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[Robb]

You’re probably right. Although games these days are way more shady, collecting your user data etc. and forcing you to agree to terms and conditions before being able to play. Prices should be subsidized to account for that.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

Unless you bought Strider for the Genesis for close to a Ben when you were 11 and finished it in an hour. Fuck Im still pissed.

Could u not sell it afterwards?

Thank the heavens for video (rental) stores in my youth. Renting games for two days for just ~5$ to play though them on the weekend was awesome.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

The single player market is saturated. These companies can't push up in terms of price because they know their audience will throw a conniption. If y'all were willing to pay $140 dollars for your 30 hour games, you'd see a ton more get made. If single player is going to get off it's plateau, there needs to be a big shift in that space. I'm not really seeing anything that represents that shift, certainly not GamePass.

 

[Wildebeest]

Pricing products is a hard problem because different people put different values on the same thing.

 

[MiguelItUp]

It really all depends on a number of variables. Some games deserve the full price because they provide a PLETHORA of hours to keep folks entertained, but not all of them.

I will say I think a lot of people complaining about price are showing their age, not that there's anything wrong with that. But man, console games over the decades were never really "cheap" by any means. So comparing AAA games to what they were then to now and their price, yeah, it's a lot better nowadays then it was back then. I mean, they could easily be even MORE expensive in some cases.

That being said there are a ton of indie and AA games out there that are half that price (or less) and provide even MORE replayability.

It's all subjective, but man, I just wish people would stop buying shallow AAA games that aren't deserving of the full price. Instead of throwing money at them so that they just keep churning out shallow sequels every year.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Could u not sell it afterwards?

Thank the heavens for video (rental) stores in my youth. Renting games for two days for just ~5$ to play though them on the weekend was awesome.

Back then you could get lucky to get a full refund at Toys R Us if the cashier was in a good mood, but for this game specifically I got it at some toy liquidation store like an hour away when my mom took me to some outlets for back to school shopping. No chance she was taking me all the way back

"You shouldn't have finished it so fast"

"Bitch I cant help it if Im good at games"

 

[RoadHazard]

How much is 900 SEK adjusted for inflation?

I punched that into some inflation calculation site: 900 SEK in 1990 would be 1,770 SEK today. If we instead do from 1993 it's around 1,500.

A physical copy of a new AAA PS5 game is usually around 700-750 now (850 on PS Store, but fuck that overpriced place).

 

[6502]

Put this guy in charge and that GTA 6 costing $2billion thread would be discussing rrp.

 

[Tarnpanzer]

"You shouldn't have finished so fast"

Thats what she said...

 

[Wildebeest]

The question is, right now, where can you rent a new game release for 10 dollars for a week and complete it?

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Almost every other form of home entertainment media is much cheaper and better bang for the buck. Books, streaming services, youtube, etc.

 

[RoadHazard]

The question is, right now, where can you rent a new game release for 10 dollars for a week and complete it?

GP/PS+ are less than that per week, and you get huge libraries of games to freely "rent".

Edit: Not all new games though.

 

[PonyStation4]

The gameplay quality of these "cheap" games has also decreased (maybe even deliberately so). And they try to extract money from you using DLCs, micro transactions, season passes, battle passes, etc. I mean, there are people who have spent hundreds of dollars of Paradox' games. Or on Sims 4. So I must disagree with you, I'm afraid. I think most games are too expensive.

Most games don't even have DLC

 

[Punished Miku]

Gaming's day 1 real prices have greatly decreased since the 90s and more or less stagnated for the past ~10 years.

What does that tell you about their value?

How do you think the sales would look at $130?

 

[docchicken]

I entered this thread prepared to grill the OP, but I read the points and I actually see your point and agree to an extent. Games are much more ambitious now, with the best games having super high budgets. On the flip side, they cost much less to the consumer for the volume of work performed on them.

The thing is, this trend will only get more extreme with gaming subscription services. It's easy to see that complete packages like Elden Ring, GOW:R etc. are going to be unicorns in what is emerging, and live service games will be the main focus as MTX can rake in money.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

What does that tell you about their value?

How do you think the sales would look at $130?

Sales don't matter in and of it self (you can sell a game for $10 if you want to inflate your sales), revenue does. Still, prices are obviously correct right now. It's a free market after all and you charge what the market will bear. Obviously, the market conditions (the fierce competition surely being the biggest contributor to downward pressure on prices) don't seem to allow for gaming prices to rise. You'd just get undercut.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Gollum agrees! Worth every coin!

