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[Killer Sakoman]

C'mon.

T2 guy even said it's to reflect the quality of the experience!!!!

So forget about the fact the game launched during the 360/PS3 era, already sold 130 million copies, and already got enhanced for PS4/Xbox One.

It takes tons of time and money to re-update the game with new textures and lighting for 2021. Hence $70 US (or $90 CDN)!

As CEO of T2, can I ask you something? Would you mind if we re-re-re-release GTA V in 2026 for PS6 and Series X2 for $80 US? Just asking.

As long as people are buying, I will re release it for $199. 99

 

[Barakov]

Source

The AUDACITY of this company. Anybody who starts charging $70 for a game is going to get a big FU from me. I really hope this blows up in their faces.

 

[Klayzer]

The AUDACITY of this company. Anybody who starts charging $70 for a game is going to get a big FU from me. I really hope this blows up in their faces.

Only three publishers are making any comments, guess the three. You guessed it, EA/Take Two/Ubisoft. The guys that make record profits off of gambling mechanics and micros. They of coarse are the first ones to jump on the price increase talk.

Also, can't forget about Activision. I don’t know if they made any public comments yet. Charter members of the Legion of Doom those four.

 

[namekuseijin]

if by better experience you mean being inside the game in VR, alright

if no VR support and just more pixels and more button-mashing, fuck u, fuck u all

 

[Myths]

I still don’t think Rockstar’s PS5 update will look any more interesting than the community-driven modded GTA 5.

 

[THEAP99]

Can't say NBA 2K is going to reach 90 Metacritic

 

[Woggleman]

To think that there was a time not even a decade ago when Rockstar could do no wrong in my eyes. They are the epitome of sellouts

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Hmm.

I suspect the old games remastered will be for VR, mainly PS VR2. GTA, Borderlands, Darkness, Bioshock. Who wouldn't pay to play them in VR?

 

[Klayzer]

To think that there was a time not even a decade ago when Rockstar could do no wrong in my eyes. They are the epitome of sellouts

More GTA5 you say? Here's another encore for the fans. Seriously, I can't really blame Rockstar, people keep fucking buying the game. It never leaves the top ten selling games for almost a decade now. There might not be anyone left on earth who hasn't bought it at least once.

 

[hemo memo]

I guess that means they can remove microtransactions since they're making more per game sold, right? right?

Yeah right haha

You’ll have the high price on top of MTX. That’s why the comment is ridiculous. I would understand if that comment came from a publisher who produced single player only games but Take-two? No.

Even Ubisoft with never ending credit rolls didn’t make that comment and they don’t have money cow MTX game like GTA.

 

[Dirk Benedict]

I wouldn't be surprised if this becomes the norm this generation. $69.99 price tag. Hmm..

Throughout each gen, I found myself purchasing less and less games. Depending on how this turns out, I can see the trend continue.

 

[GeeseGoose]

Right, I'm more than happy to wait for used/sales. There are plenty of high-quality experiences out there for far less money that doesn't require us to offset the cost of huge development costs while still giving them more in the form of GaaS or MTX.

 

[Aggressive Carrot]

Does this mean the next WWE 2K game will not be another steaming pile of crap?

 

[Blond]

Said it before and I'll say it again, were the only country where game prices haven't increased in a long time.

 

[Agent_4Seven]

"The quality of the experience"

 

[Texas Pride]

Said it before and I'll say it again, were the only country where game prices haven't increased in a long time.

MTX in games more than make up for the extra money they are bitching about here. They chose to add MTX as an alternative to raising game prices years ago and have been successful doing that. They don't get to have it both ways. Control your budget on a game. Make a good game and you'll be rewarded. Bloated project costs and unrealistic sales projections aren't the customers cross to bear.

 

[cormack12]

In all seriousness there are top tier games that you'd probably spend $10 more on if the baseline price was lower. I'd even say Ubi titles are worth it in all honesty. However, you shouldn't be allowed to increase the price if you have a game mode that effectively prints money (FUT/HUT/UUT/myTeam/myClub), or you pretty much abandon the single player like EA have done with FIfa and NHL. Absolute arseholes. I really hope gamers don't take this shit, you're getting fleeced and getting laughed at with these game modes. Fifa is an embarassment now, just a frankensteins monster of a game.

Things like RDR2, GTA V, TLOU II, GoT, Gears, Forza etc. are having money thrown at them to give high production values and easily sit above those other games that are solid but unspectacular.

