Are we really supposed to buy the $80 price increase is because "games cost more to make" from Microsoft?

true lol but Fanatical is a legit "official" shop
Is it any different from CDKeys or Instant-Gaming? I've never bought anything from them.

In any case, I don't think we should cope with the prize increase by looking at key resellers, because those are becoming more expensive too. I could usually find keys for games day 1 at about 40€. Meanwhile the cheapest I've seen DOOM: DA is 62€. :lollipop_pensive:
 
Is it any different from CDKeys or Instant-Gaming? I've never bought anything from them.

In any case, I don't think we should cope with the prize increase by looking at key resellers, because those are becoming more expensive too. I could usually find keys for games day 1 at about 40€. Meanwhile the cheapest I've seen DOOM: DA is 62€. :lollipop_pensive:
It's more like GMG, like legit 100% official. I also love CDKeys but technically its not listed as "official" on gg.deals.

Fanatical is a genuine site though. All the way
 
I obviously would prefer games not being 80 but I'm not surprised one bit and even expected it because there's no way Microsoft or Sony would just see Mario Kart being sold at 80 and not trying to push for their own version of 80 dollar games.

If Nintendo kept Mario Kart at 70 dollars than I would still expect the 80 dollar to be the new AAA norm by next gen just like how it was for 70 being this current gen.
 
I provided the numbers pro-rata, games are cheaper now than in 2005. I don't know what else to point to. Is the timing opportunistic? Probably, but that's a PR decision and the hike was always going to happen. I am not thrilled or cheering it on, just pointing out the realities and that the games are cheaper now than they were when priced at $50.

I said in another thread that I'd be happy if next gen we had more "efficient" smaller consoles with less pronounced gains. Give me a slightly better GPU / CPU (over PS5 Pro) and a boat load of RAM at a lower entry level price point.

You pointed out inflation in general. That doesn't translate to every product 1:1. And we see games on PC that sell cheaper than on consoles and even cheaper on key reselling sites. So these publishers are willing to sell for less, but they choose to take advantage of closed ecosystems. But if you agree this price hike was opportunistic then I'm not sure why you came after me in the first place. That was my entire point.
 
You pointed out inflation in general. That doesn't translate to every product 1:1. And we see games on PC that sell cheaper than on consoles and even cheaper on key reselling sites. So these publishers are willing to sell for less, but they choose to take advantage of closed ecosystems. But if you agree this price hike was opportunistic then I'm not sure why you came after me in the first place. That was my entire point.
Yes, I agree it was likely (although I have no idea) opportunistic. I was highlighting, including to those comments (not yours) that were making this hike out to be unreasonable and just "corporate greed" of some kind. Games are cheaper now than they were 20 years ago.

If people want deflationary pressure on games, they need to stop purchasing them. Quality will go down, although you can argue that for many it has, and prices will go down. I imagine that's why Microsoft and Nintendo left the door open for price scaling: Elder Scrolls 6 at $80 and say, Rocket League at $50 makes sense to me.

Ultimately, I personally stopped paying full price for games over a decade ago! GamePass, PS+ and sales have dominated my consumption of video games. Heck, I don't even buy sports games anymore because it's the same game with a slightly changed menu and updated rosters at $80, but most people still do!
 
Yes, I agree it was likely (although I have no idea) opportunistic. I was highlighting, including to those comments (not yours) that were making this hike out to be unreasonable and just "corporate greed" of some kind. Games are cheaper now than they were 20 years ago.

If people want deflationary pressure on games, they need to stop purchasing them. Quality will go down, although you can argue that for many it has, and prices will go down. I imagine that's why Microsoft and Nintendo left the door open for price scaling: Elder Scrolls 6 at $80 and say, Rocket League at $50 makes sense to me.

Ultimately, I personally stopped paying full price for games over a decade ago! GamePass, PS+ and sales have dominated my consumption of video games. Heck, I don't even buy sports games anymore because it's the same game with a slightly changed menu and updated rosters at $80, but most people still do!