 

[Krathoon]

I love the third party keys market. Sure it may be dodgy, but you get better prices.

A lot of times, you get the actual worth of a game.

 

[IDKFA]

I agree. Been saying it for years.

People complaining about $70 for literally hundreds of hours of entertainment just goes to show, deep down people still view games as toys for kids.

Its also why they are never taken seriously by anyone but gamers.

Why would a majority of people take games more seriously if they cost more?

 

[R6Rider]

Almost every other form of home entertainment media is much cheaper and better bang for the buck. Books, streaming services, youtube, etc.

Huge disagree here. Unless you are getting them through a library.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

$70 for a game like God of War Ragnarok, TotK or Elden Ring is just insane when we paid $100-130 for SNES and N64 games if adjusted for inflation. Games are multiple orders of magnitude better than in the 90s and not only that, they beat virtually all other entertainment too in terms of value for the money. Would you have considered any of these three games a bad deal at, say, $110? That seems hard to believe given the crap you bought in the 90s for those prices and higher. Box prices for games are probably among the most inflation resitant things I can think of and the nominal price increases don't even make up for inflation. Gaming's day 1 real prices have greatly decreased since the 90s and more or less stagnated for the past ~10 years. Obviously, that's just box prices and companies have varying business models these days but generally, you can just buy a game for a basically all-time low price during what is probably the all time highest quality era. It's (good) insanity.

You forgot to add your disclaimer; "This post is sponsored by Bobby Kotick".

 

[Rentahamster]

The inflationary costs of masturbation haven't increased since the 90s either. I stay winning!

 

[Salty Popsicle]

That's why video game companies/publishers have been finding ways monetize the gaming experience past the initial purchase for decades. It started in the early 2000s with cosmetic DLC (Horse Armor) and paid multiplayer access (Xbox Live/PSN), progressed in the 2010s with paid single-player and multiplayer expansions and Battle-Passes, and most recently with game subscription services like GamePass.

 

[MikeM]

Debatable in the sense that a lot of these games have hours of filler content, fetch quests and mindless traversal in dead open worlds.

I’m finding tons of value with $10 steam games. I am done overall buying brand new games save for a select few- its always the worst version anyways.

 

[Represent.]

Why would a majority of people take games more seriously if they cost more?

My point was people still view games as toys.

Not that they would be respected more if they raised the price.

 

[nkarafo]

Games are multiple orders of magnitude better than in the 90s

No. Some genres, sure, but no.

 

[Laptop1991]

Nope, some games being released in the last few years should pay me to try and play them, and i would still want a refund!.

 

[nkarafo]

Also, of course 8/16 bit console games were more expensive. They also had to produce the cartridges/ROMs. These were very expensive to make. Nowadays they don't have to produce anything physical.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Huge disagree here. Unless you are getting them through a library.

Libraries, ebay, ebooks, subscriptions, etc. Reading is a very cheap hobby. Even a new release hardcover will only set you back around $20-25.

 

[R6Rider]

Libraries, ebay, ebooks, subscriptions, etc. Reading is a very cheap hobby. Even a new release hardcover will only set you back around $20-25.

Again if you are going the library route, obviously. Subscriptions aren't cheap in most cases, especially for audiobooks. Audible for example is $15 a month for one token (essentially one book), but there are some free titles included.

$20 a book if buying hardcovers new is a ton of money depending on how many books you read. Adds up quick.

If we are using the rental/subscritpion service options for gaming, then gaming is by far cheaper than any of those other hobbies listed when you compare value per hour. And this isn't even taking into consideration replaying titles.

 

[IDKFA]

My point was people still view games as toys.

Not that they would be respected more if they raised the price.

It'll be hard to shake that image when games were originally designed to be childrens toys. Some may argue they're still virtual toys.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Again if you are going the library route, obviously. Subscriptions aren't cheap in most cases, especially for audiobooks. Audible for example is $15 a month for one token (essentially one book), but there are some free titles included.

I mostly buy physical but "some" is a bit of an understatement from a quick glance at subscription services.

$20 a book if buying hardcovers new is a ton of money depending on how many books you read. Adds up quick.

Still much cheaper than $70 games.

If we are using the rental/subscritpion service options for gaming, then gaming is by far cheaper than any of those other hobbies listed when you compare value per hour. And this isn't even taking into consideration replaying titles.

OP is talking about $70 games beating "virtually all other entertainment too in terms of value for the money."

 

[Sleepwalker]

Some are, most not.

Most games already come with deluxe editions and stuff that take the prices well over $100.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Great games, sure. But I also don’t think most games are worth my time.

