The Gaming Industry has lost their collective mind

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On this channel, I discuss topics like RPGs, CRPGs, JRPGs, FFXIV, Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 4, Path of Exile, Elden Ring, MMOs, World of Warcraft, and gaming industry news.

[@LegendaryDrops]

Will you pay $100 to $150 for games? www.twitch.tv/legendary_drops

[@Lucky_Fluffy]

no i will be embracing the Pirate Life if this is what the Idiots in the Gaming Industry Decides this is the way to go.

[@micheleosullivan4430]

I am quite patient. I will wait for the big Steam sales. ETA: I only play single player games. It's just not worth it to me to pay $100 or more for a game. I almost always wait for sales.

[@seanheisey8645]

Ill start pirating my games thank you.

[@Disinterested1]

no

[@NaraClanGaming]

Under NO circumstance. Yo ho yo ho a pirate’s life for me

[@kinghazythethird]

Nobody asked them to hire Hollywood actors we just want fun games

[@SUP-h9d]

Hiring actors was never the issue. Like, tf does that have to do with "fun games"?

[@smaaron_j_46]

@@SUP-h9d besides, haven’t they been doing that since 2002? They mostly hire unrecognized talents, but Vice City and San Andreas had tons of Hollywood castings lol

[@kinghazythethird]

@@SUP-h9d wasting millions on a voice actor and complaining about how much it cost to make a game is my point

[@NoName-bk3su]

@@SUP-h9d they put more budget on the actors than developing the game thats the issue

[@Sjr0429]

@@kinghazythethirdcod has kevin spacey in AW

[@ZwiekszoneRyzyko]

Okay, let's make a deal, developers. I'll pay $100 and you'll give me a physical copy of the game. In a box. A game I can install and play anywhere, anytime, even offline, without microtransactions and season passes, forever. A game that I can actually OWN, instead of some crappy unlock code. How'bout that?

[@choatus]

Will never happen, they will just give you the day 1 edition which won't include 3/4 of the actual game...

[@MisterNightfish]

Bizzard: Hm, how about instead you buy a golden dinosaur for 90$? (which people did in droves, apparently)

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

….we just have to get used to not owning our games. SAID NO GAMER EVER!! I absolutely will not pay $100 for any base game. I’m in my mid forties and have a backlog that will last me the rest of my life

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

@ explain! What is this golden dinosaur??

[@oBigBusiness]

You forgot one big ask, game needs to be COMPLETE lol no last minute update patches to fix your new game lol

[@Gnipahell1r]

The thing is: I need to drive, I need to eat, I need to sleep under a roof. But I don‘t really need video games.

[@solrubrum]

They should just go ahead and charge 500 per game. Speed up their demise

[@memesrdreams4854]

There are also plenty of excellent games for less than even a quarter of what these industry nutjobs are suggesting.

[@matthewvelazquez2013]

Thank you for being sane.

[@mattb4625]

This, exactly. On the hierarchy of needs videos games are... not even in the hierarchy!

[@rodrobinson5630]

Especially when you get older you barely play

[@ogmamcgee]

“I’ll just get it on sale” has become my motto for literally everything

[@danstrikker6465]

Same

[@derekfume8810]

Is this something extraordinary?

[@billyyank1916]

Same here, especially with games that have been out for some time. As for newer titles, I prefer to give it a year since I can save twenty bucks and never pre-order unless I am absolutely dying to play them.

[@Madchris8828]

The only exception is if it's a game I really really want or care about. Baldurs gate 3 was the last game I got without a sale. And it turned out to be an amazing coop experience with friends

[@pigpuke]

@@billyyank1916 You also avoid the bug ridden mess the game will inevitably be for that $100 they demand.

[@johnsummers2943]

Make your games $$100 and see how fast AAA games gos under. I almost WANT them to do it.

[@cadethumann8605]

I pretty much refuse to buy any game that goes above $60 (without DLC). Games like Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Indiana Jones and the great circle, and last of us part 1 (the remake) I refuse to buy. $100 is even more overkill.

[@mrconroy4672]

@@cadethumann8605Zelda Totk is the only one worth 70 dollars.

[@therussianyetishow1238]

@@mrconroy4672Wait a while and buy it for 60 anyway

[@MoshJunkie426]

I remember growing up with the ps1 and ps2 and remember when brand new games were 30 or 40 bucks. When GTA San Andreas came out it was 40 bucks and it was a physical copy that could be played offline. No micro transactions, no season DLC, no expansion packs. At that time it was the best stand alone game on that generation of console. I understand that things get more expensive over time but it's time these companies stop gouging customers for sub par games

[@cadethumann8605]

@@mrconroy4672 Maybe. But lately, I'm trying to budget. I haven't even finished the games I already own. In fact, I haven't been playing games much as I've been busy.

[@PaladinLagnir]

Reminder that there are so many games on Steam that are $15 or less that you could never play them all.

[@Szarps]

And GOOD ones at that

[@jayd6372]

Yup, fantastic indie games around that $15 or less: Balatro, Death Must Die, Halls of Torrment, Noita, Necrosmith, Valheim and MANY many more, those are just ones I have played

[@KiiBon]

Hollow Knight is like $15 and it ended up being one of the most incredible games I've ever played

[@KyriToe]

another remainder you can get for free if its on pc with mod support modders will fix all flaws and go beyond (skyrim)

[@Jykobe491]

​@@jayd6372The problem with indie games is that games that replace popular titles are few, I don't want and side-scroller or 2.5d platform game, I want a big action packed game with a good story and indie games cannot provide that consistently

[@CorvoFG]

Remember when they told us that making our games download only would make them cheaper? Pepperidge Farms does.

[@torchbearer3784]

I actually remember that! Total lie as usual.

[@3choblast3r4]

I tried telling everyone that this was a lie, that in fact they would use the monopoly it would create (removing physical stores) to increase prices by insane amounts. And that's exactly what happened. In Europe a game costs 80euro on PSN, physical still exists (is slowly dying) but hilariously costs 10/15 euro cheaper than digital ones.

[@GJVADER]

There’s no way you’re old enough to remember those commercials 😂😂😂

[@zfsbsdxky-om8ez]

The problem is that valve, sony, microsoft and nintendo took all of those savings because they have more bargaining power than the consumer,. until they are serious about negotiating the cut platforms get they shouldn't bother asking us for more money.

[@thedeadpoolwhochuckles.6852]

​@@GJVADER Family Guy made a reference to it years ago.

[@the.wanginator]

As a gamer, the one thing you can always count on is that the price will always drop. It then becomes a game of how patient you are and how long you're willing to wait

[@danstrikker6465]

The perk of having a big steam backlog is i can wait years

[@localcompanion]

For a lot of games this is true. _Not_ DayZ. For reference, I love and hate DayZ. It's buggy all to hell, it has a toxic fanbase, and worst of all, despite being like a decade old it is $54.99 on Xbox. FIFTY FOUR. Why!? Only reason I have it is because I got it on sale a couple years ago. It's absolutely ridiculous.

[@modisp]

No you cant. Not for live service games. Cause they can go unlive.

[@Shatterfish]

It’s usually best to wait anyway, since most big games take a year or more to be patched to the standard it should’ve been on release

[@antonymccall]

and by the time it's on sale, the GPU to run the poorly optimised game should be cheaper too

[@mattnorris9152]

I only ever buy games when they are on Steam sale. $100 is ridiculous

[@RatedMforMatt-ure]

even a 40% sale would still be 60$...that's fucked up

[@corneliusgegan6773]

Same, I don't need it day one, in fact the game will fixed and completed by the time the sale rolls along. I have a hell of a backlog to get through (mostly because of Steam sales), why not wait?

[@UltimaDoge]

Same, well mostly. Bought Helldivers 2 lately for full price knowing it’s a safe bet by now. Only for it to go on sale a few days later 😅 But the game is awesome and the price is fair, so I don’t mind.

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

@@RatedMforMatt-ure Yep. Some games are selling their GOTY with full DLC and all that for that price and I still refuse to touch it.

[@Idk-wo1er]

Apparently because of that very reason GTA VI won't be released on pc because pc gamers wait for sales

[@papadross]

I’m not paying $100 for a game. Hell, I don’t pay $70. I wait a couple years and get it on sale with all the DLC.

[@yeahaight5915]

Broke boy broke mf boy

[@gh6stki11a3]

That's what I been doing the last few years. I play mostly indie titles now. Sick of paying $70-120 for broken on release games... Yeah, I'll wait for it to be patched and when it is +75% off...

[@yeahaight5915]

@@papadross why did you delete my comment broke boy broke mf boy

[@tobyeaterofbark9582]

i dont see how ppl dont learn this. hell i went to a pawnshop and bought like every ps4 exclusive for like 70 bucks

[@bullets1x99]

@@papadross I’m with you there I recently bought the tomb raider remake For 30$ had to hunt down a Physical copy of it

[@EldritchErik94]

Unless it’s the most premium edition, absolutely not. Most AAA games nowadays aren’t even worth $40 anyway.

[@mrturbo84]

9,99$ Max.

[@crazyfnjoey]

Absolutely. Veilguard for $70? I could get a kick in the balls for free and it would be more worth my time than that game.

[@TrowSonny]

True, its already injustifiable to sell a game for 70$ with bugs, season pass and mtx. That you dont actually own. Let alone 100$...

[@emperorvisas9309]

Facts

[@drakkenmensch]

I'll wait for the next steam sale when I can pick them up for 20$ or less.

[@licla86]

The problem is not inflation, its that investors see games as walsstreet. they want and need to make their money back, but it not just enough to make a few million, they need billions, they need all the money. Thats why they have been forcing games and micro transactions. Mc donalds had their big boom when it cost like 1 dollar, now that its 20 dollars they are scambling to get customers back. This market is becoming the same, they are already in profit like lets say 5 mil per game, but that is not enough, they need 100 mil, and next year its 200 mil, and then its 500. Thats why the world is crashing and burning, its all atribbuted to inflation when its just greed for all the money

[@CollinMiller-sq6tx]

Preach. The entire economy is focused on growth instead of profit itself. Makes no sense because continuous growth forever is literally impossible.

[@wallerlad]

Exactly they'll keep pushing up prices until it's just enough to not push people over the edge then they'll stop and that's the new normal price

[@Coffeekitty7]

the stock exchange was the worst invention made under capitalism.