That's fair. I'm more than likely going to be finding ways around $80 games myself. Not sure I'll own any consoles by the end of next year. I very well may just focus on PC which gets the vast majority of games anyway and has more competition on price.
 
That's fair. I'm more than likely going to be finding ways around $80 games myself. Not sure I'll own any consoles by the end of next year. I very well may just focus on PC which gets the vast majority of games anyway and has more competition on price.
Everyday there's a better argument to be made that PC is the best way to go for a video game enthusiast, definitely.
 
That's fair. I'm more than likely going to be finding ways around $80 games myself. Not sure I'll own any consoles by the end of next year. I very well may just focus on PC which gets the vast majority of games anyway and has more competition on price.
This is my exact route as well, I think. Just going to focus completely on the PC for the "next gen."

Unless there's something that jumps out and melts my face with the PS6, but if this gen is any indication and not a mulligan one, I won't bother.
 
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Fuck Microsoft, nothing but L's for those fucking losers.

And FUCK NINTENDO, THOSE STUPID FUCKS for setting the bar with their early PS4 looking dogshit games going for 80 bucks, greedy cunts.


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Sony has been raising the prices for their HW and accesories for years now, also selling the "Pro" for $800.
 
.

All you people who say you are "out" what are you gonna do, quit gaming?

No. I'll just stick to retro. Possibly retro PC games.


Do you imagine the PC space is cheaper and safer for you?

Games wise, yes. Especially if I keep to older titles.


Are you gonna steal your games?

No

Microsoft is just getting warmed up in the space. They want to control it. The hardware prices are even more out of control on PC so you better hope your little theft sanctuary stays protected.

Do you have shares in Microsoft?
 
You pointed out inflation in general. That doesn't translate to every product 1:1. And we see games on PC that sell cheaper than on consoles and even cheaper on key reselling sites. So these publishers are willing to sell for less, but they choose to take advantage of closed ecosystems. But if you agree this price hike was opportunistic then I'm not sure why you came after me in the first place. That was my entire point.

I very much agree with you here in the bolded. Entertainment, software, games are not physical and material constrained products like physical consumer goods, and we should not entirely accept inflation, let alone tariffs, as rationale for increased game prices.

We generally expect technology to push prices down or at least provide more for the same dollar. In 2005, we were paying $6 to rent a movie or game from Blockbuster for the weekend. Now we rent a catalog of 1,000s of movies from Netflix for $15 a month, and similarly for games from Game Pass or PS Plus.

The consumer base is much larger now. The digital model plus globalization has multiplied the gamers that publishers and developers have to access to, especially with the boom in PC gaming and smart phones, plus efforts in cloud.

A developer's share of revenue is higher now than 2005 with digital channels overtaking brick and mortar retail. Your $70 game sold digitally lets part of what the retail would net get split between you and the ecosystem owner.

And then there are the tools and game engines, SDKs, and libraries, and building on past titles and shared specialized departments like QA, and lower cost outsourcing where the productivity of each employee or dollar invested in the project should be much more efficient at driving output than historically.

At the end though, the market will sort this out, and hopefully titles mid-priced and lower-priced continue to succeed where large expense items like motion capture and cinematics are mostly ignored in favour of gameplay innovation and execution.
 
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It's all ba imo, it's just a money grab by Microsoft and their failing brand. Anyone buying into that ecosystem is an idiot at this point.

And it's not tariffs for the slow people in the back.
 
Does the reason really matter ?

If they spent 10 billion on a bad game would you be willing to pay 1000 for it?

What about if they spent 50 million and ask for 100?

To me it's about how good I perceive the product to be, couldn't care less for why they are asking for whatever quantity. If I can afford it and think it's worth it, I will pay.

This applies for everything.
 