 

[LazyParrot]

People complaining about $70 for literally hundreds of hours of entertainment just goes to show, deep down people still view games as toys for kids.

Its also why they are never taken seriously by anyone but gamers.

The people who think games are toys for kids don't know how much they cost, don't know how long they are, and don't hang out in places where they can hear gamers bitch about pricing.

 

[Iced Arcade]

back then there wasn't the same amount of content pumped out/competition and people replayed the same handful of games for a whole generation.

N64 games - 338
Switch games 4250

 

[Dice]

Agreed.

Funny thing too is that people should know by now to just hold off for 6 months cause the game will be patched and it'll probably be $10-$20 off during a sale.

People should also know not to go out to eat too much to save money, but it happens all the time. Being “with” everyone around the release of the game is part of the thing we’re paying for with a launch purchase. Is it silly? Kinda yes kinda no.

 

[justiceiro]

Maybe, but it's the only media that can get way with this level of repetition and still be considered a good entertainment. You can be asked to fight the same monster for dozen of hours and still think it's a good game, but if a band play the same melody for 5 minutes, it can get booed out of the stage pretty quickly.

A lot of game developers don't understand that, and waste their time incrementing polygon count, shaders count, and other tons of stuff that doesn't really make a game engaging or fun.

We pay the prices we pay because we know what really counts, and no amount of useless effort publishers foolish try to add to it will convince us to pay more.

 

[Fuz]

It'll be hard to shake that image when games were originally designed to be childrens toys. Some may argue they're still virtual toys.

The quality and direction of writing doesn't exactly scream "adult".

 

[64bitmodels]

People complaining about $70 for literally hundreds of hours of entertainment just goes to show, deep down people still view games as toys for kids.

but forms of entertainment that dont have the stigma games have are far cheaper and have a far less high entry point.... so it's definitely not that.

Do rememeber that gaming has many costs that are more than just the purchase of the system and the game you want to play on it.

 

[Fuz]

Some are, most not.

Most games already come with deluxe editions and stuff that take the prices well over $100.

Normal edition. I think it was about 50€? Could be wrong, but it had a normal edition price IIRC.

 

[64bitmodels]

20 a book if buying hardcovers new is a ton of money depending on how many books you read. Adds up quick.

sure, but games add up even faster. purchasing 5 AAA games will set you back the price of a Switch OLED.

 

[Fatal Chuck Yeager]

People had more $60 to spend in the 90s than in 2023 where it's harder to spend $60 and in most places you get less.

That's why the games you buy are unfinished and beta tested by you the player for the real release two years later.

 

[Kaleinc]

As they say in the UK:
fuck off, mate

 

[Sleepwalker]

Normal edition. I think it was about 50€? Could be wrong, but it had a normal edition price IIRC.

The good old days are so far gone now

 

[Imp the Dimp]

People had more $60 to spend in the 90s than in 2023 where it's harder to spend $60 and in most places you get less.

That's why the games you buy are unfinished and beta tested by you the player for the real release two years later.

What? Literally everything about this post is wrong. $60 in the 90s is much more expensive than $60 (or $70) in 2023 and games these days are easily bigger and higher quality than what we had at the time.

 

[Astral Dog]

It depends on the game, i agree $50-70 for a high quality videogame from one of your favorite series is a fair price to ask and helps to keep the industry healthy

But there are many gamers who wait months for that price cut, so its not like they are paying $70 day one.
Companies slash their prices to $20 or below the value degrades over time (unless you are Nintendo)

 

[Fatal Chuck Yeager]

What? Literally everything about this post is wrong. $60 in the 90s is much more expensive than $60 (or $70) in 2023 and games these days are easily bigger and higher quality than what we had at the time.

You don't know how economics works. It is not "easier" to spend a spare $60 now than in 1993. Games these games are broken, less polished, lots of copy pasta or repeat mechanics, loot crates, micro transactions, and other money schemes. Companies selling high numbers of copies are also still missing goals and their finances are more mismanaged yet want to pass that to the consumer instead of fixing the problem.

There is nothing to justify the $10 increase to $70 they are pushing now for games, and anything beyond that is laughable because we are paying for schemes and company mistakes at that point. A company selling 10m at $60 would still make big profits now if the companies were run competently.

 

[VolticArchangel]

Hi, Andrew Wilson. Please use your main ID here on GAF, next time, and not your alt, dipshit.

 

[Power Pro]

Normal edition. I think it was about 50€? Could be wrong, but it had a normal edition price IIRC.

What's a Paladin?