Can anyone tell me why flexible pricing is good in every industry except videogames?

I do think it's being used.
Then I must not be understanding what you are considering as the game equivalent of the 'normal car' and the existing game equivalent of the Ferrari.

If some $15 indie is the 'normal car' and the ~$60 AAA is the Ferrari then sure, it already exists and has already been accepted (in which case what is the point of this thread?)

If the ~$60 AAA is the 'normal car', what is the game equivalent of the Ferrari which is already in use but is not being accepted?
 
There has always been flexible pricing in gaming, it's nothing new.
As for for more expensive games, sure, devs can charge whatever they want for the games, the market will decide if it's profitable for them or not. I actually do think some big games like Mario Kart and GTA that can easily charge $80 or more and sell tens of millions, so why not?.

Personally, I think in physical products like bikes there's (usually) a more linear relation between price and quality. That $500 bike you got is probably substantially better than the $100 one in terms of materials, build quality, durabability, features, etc.

With games I just don't see it the same way. If a higher price is just giving me better graphics and more "content" (aka bloat) then I don't need it, same way I wouldn't pay more to watch some MCU slop at the theater just because it has a higher VFX budget than your average movie.
If anything many of my favorite games this gen have been either smaller lower budget games (like Nine Sols, Chained Echoes and Hi Fi Rush) or full priced games that don't focus on super high fidelity graphics and top of the line production values (like Elden Ring, The Yakuza Games, Armored Core, Unicorn Overlord, Triangle Strategy, etc).
 
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Because it's multimedia, an Album is gonna cost £9.99 regardless of if it's got 10 tracks or 18
A film will cost 14.99 or 19.99 depending on if it a Blu-ray or 4K
And over time those prices will come down.
4K will be 14.99 or even 9.99 eventually regardless of what's on it.
It doesn't matter how much it cost to make or how many people worked on it.
And you know how much they was in 1996?
The same.
Music was 9.99 and DVD was 19.99
£69.99 is more then enough.

And a kart game isn't AAA, and isn't worth 80 no matter which way you spin it.
 
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Think of the audience, many gamers use them as a drug to scape living on their parents money or are just broken because they've not fully developed their careers (still too young, in third world countries, etc.) and still want to play everything releasing just because of FOMO.

I mean, there are many grown up adults with no money issues just dealing with it, but most frustration have come from third world countries or ibero Europe.

Others just use anything from Nintendo to make damage (if they had a job, they'd be too busy for that) and as they can't shit on hardware this time around, anything is ok, there are some people in Latinamerica and Spain complaining about a $80 Switch case like, fellas just don't buy it and get something that fits your pocket instead?

I don't get it, I don't want to pay more but as with anything else, if gaming becomes too expensive I'll just prioritize other stuff and call it a day, there are cheap games everywhere anyway.
 
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You're missing my point.

Which enthusiast industry doesn't benefit from a high end pricing model?

You buy a cheap guitar to learn. You fall in love playing guitar. You buy a Les Paul.

Guitar enthusiasts appreciate luxury guitars. Why don't game enthusiasts appreciate luxury games?

You see the disconnect?
We already have that right across the hardware spectrum. There are mainstream entry-level systems for the casual player - a PS4, a Switch, etc - or if you're an enthusiast you can pony up for a $3000 gaming rig that will play exactly the same games at way, way higher fidelity.

This is the equivalent of the argument you're making. I can buy a $150 Stratocaster knock-off made of balsa wood and zip ties and plug it into a $30 practise amp and, sure enough, I can play Sweet Child O' Mine and it will sound like a tinny, buzzy, shit version of Sweet Child O' Mine. Or I can buy myself a Gibson Les Paul Custom Shop model carved from the Deku Tree's left bollock and plug into a $3500 '59 Marshall Head. I can still play Sweet Child O' Mine on it and (assuming I'm halfway decent) it'll sound insane.

Software is more akin to an album or a movie. In the same way that games don't have wild variance in pricing (though there's probably $100 gap between a basic indie and a premium AAA SKU) you won't go to the cinema and find that the latest Marvel movie has been made for an 'enthusiast' audience who want the most top-end superhero experience. You won't see them charging $150 a ticket for entry. The reason? It's not economics - it's social. Culture is something everybody should be able to share in: there shouldn't be an unreasonably high barrier to anyone playing music, owning a car, listening to a new record, or jumping into the latest big video game. The quality of your access - whether you're driving an old banger or a brand new Lamborghini, playing on PS4 or a 5090 - is where the variable pricing kicks in because even the worst kind of capitalist knows that culture only has value when the majority of people can access it.