[@christaylor7079]

As many problems as Steve Jobs had he was right about one thing: product quality falls off hard when the creatives get overrun by the suits. The fact that these companies are looking at spreadsheets to try to figure out why they aren’t making enough money from selling boring, barely playable games is such a disconnect that it’s hard to believe these companies ever functioned at all

[@BoredSquirell]

they don't consume their own products, and as such can't possibly understand what makes a game good

[@Sammo212]

which is ironic given that Steve Jobs wanting to make arbitrary design decisions made the products worse overall. There has to be a balance.

[@InternetHydra]

He has as much credibility with that as George Lucas talking about how special effects without a story are a pretty boring thing.

[@Darth_Bateman]

Much like a LOT of Steve Jobs’ ideas : that’s horseshit. Apple has more suits than ever and the quality of the iPhone is so good that I’ll tolerate paying for apps just to use them on this thing.

[@christaylor7079]

@@BoredSquirell honestly these companies can probably cut their production costs in half by getting rid of bloated middle and upper management. Just let the creative director make the decisions with as little interference as possible and you’ll probably hit more than miss, provided that you’re smart enough to get a good director

[@spongedog0013]

10 years ago me and a friend joked that in 20 years gaming prices would get so high that gaming would become something only the middle class and rich could have as a luxury and that the poor would have to settle for older games or resort to piracy. I didn't think we would actually be right about that.

[@MeanBeanComedy]

No more jokes from you! You're bad luck.

[@spongedog0013]

@@MeanBeanComedy We also Joke that the world would end before 2030 soooo. Bad news....

[@Mushed_Brain_No_thoughts]

@@spongedog0013 *gestures outside* window you mean like this

[@FYGUnkleUrple]

PTSD flashbacks to 10 years ago and hearing someone say "I only believe in the three B's: Bioware, Bethesda, and Blizzard."

[@___kayed]

@@spongedog0013yo chillll

[@Swagceus]

This will will result in 2 things. 1) People will buy less games as 100$ is a big ask even for those who are wealthy. 2) Piracy will sky rocket bringing a new golden age of piracy. Not to mention that video game budgets are artificially inflated. BO2 back in 2012 had a development budget of 28M USD (200M with the development budget included) and dev team of around 200-270 devs. BO6 had a development budget of 700M USD (marketing included as we don't know how much it cost to develop BO6) and over 3000 devs. This isn't an inflation problem but an industry problem. They got themselves in this mess and inflation wasn't the cause.

[@yimwee2401]

OOOONE WISH OOONE DREAM, let me tell you something, if game prices rose to $100 the great pirate era is gunna start, and I'm gunna be king of the pirates.

[@loveaintfree1409]

you can't pirate consoles though hahaha

[@MakerInMotion]

The problem with piracy is no patch updates and even good games need post-release tweaks these days. I can think of two games I played in recent years that ran flawlessly for me on release. Tears of the Kingdom and Space Marine 2. Even devs that make a good faith effort to release without bugs still miss things.

[@paniiziima]

@@loveaintfree1409 imagine using console tho

[@MAKPrime625]

@@MakerInMotion space marine 2's opening cutscene couldn't even load for many, myself included.

[@Kendoujo]

Something i haven't seen anyone take into account is already the huge growth in the gaming audience. When i was a kid in the 90s gaming was for "nerds", almost bully worthy. It was much much much more niche than it is today and it still managed to turn good profits while being a complete product. I bet if you graphed the increased developer costs against the increase in sales volume + the fact you only buy a shell experience now not a full experience and then get persistently sold to after purchase, games have never been more lucrative. But they don't just want some of the money, they want all of the money, and your blood

[@modisp]

Exactly. Toyal gamingnindustry reveue was constanly increasing. So THEY ARE making more money.

[@Madchris8828]

What they really want is dumb apes that will just drool on themselves and consistently pay over and over for cosmetics and becoming whales, all while saying they "don't have a problem". Even though they bought cosmetics plus a 80 plus dollar game 😂

[@theforkedman3030]

Video game prices haven't been going up with inflation but general pay hasn't gone up with the rate of inflation either.

[@williamyoung9401]

For 50 years! Yet, for some reason, 50% of GTA 6 fanatics say, "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" It must be nice to be so wealthy? 🤑

[@gabrielaj2066]

@@williamyoung9401I’m wealthy and I’m still not buying a base game for $100 that’s just crazy. I’ll buy gta 6 if it has gold edition or deluxe edition but other than that forget it.

[@nickthompson1812]

@@gabrielaj2066 regardless if it has gold or deluxe versions, you’re still paying $100 for the base game + the cost of the gold or deluxe.

[@Stevo.100]

Video game prices never went down when the amount of customers went up. They never seem to bring that up when they're trying to raise the prices.

[@smithynoir9980]

​@@Stevo.100 These money people think every instance of transaction must go up. They can't fathom that profits have skyrocketed due to in-game purchases and in-game exploration of players and a massively growing overall player numbers. If a game isn't making enough money, it is entirely because it was mismanaged by those that have no idea what design and development entails.

[@nathanbowe9632]

I have a 6 yr old pc, it’s not just a $100 game, it’s a $100 game that also requires a $800+ upgrade

[@joy_0109]

Right? Feels like every other game that comes out requires a new upgrade. Hardware becoming obsolete so quickly.

[@the_4th_hokage_xxavier587]

console my guy

[@CzCorrupt]

Felt this comment in my soul😂

[@somedudeonyoutubefrfr]

@@the_4th_hokage_xxavier587 You cannot compare pc to console, my guy...

[@tomwilson3969]

That's honestly why I recently made the switch to console. That and alot less hackers

[@leerylapine3728]

the covid profits ruined companies mindsets horribly. I work retail, and during the week of the lock down our store literally ran out of everything, big sales, huge numbers. April 2021 comes around, and our head office is getting mad at our store manager that our sales are only 1/10th that they were last year and would not let up on how our store is doing so much worse than the year before... as if the guy could not comprehend there was some global panic that told everyone to stock up and stay low for "two weeks"

[@DomE-ub1md]

It ruined everything tbh

[@tinyknott]

While there's been a fair amount of hate against HR and DEI, incompetent managers really deserve so much more hate (well, usually all three or two of them came in a package deal). Having to work for, at a lower salary, a person who is incapable of understanding context..... That has to be soul crushing.

[@zechordlord]

The sales curve has been flattened.

[@Viper3220]

"Infinite growth" is the *DUMBEST* and an utterly unsustainable mindset

[@leburger5160]

The same happened to me in the store I worked at. We were making a killing during covid. Our store was one of the top earners in my country at the time. Then it passed and revenue tanked. Almost two thirds of the staff were laid off because of it. I lost my job because the head office didn't understand why the store was losing money now. Now the entire store is on the verge of being shut down because it can't reach the numbers it did during 2020 and 2021. The corporation that controls the store, the warehouse group, is tanking now. losing money hand over fist. Because they tried to ride the coat tails of the pandemic into ridiculous profit margins that weren't sustainable. The gaming industry is doing the same thing. And it will end the same. With almost all of the industry shrivelling and suffering an agonisingly painful death. Just like the warehouse group...

[@ryansmith2045]

Consumer confidence is an excellent point. I've lost confidence in many of my favorite studios and franchises. The dialogue around new releases has changed from excitment to hesitation. The industry has consistently delivered incomplete experiences tacked with microtransactions and bugs. The gaming community has lost faith and confidence in studios to deliver complete products, let alone enjoyable experiences. Increasing the price won't solve the underlying issue. As you said, it'll create an ocean between success and failure.

[@luk3th]

I am definitely not buying games over $60 let alone $100

[@3choblast3r4]

American, huh? In Europe they raised the prices to 70 euro during the PS4 era and to 80 during this generation. Which was almost a 100 dollars not that long ago but the value of the Euro dropped a little compared to the dollar. When I complained about the price increases on the subreddit, pre ps5 release. I was called poor and all kinds of other names by fanboys. I imagine a lot of them were American which makes it funnier because for them the prices don't seem to have increased. Even steam sells games for 70/80 euro.

[@CBEnoddyy]

5 games at £20 each, not a problem. £100 on one, not a chance in hell.

[@Belmont1714]

This is why I sail the seas...

[@MarvinPowell1]

Same. They only made $60 the AAA standard in 2013 with the Xbox One and PS4. They only went up to $70 in 2021, and that's when I noped out of new games. Only new game I've bought since then is Palworld and that was on sale and an alpha release.

[@TheMikepatota]

It has to be a cross between something special and something I’ve been waiting on forever, and something that does have weirdo ideology ruining the franchise But there aren’t a lot of games that have hit any of those categories for a long time.

[@smokinace926]

It feels like they’re gonna use the “$100” buzz just to turn around and say “hey we’d never do that, so instead just $80”. It’s a sales technique that has stood the test of time.

[@imjust_a]

In fact, it's very likely Nvidia just pulled that same tactic with their new GPU lineup... 🤔

[@NULLZER0112]

Its called The Big Ask. tricks people into paying more and thinking THEY got the deal lol

[@ChrisHöppner]

Yeah, it's called the "foot in the door" technique. It's not just a sales technique, but also a negotiation technique. You make an absolutely outrageous claim you know they will aggressively oppose, then take 2 steps back to a more "reasonable" position. I've done this thousands of times when negotiating all kinds of things for my job. Works a solid 90% of the time.

[@Name-zd2nb]

Or they do it and use the higher price to justify a discount to 60-70 as a good thing. When in reality they just wanted full price for games sold at a "discount".

[@cahranplavski]

The only game I would pay 100 bucks for would be gta6. And I would only be willing to do that after seeing actual gameplay to get a grasp of how big everything is. But for any other games, its a hard pass. I dont remember ever buying a game unless its on sale. Maybe lethal company was the exception but any other game, always on sale. If the norm is going to be 100 bucks for 1/4 of a game im good. Ill start playing entirely f2p games.

[@CordellPotts]

47 , been a gamer since the N.E.S. Not once in all that time did I ever think "Maybe it's time to find another hobby, A real hobby" But now in 2025, I can't stop thinking that thought. "Why am I doing this? Why am I paying for crap again and again? Why has every series I love become weird and obviously not made for me ?" I think I'm gonna start building stuff out of wood instead of buying any new games.

[@Mememan12113]

o7 Original Gamer

[@SunArau]

May use my tactic, which is wait 1-2 years for new release and THEN play it. Comes with extra perk of not needing top of the line PC to keep up to date. I mean, I started to play cyberpunk only this week, after everything was fixed and addon came out. Bought full bundle for scary 18 euros. Same goes for Hogwarts Legacy for 13 euros and Days Gone for 8. Well, you get my drift i hope. There is no need to catch singleplayer games on release to be a paying beta tester.

