I can only see the prices going up im afraid but this is an interesting take...
What do you think? Also I just saw Ubisoft has priced the ultimate edition of their new Star Wars Outlaws game at £120 / $130 !? I seriously don't get how digital editions can be priced this high, I'd expect a big statue for my gaming setup for that price lol
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As long as people will keep paying, price will keep on raising. Companies are trying to make as much money as possible, they are greedy, and, they are right, because people keep on buying everything. Why should Ubisoft sell SW Outlaws at 50e when they are sure people will buy the 120e edition? Companies wants revenues, they don't care about "fairness" or "ethics".
It's a very similar process to what is happening with concert's tickets, where, after corona, prices have skyrocketed but people keep on buying them, so why all the sellers (legal and not, first seller and reseller) should they lower their prices if they sell anyway?
Prices would become more fair if people started to say "hey man, 120e for a digital edition is a little too much, okay that I play earlier, I have this and that, but it's too much." and not buy it. Not complain on social and yet buy it. The same way that "Hey man, 80e (without taxes and various costs) to stand piled up in the crowd, okay the big artist and all, but it's too much" and not go to the concert, instead of paying, or worse going to resellers to go.
It is true that many games, after an year, you find them half the price, and if you have patience they go lower and lower, but companies wants, and somewhat need, the revenues now, not in 2 years.
If it's just a phase, it's hard to say and it depends on how the world goes on, which is not going well. For sure, I don't believe it's going to end tomorrow, nor the day after.
To be fair, it's a business - they want to get the price right even it is increasing the price tag. People will still buy it, but if they shut people out because of the price (especially if they're going for a live service model) then they're only gaining in the short term. The real money maker is having an active player base that continues to buy add-ons.
Prices of games have stagnated and need to be adjusted for inflation, development costs, and demand of the market
Companies, especially bigger companies, want revenues today, their investors want the dividends this fiscal year, they don't care about next fiscal year, or the one after. Next year, they will find something else. It's not that intelligent and not sustainable on the medium and longer term, I agree with you, but that's the way they work.
Then, with digital editions they cut a lot of costs and intermediaries, so they get, by comparison, much more money for each copy than the old way of physical game shops.
Also, games' prices have to get adjusted for inflation, for raising costs etc. , okay, fair, but salaries never get adjusted to anything. 😅
Lol I have no idea how you keep beating me to these discussions Murray, I think we are legit on the same wave length.
As I have been telling people on socials - the prices of games have actually stagnated/ decreased over time. $50 in 2004, adjusted for inflation is around $80.50 so its been around 20 years and videogames have historically remained around that $40-60 mark, (just like the Costco hot dog - soda combo, which is also one of Costco's leading products they lose money on because of the price point). It is crazy to see the prices of collector's editions though. The last one I got was Persona 5 Royal which was around £79.99. The equivalent for the latest Persona, Persona 3 Reload is closer to £200! It's kinda insane that increase and I don't think there was a lot more included I'll make a few points below regarding the economics of games and this headline:
Games will increase in price as to adjust for inflation. Just like all media has - movies, music, and consumables food, bills etc.
To counter it, gamers may pirate or forego on buying new and instead buy used which will affect developer and publisher bonuses. As a result I think there will be more layoffs or decreased budgets in the next game - probably seen in the marketing
We will see fewer games being made by bigger studios who would rather bank on existing IPs or models that have worked and are consistently generating revenue post launch i.e. live service games
Or/And there will be a push for subscription service and a move away from individual games being released. If there are then it'll be a limited thing, this will go in hand with the decrease in physical media
Retail stores will down size their game collection but there will be an increase in digital store fronts like GOG that will sell games at the cost of them hosting the server costs
Of course, this is pure speculation but I don't want the discourse to be purely on greedy publishers or developers creating worser games or unfinished games. I don't think anyone ever goes into work wanting to make a bad product (not to mention a whole company)
For a good game I don't mind paying £70 or more (looking at you FFVII Rebirth collectors edition... Hella expensive but no regrets I got what I paid for, good game and lots of extra stuff). I think the problem starts when the quality of the game is not in line with the price tag, people complain, but still buy it anyway.
That's like complaining about low-cost airlines but still buying that £10 ticket to Tenerife.
Probably the reason why we feel that games are getting a lot more expensive is because like with every other product or service the prices go up but our salaries don't.
What the world needs in general is for people not just to complain if something is not right, but do something against it. Just in many situations we don't have a convenient choice of alternatives so we stick with bad quality or expensive stuff.
Publishers giving up money?
I feel this will only increase along with mtx's unless people just stop paying for them.
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