Cost of video games becoming absurd

[Pull My Finger]

Examples please. I've been paying the same for games for about 20 years now.

I think you should become more aware of your expenses.

If you wanna stick to Blizzard examples: forgot how much people were pissed off when it was announced that Diablo III would be 60 dollar/Euro straight? WoD was the first WoW expansion that cost 45 dollars, as opposed to the usual 30. Both is pretty much the norm now, and it's just a case of the industry looking at what they can get away with.

Contrary to your memory, I've been buying new PC titles for around 45€ for over a decade. The leap to 60 is relatively recent. Not buying the inflation argument either - were talking about 20-30% here, well that's some Uganda-worthy hell of an inflation!

[Demona3]

Wait for it to come out on sale.

This, exactly this. I usually wait for newer games on consoles to drop in price. My kids hate me for it, but meh, they don't need that Mario game the second it comes out. -_- If they want something right away, they have to save their allowance and trade up for it.

[Grogo]

In Canada here, in the past 3 years I have seen the truple A titles go from the usual $59.99 to the current $79.99 which is like a 40% increase. I buy much fewer games now. I can afford them easily enough but it really goes the grain to pay that much. Where I would have bought a game before, now I really research it, make sure it is what I will play a lot of, where like I said...i would probably have just bought it before. Bottomline, I buy 75% less games now and I bet I am not the only one. The gaming companies are shooting themselves in the foot.

[Orange Joe]

I think you should become more aware of your expenses.

If you wanna stick to Blizzard examples: forgot how much people were pissed off when it was announced that Diablo III would be 60 dollar/Euro straight? WoD was the first WoW expansion that cost 45 dollars, as opposed to the usual 30. Both is pretty much the norm now, and it's just a case of the industry looking at what they can get away with.

Contrary to your memory, I've been buying new PC titles for around 45€ for over a decade. The leap to 60 is relatively recent. Not buying the inflation argument either - were talking about 20-30% here, well that's some Uganda-worthy hell of an inflation!

So Wow went up $5 after almost a decade? Yeah.. That is nothing...

D2 was $50 at release.
Warcraft3 was $60

These were both over 10 years ago.

You can claim all the bullshit you want. Meanwhile anyone who actually bought games for the last 20 years is enjoying the fact prices aren't going up.

[dope_danny]

In Canada here, in the past 3 years I have seen the truple A titles go from the usual $59.99 to the current $79.99 which is like a 40% increase. I buy much fewer games now. I can afford them easily enough but it really goes the grain to pay that much. Where I would have bought a game before, now I really research it, make sure it is what I will play a lot of, where like I said...i would probably have just bought it before. Bottomline, I buy 75% less games now and I bet I am not the only one. The gaming companies are shooting themselves in the foot.

Well the lack of bootleg or unlicensed releases are the only difference between todays situation and crash of the 80's, things only go so far before the consumers just give up and spend that money on other hobbies again.

[Pull My Finger]

So Wow went up $5 after almost a decade? Yeah.. That is nothing...

D2 was $50 at release.
Warcraft3 was $60

These were both over 10 years ago.

You can claim all the bullshit you want. Meanwhile anyone who actually bought games for the last 20 years is enjoying the fact prices aren't going up.

You've been hitting the valiums for the last 20 years, that's for sure.

[Orange Joe]

You've been hitting the valiums for the last 20 years, that's for sure.

Care to actually refute anything?

[SidFwuff]

Then, again, if we account for inflation, we will find that the game prices are about the same as before. Same goes for movie tickets. Books have become much cheaper recently though, since the demand dropped. There were plots and numbers earlier in the thread confirming that games nowadays are even a bit cheaper than they were in 90-s. Are they more expensive today compared, say, to 5-10 years ago? This I don't know.

Let's not forget that all "DLC" is not created equal either. In the case of DOOM, there's a $40USD "Season Pass" that includes three (to be released) expansions. Season Passes are, in general, boxed expansions.

I know when I got Final Fantasy III for the SNES in '93 or '94, it was $99.99CDN. Granted, that was cartridge.
Half Life and Opposing Force together in 1997 were over $100. Somewhere around $110.

DOOM, in 2016, for $80 (CDN) with our Loonie trading at about 30% markup is a decent price.

Before you factor in inflation, of course.

- - - Updated - - -

In Canada here, in the past 3 years I have seen the truple A titles go from the usual $59.99 to the current $79.99 which is like a 40% increase. I buy much fewer games now. I can afford them easily enough but it really goes the grain to pay that much. Where I would have bought a game before, now I really research it, make sure it is what I will play a lot of, where like I said...i would probably have just bought it before. Bottomline, I buy 75% less games now and I bet I am not the only one. The gaming companies are shooting themselves in the foot.

3 years ago the U.S and Canadian dollars were at par. You can add 30% to the price just from the exchange rate.

Of course, don't expect prices to drop once the Loonie gets stronger- but that's another can of worms entirely.

[Pull My Finger]

Care to actually refute anything?