[@XennialTV]

Do what I did, during the pandemic when I was off work due to lockdown I studied Unreal Engine and now I make my own games.

[@NULLZER0112]

Stay out of models and mini's, youll be even more broke lol

[@thebeluvdtrex]

You should learn to code and make games.

[@Irate_Beau]

dont forget: it has to be cheap enough and good enough that buying it is better than just pirating it. or flat-out ignoring it entirely. these game publishers are actual parasites.

[@JSerio187]

$60 is too much. I’m on that “wait for it to go on sale” shit right now. You know these GTA stans are going to pay out the ass for that shit though! I’m also all digital. I know I don’t own shit.

[@OrgaNik_Music]

I think I've bought exactly one game at full price in the last 10 or so years. Just wait for a few months and you get a working version for half the price instead of a broken mess on day 1.

[@madkitty2801]

Why do you blame them? after the experience i had on rdr2 i am for sure buying day one blindfolded.

[@lyndina8492]

60 Dollars is fine when the game is of quality,like Baldurs Gate or the Yakuza Series. When some Ubisoft Slop comes around and wants to charge 60 Bucks for their copy and paste shit...nope.

[@whiskeytails]

@@lyndina8492Exactly. I’m buying GTA 6 on first day + whatever extra content or merchandise releases at full price. In my opinion, Rockstar has never released a “bad” game. Ever. I’m comfortable spending $200+ for a release like this

[@zaidb4296]

@@madkitty2801 Well, Red Dead Redemption writers are no longer working for Rockstar, and even if they were, they never worked on the GTA games because it's two different teams. GTA never excelled for its story so I don't see why GTA 6 will, since it's always catered to a more juvenile audience rather than a mature one like Red Dead did.

[@stevenhayes7910]

It’s just hilarious to me that at a time where luxury goods are failing because people just don’t have the money to waste, the gaming corpos think they’re immune. Even after all the recent flops. What a bunch of dinguses. I ain’t spending $100 per game. I would simply wait for the price to drop, wait for a sale, or buy it used at my local game store.

[@LoneWolf-rc4go]

It's not even like they're offering luxury goods either. Most of these games are just half baked slop; churned out to be as 'safe' and 'PC' as possible.

[@Skumtomten1]

100 $ isn't exactly much to be fair. If you spend 50 - 100 hours on that game, the value you get per hour is insane compared to most other hobbies. Now, because games are terrible today, I don't buy them anyway as I stick to older games. Claiming gaming is expensive is just wrong though, It's an extremely cheap hobby overall.

[@ChristianvandeGraaf]

Luxury goods aren't failing though. At least what is classified as luxury. Rich people are still rich. The middle market is the one suffering because that's where the biggest erosion of wealth has been. And which segment does video gaming belong to? Exactly the one where people feel the crunch the most.

[@jimmythecrow]

@@Skumtomten1 in america its not much. Think about how much it costs other places. But video games that are released now are not worth 100

[@inmymind360]

@@Skumtomten1 Braindead muppet argument, dude. Absolutely pathetic.

[@ryatt9365]

So AAA has been getting their asses kicked by free or -$20 games for years, and their solution is to… increase the price by 60%… Don’t cut back on hiring celebrities or big name voice actors. Don’t scale back games to be 8-16 hours instead of 16-40, or more. Don’t take a break from massive open world games and bring back some traditional tight, linear experiences that are more replayable. Don’t chill out on hiring dozens of people to pump out store content for a free game, instead focusing on making an experience that people are actually willing to pay for. Don’t have a revolving door of new hires, instead forming a proper team so that you can get games out faster and have a more cohesive product. None of that. Let’s ask the players to pay more for products that we’ve already made very clear for YEARS that we have little interest in. Certainly an interesting strategy.

[@ThaCyNiQ]

I disagree about the length. I won't play a game that takes less than 20 hours.

[@Daniel-om4ce]

@@ThaCyNiQthere’s plenty of games that take less than that. Most games before like 2015 took less than that, like TLoU

[@mrconroy4672]

The only one at least got the memo is Nintendo.

[@Viper3220]

My personal sense of inflation is I used to allow for $1/hour of game length. I now allow for $2/hour of game. That's it. Stray is an average of 7 hours. I'll pay $14-15 for that. Max.

[@memitim171]

It's the crazy amounts they spend on marketing that gets me. Who here honestly thinks you could release a game in 2025 that is absolutely amazing, pushes the boundaries of what a video game can be and doesn't have anything scummy attached to it and then you don't market it at all, and nobody notices? No, the reason you have to spend so much on marketing is because you aren't doing any of those things.

[@Jo-Wilbe-Dina]

2008 Old Rockstar: "Look what I made! Isn't this great? Fans love it too." 2013 New Rockstar: "Great, will take it from here. You may leave now." 2025 Corrupt Rockstar: "Our product is failing in sales. It must be that players aren't buying enough, so we'll increase the price instead. Putting more work into making the game more fun and playable? That won't be necessary." Old Rockstar: _"You're not looking so good there, Jimmy."_ Corrupt Rockstar: *"Screw you."*

[@vithepiltoverenforcer8778]

$50 almost makes sense back in the day when the primary method of delivery was physical media. Part of the cost had to cover production and distribution. Now that everything is digital media, there is ZERO excuse for any game to still cost $60, let alone $70 or $100 except plain corporate greed.

[@dakota9821]

Don't forget, the jump to digital only was supposedly going to lower the price of games. Ya know, since they didn't have to invest in a ton of disks.

[@Owain_Lord_Of_Glyndyfrdwy]

Adjusted for inflation, prices have never been lower. And "corporate greed" only works if you have no competition. Obv.

[@ninjinmugen]

Another part of the discussion being ignored is the standard cost of living was lower in the 90s so people naturally had more disposable income they could spend on entertainment.

[@IIDEADBIRDII]

I can see $60 maybe even $70 today but $100 is way too high.

[@DonJuanDM]

Plus you can sell your physical copy to recoup some of the money. Digital copy should be a LOT cheaper because there is no 2nd hand market.

[@feastildur]

Bro I am so sick of corporate greed. $100 games are temporary, steam sales are forever.

[@Darth_Bateman]

Or until Gabe retires….

[@Darth_Bateman]

Welp, hope you weren’t on the Trump train. Cuz now we are in the age of corporate greed.

[@harrisonshouldice5451]

Wait until movie tickets go up. Again.

[@SleepyGameFacts]

STALKER supremacy

[@feastildur]

@Darth_Bateman idk if this will change much tbh. Valve isn't a publicly traded company with shareholders iirc

[@DukeOfTorpedoes]

That "Asmon thanks for unpausing" is so fucking hilarious, I hope the timing hits exactly right whenever he reacts to this.

[@quipsilvervr]

I thought exactly this as well!

[@c24nk]

I definitely laughed and ran to the comments 😂

[@chrisclement5091]

I hope so!

[@matturner6890]

"yeaaah.... Yeah y'know what's crazy? He's actually right (eyebrow things)."

[@DukeOfTorpedoes]

@matturner6890 *pauses and Throws head back* "Trueeeeee, so truueeee.... And you know what, that's exactly what I said 3 weeks ago!"

[@SparkVulpa]

This is one of the most quintessential, urgent and passionate videos that must be seen by everyone who is interested in modern video games.

[@Hicoyo]

I will not apologize for being able to recognize a pattern. After getting burned a few times on preorders, loot boxes, and all the other terrible monetization schemes I've been staunch in my purchasing of games. I do not preorder, nor have I in over seven years. I refuse to buy any microtransaction, cosmetic or not unless I'm using points I earned in game. I have abandoned the gotcha genre entirely. Ever since it became normal for games to cost $70 I've also not been buying it at release and instead waiting for a sale. It seems I'll have to keep at it and hope this voting with my wallet stuff eventually starts to work out in my favor. Because I for one, will not pay $100 for the base edition to any game.

[@TheRealNoob933]

Lmao guys we found one of em

[@mysterious___1]

@@TheRealNoob933found who

[@jorwon]

I am just like you man

[@TheVillainInGlasses]

I'll buy (non-loot box) microtransactions in a F2P game, provided they aren't egregiously priced (looking at you Path of Exile), but in a full priced game? Nah, they can fuck waaaaaay off. And the only time I buy games is either during a steam sale or if it's $40 or less. $100 is fucking *absurd* 🤣

[@MaxGoodwin-wz2rd]

I really just play ftp games, there honestly is some great diversity if you just know where to look. And also a spot of 5 finger discounts

[@fishermanjim5654]

The craziest part to me is that they try to justify the price increase by saying prices are up across the board, failing to realize that the gaming industry as a whole is a LUXURY, and when the cost of living goes up, luxury item sales go DOWN. I'm priced out already and pretty much stick exclusively to indie games. That definitely won't change with price increases like this.

[@Doomthinkingman]

Exactly what I came here to say

[@GramKracker88]

I think the experts in the field are very much aware of this, this topic has became a clickbait topic for content creators to make money off of - the reality is the base game will cost $70 - and they will try to entice more money out of folks by offering premium 100+$ editions that offer early access like a week or more early. These folks aren’t dumb it’s the same reason the pc edition won’t launch until more than a year later - so they can sell duplicate copies, plus they probably brokered a deal with console companies on top of it. They are pulling out all the stops to maximize profit everywhere they can, and they know pricing above $70 for base game would hurt those numbers

[@ronnieronb73]

The cost of labor is the largest expenditure in video game development. Devs make over $100,000. Couple that with a team of thousands and unqualified DEI hires. It's no surprise the AAA DEI slop we get now has gone up in price.

[@SimuLord]

Speaking of indie games, that's the other part they conveniently overlook when they treat AAA like they're the only games on the market. Indies offer an arguably superior product at a lower price with more consumer-friendly practices. They teach the "substitution principle" in Econ 101 in college. These AAA execs need to go back to school.

[@2138Dude]

What if i tell you dont need to buy games? You can just download them

[@TheShadowscale]

I was looking into it. In 1996, PlayStation games had an MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) of USD $49.99. Adjust for inflation to today, that's about $102. The thing is, the difference was back then, games were *always* a complete package experience. No battlepasses, season passes, microtransactions, etc. The shelf-price of games may not "cost" as much as they used to, but they are absolutely making more.