It's that simple - you're making a false equivalence and that's why you can't figure it out.

If you're looking for eminent proof of this, look no further than the most played video game in every country on every platform in the world. It's called Fortnite, it provides thousands of hours of entertainment, and the barrier to entry is about as low as it can be for a modern video game: on just about every device going and free to download and play.
 
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I love that this guy figured out how to troll a place like NeoGAF without using console wars as a crutch. It's high brow stuff that flies over redditors heads.

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80? That's probably what people are expecting anyway.
That's what most people are rebelling against (at least the vocal minority of GAF) and it makes little sense. I'm just explaining why Ferrari makes the automobile industry a more compelling industry.
Varied pricing already exists in games. Brand new first party Sony titles can sell for £70. Some games are cheaper. Depends on the game. It's been like this for years and years. Games are priced at what publishers believe people will pay. If GTA VI sold for £150 then it would tank in sales. People aren't prepared to pay that much for a video game.

I thought you wanted high grade luxury priced games, like 150 a pop. It doesn't seem that you're suggesting anything new or revolutionary.
I do. I want these companies to push the upper limit until they find the breaking point. To me, it's crazy that Star Wars Outlaws or Avatar Frontiers of Pandora (two mediocre titles) is supposed to sell for the same price as GTA VI...assuming that turns out to be a great SP campaign.

I want more Steel Battalions.

$_57.JPG


That's only going to happen when people stop wanting price caps on their games.
 
We already have that right across the hardware spectrum. There are mainstream entry-level systems for the casual player - a PS4, a Switch, etc - or if you're an enthusiast you can pony up for a $3000 gaming rig that will play exactly the same games at way, way higher fidelity.

People...the market...don't value hardware like you think they do. Games are the platform now. People value games, not the plastic boxes they run on. Most gamers would rather play their favorite game on inferior hardware than an inferior game on high end hardware. The hardware has very little value to most gamers.

You guys are so out of touch on this issue.
 
People...the market...don't value hardware like you think they do. Games are the platform now. People value games, not the plastic boxes they run on. Most gamers would rather play their favorite game on inferior hardware than an inferior game on high end hardware. The hardware has very little value to most gamers.

You guys are so out of touch on this issue.
That's a swing and a miss, dude. The only game with aspirations of being a platform right now is Fortnite and that's completely free (disproving your point, even if I grant it).

You know I'm right, but instead of addressing my points, you make non-arguments about other people being out of touch. If you're as intellectually ferocious as you consider yourself to be, you'll know the smartest thing any person can do is admit when they're wrong.
 
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I think it's a good idea, but a huge percentage of gamers are complete broke-asses who bitch about literally everything so the industry has largely stayed away from it. It's the reason nobody can make money in this industry and players that could be major (like apple) have stayed away.
Except gaming companies report record profits but ok.
 
That's a swing and a miss, dude. The only game with aspirations of being a platform right now is Fortnite and that's completely free (disproving your point, even if I grant it).
Roblox has more hours played on it each month than PlayStation, XBox, and Switch combined.

All of these new GAAS games are trying to be your one platform to spend your money in.
 
Roblox has more hours played on it each month than PlayStation, XBox, and Switch combined.

All of these new GAAS games are trying to be your one platform to spend your money in.
And it's free to play. As I said, accessibility to culture drives culture. If Chappelle Roan was charging $100 a song and arguing that she was a 'premium' artist for enthusiasts, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be topping the charts right now. If you go to see her play live though, you'll probably have the option to stand at the back in general admission or get VIP seats right by the stage. You'll pay handsomely for the latter, and there again is your flexible pricing - the Ferarri, the Trek. Crucially everyone still has access and can hear the whole show and - in most decent venues - see the artist on stage.

Imagine if I sell tickets to see the first five songs of a live performance, or even more for the ten songs, more still for fifteen, and up and up until I'm paying $1000 to see the whole show and encores. It wouldn't work, nobody would want that, because it's not equitable at this point. Your pitch about Marathon charging $40 a runner would hit the same barrier - that's how these things are and it shouldn't really need explaining.
 
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I want the best, most innovative, most interesting possible games for me.

300px-We_Are_Not_the_Same.jpg
Because charging more for a game dosent garantee you that.

You have 20$ indie games that are Better, more innovative, and more interesting than most AAA 70$ games. Unlike other markets, where the increase in price is usually associated with the inclusion of better or more high quality materials and feautures, that dosent apply to videogames or digital media.

