buy any Micro transaction stuff I think people that do are fool and the gaming industry is actually Laughing at the ones that do because thay got you hook line and Sinkerd

[@SuperStig92]

The problem is these days is that discs now just act as an unlock code. Very little of a game’s info is stored there now, the majority of it still has to be downloaded from the respective platform’s storefront.

[@QVIS_CVSTODIET_IPSOS_CVSTODES]

Another factor to consider is the fact that Sony's intro of CD's over cartridges made production cost way cheaper, with ~10x more storage per unit. DVD & Blu-Ray provided massive gains in byte-per-cm, as well (not sure on manufacturing cost but I don't think it was substantially higher on average than CD at peak). So it's not just production and shipping in a vacuum; it's production of units that could store more per unit, at the same (or lower) cost than the previous medium, thus leading to fewer storage units (i.e. discs) needing to be produced, thus lighter packaging (and also packaging that was more cheaply produced). People argue that "server maintenance" costs are about the same as all of the preceding combined, but I don't see how it could be. Presumably, the data printed on discs was sent to manufacturers from a server. Manufacturers could also (depending on the publisher, developer, etc) also constitute a "middle man" needing payment. While one MIGHT argue that Steam is a middle man, the same cannot be said for the Xbox store, PS Store, or Nintendo eShop. The fact is that it comes down to development costs and trend-chasing behavior on the part of companies (especially AAA). If pubs and devs stopped assuming that a game that doesn't match Naughty Dog in terms of graphics was and is still a good game, and if they would stop assuming that a 15 hour game is not worth buying, perhaps this problem would go away. Not holding my breath, though. With very few exceptions, I'm just buying games on Steam sales a couple of years later and playing older games and remasters on there that are way cheaper anyway.

[@matthewkehoe4015]

100% agree, there's a lot of people out there trying to justify spending 100 dollars on a game to "sUppOrt tHE DEvs" or saying, if you have GamePass your "destroying the industry". These people are happy to give their hard earned cash to multi-billion dollar mega corporations for this sense of artificial brand loyalty

[@Corfield81]

the price now to make a game is MUCH more too though like voice actors, artists , size of the games etc you can't compare GTA 6 to secrets of mana on the cost to make the game. Yes they are saving money now not making a disc / box and shipping etc but the production is much larger sure...don't get me wrong though $70 to me is still expensive when I can but a movie on bluray for $20 that cost the same to make as the game if not more

[@305backup]

Destiny charged 100 dollars just for dlc lmao

[@SWOTHDRA]

And he bought it

[@305backup]

@@SWOTHDRA Yup, selective outrage at its finest.

[@krazyd0nut404]

@@SWOTHDRA you bought it sheep

[@proggz39]

It’s $50 why are you lying?

[@305backup]

@@proggz39 nope. Half of the story is locked behind the seasonal activities, that means for the full story you have to spend 100 dollars for the entire story.

[@Observant_Introvert]

When GTA6 comes out you know Rockstar will charge $100+ dollars for some premium edition of the game and a lot of people will eat it up... I predict they will offer 3 days early access that some other games have done and will price it well above $100, and you know a lot of people will pay it.

[@xxargonautxx9790]

They’re thinking that game pricing has to go up. They might be the first to push $80-$90 for just the base game cause they know MILLIONS will buy it. I remember hearing they said games should be priced at $100.

[@Muppet-kz2nc]

game sales volume is significantly higher today than it was in the 1990s, including backend sales (MTX, DLCs)

[@carlharrison3637]

I used to pay £1.99 for Mastertronic and other "budget" games. On casette tape lol. 20 minutes for the game to load. Play the game. No save. Start game from beginning. If you were going to play "through" - you REALLY had to play through.

[@cozminr]

this steam sale sucks there's no actually good prices

[@Ripfettic]

There hasn’t been a game really worth that price in a long time,I used to get the games when the price dropped but it seems to be taking forever for the price to come down anymore,

[@bossredgear1328]

Come to Australia. First party games are now $125 😭

[@ridiculous_gaming]

What I would like to know is the development cost of The Secret of Mana compared to production costs today.