[@Tomoe1868]

And wayyy more people are playing games now. It’s much more accessible.

[@darkdawnbringer]

Game development has never been cheaper... They don't make their own code or engine anymore, they don't have to ship physical copies world wide, they don't need that one genious guy that is one of the few people that can do a certain thing, there are people that can do game design under every rock, you can't go outside to a bar or pub and toss a rock and not hit someone that can do basic game dev stuf...

[@KamilPawelczykGuitar]

Also wages have stagnated so just looking at the inflation doesn't tell the whole story. Inflation has outpaced wage growth so selling the games at $100 would be more expensive to consumers than $50 was in 1996. Not 2x as expensive but somewhere in between.

[@alexc9434]

Games back then were fun and worked well.

[@dave24-73]

Average game was $25 and budget games were $10. They came in a box, they came with massive manuals, they came with posters and they came with keyboard overlays. For context my first computer was the C64 and we borrowed a PET prior, that gives you some idea of how old I am lol. Look at a game like gunship, you really got a lot for your money, lovely manuals.

[@gutika113]

I work at a small studio (24 developers) and we see this on the near horizon. We’re an employee owned studio, and our CEO is very worker focused, so we currently charge $39 at launch and will continue to do so- but I know with absolute certainty that corporate publishers are going to be increasing their prices. I just hope that their poor decision doesnt take us all down.

[@falloutthewindowcrazy7608]

What kind of games do you develop?

[@gutika113]

@ prefer not to be too specific, but we do 2 wheel racing games.

[@falloutthewindowcrazy7608]

@@gutika113 that's a perfectly fair response I appreciate what you've told me

[@minibrum9369]

No matter how good the game is, I’m not spending $100 on it

[@Domura]

There's maybe 3 games in the history of gaming that I'd say $100 was an acceptable price and I am including ones that cost $20 that I bought 5 copies of so all my friends could also play.

[@francischambless5919]

so you can wait however long until it's discounted on steam. Good on ya.

[@tenshi7478]

@@Domura fr and those are from software games and another balders gate

[@JayPeeh0]

​@@tenshi7478 From software? Maybe elden ring but just elden ring

[@Picklerick4467]

The only games I'd ever spend $100 on. Our games strictly made by From soft Rock steady And rockstar I'll overlook Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League simply because they were forced to make it and literally no one wanted to So I still trust them.

[@thomasfoster7641]

Here’s the worst part, the basically already have a test case for this idea. At some point in the last 5 years they stopped doing the “the game is $60 in local currency” and started doing a “they game is $60 USD equivalent in local currency” games here in Australia went from $60 AUD to $100+ AUD. Black myth is $99. Space marines 2 was like $100-$110 depending where you got it from. Skull and bones? Almost $150. And you know what has happened here? Basically NO ONE is buying games unless they’re truely exceptional. Genuinely almost everyone here misses the day 1 release unless it’s a game they were really excited for. Everyone waits until it goes on sale. Tbh if they do raise the cost to $100 (almost $200 AUD) I’m crashing out. I will legitimately be selling my console and all the games and never touching them again. All the PC players will be pirating in seconds. If they raise the prices the gaming industry WILL die.

[@Fumbiii16]

Bro ik 60 is better than 100 but get a job you can make more than 100 within a year. Get a job and you’ll make a 100 bucks easily. I make that in one day. This game gave you years to save up. And it’s obvious rent food and bills are first but you would still have enough to save week per week month after month year after year. 100 isn’t a lot of money for a game that has a lot of content. But I do agree games are getting more expensive by a few bucks. Everything gets experience wages gets increase and houses get increased it’s inflation. But ppl are crying like 100 is 1000 or 10000. Now if the game was trash and you spent 100 then I get it but I don’t think so. But i can give you some indie games that are 5-20 bucks and are way more fun than 60 bucks.This isn’t in your control you either buy it or don’t buy it. thats why you watch or see videos before buying.

[@chankabizarrenetworkdeluxe1984]

@@Fumbiii16broski are u so slow that u don’t realize that people clearly can tell it’s just a greed problem their just testing the waters. There was a ceo that said we should get comfortable not owning our games…. Bro it’s just greed people don’t wanna pay 100 dollars for slop it’s clowns like u that allowed console online going from free to paid…. Should have spoken with ur wallet instead of thinking all of this is ok

[@Jeqavy_Wavy]

@@Fumbiii16Crazy, as a man who is well paid and enjoys gaming; still not purchasing a game for 100$. That is a crazy amount of money for something that I will not commit hundreds of hours to.

[@jakubdanis3387]

@@Fumbiii16 No wonder jew is dending capitalism so much.

[@tahliae]

Here’s the thing. $100 for something I don’t own is a wild idea to me. I stopped buying digital movies and I’ve been very picky about any ebooks or audiobooks. I use the library heavily and am actually reading the physical books I’ve collected. The switch games I have are physical copies. The computer games I buy are indie (cost and replay, like you mentioned ) or they’re static on the computer and don’t need internet, beyond updates, and I’ve backed them up offline after each update. Does shifting to physical media that I can own mean I have to be picky about where I spend my money so I can be living within my means? Yes. Do I sometimes get fomo? Of course. But I’m so tired of the drama of media getting removed or unsupported and breaking.

[@BefallBell]

I do all of this as well, and I would pay higher costs for indies compared to studios. For the sole reason being suits will ask for a inch, then take a mile. I will not help the suits, ill only support the creatives.

[@Sungroove]

Digital reigns supreme, just download onto a physical memory card, now you own it. Don’t be a silly goose. Physical means you need space to put games at. I hated how much shelf space 100s of games would take.

[@yoeyzee]

People are complaining about gta being $100 but they are still going to pay it when it comes out.

[@jcbastard6999]

Unfortunately

[@yelnatsu]

i hate this but you can't stop ppl from feeling like they did something buying the deluxe edition of some shit. Seen it happen all the time with 2k

[@Mario-cuning0347]

I don’t agree w it but yes I will be buying it

[@hass6366]

GTA 5 had 10 years of content if GTA 6 has the same longevity with FREE updates and content then I wouldn’t complain paying $100

[@saintblades]

The greed has eaten all their brain cells. Especially since games aren’t even physical anymore, so essentially paying £100 per game for something that doesn’t even technically exist. People are gonna be making their own games and sharing them online at this point.

[@AKdaJuiceGuy]

We only made 60 million I WANTED 100 MILLION!

[@dabalishis1585]

Probably gna be 70 for base game and 30 for online

[@x51DonGoddard]

That’s called Roblox 😅

[@embalancer6146]

You do realise that saving from a mostly digital market place have properly been eaten by the increased development costs ontop of the fact that digitial distribution is not a new things and we've been using it for 20 years .... we kind of need to stop using it as a new invention.

[@breezyrenee3299]

I’m doing that :D working on a dress up game rn coding is NOT for the weak I might resort to paying someone to code for me

[@rhys5958]

I’m old enough to remember developers/publishers talking about how going digital would save the consumer money because they wouldn’t need to manufacture disks to demand along with everything that entails. The prices never went down, they went up.

[@headlessfool7050]

And simultaneously, almost everyone realizes "not enough storage" on their PC or console, all the time .

[@muffy469]

@@headlessfool7050 I remember when the Xbox One came out, i literally only had space for 3 games at a time. It was absolutely ridiculous because you still had the actual CD then, but had to download the game from the CD to play it. Like wth is that? Just read the disc and let me play!

[@OneTableManyChairs]

because once they got your money for digital content, they decided we had to pay for the “convenience”. THEY’RE convenience. Going to the store to buy a physical disc that plays my game right away rather than waiting for a 1-3 hour download IS MORE CONVENIENT. These companies are detached from the reality that their gamers experience and I hope they go out of business so the truly passionate game developers can take more of the market and return competency to the gaming world.

[@Shizlgizl]

Yeah... about that cost cutting. - Pre-made engines simplify development AND remove the need for a crazy expensive dev - Consumer's hardware subsidizes lack of optimization. Again, expensive dev needed - Testing has decreased - Sales massively increased from those 50$ priced games. - The investment risk has slightly decreased, by selling "live service" you only risk the cost of proof of concept and not the entire game. Also gauging interest is possible now. - Collective experience. Most games are copies of existing concepts whereas first games had to develop one. Also solving a problem on the internet now is far easier, because most of them were already solved and documented.

[@CGS11900]

I miss games on the Atari all on the game card no game storage..... but that was the 90s and this is now.

[@unholymunk]

just remember... publishers also do not need to spend crazy budgets on box items anymore. Most people buy digitally, and things like user manuals are all but a fleeting memory.

[@robertbouley7697]

Furthermore, digital copies don’t have to worry about shelf space at Best Buy, Walmart, etc.

[@Immopimmo]

Yeah, remember when a special/premium/limited edition came in an extra fancy box, and you'd get a printed artbook, maybe a large physical map of the game world to put on your wall or a hand painted statue you could put in your bookshelf. Now you pay $50 extra for a digital artbook, a game soundtrack you'll never listen to, and maybe some in-game cosmetics.

[@mattkomlofske8912]

I miss manuals and lore books.

[@Sulphyrous]

The price for digital 'goods' should be reduced since I'm not getting something physical that I own. If I'm paying for a license, it should be the price of a license, not a game.

[@drackestalentorgen166]

And honestly they were not even spending that much, plastic, cartón or paper and a few metals, disks...once the tech is made its really cheap to make phisical games, it was transportation and tarifs...and many studiod have places to print their games in all continents to reduce costs from them...honestly they would be dpending like 10 dollars per gane to have it physically and on stores

[@johnmecca9008]

My backlog could probably carry me in gaming for a decade or longer. I never play day-one games anymore because $70 is too high for what would most likely be an unfinished game. At $100…. forget that. Im all in my backlog.

[@micheljolicoeur6094]

I already find $70 hard to justify with current food and rent costs and the relatively low fame quality. An increase to $100 would mean buying no new games ever again. Companies need to down size teams severely and properly scope their games. It is much better to have smaller games made for a dedicated market that are efficiently made than making a game for everyone which costs $200M+ and nobody wants.

[@Owain_Lord_Of_Glyndyfrdwy]

The fact that prices in general are higher now is exactly why they want to raise the prices of games 😂. This is not a collective decision. If you don't want to pay, don't pay

[@ni9274]

People want these big games

[@SplendiferousBros]

Because of our economic differences, in Australia we have been paying nearly $100 for AAA games for years now. If that jumped to almost $200 for one game, no way the average aussie would be buying.

