When a games been sitting in my wishlist for a while it’s usually there for a reason. Sometimes it’s just that I have a glut of other games to play in that genre, sometimes I’m waiting for the game to improve. But usually it’s because I’ve looked at the game and said “I don’t think it’s worth that price” and am waiting for it to fall to something I consider reasonable. Obviously, a price hike isn’t going to help it reach that point.
I looked at Riftbreaker’s steam DB page and it looks like it was only some countries who got a price spike, so I’m guessing it was some sort of currency re-balancing. You know, the Ruble is weak so prices relative to the Dollar went up or whatever. All that being said my first point stands, if I didn’t want to buy a game at price X , I’m going to want to buy it even less at X * 1.5, regardless of what’s happening in international money markets.
If the game is in Early access, the price is justified to change as it becomes more fleshed out.
If the game gets a massive update (Such as Quake II recently) a price raise feels justified.
Also, none of this applies if the game goes over 60$, you should never pay more than 60$ because of a price raise. But, these are all just my opinions.
All I’m going to say is that it’s nice being able to patiently wait to play games… Might have to wait a few months to a year but by then you’ll get it on sale with hopefully a few patches in and bugs being worked out by then.
The last time games were increased in price I was in grade school, 50 to 60, a 10 dollar increase. I wrote a letter to nintendo actually and got a response basically saying costs were up in the nicest way you could to a child.
That was well over 15 years ago, so the extra 10 they tacked on was honestly coming eventually. Everything else in life is getting expensive so of course it was only a matter of time until it reached this part of our lives, its really basic economics.
A comparison to keep in mind is also that we were still buying physical copies of games when the last increase happened, now we are strictly digital for a large majority of purchases while this next increase has happened.
But luckily this increase in price seems to be a trend only taken on by AAA companies, which are hit and miss in their titles lately imo, so most will be on sale in a year and you won’t ever have to pay 70 unless you are really into that title. Most indie companies are pricing their games at around 30-40 dollars right out of the gate and honestly have more of the spirit of what video games should be.
I don’t have an issue with the pricing I was just explaining why I think the pricing isn’t an issue (didn’t really state this clearly) strictly due to economic pressures and giving just a little bit of background as to why. Because honestly like you said, games historically have been more expensive in the past. And they have lightned up on prices in the past two decades only to gradually increase them with tons of time in between for whatever reason they site.
Just another thought here but I honestly think the micro transaction economy we’ve gotten in games the past few years probably stifled the price increase just a little longer.
Yea people seem to forget the pricing of n64 catridges back when it was the hot thing like ps5, etc is today. It was actually insane. Considering inflation too, you were paying a lot more for a single game then.
If a game costs what I'm willing to pay for it, I buy it, if it doesn't, I check G2A, if still not, wishlist and wait for sale. They can do what they like with prices but I've got my pain limit.
Apart from From Software stuff, I will buy all of those.
It's unavoidable. Not only are player expectations for bigger and better looking games getting higher every year, but games are also becoming more expensive to make due to bigger teams and global economic inflation. Luckily I think indie games will continue to exist at a range of prices, but I expect them to get a bit more expensive too because inflation affects everything.
Abandon the FOMO completely. I do not reward shitty behavior. Destiny 2's launch was the end of that. Let other people pay top dollar to playtest it and work all the wrinkles out. Let all the DLC come out and the game GOTY edition if it's that good. Let others buy that. THEN, when they are going to launch the sequel, all of that pap will be sold at basement-level prices. Maybe wait a bit longer if it was really popular.
I'm playing Divinity: Original Sin 2 right now. ;-)
Meh AC3 was a complete game you didn’t enjoy (valid reason not to pre-order still!) so I’d say it’s less flagrant than destiny et al which nickel and dime you as they manufacture FOMO. Bungie’s list of sins is much longer lol
Look at steam DB. Many games move the prices around up down constantly. Even higher than their previous plateau. It’s all about creating urgency for sales.
I'm 40. I've been gaming since opening Super Mario Land one afternoon in 92/93. I've spent money on more games than I can count (literally as I've bought and sold my entire physical collection numerous times over the years).
At this point: Game comes out, I pirate it. Once it's below $20, I'll buy it (assuming it wasn't shit, obviously). If I get tired of it before then, it gets Wishlisted until I can buy it below $20 in the future and I spend the next chunk of time playing one of the millions of games that have come out in the last 40ish years which I've missed instead.
You ever see me spending $70/$80 or more for a game for the rest of my life you best fucking call me a doctor and let my wife know I may not be coming home.
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