That's what indie games are for, instead of these absurd-budget blockbusters that often aren't even fun, but also, the world just needs to be cheaper to live in. Games are first on the chopping block because disposable income for entertainment is always the first to collapse.

Become a patient gamer. This winter sale, I bought probably 25 games totaling around 30 dollars. It's enough to keep me busy for the next 5 years.

You can go AAA for cheap no problem, people just need to not get FOMO‘d out of their minds and half-resist the compulsion to jump on the next shiny thing immediately.

The newest DOOM is around 27 Euros rn and not even a year old. Buy on release - or worse yet, pre-order - and you‘ll get the worst deal (financially as well as technically).

Game prices are fine for me because I literally just wait until they‘re at a point where I don‘t see them as a waste of money anymore. In the meantime, there‘s 203 untouched games in my Steam library that had reached that price at some point in the past already. Not even mentioning the hundreds of games I got for free between GOG, Prime, and Epic.

I haven't paid over £35 on a game in years. Quite a few games are free now too, though some have kinda scummy cash shops.

Games should be cheaper to make, too.

See, that's the conundrum: big companies make huge investments and want a ROI. They dump 100+ million dollars on a game with a team that's over 200 people and expect 10x money back.

Shit has ballooned out of control in the corporate world and Indies have to fight tooth and nail against each other, bigger players, shovelware and older titles

Have you met our lord and saviour, retro gaming?

I haven't spent more than $30ish bucks on a game since ... 2013?? I think the last game I paid full price for was gta5 on ps3

Do y'all not know about the bargain bin and steam sales...? Is everyone so up to date on their backlog you can't wait a few months for that price to drop to 50%

It doesn't take long, Doom the dark ages has already hit that discount a few times iirc

Just don't buy Triple A titles.

The last "AAA" title I bought was elden ring for 30$ (unless you count Silk Song)

There are plenty of indie style, A or AA studios that are in the 5-30$ range.

The more people who move over to that type of mindset and buy from small titles, the more apt that large companies are going to lower their prices.

Every time - every single time - I've purchased a major AAA game anywhere close to the release window in the past 10 years, it's been a mistake. Pay a shitload more for a half baked, buggy, unfinished mess.

At this point I just don't buy big time releases within 6 months of launch. Even when I'm certain of the game itself, it just ends up being a mistake.

Great news!

They are!

... Just typically not the overproduced and overpriced corpo ones.

Wanna drive down AAA game prices?

Stop paying them!

Support your favorite indie or AA game today!

Don't like games with predatory microtransactions?

You'll never believe this, but you can also just stop playing games with them!

Get all your friends onboard with the plan, fight the man!

Pricing is dictated by what someone is willing to pay for it.

For me, $70 USD is too much for the average game that is being sold at that price tag because those types of games(AAA/AAAA) are:

• Broken at launch
• Unoptimized/framegen crutch
• Basic features missing
• Nickle and dimed to all hell

Again, not all, but the average AAA slop title usually has one or more of the above points.

BUT, that doesn't mean that Indie games at $20 USD are a "steal" or "bargain" either. There are many Indie games I bought at their launch(Silksong), but others I have waited for a decent sale.

If everyone stopped buying games at $70 USD then prices would fall and/or projects going forward would be re-evaluated to either keep costs/expectations down. But people are paying the $70 USD so that price point is here to stay.

They become cheap if you're patient enough.

The $60/$70 price tag on video games from major makers is an entry fee, it doesn't get you the full game anymore. You have to pay for luxury editions, expansions, microtransactions of some sort, battle pass. It's cheaper to start a tabletop miniature army than play video games now.

Or live with AA and indie games like many of us do, at tell AAA publishers to get fucked by not spending money on their live-service crap.

Last game I paid over €20 was Remnant from the ashes 2, and it was €50 with a whole year of DLC content included. Most of the games announced this week like the sequel to Kena, will buy when they are €20 too. You get the game at a fair price AND actually finished.