[@ShinobiNeon]

Exactly. You gotta save some money for self defense against the giant jumping spiders and scorpions that spit lava.

[@MiyamotoMusashi-z]

​@@ShinobiNeon Don't forget the anti-gravity boots to maintain yourself stuck to earth, or else you're gonna fall head first into space.

[@Epic3032]

Fellow Aussie here, for us we'd be paying AUD$160 for a BASE GAME...even when on "SALE" it's still pricey!

[@evilme73]

It's ok... almost all multiplayer games are f2p anyway, and single player games are all torrentable... we'll just have a massive shift back to piracy like we have with video streaming.

[@Illersvansen]

You'll buy it and you'll like it just like you always have

[@I_am_ENSanity]

$100 with no dlc, microtransactions, season passes, online "requirements", along with a physical disk and I'm good.

[@quantum5661]

for 100$ i better get a 16 inch model of the fucking erdtree included with my disk

[@carbagehealth]

and bring back instruction manuals, maybe add in steelbook cases too!

[@kujiko88]

All that and no license bs or launcher as well.

[@Domura]

I'll still steal it lmao, fuck these companies.

[@inkwell60]

I'd like to add original IP to that list

[@TG-vt7ue]

I don't usually watch videos like this, but you're a really good public speaker! Kept me hooked all the way through.

[@level9drow856]

Triple A game publishers saying games should be $100 translates to, "We want pirating to increase."

[@petervansan1054]

yoho yoho a pirate's life for me

[@megaman37456]

You forgot one very important thing mate, I'm Captain Jack Sparrow.

[@qu1253]

You'll just see more and more games including Denuvo since there was only one group cracking Denuvo protected games, and they've been gone for over a year.

[@SimuLord]

If it's not worth buying, it's not worth stealing.

[@rocketzombiekiller]

Will they make more money per sale? Absolutely. Will they make more overall? Absolutely not. General audiences aren’t going to drop 100 bucks for a standard version of the game. No way in hell.

[@memitim171]

But they will for the "Ultimate Edition", which is why they think they can get away with this. 😉

[@jfkonlsd1364]

People like you are not why gaming is a multi billion dollar industry .I guarantee it. normies with jobs will gladly drop $100 for one of the best games of the decade

[@UncsGamingCorner]

"Inflation" in the gaming industry is such a joke. In the early days of gaming there was only a handful of players compared to today. Even as a kid in the early 2000's people would still classify you as a nerd for being a gamer. Now you talk to literally anyone and they game. No need to increase prices to calculate in "inflation" when your customer base has grown so massively that pretty much everyone in any first world country games.

[@alelekitaponga]

Seriously they have been so impacted by "inflation" so much that their sector has has been ballooning in size and valuation for literal decades now.

[@desertdude540]

Exactly. You see bootlickers saying "well, you see, in the 80s games routinely cost $100+" while completely ignoring that back then selling 10,000 copies made your game a hit. These days, if an AAA title sells 10,000,000 copies it's a failure, so the market is over 1,000 times larger than it was back then, which means over 1,000 times as many sales to amortize the production costs over. While production costs have increased, they haven't increased a thousandfold, so the market for games has grown faster than the cost of producing them and prices should be going down, not up. This is partly due to antitrust regulators being asleep at the switch and allowing absolutely unacceptable levels of consolidation, which has greatly reduced actual competition and made price-fixing easier.

[@ziodyne7774]

⁠@@desertdude540that’s the dumbest shit I’ve read this month 😂 Inflation is a myth guys, so true

[@LilBodegaa]

For real especially girls

[@Zbykobyl]

"In the early days of gaming there was only a handful of players compared to today. Even as a kid in the early 2000's people would still classify you as a nerd for being a gamer. " How many copies GTA:SA sold? Only nerds bought it? How many gamers really buys new games right now? How many gamers are playing only Fortnite, COD or some sports game? People will not pay more than 60$ for game, but how many people buys skins for 20$ each? I don't want to pay more for games, but in reality - price of games has to go up, especially single player AAA titles.

[@TrueTotalImmersion]

I can really feel the passion in this one! Excellent work very articulate

[@bfwebster]

Been playing video games for literally 50 years & was a game developer myself 40+ years ago. Setting aside the issues of inflation & development cost, here’s the brutal truth: I have ~150 games in my Steam library, and I would guess that 100+ of those have less than 20 hours. So, faced with $100 game, my inclination will be to mine my current library.

[@AzureRoxe]

In my Steam library of games i haven't played for whatever reason, i have: The Mass Effect Trilogy's remaster. The Witcher trilogy. Multiple Final Fantasies. Multiple Tales Of titles. Multiple roguelikes. And this doesn't consider the many multiplayer games i can just download and play again like Star Wars Battlefront 2 [EA version], Dead By Daylight, Deep Rock Galactic and many others. If they increase prices, they're screwed, i'll just go through my library and ignore them [or hell, "sailing the seven seas" is becoming far more popular thanks to this].

[@glitterynightmare]

Exactly. Not even mentioning the fact that most games (at least in my case) steam will let you get for $30 or less if you wait 3-6 months 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@thebenc1537]

My first game at home was Ladybug. That should tell you something. People today are putting tons of money into gaming. They spend stupid money on live service games. Gamers have money to spend. $100 is a lot to some but to others it's not.

[@destyrian]

@@thebenc1537 I'd argue that people who spend that kind of money on a game are the niche audience. It's the sort of person who spends $150 to get premium editions with limited edition extras. Most people have bills to pay, food to buy other luxuries they want. I could do a lot with $100 - buying a game which is a basically a slightly upgraded version of last year's game that I still haven't bothered to finish and also cost me $100, is not one of them.

[@agibitable]

I'm in the same boat. Some work/life circumstances have made my budget really tight and the FIRST thing to go was unnecessary purchases like entertainment. Those unplayed games in my library ended up being an investment for future entertainment that I can't afford anymore. Increasing the price of new video games will cause millions of other people to do the same math I did and determine it's more worth it to play old stuff than buy new stuff.

[@iRuLeZ_1994]

they're acting as if their games costs 2 billion to build a massive realistic world like GTA 6. nobody is gonna pay $100 for a 10 hours game

[@MarvinPowell1]

People nowadays pay $70 for games and even that is bullshit. Games that are buggy and broken, and can't work without a high speed internet connection, mind you. Many gamers are like that one person who stays in an abusive relationship because they "love them too much." Even $70 for games is f*cking insane! If people are willing to pay for that, then some people are definitely going to pay $100 for this DEI slop they're making nowadays.

[@zuriyel5368]

And let's not forget that Ananta (anime GTA) is still coming out. I think that one will shatter the perception of the need for realistic worlds like GTA 6.

[@Beldhan]

honestly what will bring GTA6 to the table? better graphism? good story? and? that all.... most of the stuff GTA can bring was already done countless time before. it will not be a popular opinion, but i did find GTA5 bland, outside the story and the character, the gameplay wasn't amazing nor revolutioning. if it wasn't a GTA, i doubt it will have sell soo well. and GTA6 is in the same case, people will purchase it because it's GTA. don't that remember you another game? Assassin creed. people did purchase it while the game didn't do much to improve between episode. and i'm not certain that the story will save the game... seriously it's an overhyped game at this point.

[@hdj2224]

@@MarvinPowell1DEI? found the right wing trash.

[@memitim171]

People are paying $100 for a single character in a game or even just a skin, so it's little wonder they think they can pull this off.

[@frost5400]

As an Australian whose game prices are adjusted for USD conversion. We already have games that are $100+, it makes it very difficult to be excited for games. I feel like I can't justify buying a game unless it is a critically acclaimed masterpiece that I am going to get a good amount of playtime from.

[@YouTubeCensorsComments]

Resident Evil Remake: $135 here in New Zealand.

[@Graymenn]

Australian dollars aren’t real dollars

[@jacknifebarca7763]

That kind of situation makes anyone very conservative about the games they buy. If I were you, I'd learn to be patient, and wait for sales.

[@frost5400]

@@jacknifebarca7763 I don’t buy unless I really want the game or it’s at least 50% off

[@mynameissam9194]

Yup same here

[@Notyoubiz]

Ok the ranting got me to subscribe brother. Appreciate it !

[@felipelineart]

Narcissism is destroying the world.

[@AszkalonOfVerra]

Just as intended, some would say.

[@francischambless5919]

Arrogance and Narcissism.... It's basically the real name for the overwhelming majority of the worthless degreed people in the country.

[@ssing7113]

No. Whiners in the basement are

[@darkdawnbringer]

@@ssing7113 Folks in their basement literaly don't hurt you... But i don't think your overlords have programed that into your cpu yet... Praise the overlords am i right?

[@shinerlight7094]

It's just greed, man. If a company makes $5 billion this year, and they 'only' make $5 billion next year, it's considered a failure. That's why prices always go up and quality always goes down.

[@RatedMforMatt-ure]

"Asmond, thanks for unpausing" was wild to hear lol

[@DeagleGamesTV]

I laughed so hard at that part lol. Now to wait 3 days for the asmon clips channel to post him freaking out at this part.

[@RatedMforMatt-ure]

@@DeagleGamesTV I cant wait to see him pause after he says that. I do watch asmonds reactions frequently so this one will be fun to watch.

[@A1AION]

I had to double back to make sure I heard that right

[@heyjulzdontmakeitbad]

Bro planting landmines lmao

[@darkblue099]

it's almost like he knows he doesn't have a career on YT without him.

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

I own a physical copy of Pokemon Black, White, Heartgold, Platinum, Diamond and Pearl, and I'll never, EVER have to pay a cent on any of them ever again. They each have tons of content, great side-content, A post-game, several viable play styles, and hundreds to thousands of viable team-comp combinations. They're all over a decade old, and will run until mechanical failure, and even then, the console they run on has a long history of repairs and replacement parts. NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM cost $100 on release. Give me something TWICE as good as ANY of those, and MAYBE I'll pay $100.

[@user-to1su2iy4d]

Shit example and kind of a counter to the longevity of physical-only games since you're spending easily over a $1000 if you want all of them physically nowadays, and that's not even including the GBA games. There are countless digital-only games that's a one and done so not sure what the point of that was. With inflation, Pokemon Emerald was $70 on release so games have actually been getting cheaper. Emulation is and always will be vastly superior if all you want is to experience the games.

