The rising cost of play: AAA games, consoles, and GPUs surge in cost

[Chris Rchr]

When a game cost 60 euros instead of 80 for an investment 10 to 20 times lower than today, that's how much studios and investors were gorging themselves on our backs. Surprisingly, this point doesn't bother anyone and focuses only on the present. The justification for raising prices may not even be related to rising costs, just to the slow-to-reward profit of financial gluttons.

 

[AndyGump51]

While some gamers and industry watchers attribute these price hikes to corporate greed, others point to new import tariffs as the primary culprit..... there is no tariff on a digital product !!!!!

 

[Xenocea]

I see no exclusives. PS5 and Xbox are currently dead to me.

Demon Souls, Astro bot, Astro's playroom, Resogun, Gran Tursimo 7..etc

 

[Megalomaniac]

Demon Souls, Astro bot, Astro's playroom, Resogun, Gran Tursimo 7..etc

Boooooooring.

 

[Xenocea]

Boooooooring.

Astro bot games, are similar to the Mario games, on Switch, which you admit, you enjoyed. You're just hating.

Also they count as exclusive, which you said you didn't see.

 

[Xenocea]

While some gamers and industry watchers attribute these price hikes to corporate greed, others point to new import tariffs as the primary culprit..... there is no tariff on a digital product !!!!!

Yet people are continuing to buy Nvidia cards, even though they're getting more and more expensive each generation. Look at how much they're charging their cards now...

 

[Rucustar]

To make a game and publish it, you have to consider some things.

-Most platforms cost money to host your game. Steam takes 30% I believe, for example. This is to host multiplay(security as well), installs, statistics, and a brand that attracts the largest audience.

-publisher debt - this is the money you have to pay back to the publisher upon the sale of your game. games, like many creative endeavors, are done on borrowed money if not crowd-funded. The creators don't see a dime until it is a success. Higher cost means faster recovery.

-Finally, after all of those costs are taken care of, you can start to profit. With hardware costs, service costs, and software costs all increasing, I am not surprised that game costs are rising as well. Making a game is one of the most expensive and complicated creative endeavors that you can embark upon.

I think that if a game gives you a ratio of one hour of great entertainment per ten dollars spent, that is a good game. More than that, that is a great game. Many games give you way more than your money's worth.

 

[Cabuzzi]

That's the problem and what I don't understand: people can put a stop to all these things we complain about, but won't.

The problem is that if people stop buying, it has to be everyone. If the hardware is on the shelves, people will buy them. If enough people abstained to actually affect stock, it wouldn't take much of a "sale" (more likely drops to MSRP) to get people buying again.