I already did, which prompted you to sit there in your diaper and squeal about "bullshit" in an offended manner. In view of this, I think I prefer to just leave you be and let someone else change them nappies.

[Orange Joe]

I already did, which prompted you to sit there in your diaper and squeal about "bullshit" in an offended manner. In view of this, I think I prefer to just leave you be and let someone else change them nappies.

You didn't refute anything? You made baseless claims. Name the games that you used to buy for less than $40-$60 dollars.

[Pull My Finger]

You didn't refute anything? You made baseless claims. Name the games that you used to buy for less than $40-$60 dollars.

Less that 40? Can you even read?

[Orange Joe]

Less that 40? Can you even read?

Can you?

Games are mostly going for $40-60 these days???? Just because a random few are over that doesn't mean all games are. Hell I can go find games that were +$60 from almost any system.

[Deleted]

Just seen the Madden 17 preorder on xbox live for 100$ and facepalmed. Still, it makes sense to look at the big picture. Gaming as a whole is one hell of a cheap hobby these days - unless you invest super heavily in optional content. My first gaming PC, a 80386, cost more than 3000$, there was a time when one hour internet access cost more than 1,50$, and upgrading a GPU every ~18 months was a must if you wanted to play current games. All those prices before inflation btw.

So gaming infrastructure is cheaper than anytime in the last 25 years - and what you spend on the actual games is very much your choice. If you feel AAA titles costing 100$ don't give you your money's woirth, effing don't buy them. And certainly don't buy horse armor; don't buy p2w shit. Send a message.

And one last point. Looking at how much money people spent during Steam sales even on 3 or 5$ games they either never actually play, or at least don't play before the games become even cheaper, 100$ for a title you can sink hundreds of hours in might actually be a bargain.

[SidFwuff]

I already did, which prompted you to sit there in your diaper and squeal about "bullshit" in an offended manner. In view of this, I think I prefer to just leave you be and let someone else change them nappies.

You brought up the price in EURO.

You are aware that you are telling an American that he's wrong about how much American Developers have been charging for their games in America and citing how much it cost you, in EUROPE right?

Just so we're clear.

Next, here: http://web.archive.org/web/200008150....gamestop.com/

That's an archive from Gamestop on August 15th, 2000- advertising Diablo II for $49.99USD. The same price that Diablo 3 was released for over a decade later.

I hear Europe's economy is going down the tubes. Blame Greece I suppose.

[Shakadam]

If anything PC gaming has become cheaper during the last 10 years imo. There are lots of really good F2P games and cheap "indie" games that can likewise be very good, and even the AAA titles have stayed around the 50-60€ area (where they've been for a long time) and you can almost always pick them up a year later on some sale for less than 20€.
DLC content is either cosmetic and unnecessary or it's extra content for the game developed after the game is released and ofc there's no obligation for the developer to give that away for free.

Now console games seems to be getting more expensive but I don't give a shit about consoles so whatevs.

[SidFwuff]

Less that 40? Can you even read?

I lived in Europe (the Netherlands) from 2002-2004. The Exchange rate back then was over 10% in the Euro's favour, which means that, yes, your €45 would have been around $40USD.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Spend 5 months to develop game.
Close down studio, fire all developers.
Hire new team of community college dropouts to port the game.
Spend next 8 months leaking footage and creating hype.
Sell 70% of game as "standard edition" for $69.99
Sell 85% of game as "deluxe game" for $99.99
Sell 90% of game as "collectors edition" for $120.99
Sell 100% of game as "uber core jet black rockstar mega pack edition" for $150.99
End all support 60 days later.
Begin production on sequel.
Repeat all.

[Black Phillip]

Also, after considering inflation, the cost of games isn't high.

Why do people always say stupid shit like this liek its some kind of consolation prize? You know what else hasnt kept up with inflation? Mother fucking wages. Which means games can still be fucking expensive. Basically the entire fucking point of the thread.

[Spectral]

Why do people always say stupid shit like this liek its some kind of consolation prize? You know what else hasnt kept up with inflation? Mother fucking wages. Which means games can still be fucking expensive. Basically the entire fucking point of the thread.

Are you sure you know what "inflation" means?

[Tech614]

Why do people always say stupid shit like this liek its some kind of consolation prize? You know what else hasnt kept up with inflation? Mother fucking wages. Which means games can still be fucking expensive. Basically the entire fucking point of the thread.

I think you're confusing minimum wage with wages. Average wages certainly HAVE gone up with inflation and are relative to cost of living in same area, but of course the dead end jobs take much longer to raise your pay then an actual career where you're valued.

Also not sure why people are trying to count micro transactions as price of games.

Doom costs $60. It's your own damn fault if you pay $50 for a bunch of micro transactions and worthless multiplayer dlc.

Madden 17 costs $60 its your own damn fault if you buy the $100 version which is worthless to anyone except the person who would spend money on micro transactions in ultimate team.

Stop trying to bullshit your way to a point. Games have stayed $60 for a long ass time now, in fact back in the day SNES and N64 games where sometimes north of $70 in 1990s USD. Yea, just stop this thread is complete face palm city.