[@viewtifuljoe4412]

@@user-to1su2iy4d Emulation is GOAT

[@ThreadBareHope1234]

Same. If they can give a bugless, fully realized game, then maybe it would be worth it. But I do still feel bad. What are they not doing? Did old developers have secret life hacks new people don't. If this is true it just means non mainstream and independent developers, like those that made Lethal Company and Deep Rock, will rise. Sad to think game Companies might depend on old games selling to survive [looking at Bethesda] haha

[@ssing7113]

Ok. Enjoy driving you model T and eating your microwave meals in your nuke bunker I think a lot of us prefer to live in the modern world and enjoy things and not live off nostalgia forever.

[@Anthonial_Mjj]

Hyped i saw one of your videos on asmonds channel. Started checking your stuff out, and man, i always love when such an articulate and intelligent speaker represents the gaming community so well. Great videos brother, thats a sub from me.

[@prenommcnom9444]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Helldivers 2 is $50 CAD/$40 USD. Great game, tons of players, and hundreds of hours of playtime. I find it hard to believe that games need to cost a hundred dollars to be successful. Oh, and there is no excuse for a single player game to cost more than $60.

[@jflanagan9696]

So they have to sell less units to hit their profit point.

[@hault360]

​@jflanagan9696, but with fewer copies sold thats less people who will spend money at their in-game shops

[@jflanagan9696]

@ I think breaking even from the project is the primary concern over other profits. Besides, whales don’t care about a $100 price tag. It only prices out those who probably aren’t going to spend much in micro transactions, anyway.

[@gurkenglass909]

@@jflanagan9696but you need the casual and average spender to attract the wales. Wales need a large playerbase they can dominate or flaunt their wealth / payed for advantage to.

[@Kimvanloocke]

also Helldivers Multiplayer is not for free i choose to not to subscibe its paying on paying on paying internet electricity inflation increasing prices they do not need to its just excuses to squeese us wile they get even more rich and closed off from reality

[@thegrumpyraccoon]

They are free to try that, people will either wait for 75% discount or sail the high seas.

[@mrconroy4672]

It’s not even worth either of that for current western games at least.

[@Belsarion]

they'll 100% use some of the extra $40 to denuvo the sht out of every game tho

[@Allious131]

@@Belsarion They will be broke because older games here we come

[@Jonas_æ]

I experienced the boneheaded expectations of "market analysists" first hand during and after covid back when I worked in marketing for a big sports gear retailer in my region. They projected the same economic growth to continue that they saw during covid. Huge sales numbers especially for things like weights, yoga mats and shit people could use to exercise while locked up at home. But that growth didn't happen. Instead sales saw a huge decline the following year after the lockdowns, and these guys were scratching their heads saying they expected better from the sales and marketing departments. For some reason it didn't cross their minds that the people who would be buying all this personal training equipment for their homes already did so during covid and didn't need to replace it the next year, and that everyone else had access to their regular gyms again and didn't need it. The demand was, naturally, no longer there. For very obvious reasons. But these idiots seem to just look at the graphs and say "oh man, look at the trajectory - it will probably keep going like this".

[@Roggor]

From what I've heard from others, market analysts are just running a racket where they just fluff the executive's egos, promise the moon, pocket the consulting fee, and are never seen again.

[@Saywhatnow72]

Whats even worse is how is it that we can figure that out but they can't when that's literally their whole job. I will forever hate the upward progress. I ran hardware dept. And they would come and ask me why why my fans sales dipped this month compared to last year. Ummm because of the massive heatwave that hit. Smh

[@wildstarchild6879]

Your argument is valid about companies not caring what consumers want and that's exactly the same way as the movie industry. As they Force what they want on to people, they think we're just going to be good little boys and girls .... Eventually becoming overwhelmed by it, shut up and take it... Too many people are addicted to their product and since they are the only manufacturers have said product you don't play it and you'll be damn glad you got it! The only way to fight against you.... stop buying it! Corporation stopped looking at us when they kept looking in their bottom lines wake me up to feeding her bottom lines! When bottom lines go into the red that signifies your drawing blood from them... It's impossible these days to even play a simple game on your phone with any level of satisfaction without spending $10 a day on it... I don't... And I never will.

[@Fantasylover12248]

The gaming industry needs to go through a crash. I'm playing games from the 90's and 2000's more because I'm sick of the modern industry. Let's keep this going people, do NOT purchase any game from AAA or a game a launch. The industry NEEDS to change. Edit: Getting good comments, thought I was the only one replaying old games.

[@MINI_91]

I'm doing the exact same. Currently playing through my SNES and Mega Drive backlog. It's been a while since I've had such a good time with games. Wonderful titles on both systems.

[@AshnellGames]

Then you will love my upcoming video game Grandpa High on Retro! I have 2 trailers on my channel!

[@arcadenoah993]

My only new games are indie ones below $39

[@stanislavkimov2779]

Actually some games from 10-15 years ago look even more beautiful for me. Cause I can run them on max settings, sharp native 4K with a high smooth framerate. And their design is clean. While new ones are cluttered, blurry and full of artifacts. Pushing "realism" with above mentioned brings dissonance. Also somehow gameplay and atmosphere are better in older games. Less filler and bloat, made with love. New games are worse in everything, sanitised and dry, and they want to charge more. They should stop chasing "realism" and advanced visuals, and cut their budgets several times. This will also help make games more fun.

[@DogeickBateman]

100%. I am against any industry collapsing, but triple A and parts of triple B? Go. Now!

[@True-Sea-Turtle]

Eastern developers are singlehandedly keeping triple A gaming alive

[@mikev8746]

Yep 😂

[@DDViking]

Exactly!

[@Mister_Know_Name]

No they aren't. Spider-man 2, helldivers 2, baldurs gate 3, and much much more.

[@BaslightBatekeepBoyboss]

​@@Mister_Know_NameIf you think Spider Man 2 is an example of a good game, you need to stop gaming.

[@CostelloDamian]

Wrongly so. I hope these skilled individuals follow tracks of other eastern developers. Quit and start your own studio. Make great indie and AA games instead.

[@GloverGaming3]

I don't buy games at full price now. I wait until they're on sale, and there's almost always a sale

[@Roggor]

On release they're always buggy and broken anyway. The idiots have trained their audience to wait months if not years before buying because that is how much longer the games actually needed to be finished.

[@derek8700]

This video needs MUCH more exposure. I buy games on sale now or Indy…I no longer feel the need to invest in games I can’t feel secure about still having access to that same game in 10-20 years from now. I can still play my sega genesis and Super Nintendo games just fine. My PlayStation 1-3 land Nintendo 64 games still play without any issues. If the future of gaming means I won’t be able to play my games when I feel like it, then I’m done with newer games.

[@arjandikhoff5201]

If the GTA crew has balls, they should release for $50 and still profit.

[@mineralwater6736]

They won't GTA6 will be 100$ just watch.

[@yugarten8523]

@mineralwater6736 i'm afraid so, i mean they released a subscription BS on a 10 years old game and that didn't fail.

[@vespenegas261]

@mineralwater6736 The writing is on the wall. GTA6 gonna flop hard. Not that I care, but people who still do will have to come to terms that the gaming industry of today must burn to the ground.

[@mineralwater6736]

@@vespenegas261 100% Facts

[@michelvanbriemen3459]

The devs probably know that if they put GTA6 up for $40, they'll sell over a billion copies in the game's lifetime. It'd be the most selling game of all time. Somehow I don't think the businessmen at Take-Two are interested in putting that on their resumé.

[@rododendron85]

Publishers forget that, most people don't have so much time to play all the games that release, and with the growing backlog of games we can wait a long time for sales and buy what we want at cheaper price. How come in the 90s and early 2000s game studios with less people made quality products and now all devs are bloated with people without skill, and demand that we will pay their wages. Most people could stop buying new games tomorrow and never run out of something new to play. So let them increase the price even beyond 100 USD and see what happens, because nowadays only few games are worth full release price. Let them dig their own grave, my black suit is ready for the funeral.

[@conformistbastard9842]

I don't know about that backlog thing. They're not putting out anything worth playing anymore so 90% of what I play is 4 years old or more. The next step for me is to just stop playing entirely, I'm so over it.

[@cookies23z]

Its so true tho, I already dont buy a single new AAA game some years, or just a single one (bg3, and Armored Core 6 as the most recent ones, both bought late, both were amazing and finished products and both happened to be single player) If games were 100$ I prob would have skipped both until a 75% off sale tears late, and those are games I loved Do they think ill ever buy a new mtx filled battlepassed, shop popups and all cod? I tried the new cod on gamepass, its honestly still decently fun but I wouldnt buy it for 40$ with how ass and pushed mtx and gamemodes I dont want onto my screen and interrupting my gameplay while being bloated af Anyways, just ranting, sorry to do so on your comment ig

[@Aircalibur]

Studios back then were hardly even corporations. It was a handful of friends getting together and making something for fun. They didn't think about global audiences or reasonable hours, and they didn't have to because they risked only their own money. When they were risking someone else's money, it was an innovation project for the funders too - it's not like that nowadays. The key word is industry. Games weren't an industry back then. They were something new, exciting, cool and innovative.

[@schizo_fox]

Whenever someone mentions inflation to justify pricehike, they keep forgetting to mention that games nowadays sell 10x (minimum) more copies. compare baldur's gate 3 with half life 2 numbers for example. 15 mil sales in a year, versus 680 thousand sales in two years (those are the stats i had available). both 'game of the year' in respective years. the funny part of that comparison is that bg3 did have the same sale price. video games are so much more popular, video game development is so much more automated, it is all digital when it was all physical, internet provides free marketing to say the least etc.

[@Roggor]

Exactly. Corpo glazers completely ignore that the gaming audience has grown from a few million globally in the 80s to billions nowadays. You'll be hard pressed to find someone under 40 who doesn't at least play mobile games whilst waiting for something. A smart businessman knows it is much better to increase your customer base than raise prices. Most game companies are not smart businessmen.

[@gobs379]

I was waiting for this to be brought up in the video. The Industry and msm talking heads always compare per unit revenues with project-wide expenses, when the real comparison should be per unit revenues/costs or whole project revenues/costs. A AAA game may cost up to $100 million, but if they only sell 2 million copies the cost per unit is still $50. The more popular games each year can achieve 10x that benchmark, and the majority of AAA games cost much less than that to produce. Edit: No wonder so many games flopped in 2024, they spent over $400 million making them!! How can you expect to make a profit with expenses that high? You are looking at 10 million+ copies sold just to start breaking even (and you need a game of the year release to make those numbers). No wonder they are talking about inflating prices so high.