[@tji7046]

I'm not convinced and have to look into it.. the reason why games are overpriced is because of physical distribution? That does not sound right one bit. Surely it has to be the cost of development. Spiderman 2 increased by 100 million development cost and that's selling to a smaller install base ( exclusive to PS5 ) I too would like to know the development cost of Mana

[@MrRawnch]

Secret of Mana is the exception not the rule for it's time. To add, games were complete projects out the gate and usually went through extensive testing to make sure everything was working. Preorders weren't pushed as hard in the 80s and 90s and didn't have as many bugs. Stores like Electronic Boutique and Fry's used to give you extras (stickers, posters, keychains, etc..) for buying the game the first week or just because.

[@ShaunLevett]

I remember saving up for months to buy Donkey Kong Country in 1995. Cost £60 even back then. The pound was also worth double the dollar back then, so it's like we were paying $120.

[@gandsavior1979]

Big point that many forget. Physical computer circuitry. Remember that all those systems used ram and rom, two VERY expensive things in the 90s. Remember how much a neogeo cartridge cost back then? Those cartridges cost upwards to 1k $, they ranged from 100 megs to 500mgs. Imagine that most families couldn't afford a computer back in the days. My first video card was a voodoo 2 extreme with 32 megs and that cost me 500$. Sega, Sony and 3do cha get the game with cd rom. Cheaper to make and more space. It was just slower to read the data than the cartridge. But eventually it all merged into one. So the main reason why games where more expensive back in the days was because of the luxury of having computer storage in a cartridge format housing tour games. Today there is no excuse for a manufacturer to charge so much.

[@Mojaveknight17]

Don't buy them? Wait for sales? Buy from different places?

[@DestinL]

This has big "Stop asking questions and consume product" energy.

[@Mojaveknight17]

@DestinL My point it's that we have options, why buy on release date at full price

[@DNDaMD]

​@KnightSoulsG his point is that we shouldn't have to do any of that

[@Ghostlynotme445]

@@Mojaveknight17bro even if you put a price cut $100 it’s still expensive at $70 I really don’t get your meaning

[@voidvoidvoid7274]

@@Mojaveknight17In my country, we have 3 big store chains that sell physical games for 55€ during their first two weeks of release. Still overpriced IMO. EDIT : Normal prices are 70€ here, 80€ for Sony games.

[@pdraggy]

I remember phantasy star 4 being like 140 dollars on release back in like 1992. Prices back in the 16-bit days was just out of control. (99.99 according to Google)

[@shambler7359]

I literally shi* my pants when I saw price of the SW Outlaws gold version on epic store, I actually thought they’re giving a gaming console along with the gold version!

[@frankallen3634]

I will never buy digital anything because I don't care to waste my data cap on games or streaming anything. When physical goes, then I will stop gaming. At the beginning of VHS, the tapes cost over a hundred dollars. Very few of us owned movies and we rented every movie. The wait list was insane

[@PenPineappleApplePen007]

I was thinking this whole time that costs for the companies are lower when they’re not charging for a digital copy, so why the high price when costs are lower? It doesn’t make any sense. I don’t know why people are so eager to pay up more money than they have to.

[@AJJJ-co2vd]

Not to mention the cost of advertising should have gone down bc you watch the trailer on the console they don't have to pay cable companies to advertise their games

[@PaddyX360]

So the short is that development budgets and corporate greed is causing prices of games to increase. Especially when companies only need to budget for ~10% of their sales requiring physical distribution… which is arguably, the only reason games in the 90s were $50/60

[@michaelirish769]

My understanding about physical disks now a days is there isn’t actually any content on them besides content that says you bough the game. The game itself is getting digitally downloaded. Without internet your game is unplayable

[@attitudeare2012]

I’m sick of that as well because the company is charge you a lot when you shouldn’t pay more. I’d rather buy one disc that cheap but if it’s on game pass I don’t mind.