Well no, Xbox is just taking advantage of the fact that Nintendo has raised the price of games with Mario Kart World to do it themselves, $80 - €90 for a game is crazy.
 
Microsoft seem to want to kill off their own hardware.

80 dollars for premium games only is okay with me, ie GTA, Mario, Mario Kart, Zelda, Resident Evil, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Divinity Original Sin 3 but normal games like almost everything else needs to be cheaper.

I will not pay the same thing for Assassin's Creed fuckin Shadows that I pay for GTA. Not gonna do it. That's just dumb.

I would have included Halo and Gears of War 10 years ago in the above, but Microsoft has ruined those and they are 2nd hand franchises now.

All you people who say you are "out" what are you gonna do, quit gaming? Do you imagine the PC space is cheaper and safer for you? Are you gonna steal your games? Microsoft is just getting warmed up in the space. They want to control it. The hardware prices are even more out of control on PC so you better hope your little theft sanctuary stays protected.
I still have a huge backlog to get through, and I mostly play older games anyway. I've gotten into the habit of waiting for deals and deep discounts for new releases.
 
Comparing game prices then vs now is interesting but not all that meaningful when it comes to games. Having 5x as many people work on a AAA game has probably increased costs far more than inflation has. Expecting to sell more copies (copies essentially costing ~zero to produce after the first one), plus additional forms of monetisation, has allowed them to keep prices relatively low despite that huge increase in (non-inflation) costs

If prices rise it's because they think that's the new optimal price point, although perhaps in this case because they wish to encourage people towards a different payment model for games.
 
This is my exact route as well, I think. Just going to focus completely on the PC for the "next gen."

Unless there's something that jumps out and melts my face with the PS6, but if this gen is any indication and not a mulligan one, I won't bother.
I will be sticking with PS5 if they continue physical. If not, then I'll probably move back to PC gaming. That was my Nintendo as a kid lol
 
Record profits. Record layoffs.

Months later: "we're raising to $80."

This shits all so tiring man.

And yet what people are getting paid has remained stagnant for years, which means people are seeing less money in their pockets every fucking year because everything keeps going up. I'm so fucking close to just crashing out after everything from the past 5-6 years man.
 
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Record profits. Record layoffs.

Months later: "we're raising to $80."

This shits all so tiring man.

And yet what people are getting paid has remained stagnant for years, which means people are seeing less money in their pockets every fucking year because everything keeps going up. I'm so fucking close to just crashing out after everything from the past 5-6 years man.
Vote with your wallets. Ubislop, for example, is on the verge of bankruptcy behind closed doors. The fact they practically sold their flagships IPs that are Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege to Tencent in all but name proves that gamers are getting sick and tired of bullshit that companies like Ubislop are doing and... what else can a supposed "AAA" developer studio do but either close up shop or sell themselves off.
 
Vote with your wallets. Ubislop, for example, is on the verge of bankruptcy behind closed doors. The fact they practically sold their flagships IPs that are Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege to Tencent in all but name proves that gamers are getting sick and tired of bullshit that companies like Ubislop are doing and... what else can a supposed "AAA" developer studio do but either close up shop or sell themselves off.

I'm bout to get REALLY selective about what I buy.
 
Sony has been raising the prices for their HW and accesories for years now, also selling the "Pro" for $800.
While that's true, you can buy Astobot Digital bundle for $400 right this moment. Most likely it will go up, but not just yet. We will see what happens in couple of weeks.

Edit: That said I am not planning to purchase PS6 or Xbox Next. I will probably buy Switch 2 down the line for kids and maybe to play a few Nintendo games but it's not a priority.
 
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Not sure why you singled out Microsoft here, they're not the only ones, let alone the first ones, to announce $80 games.
That's rich coming from you
Don't forget, if Jimbo had his way PS5 games would have been priced higher than $70. Publisher influence likely reigned him in.



I also don't forget MS ushering $60 in the 360 era, where prior it was $50 and below.