Check out ITAD then... lots of ways to make sure you get stuff super cheap.

https://isthereanydeal.com/

There are plenty of cheaper games out there. Go on whatever virtual store and check out current sales, and simple games made by small studios.

Cult of the Lamb, Spiritfarer, My Time at Portia, The Last Campfire, Arise: A Simple Story and What Remains of Edith Finch are all worth checking out.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake on Switch 2 is only 40 Euros / Dollars instead the full price, because the game is on a Game Key card and not on cart. It is digital only, therefore they give you a discount on price. But why don't they do that with all digital only games? Also for other stores like Steam?

Bloomberg's all broken for me, so going by the snippet:
I get the impression the absolute majority of games aren't even past the 40 USD threshold, including the majority of successful games I see in the wild. If the snippet considers the AAA games as a good sample for the gaming market, I'd argue otherwise, that they're a loud minority of games, and a decaying one at that for multiple reasons, including the bloated prices.

Aren't inflation-adjusted prices for video games quite low, comparatively? Charts like this comes up in a quick search: https://infographicsite.com/infographic/console-game-prices-inflation-adjusted/

Fuck $70+ games.

I am too drunk to form an opinion, but sure, make games (and everything) cheaper please

No they don't. For every indie dev who made it there are 100s of software engineers doing some voodoo math 90 hours a week to make my triangle look cool getting paid literally half my salary. 

Y'all screech and bitch constantly about an absurdly healthy and competitive industry. It's tiresome.

https://gg.deals/ is pretty nice for PC games at least

Bring back rentals

Perhaps a privileged take but I'd be completely willing to pay way more for games with no micro transactions or other "live service" BS. Like if economics make it so that it doesn't make sense to sell most high budget games for $70 without micro transactions then sell me one at $100. Video games were way more expensive when I was a kid and prices haven't risen with inflation at all. Consider that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time retailed for $59.99 in 1998 while Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cost $69.99 in 2023. That is a 16.7% increase over 25 years, or an average increase of 0.619% each year. Meanwhile, average CPI inflation is usually ~2% per year.

This may sound crazy, but hear me out... $70 might just be relatively cheap right now, when considering historic prices and inflation.

So about 20 years ago, I used to work at a game shop and at that time all new AAA console games were all $50 and I believe the switch to $60 happened just shortly after I left.

That said, a quick web search says that there's been 65% inflation since 2005. $50 x 1.65 = $82

So at least when compared to other products, $50 to $70 is not a huge price jump.

Now all that said, this does not account for the added cost of micro transactions and paid dlc which didn't really exist in 2005. So the actual lifetime cost of a top pricing tier game may actually be higher than $70. Honestly, I have more of a problem with that than with the higher base cost, hidden costs are deceptive.

Edit: I looked it up, the switch to $60 actually happened in 2005, I was probably still working there when it happened. If we were to do that same calculation starting with $60, that's $60 x 1.65 = $99. So there's food for thought

Games have been $60 forever, $70 is a relative bargain

Let's go, another chapter of letting a small amount of AAA games dictate our perception of video game prices.

I think the last game I paid full price for was the MGS Collection for PC. Otherwise it's waiting for sales, usually 75-80% off original price then I buy.

i did want a switch when SWSH came but decided not to get it, due to cheapflation of the pokemon franchise on the console by game freak, best decision. it wouldve cost 400+$(new swith included) plus all the extra stuff for nintendo required to play it online.

Great statement. But why?
Do the math on dollars per hour of entertainment. Games are comparably cheap at first glance. They problem is that people are cheap too. So they won't pay more for a better profuct. That has led the industry to invent more ways to get your money. Microtransactions, dlc... I would pay $100 for a game like portal these days. It would be less than a dollar per hour enjoyed. And no extra costs. But instead we have thousands of "free" games that are now geared to be most enjoyed by the people who pay the most.

That said, today's games aren't just a cd in a package. Most require servers running to be played for the most fun. What I would like is more of a subscription to a server provider that pays for servers for all the games. It's more efficient if you play lots of different games. And a lot less hassle.