[@mandrews6282]

Whether people like AC Shadows or not, it’s pretty standard pricing. The main game is still 70 bucks. And most developers these days generally sell separate dlc bundles for future dlc’s. Usually for 40 bucks. Shit even Dark Souls 3 sells a literal Season Pass and had a 100 dollar plus version with it bundled. Selling it bundled with a game is functionally the same as selling it separately. And like them or hate them, Ubisoft dlc’s are generally both lengthy and full of content. To buy them separately, if Valhalla is anything to go by, they’d be 25 bucks a pop. So you actually save 10 bucks here. Most devs honestly do this and no one bats an eye. The 130 version is in place of the usual 90 dollar ‘Deluxe Edition’. The 20 bucks that every developer adds on for some skins and a soundtrack. If people are tired of these things they need to call out the devs they love, not just the Ubisofts and EA’s of the industry. The punchingbags. People ignore it when it’s a game they love or dev they love. Either that or they’re misunderstanding the pricing structure here. Because it’s pretty bog standard if you break it down.

[@Nigel222]

It's made me buy way less games. Back in the PS3/360/Wii/DS/PSP generation games here in Europe I could get them day 1 for between 40-50 Euro. Now its costs 75-100 Euro for games depending on the publisher.

[@mrjase9024]

i sold a handful of my physical games for cash. and i mightve regretted buying some digital games that are now ineligible for refunds but in todays games industry, not much catches my eye. i TEND to only buy games that are part of series i love sooo much e.g. god of war

[@InugamiTheHound]

back in the day $60 for 360 era games was a lot because we didn't know how good or bad the game would be now, in 2024 100+ is just base price for a half broken with promise of new content, patches and any DLC that could come out during the life span of this game (could be 6 months or 1 year for most games only a few like fortnite, apex, rainbow six siege , that has lasted longer than a year)

[@McGregorMX]

The other thing digital media did was kill resale. I know this might be an unpopular opinion, but for me, being able to buy used or sell a game after beating it to save money or recover some cost is something develooers and publishers don't have to factor into profits anymore. It's why gamepass is so awesome to me. It's a rental service, which i use quite a bit for single player games.

[@august3777]

Companies who believe games need to be more than $60 without micro transactions need to exit the industry. Use that money to invest in the stock market instead.

[@unknownusrname]

Explain

[@august3777]

@@unknownusrname instead of spending money to make video games, they should spent that money in investments in the stock market.

[@unknownusrname]

@@august3777 ooooh, I get you now

[@isturbo1984]

if the games are great, then they can stay. you forget one very important pat of the equation: most new games suck.

[@proggz39]

If you adjust for inflation, we’ve been paying more than $80 for new games since 1985. But games need to be cheaper gosh darn it 😡 because I said so and know business reaaaally well

[@onlysublime]

there's a big aspect that gets glossed over. Sure physical media costs more. Sure you have to pay for packaging and shipping and everything else. People don't really understand why cartridges were so expensive. And the reason they were so expensive to produce was the memory chips. These ROM chips were very expensive. ROM is not the same as RAM but pricing wise, it was very similar. Every KB and MB was counted and factored. It would like imagining a cartridge as have 16GB of ROM. Sony changed the game because you suddenly took memory out of the equation. Sony games weren't cheaper just to get marketshare. It was far far far cheaper to produce that disc than a cartridge with expensive memory. Nowadays flash memory is so so cheap (it's basically a commodity now) so it's hard to make the correct analogy. But take yourself back to the late 80s or early 90s. Heck, go to the 360 days. Microsoft wanted the 360 to have 256MB of RAM. But Epic showed them what Gears of War would be like on a 256MB system versus a 512MB system. So the 360 ended up with 512MB but this decision reportedly cost them $1 billion in added costs.

[@Molybed1]

What I find interesting is that BOTW had DLC, but didn't have microtransactions. Still sold over 20 million copies FULL PRICE. TOTK had NO DLC, no microtransactions, was $10 more expensive and still sold over 20 million full price. Is microtransactions really necessary or is it a symptom of certain games or genres having a shrinking audience.