Why do you do this?

Regarding Redfall and Starfield
Nah. I don't think any game already with a defined window will have the $70 tag.

Interesting that you brought it up, reportedly Sony wanted the prices higher than $70. Likely publisher intervention stopped it.




it was Take 2 that ushered in $70 and now it's MS doing $80 yet you're on the defensive as usual.
 
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Not really true.

Looking at my own country in the UK.
In some sectors and regions, yes—especially in tech, finance, and parts of healthcare, wages have outpaced inflation. But for the median worker, particularly in the UK and much of Europe, real wage growth has been sluggish and often barely keeping pace with inflation since COVID, or in some cases even falling behind.

Low and middle-income workers have been hit hardest by cost of living increases. In the UK and the rest of Europe, we're living in a cost of living crisis. I earn far more money now than I did pre-Covid, but I feel pooer. Everything has shot up at a record pace. Energy bills, water bills, cost of food etc has been rising at a record pace since Covid and most people are struggling to get by.

I mentioned this in another thread, but it has gotten so bad in the UK that we have radio stations asking people to donate money so families can feed their children. In the UK. One of the richest nations in the world, and we have children starving. This isn't normal in a first world nation.

When the cost of living has skyrocketed since COVID, spending £80 on a single video game feels like a luxury most people simply can't justify.

The UK is in a uniquely fucked situation.

Wages have still outpaced inflation like the US, if you look at the averages over the last ten years. Even accounting for Covid, the UK is probably now where it would've been anyway. The reason for that is that wage increases in the eye of the storm of Covid (2020-21) eclipsed inflation, but then the reverse happened in the following couple of years. Now that everything has settled for the last year or so, the increases in wages and inflation have balanced each other out in the long term.

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The inflation in 2022-3 did temporarily get so bad that it caused a cost of living crisis. I am not disputing it was a hardship for the poorest people. But not everything contributed to that crisis in the same way. Transport, food and energy bills were dramatically more affected than other sectors:

Mi60bC3.png


For the energy bills, part of that was caused by price gouging by energy companies. If there were any corporations to pin the blame on, and to show i'm not a "corporate bootlicker", it would be energy companies. There have been studies showing that their greedy pursuit of profits contributed to the inflation getting as bad as it did.

However, to bring it back to the topic at hand - the price increases in gaming are nowhere near the level we see in other sectors. We are not seeing prices increase 90% like energy. Dial the numbers into a CPI calculator and the price of a Switch 2 vs the original Switch, or $80 games in 2025 versus $60 in 2017, are almost exactly in line with inflation... there is simply no gouging happening.

These corporations also do not operate like charities. They are not going to leave money on the table a) against the will of their shareholders, and b) in the face of their own rising costs (ie. astronomical development costs, sluggish hardware sales for MS, tariffs fucking the global supply chain, or mass live service game cancellations at Sony). The big three are not going to turn around and say to gamers "your energy bills and food costs are so high right now so we're going to take a financial hit to help you out bro". It doesn't work that way.

Even internally at these companies, it just doesn't work that way, which is why Tango had their plug pulled at Xbox. In spite of Hi-Fi Rush being a very good game, what #SaveTango didn't acknowledge was that Ghostwire bombed and Evil Within 2 had a 4:1 sales fall-off after the first game. If you keep subsidizing every continued money loser then there is a real risk of having to close up shop completely. Microsoft almost killed Xbox after the Xbox One flopped and Sony's TV division had to bail out PlayStation after the PS3 lost all of their console business profits up until that point.

You can only attempt to treat a diseased limb so long before it needs to be amputated. But it just makes for a better story that eg. evil EA Games are killing off Codemasters (psst, WRC sold like shit...)
 
it was Take 2 that ushered in $70 and now it's MS doing $80 yet you're on the defensive as usual.




My guy spent so much time finding those old posts to just fumble at the end. .


