Well, for starters, games are going to get more expensive.

That is their prerogative. Mine is not buying overpriced games.

I'm sure if it was up to the developers and creative minds behind the game this would have never been an issue. Sure, things like inflation have made the process of making games more expensive, but it's not like the extra money is going to actually go back to the developers. I'm so sick of this "games are more expensive to make" bullshit while they treat their employees like garbage and make them work ungodly hours. Micro$oft makes more money in one day than most of us or any of the developers will ever see in our entire lifetimes yet they need to lecture us on why we need to give them more money.

To be clear, I hold no grudge against the actual developers of this game. The first one was pretty decent and I'm sure this next one will be relatively good as well. But remember that we are talking about the company that forced Arkane to make Redfall when they had no desire to make it, and after it failed fired everyone at Arkane Austin and closed the studio. This isn't about making their money back to cover the cost of development, it's about making as much profit as possible with the least amount of effort possible.

Microsoft doesn't expect anyone to pay $80. They expect people to sub to Game Pass instead.

That’s a lot of money for any game, let alone one that will also be launching on Game Pass and, like its progenitor, is smaller scale than other open world RPGs of this ilk.

It's this thinking that led to Starfield and Redfall being priced at $70 and Hi-Fi Rush priced at $30.

I could bitterly rationalise it if this were the release date trailer for the next Fable and I discovered Playground Games was charging me $80

Why? Playground hasn't even made a game in this genre before. Why do you expect that to be more worth $80 than the company that's been making acclaimed RPGs since its inception?

I'm not going to bother reading the article, because you can both be anti-capitalist and participate in the system as it exists today. The developers can't pay rent with good vibes.

Play that years down the line. The first one was OK but I paid like $15 for it with the expansion. Obsidian hasn't had a clear jump in quality since the MS purchase. Possibly even signs of writing regression with Avowed so can't imagine much hype for this game

Capitalism deals with industry being owned privately.

If you want to complain about Microsoft being a publicly-traded, private-sector company rather than a worker cooperative or part of the government or whatever, okay, at least I can see where you're coming from.

But a socialist economy is perfectly compatible with having high prices.

I guess the author learned that being anti-capitalist is somewhat trendy and couldn't resist writing this opus. But this has nothing to do with the game or games in general.

Of course you can - if an adequate share of that money goes to the devs, the only issue is the money that doesn't go to the devs. And they very likely don't have much control over that money

$80? No problem! 🏴‍☠️

"Capitalism is when pay money for things. I am very smart."

Jesus Christ, I am begging people to actually learn what capitalism is before writing takes likes this.

Oh, it just modern Obsidian, no one is going to buy it anyway.

Came and went.

Avowed was cool but not really worth the 70. I doubt TOW2 is worth 80, and specifically especially because Microsoft/ActiBlizzard is just following the Nintendo train, which is what everyone knew was going to happen with triple A studios.

If this game is as good as it looks Bethesda has to really step it up on Fallout 5 or big daddy Microsoft might give the IP back to its creators.

..and that's why you support decent indie developers and pirate this trash

They aren't gonna charge me shit because the first one was so dull I only got halfway through it.

So don't buy it.

"You've had the best, now try the rest!"

It is called "a practical joke".