I am not including mobile. But good job at ignoring PC which steam alone is at over 1B accounts, but lets count half of them as bots, still 500M vs how many PC gamers that ACTUALLY BOUGHT games in 1995? Yeah that number was close to zero. And that's just steam.
Let's agree to disagree then because every stat I can find online shows a 2 to 4x increase (depends how you count inflation) from the mid 90s to now when you ignore mobile which supposedly accounts for 50% of the entire market today.I am not including mobile. But good job at ignoring PC which steam alone is at over 1B accounts, but lets count half of them as bots, still 500M vs how many PC gamers that ACTUALLY BOUGHT games in 1995? Yeah that number was close to zero. And that's just steam.
And since you specifically mentioned GTA. If this list is to be believed then GTA V sold over 200M units. GTA III is not on the list which means it sold less than 28M.
List of best-selling video games - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
there is also this list which if true means GTA V sold more than 10x what GTA III sold
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto is an open world action-adventure series developed by British studio Rockstar North and owned by Take-Two Interactive. It is one of the biggest franchises, having sold over 435 million units.[1] Grand Theft Auto V also owns the record for biggest video game launch, reaching $1...vgsales.fandom.com
So does GTA really need to cost 80$+ because of development costs doubled or tripled? I don't think so, but 2k certainly wants you to think so.
Facts bro. Now lets wait for the nintendo and ms employees to come in here and damage control. Lol.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.
Blackpool!
One could also argue the Quality and Fun factor of games overall has never been less fun.I'm not making excuses for any of the major console platform holders who have been raising prices the last 5+ years, including most recently Microsoft just this last week. But it does need to be continually pointed out that monetarily speaking, games and consoles have never been cheaper, adjusted for inflation.
For example, the SNES launched in North America for $199.99. Adjusted for inflation, that would make it $468 today. And certainly, we can easily imagine the margins for Nintendo on a $200 sale back in 1991 would have been much higher, given how cheap materials were to manufacture those machines back then. It was just an entirely different world. Games were built with teams numbering in the single digits, and a million dollar budget was considered "large".
It is odd if you zoom out and see how expensive everything else we buy nowadays is, that we expect consoles and games to never, ever go up in cost.
£20 though, Whats worth more? 4 delicious lamb chop kebabs or Mario Kart?£21.90 for mixed kebab in Blackpool?
To be fair, it is a mixed kebab. If I wanted one of those in my neck of the woods (Swindon) I'd be paying around the same. In fact, I think I'm getting a better deal down south. I can get lamb chops in my kebab for £17 sheets.
Im just try to figure out how you got a cheese burger from dominos.
So many levels of wrong.
Sign me up
Fuck it special it is.
I don't think so. Looks like Dev's can hedge their bets and get MS to pay for the development cost's and everything after that is gravy. Seems like a win win to me in a very risky environment.
I would have figured they make the most money right out the gate from the first few months of sales and have to wait several years to match that profit. Plus, if you've already waited 6 months, I doubt you are going to buy the game at full price these days.
And the gaming market has never been bigger and the cost of producing a billion copies of a game is only marginally higher than producing 100 copies. Boo hoo rockstar, making gta v was twice as a expensive to make as gta iv and only sold 8-9x more copies. So sad.
I think your last sentence kind of plays into what I was saying about conditioning the customer that the value of a game drops off in a short period of time so just wait. Anyone who likes what Ubisoft produces, for example, knows they slash prices very quickly.
But if you like what Ubisoft produces you most likely will buy it day one. I mean at least for me I know I'm not waiting 6 months just for the future devil may cry game to go on a 40% off sale before I buy it.
Dude, stop with this corporate bootlicking nonsense. Wages might have ticked up slightly, but they're still not keeping pace with the skyrocketing cost of living, not even close. Rent, groceries, healthcare, and basic services have all shot up way faster than paychecks. Pulling one blog post that says "wages surpassed inflation for 12 months" and acting like that magically solved everything is just lazy and dishonest. That stat glosses over the fact that real wages plummeted for two years straight before that, and the so-called "catch-up" hasn't even come close to filling the gap.Everyone in here sounds like an ActBlue donor all of the sudden.
Yes there has been wage inflation.People tend to notice the price inflation more than the wage inflation though. It's why Kamala got BTFO'd in the election.
Average wages have surpassed inflation for 12 straight months
Average hourly wage growth has exceeded inflation for 12 straight months, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data released this morning. This real (or inflation-adjusted) wage growth is a key indicator of how well the average worker’s wage can improve their standard of living. As...www.epi.org
They're called Europoors for a reason.
It depends on the game and level of attachment to a particular IP(Ubisoft). A hardcore Assassin's Creed player may be there day zero, but someone casually into that series may just hold off till it's $30-40, which doesn't take long especially when they drop alot of games in the fall. I wouldn't touch a Ubisoft release in September because that shits likely to be heavily discounted on Black Friday.
I keep saying this. This is why people hate inflation. It's not corporate bootlicking, it's reality. I didn't say that wage inflation "solved everything", inflation leaves everyone poorer because things keep getting more expensive.
That response just highlights a fundamental lack of understanding of how inflation and economic dynamics actually work. Inflation doesn't "leave everyone poorer" by default, that only happens when wages and productivity don't keep up. And no, productivity didn't "plummet" across the board during the pandemic, it actually spiked in some sectors due to remote work and tech adoption, then leveled out. Blaming inflation as this vague, unstoppable force, while ignoring corporate pricing strategies, wage stagnation, and profit-seeking behavior, is just misdirection.
Folks buying the big budget games over the smaller AA/indies has been a thing for forever so the change in price isn't really changing much since that is the way it is already.
Devs have to buy milk and eggs too. So their cost of living rise too and so is a wage? leading to more expensive games.
Milk and eggs( in other words, necessities) are essentials, games aren't. My point had nothing to do with Devs having to buy milk and eggs as well. My point is that the cost of living is so expensive nowadays that superfluous things like gaming is eventually going to be cut out of the average persons budget. Somehow this narrative is circling that gaming is 'luxury', but if that was the case it never wouldn't have gotten as big as it has. People will keep dropping the 'an n64 game was $70 in the 90s' meme, but back then people could afford the basics( rent, gas, groceries, electricity) so a $70 game wasn't breaking the budget. No, the cost of living increasing isn't the 'fault' or 'problem' for these companies when it comes to what they want to charge for their games, but discretionary income continues to shrink for the average person and that's the determining factor with whether $80 games will be accepted or people nope out/wait for price drops. The market will determine that, as always.
Yes but the current level of inflation is going to force some people out of the hobby or to cheaper options than $80 games. The prices can't just go up and up without it slicing off segments of people at every increase.
Doubtful. If you are already spending 70 on a game, a price increase of 10 isn't going to force you out of the hobby. For most casuals I don't think they even buy that many games a year so while a price increase would bug them I doubt they would stop buying their sports games and call of duty. This really only affects the hardcore who sometimes buy several games at full price a month.
Personally I don't have an issue with this. The industry adopts this line pricing strategy for AAA games as if all games costs the same to produce or the 'value' of the game is equal( which is subjective). Something like Expedition 33 just released at $50 and is both a commercial and critical success. We keep hearing gaming costs are going up, but I'd love a breakdown of how those costs are distributed. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the fat could be cut, but the companies would rather just blow out the budget and then expect the customer to just pay whatever is being asked without question.