Im still hoping that one way i see one of your topics that is actually pro consumer, maybe one day.
 
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That's what most people are rebelling against (at least the vocal minority of GAF) and it makes little sense. I'm just explaining why Ferrari makes the automobile industry a more compelling industry.

I do. I want these companies to push the upper limit until they find the breaking point. To me, it's crazy that Star Wars Outlaws or Avatar Frontiers of Pandora (two mediocre titles) is supposed to sell for the same price as GTA VI...assuming that turns out to be a great SP campaign.

I want more Steel Battalions.

$_57.JPG


That's only going to happen when people stop wanting price caps on their games.

So what you want is just more premium games like Steel Battalions?

The reason we don't get more games like that is because the majority aren't interested in spending a three figure sum on a single game.
 
And it's free to play. As I said, accessibility to culture drives culture. If Chappelle Roan was charging $100 a song and arguing that she was a 'premium' artist for enthusiasts, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't be topping the charts right now. If you go to see her play live though, you'll probably have the option to stand at the back in general admission or get VIP seats right by the stage. You'll pay handsomely for the latter, and there again is your flexible pricing - the Ferarri, the Trek. Crucially everyone still has access and can hear the whole show and - in most decent venues - see the artist on stage.

Imagine if I sell tickets to see the first five songs of a live performance, or even more for the ten songs, more still for fifteen, and up and up until I'm paying $1000 to see the whole show and encores. It wouldn't work, nobody would want that, because it's not equitable at this point. Your pitch about Marathon charging $40 a runner would hit the same barrier - that's how these things are and it shouldn't really need explaining.
Your analogy is damning.

People don't value songs enough to pay much more than what we currently see. Chappell Roan has to make her money from merch and high ticket prices.

SP gamers are harder to monetize. The MP market wants to spend money inside the games they enjoy. I question whether many of you even enjoy games.

Apple could easily sell a phone for $100 dollars but Apple figured out their audience wants to spend $1,600 on a phone instead. So Apple did not subscribe to your accessibility to culture drives culture theory.

Star Citizen shows us that the "Games are the platform" audience are willing to spend $40 per Runner. Heck, I think it's crazy that people still buy Fortnite skins.

To put it bluntly, and slightly humorously. You SP gamers sound like the aging 40 year old single mother who says "Anyone I date has to make 500k a year and be 6ft 3in."

Us MP gamers are beautiful babes who just want to have fun.
 
My way is pro consumer if you're an enthusiast who like Trek, Lexus and Celine Dion.
Celin Dion is a great singer but nop, i do not like her music. So i guess im ok with games being reasonable priced and not charging me 200$ just because they think they are worth that much.
 
Because charging more for a game dosent garantee you that.

You have 20$ indie games that are Better, more innovative, and more interesting than most AAA 70$ games. Unlike other markets, where the increase in price is usually associated with the inclusion of better or more high quality materials and feautures, that dosent apply to videogames or digital media.

Im still hoping that one way i see one of your topics that is actually pro consumer, maybe one day.
It's actually a negative correlation. Indie games tend to be more innovative, because they're lower cost and lower risk. The more production costs rise - in film and in games - the more risk averse publishers become.

Your analogy is damning.

People don't value songs enough to pay much more than what we currently see. Chappell Roan has to make her money from merch and high ticket prices.

SP gamers are harder to monetize. The MP market wants to spend money inside the games they enjoy. I question whether many of you even enjoy games.

Apple could easily sell a phone for $100 dollars but Apple figured out their audience wants to spend $1,600 on a phone instead. So Apple did not subscribe to your accessibility to culture drives culture theory.

Star Citizen shows us that the "Games are the platform" audience are willing to spend $40 per Runner. Heck, I think it's crazy that people still buy Fortnite skins.

To put it bluntly, and slightly humorously. You SP gamers sound like the aging 40 year old single mother who says "Anyone I date has to make 500k a year and be 6ft 3in."

Us MP gamers are beautiful babes who just want to have fun.
Didn't you berate people for childish name-calling earlier? Why is Captain Logic now resorting to ad hominem and moral arguments?

I don't know how Chappelle Roan makes her money, but I know she wouldn't be able to sell out arena tours if her music wasn't broadly available to millions of people. This isn't that hard to understand.

Apple has strong branding, and most people that buy their phones new are not paying the full cost upfront. Like most luxury purchases, they're paid off in increments as part of a service plan - you know this, I'm sure.

