Why do you think games aren't worth their cost ? I think, if anything, games are worth their cost and then some more than any other time in history. To think some arcadey games of the 80s and 90s, and many feature-lacking software were priced up to $70 or more. And you think they're overpriced now? Prices drop too, as ever, and there's the used games market, etc. It's not like the only option is to pay for day 1 full-price games. If you're willing to wait for some games chosen randomly by a company to make it to some service and pay for that as a rental, then I'd say waiting for some price drops or waiting to buy used could accomodate your gaming neccesities and budget. Maybe Game Pass does just that, but I find it hard to believe it's because "games aren't worth it" for any reasonable argument, I think you are either tight on money or gaming is not longer a main hobby to you.
We don't need to go all the way back to the beginning of time to compare when games were worth their cost, because it can't all be measured in money.
The early games cost what they did because you were experiencing an experiment, a passion project and a work of art. It varies depending on taste, but for me, games like Monkey Island, Syndicate wars, Command and Conquer, were our eras mona lisa or cistine chapel. I know that sounds cheesey and high praise, but we look among some games in their genre as gamings finest moment or finest idea.
When the golden era hit for me, which again varies person to person, I experienced the Dreamcast, OG Xbox and early years of the 360 and some of their games which were so experimental and fun to play, that the cost didn't matter. The first time i played Half-life, or heard the Aria of Halo, some of those priceless moments defined gaming to me.
But nowadays? None of that exists. The risk and passion projects exist, but they are few and far between and often rushed to meet some deadline, rather than being able to stew a bit longer. Games aren't primarily about experiences anymore, that's secondary to selling you MTX. Sad, but true. Games are now a vessel to feed you addictive mechanics to get you to spend more, buy more, waste more time fetching pointless crap. Gaming has taken the worst mechanics of mobile phone games and use it, through the mainstream set of gaming, to taint everything that is a game.
Even worse, and i won't go in to detail here because i'd be flogging a dead horse, but gamergate happened and like it or not, that has changed the course of gaming like nothing else ever has. The change from arcades, from cartridges, from 2d and from the couch to the online sphere, gaming kept it's core ethos. That is until gamergate came along and pooft, just like that, it changed forever.
So you say to me that i don't see gaming worth it any more? And you don't think i could use that as a real reason? You're wrong. I used to rent and buy games as a kid, now as an adult, there's no need to buy games, because their impact just isn't as lasting. I don't need to hold on to a physical copy, because the chances are i won't replay it (though i do have a copy of KUF 2 for the OG xbox which i'm waiting to become BC, because that's a lasting experience). As for digital, what sucker, what rube, what easily led fool would give a corporation that much money for a product they can only experience? £1 a month for 200 games on gamepass? Sure, that's what i value those games to be. But £60+ for a digital game? You're a mug. Pre-ordering that game digitally, 12 months before release? You're a f*cking mug.
That's just my thoughts and opinions on it
