So we only spent a day at $60? PC game pricing at $70? (Diablo 4)

[Dedayog]

So I got used to paying $50 for a AAA game.  Then I saw that we were being charged $60 for a bnit and thought okay... inflation I get it.

 

That was like 3 days ago?!  Diablo 4 base game is $70?!  Did they just say fuck you to the standard bump?

 

Is $70 the new price?  Thankfully I don't pay for many games I guess.

 

https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/diablo-iv

[jaslion]

Game prices haven't adhered to inflation for basically decades.

 

We are seeing it go up because companies are pushing for a new normal.

 

I haven't bought a 60€ game since GTAV and thats been my only "preorder game" (preordered it an hour before it came out to get the bonus) and the only reason I got that at launch was because my friends and I really wanted to play it for years togheter.

[YoungBlade]

The last AAA game I bought at full price was Spore. Ever since then, I've waited for sales, and I've actually been happier that way - you spend way less, you get to see the community reaction to know if the game is going to be any good, and you get to experience the game after the bugs have been worked out.

 

However, that might change depending on how Remedy does with Alan Wake 2 this year. I've loved playing Control and I've been itching for new content for this connected universe that Remedy is building - I've already played through Alan Wake, American Nightmare, Quantum Break, Max Payne, and I'm part way through Max Payne 2. I don't think I'll jump the gun with Alan Wake 2, but I might just with Control 2 if it looks promising.

[lieder1987]

Games were $60 and $70 when the SNES was popular. Games have not kept up with inflation and are behind. With inflation, games should actually be about $120.

[NobleGamer]

"Do you guys not have extra cash?" - D4 devs, probably

 

Aside from what everyone else has said, keep in mind that "AAA" refers to game budget size and is not necessarily a description of quality.

 

As such, they have ever growing costs and need more or bigger sales. These have been fueled by DLCs, multiple launch editions, and MTX monetization for nearly 20 years.

 

It doesn't make higher prices "right", but I get it.

 

AAA games are no longer meant for most or mainstream gamers like they were over a decade ago - They are meant for whoever will pay the higher prices.

[CatHerder]

I very rarely buy full priced games at launch. I usually just wait for the Steam sales for the GOTY edition or whatever.

It's a win/win: You get the game for fraction of the original price, you'll usually have the DLCs included or at least heavily discounted as well, you'll have tons of patches and by then the internet is full of mods and guides for whatever issues you might have.

[Dedayog]

12 hours ago, lieder1987 said:

Games were $60 and $70 when the SNES was popular. Games have not kept up with inflation and are behind. With inflation, games should actually be about $120.

I don't recall any Super NES games that were $60 and $70 20 years ago.

[Stahlmann]

Ever since the PS3 / XB360 era i remember the standard price for "full-price" games being 60€ (idk if US just did $60). With the PS5, more and more AAA games adopt the newer 70€ price tag for full-price titles. But i can't remember when i last paid anywhere close to that kind of money for games. Everything i buy is through game key stores or steam sale, which is anywhere between 30% and 80% off depending on the game and where you get it. Or for Cyberpunk 2077 i used a VPN to log into russian GOG and bought the game with russian rubels. Idk how much exactly but at the time (at release) it came out to be 15€ or so.

[CatHerder]

I wish Xbox/MS Gamepass thing doesn't get thrown out by the investors.

It is a really good concept, and great for consumers, but i am afraid it won't be viable in the long turn for the investors.

[Holmes108]

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

I don't recall any Super NES games that were $60 and $70 20 years ago.

 

Definitely were in Canada. I remember Double Dragon on the 2600 (lol) was $59. Bought Conker on N64 for $79. In fact this thread title confused me. Although we're generally $10 more here in Canada I was quite sure top games had been $60 forever in the US, no? They've been $70 here, and now 80.

 

Edit: Unless that was just console, and not PC?

[trufret]

8 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

 

Definitely were in Canada. I remember Double Dragon on the 2600 (lol) was $59. Bought Conker on N64 for $79. In fact this thread title confused me. Although we're generally $10 more here in Canada I was quite sure top games had been $60 forever in the US, no? They've been $70 here, and now 80.

 

Edit: Unless that was just console, and not PC?

Street fighter 2 for SNES was $70-80 USD in 1992 but a huge chunk of the price of games back then was the cost to manufacture the cartridges. The Rom chips and custom chips (if any) plus shipping would easily be half the retail cost of the games.

Going to optical disks with the Saturn/PS1 etc.. shaved a huge % of the manufacture costs and going to fully digital distribution removed manufacture and shipping almost entirely.  Now game companies still pay Steam etc... 30% or less to sell in their stores like they did for brick and mortar shops back in the day. All the inflation and extra development costs have been offset by massive savings in manufacture and distribution along with a massive growth in the number of units that can be sold now keeping the per unit price about the same.

[QuantumSingularity]

Even at $50 the price was too high for the general population. Only real fans will go out and pre-order a game at full price w/o ever playing it. That's why even the most successful games always drop their prices significantly not even a month into the launch. Game publishers are pushing for a new higher norm, like NV are trying to do with the GPU market, but in the case of the gaming industry, there is a dark side every gamer can turn to if he feels screwed over - piracy. The last few months before the total collapse of the crypto ecosystem is the only thing that still keeps GPU prices that high. The few remaining big farms that still haven't sold their GPUs. Once the flood gates open and $200 RTX 3080s and $300 RTX 3090s start hitting the market, new cards will drop as well. Same with games. Companies can ask $70 for AAA game, but when a month into its launch, the sales numbers are just 10% of what their previous game in the franchise was at and the multiplayer servers are 80% empty, they start cutting the prices. Empty servers equals dead game and developers know that. And dead game is the worst for the company image. 

[darkknight302]

On 3/9/2023 at 5:42 AM, Dedayog said:

I don't recall any Super NES games that were $60 and $70 20 years ago.

I bought FF3 for $80 when it came out in 1994. I couldn't believe the price but I wanted the game so bad.