this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Buying power is down. If they want me to spend more, capital has to pay me more.
Piracy is free. If you're charging 70usd for a game, then I'd rather just spend the time and pirate it. If it's 10 bucks, Im just lazy to do a Google search and pay you for it.
That plus so many games that are genuinely good and I have lots of hours into are in the $5-20 range.
So much truth
Plus those 70$ games invest so much of that $ in fucking you with DRM.
Oh fuuuuuck the DRM. I purchased CIV5 for my phone and it requires an active internet connection or it boots you out. I only play on an airplane. So I ended up downloading the pirated version so I can play the game I purchased.
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(2 replies)
Thing is, I can also NOT play games and spend my money on other hobbies.
That's why they add gambling mechanics in games. That way many can not stop playing.
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I had to drop my “under 5 bucks” rule because games don’t drop that low anymore. 10-15 is where it’s at now, for better and for worse
Yeah the subtext of the article is the more interesting point, that good quality indy games are perhaps a bit more expensive.
I’m still holding to it, but I agree, it’s getting harder and harder to find stuff on sale for less than $5. Especially if you’ve been on Steam for a long time and have a large library already.
SUICIDE SQUAD FOR $3.50 GAMERS REJOICE
~/s, obviously~
CEO and C-suite bonuses are the biggest budgetary fat that never gets cut and is fundamentally what the excessive costs are paying for. If you want better sales, cut the wage and bonuses to said roles who do the least work and reap the most reward.
I'm sure that plays a role. But it might also be worth noting that the market is absolutely saturated. You don't need to go out and get The Latest New Game to enjoy yourself. There are titles that are 20 years old and can stand up to anything the AAA titles will put out next week.
The marketing budget is what's driving a lot of the prices of these bigger titles. You see a Superbowl Ad for the new Call of Duty or GTA game? That's $5 of the sticker price right there. Sometimes firms are spending 50-100% of the actual production cost of the game to tell you to buy the game. Other times they're just going out to the gaming mags/influencer groups and leading you with "The game is coming!!!" news articles for years at a time, hoping to build a critical mass of pre-orders to fund the next title in the pipe.
Once the game is out, though, its done. Anything you can flip it for is free money for the owner of the property. So why not re-sell the SquareEnix back catalog for $10/ea? Tune up the graphics a bit, maybe spring for a few new cut scenes. You can take a title that landed on shelves in the mid-90s and turn it into another eight-figure release just by hyping it back up again.
Charging anything is tricky.
I'm comparing it to what I could be getting for free, either with torrents or emulators.
Most games being released aren't even worth my time, let alone my money.
This, I think, is the big open secret about the push for consoles to move towards pure digital distribution.
It’s easier to not have to compete against your back catalog for gamer attention, if you cut off end-users ability to access it!
Rockstar already tried something like this, when they released the ~~Definitive~~ Defective Edition.
It failed successfully, in no small part to the remaster being absolute garbage, but for the AAA publishers, it’s merely a small setback that they will try again in the near future.
Most games being released aren't even worth my time, let alone my money.
I dont think you are in their target group then.
I've got to be honest, the price of a game is probably the least important factor on whether I make a full price purchase.
I'm not going to rush out and buy something I've no real interest in. I can count on one hand the number I've made this generation. On PS2 I'd be grabbing something every week or two, but now I just can't get excited for the latest and greatest updates on old formulas. Half the time I buy just to encourage them to make more games like that, like I did with Talos Principle 2, Astro Bot and Split Fiction.
I might pick it up later if I feel inclined, or see it on a decent discount. Like Clair Obscur, that I picked up for £29 in a sale just because I remembered it existed and fancied something to play over the winter holiday.
The game must be a GOTY contender or I'm not gonna pick it up at full price. I have no issues paying up for a new, unique experience that sounds exciting. Games I know I like, but rehash an old formula land on the wishlist until they are 30% off. Games that look cool, are recommended, but I'm not sure I will like them land on the wishlist and need to be below $20 when I buy.
With these simple rules I still have too many unplayed and unfinished games in my library, so... yeah.. you gonna have to take some risks to win big.
Better to say, they are compared to good games priced at 10 to 15.