[@memitim171]

They still haven't learnt that last part... Marketing budgets large enough to make a whole other game, when all you have to do is send it to a bunch of streamers/Yters for free... Of course, that only works if your game isn't shit, which is where a lot of them trip up. 😆

[@journeytree]

This is true, especially considering how ChatGPT is making most of the games that started development in the past few years. Shovelware like COD just reuses most the frame of the last games and rereleases for full price. Fools line up every year to waste their money.

[@alexk9295]

Why compare BG3 to Half Life 2? Half Life 2 was released only on pc. If you compare it to Halo 2 or GTA:SA then BG3 doesn't come close to 10x. There were many other games back then that also sold really well.

[@bert_the_oriole]

Great video dude! After I got ripped off with Cyberpunk, I quit gaming completely. I am one of those people you mentioned who STILL follows gaming news…waiting for better days.

[@PermanentlyTemporary]

I have problems with increasing prices because once the seal is broken the companies rarely, if ever, go back down if inflation is reversed, however small.

[@club2772]

Eh, then let them make expensive half polished slop. We will always have so many options from devs that are sane.

[@drakkenmensch]

Take Two thinks that if THEY increase prices to 100$ other companies will be FORCED to follow. Or maybe they'll just stick to their current pricing level and pick up all the sales that Take Two will lose. Remember when Microsoft announced their console would be 400$ or more, and "others will be forced to announce the same", then Sony walked onstage, said "299" and mic dropped on the way out?

[@bvyup2112]

@@club2772 yup, Indie games are where its at now

[@Owain_Lord_Of_Glyndyfrdwy]

Inflation almost never reverse 😂 That's called deflation and is actually way worse (see 1929) Adjusted for inflation, price have never been lower

[@PermanentlyTemporary]

​@ I think you know what I meant, considering you have "deflation" in your lexicon. You can reverse inflation without being required to dip into that kind of deflation. 🙃 But, more to the point: the prices won't go down no matter how strong or weak the dollar is. Once they get it up to a "New Normal" they like to keep it there. See: 49.99 became 59.99 in 2010s and is now 69.99.

[@Lotec870]

I have a long list of games that I haven't even played yet. A lot of them are now 4k and 60fps...most of them are $30 and go on sale routinely for $4.99. There is no real reason to pay full price for these things, and if they go to $100, that puts it in concrete.

[@Lennis01]

My extensive and ever growing backlog has more to do with time than any other factor, and I'm sure many other gamers are in the same boat. That's going to impact sales in the long run. Even if people somehow got more money to spend on luxuries, it is still a time investment, and time isn't something you can get more of. Spend 8 hours playing something you know you'll probably like (since you bought it years ago), or spend that same time playing something that's less proven? This is a problem few people are talking about.

[@Lotec870]

@Lennis01 It's a lot about time and the way that I play as well. I really take my time with a game that I like because I either don't want it to end or I'm afraid of an anticlimactic conclusion. I'm a story hunter. I've never hunted a single achievement(I'm not judging), and if it doesn't help with a bad day, but it only makes it worse, I just can't waste my hobby time on it.

[@inanimatesum4945]

Businesses used to understand their revenue would ebb and flow. Entertainment thinks they’ll keep earning more and more and more with no stop in sight. Its idiotic.

[@dafirek662]

They have to keep earning more or the investors pull their money out and the studio goes under. Shareholder capitalism is a shit version of capitalism, that's all.

[@doingmypart666]

I remember working for one company and their yearly motivation was that the company must grow 5% minimum, 12% preferably. I was like .. how? We have 5 year projects, we get new one every about 3 years so there are 2 years in between with no new projects and how the company is supposed to grow from nothing? It was supposed to motivate us to find a way. I smiled and was fired for being too toxic :) Guess who still have work and projects and who doesnt :)

[@JayZee-lo8qy]

That’s every company and industry right now. Corporations

[@xdragonneonx]

You said everything I've literally been thinking about, at this point I'm just glad that we have old existing games that are good. Idk if the industry will pull themselves out of this one

[@elbren]

10:57 - "Asmon, thanks for unpausing." 🤣

[@thadc5937]

I died 😂

[@jorwon]

Broo😂😂 can't wait for his reaction

[@SwanieGaming]

Asmond some how finds the most interesting videos, then proceeds edge the pause button.

[@The_Sea_Man]

Bros reaction is gonna be golden lmao

[@AnubisOO7]

He fucking knows hahahaha

[@BCBtheBeastlyBeast]

I'll add that wages haven't kept up with inflation and price gouging. And a lot of people like myself have gigantic backlogs of games from sales over the years that we can play instead of buying games new, not to mention access to subscription services, which we know already drastically reduces revenue associated with a game (looking at Game Pass). Not to mention, 99% of every dollar increase will go directly into executive pockets, not into a programmer's, artist's, or anyone else you think deserves the money for working on a good game.

[@toasty7553]

The extract from the "$100 GTA 6" article mentioned 'everything' going up and included minimum wage - when that's objectively incorrect. Just about nowhere in the world had increased to their minimum wages since when? 2020? The US hasn't increased their federal minimum wage since the 2010's and the other English-speaking countries also have similarly stagnant wages. And not only that, the whole 'inflation' argument falls flat for two other reasons: 1. They're using the bandwagon fallacy, because they're essentially saying "everyone else is price-hiking, why can't we?" (unless I'm using the fallacy fallacy). 2. The price hikes are no longer because of inflation, they *might* have been because of inflation during the pandemic, but now it's apparent that whoever's in charge of pricing in most industries are marking it as whatever they want because most industries are monopolised.

[@RatedMforMatt-ure]

If they go 100$ MSRP im going full piracy. As someone who owns 967 games(for now) on JUST my steam account, I buy the games I like...clearly. That's not including PS5, as well as the platforms. With GOG Galaxy it says I own over 1200 games across all my connected platforms. No more purchasing if thats the case. If they disrespect me as a customer, then I dont respect their bottom line or the morality of it all. Fuck em. It's time for self-interest-defense and that's mine. Ill still game but it wont be to the benefit of their investors or leadership. Call me harsh...others have and more will but im done caring. Aside from my wife and people I directly respect, I dont care anymore.

[@secretagentcat]

bring back dignity and blame the norm e's

[@SamWulfign]

Try before you buy. What's even more sad is the fact their not even selling us licenses where we own the games anymore, it's limited and can be voided at any point they wish. Was the case with Playstation for tv series people "bought" it's also the case with steam only we have just their word that should anything happen they will disable the DRM... not so sure if that word is enough anymore.

[@mrconroy4672]

Not everyone will follow them thankfully. Don’t close out every door.

[@ariannaravenmcclare]

Entertainment is the first to get pinched when budgeting or have they forgotten

[@daringwolverin]

21:26 developers forget that it only takes one slop title for a customer to feel buyers remorse and be more cautious about what games they buy👏

[@PlayerUzU]

Games here on brazil are already STUPIDLY expensive, one triple A game is around 300 reais (or 1/3 of a monthly minimum wage) and that's the 60 USD prices, so IMAGINE with 100 USD, more than half of the Brazilian gamers won't be able to afford this.

[@Sithishe]

Yeah, same situation where I am from, new tripple A game is 50% of minimum wage, and there are countries where people wage are about 100 USD. And they still buying PCs and saving up for consoles and have massive gamers there. I think US Big Tech really think that only US plays video games which is hillarious. I think that is the we had higher quality/better value video games from EU and East Asia in recent years. Companies there are better at passing reality check

[@tuliomesquita1294]

Small correction meu amigo, minimum wage for us, as of today, is around R$ 1.518,00 - Decreto nº 12.342/2024. So if games goes up to $100, yeah that would be roughly R$500. NOW Its a third and everyone would have to pay more on ALL levels of gaming.. and we're F

[@thedriver133]

The biggest grifers are from lo income places , sad but true

[@PlayerUzU]

@ where i live the minimum wage is still around 1300 reais...

[@NoName-bk3su]

They have alot of balls asking $100 for a product that you can easily pirate for free anytime you want with little to no repercussions

[@mechgouki7999]

These days, I would want a refund for the games I pirated.

[@cheapskateangkol9371]

​​@@mechgouki7999same here. Refund for my wasted internet data and hd space.

[@zachb8012]

Amen, my brother in Christ. I will never pay $100 for a game on release. There's just too many good games on my backlog that don't cost $100.

[@luviam0001]

​@@mechgouki7999 Preach! I Pirated Starfield to see if my computer could even run it well. I Want my bandwidth and time refunded.

[@apocalypsecat1665]

This is arguable point, because in some countries you can not pirate anything because of penalties or chance to go in jail.

[@OrangeNash]

The AAA companies are spending too much on gloss and not enough on actual gameplay. They are too obssessed with making interactive movies rather than games. Hollywood actors, Hollywood scores, ever more realistic graphics. That's where the development cost is going. The other thing is that I still have loads of older games that I never finished. Back when games used to be deeper, rather than wider but shallower. I'd just go back and play them again. The only problem I can see with that, is if Steam and GOG and the online stores close down older games you've bought, forcing you to buy the new ones. They may even be able to legally do this, as you only buy a licence for digital downloads, not an actual product. People did warn this could happen in the early days of online distribution, but it never has, so we thought it never would. But, times are hard for executives needing to upgrade their yachts and add to their mansion collection.

[@puggy_.]

2:00 Video game prices have barely risen… Just like median household income… How tf they think people are going to pay for their games

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

Some of the younger gamers are mind blown when I tell them SNES games were $59.99 and with tax, in Maryland, it was $64.change. Sega genesis was always the cheaper way at $49

[@ReaperSymbiote]

@@LuciferHunter-kt7pm $64 in 1988 when the genesis was released is equal to $170.74 in todays time and currency value.

[@LuciferHunter-kt7pm]

@ genesis games, in Maryland, where $49.99. What’s that conversion? And how do you even do the conversion? I’d like to know

[@ohnosmoarlulcatz]

@@LuciferHunter-kt7pm You can just use an inflation calculator like the Bureau of Labor's. Put in the year at which that price was available and this year. Persona 3 FES for example was released for 29.99 on the PS2 back in April of 2008 in the United States. That would mean it cost about 44 in today's money.