Star Citizen is an outlier, it's not demonstrative of a real opportunity or trend. Completely free-to-play games like Roblox and Fortnite, which survive not on flexible pricing but recurrent spending, are the most successful model right now. Fortnite is the most premium a game has ever been, and it has no flexible spend - no $150 premium skins for enthusiasts, no exclusive $200 map packs.

You're flat wrong and everyone can see it - just be honest and take the hit, it's what a genuinely smart person would do.
 
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Because it's multimedia, an Album is gonna cost £9.99 regardless of if it's got 10 tracks or 18
A film will cost 14.99 or 19.99 depending on if it a Blu-ray or 4K
And over time those prices will come down.
4K will be 14.99 or even 9.99 eventually regardless of what's on it.
It doesn't matter how much it cost to make or how many people worked on it.
And you know how much they was in 1996?
The same.
Music was 9.99 and DVD was 19.99
£69.99 is more then enough.

And a kart game isn't AAA, and isn't worth 80 not matter which way you spin it.
If OP had his way the "extra" tracks on the album and the last fifteen minutes of the film (the real ending) would be DLC. We all know he supports the GAAS side of the industry. This thread is not surprising.
 
Apple could easily sell a phone for $100 dollars but Apple figured out their audience wants to spend $1,600 on a phone instead. So Apple did not subscribe to your accessibility to culture drives culture theory.

Is that why Apple released the iPhone16e, a cheaper model that retails in the UK for £600, compared to the 16 Pro that's over a thousand quid. 🤔

Us MP gamers are beautiful babes who just want to have fun.

I'm convinced you're a troll.
 
Your analogy is better suited for hardware rather than software, and there have been consistent advancements in hardware technology over the years.

That said, video games are still very cheap compared to other hobbies and entertainment.
 
Celin Dion is a great singer but nop, i do not like her music. So i guess im ok with games being reasonable priced and not charging me 200$ just because they think they are worth that much.
She has stiff man's disease and she's an angel. Show some GOT DAMN respect.
It's actually a negative correlation. Indie games tend to be more innovative, because they're lower cost and lower risk. The more budgets rise - in film and in games - the more risk averse publishers become.

Didn't you berate people for childish name-calling earlier? Why is Captain Logic now resorting to ad hominem and moral arguments?
Are you talking about the single mom comment? I assumed that would be taken in good faith. I apologize if you took it in a way that was not intended.
I don't know how Chappelle Roan makes her money, but I know she wouldn't be able to sell out arena tours if her music wasn't broadly available to millions of people. This isn't that hard to understand.
She makes her money from live shows (variable pricing) and merch (mtx). The cheapest iPhone is $1,400 dollars.
Apple has strong branding, and most people that buy their phones new are not paying the full cost upfront. Like most luxury purchases, they're paid off in increments as part of a service plan - you know this, I'm sure.
I guess it's time we consider the Intergalactic (Naughty Dog) financing plan.

Star Citizen is an outlier, it's not demonstrative of a real opportunity or trend.
You want this to be true but I suspect deep down you know it's the canary in the coal mine. I suspect NeoGAF to go bananas at Marathons aggressive pricing structure. Something I expect not to care one iota about (provided the game looks good).
Completely free-to-play games like Roblox and Fortnite, which survive not on flexible pricing but recurrent spending, are the most successful model right now. Fortnite is the most premium a game has ever been, and it has no flexible spend - no $150 premium skins for enthusiasts, no exclusive $200 map packs.
What happened once the Union took Gettysburg? They marched on Lee's ass.

Cosmetic based MTX is not the final frontier of GAAS. Just trust me, a GAAS gamer, on this one.

You're flat wrong and everyone can see it - just be honest and take the hit, it's what a genuinely smart person would do.
I'm not. I'm like Blade. I'm what they call a day walker. I spend my days browsing NeoGAF understanding the old SP mentality. Then I spend my nights killing children in Fortnite (actually The Finals). Multi-player gamers are an entirely different breed than what you find on NeoGAF. Gameplay oriented MTX is the next untapped market that will tip here. Again, I fully expect Marathon to be derided by the old folks for how they're going to sell that game. Day walkers have the benefit of understanding both positions.
 
Is that why Apple released the iPhone16e, a cheaper model that retails in the UK for £600, compared to the 16 Pro that's over a thousand quid. 🤔
Apple could sell a phone for $100. They like that variable pricing don't they?

I'm convinced you're a troll.
You're certainly smart enough not to interact with a troll for this long. You know I'm not. You know I actually believe this stuff. You want me to be a troll because I represent the face of progress in gaming. I'm the Ostrich who digs down next to your head in the sand to tell you "Hey buddy, you're heads in the sand on this stuff."