Fumble GIF by SB Nation



MS didn't usher in $80. When Nintendo announced $80, most of us said at the same time that this will rub off on other publishers. And lo and behold, it already has.
 
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Time to make companies hate gamers with this one simple trick. Wait 6 months to 2 years for that deep deep sale of their $80 game being bought for a bargain price of $30 or less.
 
So obviously they both want to make more money, but Nintendo raised prices for different reasons than MS. Their dev costs have gone up while MS has gone down, whether or not MKW looks like an $80 game or not. MS has had many rounds of layoffs in the past 10 years. Nintendo has a history of avoiding layoffs in times of financial difficulty, often prioritizing employee retention over short-term profit gains. Yes, they have both raised prices and responding to market conditions, but one of the companies is trying to squeeze a little more juice out of the apple than the other. I understand being mad at increasing cost of games, but we should be more mad at companies that are simultaneously cutting costs by laying off employees. Games have avoided inflation for so long that some adjustment was inevitable, but isn't it worse to raise prices AND cut costs rather than raise prices and raise costs?
 


My guy spent so much time finding those old posts to just fumble at the end. .


Fumble GIF by SB Nation



MS didn't usher in $80. When Nintendo announced $80, most of us said at the same time that this will rub off on other publishers. And lo and behold, it already has.
This may be the first time a publisher has done this halfway through and NOT starting a new gen.
 
This may be the first time a publisher has done this halfway through and NOT starting a new gen.

Capcom, Ubi etc also started this gen with $60 games before pivoting to $70 for their latest projects. Likely $80 for their 2026 games.

But then again, this is also the only console gen where hardware prices have gone *up* over time, so this is a fucked gen all around.
 
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Capcom, Ubi etc also started this gen with $60 games before pivoting to $70 for their latest projects. Likely $80 for their 2026 games.

But then again, this is also the only console gen where hardware prices have gone *up* over time, so this is a fucked gen all around.
This is disingenuous. Take 2 set the standard for $70 games before the consoles launched ushering it into the a new gen. Which every major publisher adopted. Capcom and those outliers were just keeping old pricing for a while.

This is the first time ever that a publisher let alone a platform holder, raised from the established launch MSRP halfway through a gen.

Nintendo is doing it launching into a new gen.

Fun historical fact:
MSFT did the very same with the 360. They were $50 since launch of the 360 and the first game to get the $60 price point was Halo 3. Setting that amount for their first party games the rest of the gen.
 
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This is disingenuous. Take 2 set the standard for $70 games before the consoles launched ushering it into the a new gen. Which every major publisher adopted. Capcom and those outliers were just keeping old pricing for a while.

This is the first time ever that a publisher let alone a platform holder, raised from the established launch MSRP halfway through a gen.

Nintendo is doing it launching into a new gen.

Gonna disagree with you.

Nintendo started the Switch generation with established MSRP of $60 but started selling games like Tears of the Kingdom for $70.



* and now they're selling an HD re-release of the same game for $80. Which somehow feels even worse.
 
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Gonna disagree with you.

Nintendo started the Switch generation with established MSRP of $60 but started selling games like Tears of the Kingdom for $70.



* and now they're selling an HD re-release of the same game for $80. Which somehow feels even worse.
Matching everyone else in the same gen.

MSFT is raising to next gen chronology (Switch 2) pricing while being a gen behind. Which we know every other publisher is going to follow, regardless.

Be happy, MSFT once again is "leading the way."
Steve Harvey Wow GIF by NBC
 
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Matching everyone else in the same gen.

MSFT is raising to next gen chronology (Switch 2) pricing while being a gen behind.

I mean .. we've called Switch a gen behind PS5/Series for years now.

We're just debating semantics at this point.

No one likes paying more for games, MS didn't usher this change in, so leave the multi-trillion company alone bro.
 
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My guy spent so much time finding those old posts to just fumble at the end. .