 

[Soodanim]

Jim Sterling is definitely going to do a video on this one.

There has to be a breaking point. These greedy corporations keep pushing and pushing, but eventually it will hurt them. It has to. Unfortunately, they will only stop pushing when their profits drop, and the only way to find out is to try.

Luckily for me, nearly every game put out by the greediest companies seems to be aimed at someone else. Ubi, Rockstar, EA, Activision, WB. Rarely touch their stuff now, and when I do it's on deep deep sale. I can't change the market and I'm not trying to, but no way am I spending my hard earned cash the way they want me to. I'd be homeless.

 

[adamosmaki]

so we can expect €70 games with no micro transactions, no €10 one mission DLCs and no in game gambling with real money? Totally on board if they give me the full fledge experience for that

 

[wolfboy203]

[/QUOTE]

As I told you, those executives are not necessarily bad but they may lack competency to find the right balance of customer satisfaction and profit records.
Many companies are run by accounting guys. Those will never be able to create that balance. They will try to suck your wallet dry without providing value. Those companies do fail on the long run and suffer. Look at Capcom, they are barely as big as they were because they fucked up hatd by trying to sell you on disc DLC and all the stupid practice during the PS360 gen. The company was suffering that they couldn't develop SF5 without Sony help. They started to recover recently when thier product became good and all of us like thier recent games.
EA also suffered with their recent games and they seem to respond to fans, finger crossed ( it is not that they are doing bad, but they are not meeting expectations which in corporate world is a nightmare )

You got a point with Capcom, they tried so hard to screw their fans over with horrible practices & they suffered because of that..if only 2K could suffer the same fate

 

[REE Machine]

 

[VN1X]

I kind of want that to become true so I can ditch this hobby altogether lol (or rather just go with indies all the way). AAA games 9 times out of 10 aren't worth 60EU/USD let alone 70?! lmao. Get the fuck out of here.

 

[John Mullins]

GTA V "technical" updates? What would that be?

Only way I'd buy again is if they made the vehicles handle more realistic - or at least believable, and do away with the sticky gravity that makes falling off bikes/quads near impossible. Kills all enjoyment for me.

They wouldn't mess with the formula now, but an option for realistic handling and physics would bring me back to this series. Right now it feels so shallow that I don't have any fun with it.

 

[Gandih42]

Profit drains
- Cost of game development has gone up

Profit boosters
- Lower and lower costs towards making discs as more people buy digital every year
- Lower and lower lost sales to used games market as more people buy digital every year
- People have more opportunity to buy a game for longer times than the disc era as the game can linger around in digital storefronts forever at deal prices
- DLC
- Microtransactions
- Deluxe and Collector's Editions at $100+
- Less need for expensive traditional advertising like TV ads like the old days, since internet marketing and YT videos are faster and cheaper

I guess cost of development has outweighed the boosts.

Just as an aside, hasn't the marketing budgets for games (or at least AAA games) exploded over the last few years? So perhaps that is not strictly a profit booster.

Regardless, I feel like all I've heard about the major publishers is record breaking revenues over the last few years, due to 'boosters' such as the ones mentioned above. The ones detrimental to customers (microtransactions, some GAAS business models etc.) seems to be particularly effective. I find the statement by the Take-Two CEO to quite absurd, both in terms of the supposed quality of their games (at least in some cases) and the notion that games are too expensive to make. The cost of making games should be weighed against the profit they generate. Although his statement and phrasing is not very surprising.

The only thing I can see justifying his statement is that bigger budgets are more risky, in case a big budget game completely bombs. But that also seems to be offset by 'safe' game design and games being 'too big to fail' in most cases.

I honestly would not mind paying more for games, if I knew the money was used to pay developers more and make better products. But there does not seem to be much evidence of that happening whenever the major publishers make more money.

 

[spookyfish]

No pics of Craig? I am disappoint.

 

[Starlight Lotice]

Hi,

This is the CEO of Take Two.

We've sold over 130 million copies of GTA V, where our initial release was September 2013 at the tail end of the 360/PS3 era. During the current generation of consoles, our plan was to milk it with more sales and for next gen, we plan on re-releasing the game again in 2021 at an even higher price than in 2013.

We need to do this because if we don't price it at $70, our accountants say we might not be profitable on this 2013 game.

Please believe us. The price hike is needed for corporate survival.

They also took advantage of a Tax Break in the UK which is even more hilarious that they mention upping the price of the game.