[@ReaperSymbiote]

@ Not arguing for more expensive games, but the fact they want to increase it back up when cost of living and the quality of the products itself is low is absurd. At least back then you could more easily get a new house/car or even just groceries

[@SoSezTheDude]

I'm Canadian, games already cost $80-100 for the base version here. I don't even buy new games until i see them on sale because they are too expensive, let alone now that they are trying to float $120-150 _PER GAME_ as a price point! I guess that will mark the end of my life as a gamer.

[@jaredjared7638]

I mean there is plenty of old games you can play that are way cheaper or go on sale often. I wouldn't give up on gaming as a whole, just maybe don't buy new games intill they go on sale

[@SoSezTheDude]

@@jaredjared7638 Yeah, that is true, can always go back. I guess the thing I didn't articulate well is that if games go up in price, the *sales prices* will be what i'm not willing to pay for games _now_ .

[@jaredjared7638]

@SoSezTheDude fair enough, I doubt I will buy $100 games as well unless it's somehow the greatest game of all time

[@foxpokemonforever4775]

I’ve noticed that too. My brother was scrolling the Nintendo eShop and my eyes practically bulged out of my head when I saw that Mario & Luigi Brothership was 80 dollars Canadian. If this trend keeps up, the new Switch probably isn’t going to be worth buying, because I’ll naturally just be buying fewer games. I’m only interested in a handful of franchises, but they get pretty frequent game releases in their respective series, and I’d have to pick and choose which ones I’ll actually want to buy. I get it, new hardware can be expensive, but there comes a point where it just becomes unreasonable.

[@Modi_]

yes, but the value of the canadian dollar is around 30% less than usd or euro. 100cad is 70usd or 66 euros. hell we pay 80euros for the base game in europe, for example nba 2k25 is 80 euros for the base game, thats 84 usd or 120cad...

[@Peanutbuttertanks]

A thing that bothered me even as a young kid was how concrete video game prices are. The quality and demand isn’t taken into account at all. There was also never any competitive pricing between retailers. On another note, online multiplayer is what destroyed gaming and allowed this shift in thinking from creative to business. We gave up good story telling and creative design for easily mass produced soulless arcade like AAA games. Anytime you can fast track production you increase profits while sacrificing quality. Now there is a huge disparity in quality, every 3-5 years we get a good game worth the money. Long story short, the video game industry has done nothing to justify an increase in price, if anything they should be decreasing prices

[@OverRule1]

I miss that feeling older games had. The graphics are awful compared to today but the way the games felt while playing was almost magical

[@heatnup]

Customers are the only accurate judge of quality and we can’t judge a game before it releases in order for it be priced according to its quality. This is an unrealistic notion. Games should be priced affordably. End of story.

[@Picklerick4467]

Multiplayer did not destroy games. Micro transactions Battle passes Pay to win That's what destroyed games Look at Suicide Squad. Kill the Justice League Prime example Think about it. A random furry in a basement. Made a better game than most AAA Titles One dude Had Far better game than A multi-billion-dollar company. The same with the three people who made a mobile game that was more fun than The newest call of duties. Like I said, multiplayer is not the issue.

[@AtticusBeRockin]

⁠@@Picklerick4467 you’re right and those are good examples but I think online multiplayer did lead us down the path though. Like the multiplayer itself isn’t the issue like you said, but i do believe it was a stepping stone for things like soulless games with micro transactions to come into fruition. Idk if that makes sense, but how I think about is like how the Beatles were great themselves but were definitely a stepping stone for the music industry to become the cut throat, profit over quality machine it is now today.

[@cookies23z]

I generally agree, altho imo we get a good game worth the money almost every year, its just some years its not a genre you(me too) might be interested in, some years its a 40$ double A game, etc etc

[@MelenheadGaming]

What some people don’t take into mind is that the prices back in the days of the N64 part of that 50-60 dollar price tag went into the physical game(that being the cartridges the games were on). Nowadays the vast majority of videogames are entirely bought and sold digitally. Half of the price of games before doesn’t apply anymore. You’re paying more for a digital file than you used to pay for a physical copy of a videogame; whether it be cartridge, disc, or otherwise.

[@EXTENDO_64]

if im paying $100 it better be supported for 10+ years, not need an online subscription to play, ALL DLC INCLUDED FREE, and when its rereleased on PS6 i get a free upgrade

[@Aequilibrium93]

So kinda the case for what GTA V did?

[@IGN_OFFClAL]

@@Aequilibrium93 even if GTA 6 actually does the same thing... it's not like everyone else following suit will be so kind.

[@scottbyers9258]

Yo, ho, all hands hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die. Time to set sail me hearties!

[@mrconroy4672]

Just remember to avoid exploiters since the seven seas were always meant to be free for everyone.

[@chrisbennett6395]

@@mrconroy4672it’s a pirate’s life for me

[@ServantOfTheMoonGods]

AYE AYE CAPTAIN

[@CombativeMedic]

Games currently range from $50 to $70 overpriced slop...now they want to charge $100, and will tell you you're getting a "great deal" when that slop goes on sale for $50-$70. The collapse can't come soon enough. I'll watch from a distance as I fill my library with indie or AA games, popcorn in hand.

[@mrconroy4672]

Nintendo at least is willing to fight for quality. So they’ll likely survive and thrive long term.

[@dakota9821]

@@mrconroy4672 Go home Nintendo shill. They are one of the worst companies in the industry. Nintendo games are ALWAYS overpriced slop; They don't do sales.

[@BQD_Central]

I rarely buy a game for 50 bucks these days. Only the highest quality games (Metaphor Re:Fantasio, Persona 3 Reloaded, Elden Ring and Doom Eternal) ever got more then 50 bucks from me. And these are from the last 4 years.

[@Hodoss]

There's plenty of smaller games below 50. I stopped "triple A" years ago, but I've had plenty of fun with those smaller budget games. Advantage is they tend to be more focused on gameplay, or even unique artistic experiences, rather than the "liiiiive serviiiice" treadmill.

[@rctemp34]

The exorbitant $70 price tag for AAA games, coupled with the frequent release of buggy, unfinished products, reflects a blatant disregard for consumers and an alarming level of corporate greed. These practices, often driven by a relentless pursuit of profit, demonstrate a callous manipulation of consumer expectations. The shift towards digital distribution models further exacerbates this issue, leaving players with little ownership or control over the games they purchase. This combination of factors - exorbitant pricing, subpar quality, and the erosion of consumer ownership - erodes trust in the industry and could ultimately lead to a decline in sales, increased piracy, and a shift towards alternative forms of entertainment. Let's also preface this the Bungie which have noted we had some financial problems themselves where the CEO goes out and buys garage full of classic cars instead of playing his employees

[@EKG2133]

Pay more money for stagnant creativity, ESG checklist, and unfinished slop for the most part. When it comes to the vast majority of triple A game studios, they've completely lost touch.

[@stanislavkimov2779]

Yeah, pay for middle management, corporate bloat, and shareholders + CEO bonus of several dozen millions. Do artists and devs even properly get paid?

[@IEgOImkAwx]

@@stanislavkimov2779 Barely. At least being a programmer in game dev is one of the least compensated industries for the skillset.

[@MarvinPowell1]

I used to be a hardcore gamer before the Xbox One/PS4 in 2013. That's when AAA games became $60 industry wide and the gaming industry fell off a cliff. And 2018 is when games started being released buggy and broken as the norm, like with Fallout 76, as well as when all these woke consultancy agencies popped up, like Sweet Baby Inc. It only took 5 to 6 years for the entire gaming industry to become as shitty as it is right now, and it's been this way for 13 years, at this point. I am done with 99% of games these days and the only new thing I've bought is Palworld, and even that less than $30.

[@Skumtomten1]

@@MarvinPowell1 I'm exactly the same.

[@stanislavkimov2779]

@@IEgOImkAwx I'm a programmer, and I think it would be very dumb to work for any gaming company now. While it was a childhood dream to become a game dev. Extremely sad reality. I think big companies thought they could exploit people's passion, to overwork them for less pay. Which is just awful. And not even let them realise their passion, forcing them to create slop.

[@bxile730]

As a gamer of nearly 3 decades, I will stop buying new games if they decide to make ir $100.. if these companies wont respect me, ill be damned if i don’t respect myself. Ill judt play my backlog of games snd purchase games $70 or less

[@Cluesman]

yeah, this will bring problems. the more expensive a game is, the more you think about if it's really worth losing that much money to potential slop. with no demos to try and no journalism to trust, buying a game has become a gamble worse than ever and the odds of losing this gamble, from the customers perspective, are only increasing. by setting a $100 pricetag the willingness to flip this coin will be smaller than ever.

[@chefscotty959]

Great video BTW bro. Solid as always.

[@Skateandcreate9]

I hope they push $100 standard edition for games so we can collapse the current industry and rise up a new one

[@ilikebeanies3499]

Same. I'd say the games rising up right now would be Indie. Would like to point out also that there's many examples of great games that cost little. But aren't Indie. Like Lethal Company. People crave fun experiences, not 20 hour drivel that preaches to the gamer about DEI 💀

[@thomasfoster7641]

Best part is the collapse would cause either the sale or dissolution of major gaming studios. Who can just rebrand free of the corporate overlord bs and make actually good games at a similar or better graphical quality and infinitely better narrative and gameplay quality

[@joshuapatrick682]

If GTA 6 is more than 69.99 I will Not be purchasing it new.

[@ssing7113]

Ok. Bye go enjoy getting a second job then to afford it

[@neliiinhu]

69 99 ? for what reason? 60 max, the normal. we cant feed them the idea that they can start asking for more money for digital licenses.

[@KiiBon]

​@@neliiinhudude... it's GTA

[@Nostalgic_Senpai]

​@@KiiBonOK.......and?

[@thacrypt223]

I will wait for it on sale! Not paying that much. 60 dollars is my limit. And for that price I expect a totally finished product, which we barely get anymore.

[@YammoYammamoto]

You can't compare $50 sold in a Brick-and-mortar store, where the company didn't even get half of that in profit... ...to digital distribution, where they get to take home the VAST majority of the sale price.

[@734ch3r]

They also had cool boxes and manuals back in the day.

[@mrconroy4672]

We need brick and mortar stores back along with legit online storefront.

[@Eleriol84]

Dont forget all the other revenue strems they got no compared to the early 2000's with and endless stream of loot boxes, MTX and battle passes. Their arguments that they have to raise prices due to cost is nothing but bullshit.

[@CheesePlow]

This right here!

[@BQD_Central]

You should really not forget how insanely expensive the cartridges of old were. You can only remotly compare costs beginning with the PS2 era.