Fumble GIF by SB Nation



MS didn't usher in $80. When Nintendo announced $80, most of us said at the same time that this will rub off on other publishers. And lo and behold, it already has.
Nintendo has nothing to do with Xbox and PlayStation. If that were what you was worried about Nintendo already had $70 games generations ago too. Question is why are you now unable to pin this rise on PS and Xbox on MS and quick to defend them yet you were eager to pin $70 on Sony when it was Take 2 that was the first publisher to $70 on both PS and Xbox.
 
Nintendo has nothing to do with Xbox and PlayStation. If that were what you was worried about Nintendo already had $70 games generations ago too. Question is why are you now unable to pin this rise on PS and Xbox on MS and quick to defend them yet you were eager to pin $70 on Sony when it was Take 2 that was the first publisher to $70 on both PS and Xbox.
He'll be docked rations, if so. 🤭
 
Nintendo has nothing to do with Xbox and PlayStation. If that were what you was worried about Nintendo already had $70 games generations ago too. Question is why are you now unable to pin this rise on PS and Xbox on MS and quick to defend them yet you were eager to pin $70 on Sony when it was Take 2 that was the first publisher to $70 on both PS and Xbox.

Swing Miss GIF by MOODMAN




You claimed MS is ushering in $80, which is factually wrong. Not sure why caveats like 'nintendo has nothing to do with Ms and Sony' matter? The absolute need to try and pin this as a negative for MS is perplexing.

I'm not the one who said Sony would have priced games higher than $70 if they could, articles and reports like this did. Contact VGC and ask them to appease your bruised ego, I guess 🤷‍♂️

 
Microsoft and others are riding anti-tariff sentiment to hike prices now. It's smart timing from a business perspective in that regard

Of course, it's all lies and they are not in a power position to be doing it, so it's a little baffling.
 
Swing Miss GIF by MOODMAN




You claimed MS is ushering in $80, which is factually wrong. Not sure why caveats like 'nintendo has nothing to do with Ms and Sony' matter? The absolute need to try and pin this as a negative for MS is perplexing.

I'm not the one who said Sony would have priced games higher than $70 if they could, articles and reports like this did. Contact VGC and ask them to appease your bruised ego, I guess 🤷‍♂️

That was all based on the one and only Takashi Mochizuki posting his usual bullshit not VGC but again this doesn't change the point that the third party publisher known as MS/xbox is raising the prices to $80 and is "the first to do so" in the same way but of course you are jumping to their defence. Take 2 was the first to jump to $70 and on xbox too which had nothing to do with Sony/PS.
 
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To be fair, with the amount of mismanagement and drafting in of other studios that studios like The Initiative have faced in not surprised that costs have ballooned. Not sure how that's a consumer problem though that Microsoft can't run a bath.
 
That was all based on the one and only Takashi Mochizuki posting his usual bullshit not VGC but again this doesn't change the point that the third party publisher known as MS/xbox is raising the prices to $80 and is "the first to do so" in the same way but of course you are jumping to their defence. Take 2 was the first to jump to $70 too and on xbox too which had nothing to do with Sony/PS.

I mean .. ok .. you keep applying different filters to each post to try and make an argument, do you I guess.

MS didn't usher in $80, and they've also said 'some' of the games will be $80, not all. So you'll see the same bullshit distinction between what a publisher considers 'premium' or not like Nintendo's first party output from them too, i-e CoD will probably be $80 but Outer Worlds 2 might still be $70.

And if the Brazil PSN thing is an indication, Sony has also already started working on readjusting prices globally.
 
Gamers now will become pickier and more willing to play their games they've purchased, I don't support the price increase either but the numbers shows gamers saturation is cancer to the industry.
 
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I'm not buying anything from anyone....

.....for full price that is. Join the ranks of the proud warriors of patience on GAF who wait for sales brethren, then the list price really doesn't mean much at all.
 
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