[@Hartbreak1]

Yeah during the PS1 and PS2 era most games were 50$ on most console platforms. According to Sony CDs/DVDs were less expensive than cartridges to produce. It was during the PS3 era that prices climbed back to 60$. The reason that Sony gave at that time was that Blu-ray Discs were more expensive to produce than CDs/DVDs and MS gladly followed suit with the Xbox 360 games. Now the 70$ hike there hasn’t been any proper justification for it. Like the video mentioned most distribution is now digital which saves a lot of cost. Also unlike in the PS1 era there’s a LOT more gamers now which means more paying customers.

[@MarcelHoskins]

$70-100 for games that we DON"T own.................it's literally just a leasing license for most games. Companies can just remove games from store/libraries. You aren't given a refund when games are pulled from your library

[@om58499]

$70 games are overprice

[@Shannon-ul5re]

Today’s games are priced way too high on the digital platforms, here in Australia they can be more than a hardcopy which is $125 for a new release. Digital means no distribution, and it’s why I wait for sales. I do not care if that takes 12 months either, I refuse to pay full price.

[@hydromexicano]

Back in the you got the full game no day one patch or updates. Nowadays you pay 70 bucks for a busted ass game. With the devs say they will fix it later

[@joehynes2964]

Games aren't overpriced. However, too many $70 games are retreads of earlier games or gaming ideas (see Far Cry 6, Assassin's Creed 28, Gears of War 15, etc). This leads people to hold onto their cash for truly special or unique experiences, especially with the rampant global inflation. It should also be argued that their are simply too many studios and too many games and the market is weeding itself out.

[@ckling217]

If people stop buying microtransactions, how do you think the publishers are going to make up that money? They will probably raise the base price of the games and now we are all paying more and you have no choice in the matter. Microtransactions are optional. I rarely buy microtransactions and prefer having options.

[@avgnvsnc2257]

It's true distribution costs have gone down but development costs are so much more that's why game prices need to increase.

[@reamoinmcdonachadh9519]

Destin there are games that were X price upon release that REMAIN at that price on the Sony digital Store. Games at full price for YEARS AFTER RELEASE. It wasn't just physical distribution, it was also the "fee" that Developers and Publishers had to pay Sony for their product to even play on their systems.

[@lcvolt1546]

Its weird to listen to you without the “hard news” voice lol. Happy to have found you again.

[@dandaigle007]

I agree! Games are price way to high! Games should be $69.99 CAD. Especially when we are going into a digital world.

[@sauliusvekteris526]

And people still asking why piracy exist. Not only because of malware Denuvo but also overpriced games. Not paying anything more than 60. Thats my bottom line. Ill wait for sale

[@24LROD]

Colin moriarty would disagree. I’ve heard him say the games are actually too cheap lol

[@ozarkbagger1380]

I’ve never paid $100 for a game. Granted I don’t buy games as much as I used to and most of the time it’s in my pc. I’ve never seen the value in buying the more expensive version over the standard. I could care less about the extra junk that comes with the higher price.

[@vanceg4901]

Spending $85.00 for the Elden Ring Steam bundle is unusual for me. I'm usually buying the Ion Fury Aftershock/Selaco, Nightdive Studios type games and older games at much lower cost.

[@caderik1386]

IMO there is no blank answer... The way I look at it is the cost of entertainment per hour. TOTK was $70 but I spent over 100 hours in the game. It is expensive but if there is any way my purchase can help to make another one, then it is worth it. But buying a $70 AAAA game where you will get bored after few hours, that's a lot of money per hour. I do not support microtransactions. However, when you make a game today it is presumptuous to claim you can pay several developers with expected sales * $10.

[@PartyUpLive]

I have a HUGE Backlog of games, so I only buy games on sale now. Every once in a blue moon I'll buy a game new, but that's rare. I add games to my wish list and wait for a sale. I also share games with family, so if I'm not going to play it when I get it, they will. The last game and DLC Season Pass I pre-ordered was for Gears of War 3. I was very happy with that game and still play it. New games coming out today, they all go on my Wish list and when they go on sale, if I want it then, I'll buy it. I am in the process of going PC/Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch (For their Exclusives) for my gaming. As of now, I won't be getting a new console next gen. And I've been gaming since Sega Master System and Nintendo NES. And I can't remember the last time I paid for a micro transaction. I don't care about cosmetics that cost money. Especially in a third person shooter.