Maybe I'm annoying but you have been feeling grains of sand on your cheeks more and more over the last few years.
 
She has stiff man's disease and she's an angel. Show some GOT DAMN respect.
I told shes a great singer, thats all the respect she gonna get from me. I just have better taste in music, sorry. And i dont know what stiff man's disease is, but by the name, i guess i have that too.
 
Your analogy is better suited for hardware rather than software, and there have been consistent advancements in hardware technology over the years.

That said, video games are still very cheap compared to other hobbies and entertainment.
Hardware advancements have gotten close to unappreciable levels. Most gamers are playing Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite on their toasters because the masses don't care about raw performance.
 
I don't understand the pushback against higher prices in games.

I used to value mountain bikes as a kid so instead of buying a $100 dollar Huffy, I saved my money and bought a $500 dollar Trek. I loved that Trek.

The Cybertruck, Enzo, and Mercedez Benz Gullwing couldn't exist without variable pricing. The automobile industry is healthier and more innovative because companies aren't locked into selling $30k dollar economy vehicles. Car enthusiasts would never support a price ceiling mandate on their favorite industry.

Led Zeppelin, Celine Dion, and Muddy Waters wouldn't exist without instruments advancing past two sticks and a couple of rocks. Expensive, enthusiast equipment was required for these artists to make the best music on earth.

There isn't an enthusiast industry out there that would benefit from an industry standard price cap, and yet gamers (arguably the worst people on earth) constantly meltdown at the thought of giving creatives more freedom to charge for their craft.

why-asking.gif
The publishers control the digital markets. There is no market pricing. Why the fuck would anyone argue for this? Why would anyone compare consumable software to tools of the trade? Why Why Why?
 
You're missing my point.

Which enthusiast industry doesn't benefit from a high end pricing model?

You buy a cheap guitar to learn. You fall in love playing guitar. You buy a Les Paul.

Guitar enthusiasts appreciate luxury guitars. Why don't game enthusiasts appreciate luxury games?

You see the disconnect?

What is a luxury game? What does the new Mario Kart have that makes it "luxury" compared to other Mario Karts or other kart racers?

You're talking about high end games when you should be talking about high end hardware.
 
What is a luxury game? What does the new Mario Kart have that makes it "luxury" compared to other Mario Karts or other kart racers?
A luxury game is a high quality game sold for a high price.

I don't know if Mario Kart World is a luxury game, but Nintendo seems to think it is. I'm sure it's the most expensive Mario Kart to date and will be supported better than any Mario Kart in history.

We'll see if the market agrees with Nintendo soon enough.
You're talking about high end games when you should be talking about high end hardware.
High end hardware is silly. The market plays their favorite games on toasters.
 
She has stiff man's disease and she's an angel. Show some GOT DAMN respect.



Are you talking about the single mom comment? I assumed that would be taken in good faith. I apologize if you took it in a way that was not intended.

She makes her money from live shows (variable pricing) and merch (mtx). The cheapest iPhone is $1,400 dollars.

I guess it's time we consider the Intergalactic (Naughty Dog) financing plan.


You want this to be true but I suspect deep down you know it's the canary in the coal mine. I suspect NeoGAF to go bananas at Marathons aggressive pricing structure. Something I expect not to care one iota about (provided the game looks good).

What happened once the Union took Gettysburg? They marched on Lee's ass.

Cosmetic based MTX is not the final frontier of GAAS. Just trust me, a GAAS gamer, on this one.


I'm not. I'm like Blade. I'm what they call a day walker. I spend my days browsing NeoGAF understanding the old SP mentality. Then I spend my nights killing children in Fortnite (actually The Finals). Multi-player gamers are an entirely different breed than what you find on NeoGAF. Gameplay oriented MTX is the next untapped market that will tip here. Again, I fully expect Marathon to be derided by the old folks for how they're going to sell that game. Day walkers have the benefit of understanding both positions.
Look at that, you wrote all those words and didn't answer a single point. That said, let me go further:

I guess it's time we consider the Intergalactic (Naughty Dog) financing plan.
Single-player games are budgeted based on sales expectations. R* can spend insane money on development because they sell insane numbers of games. Games that don't meet expectations fail.

You want this to be true but I suspect deep down you know it's the canary in the coal mine. I suspect NeoGAF to go bananas at Marathons aggressive pricing structure. Something I expect not to care one iota about (provided the game looks good).
Star Citizen has raised $800,000,000 in thirteen years - impressive for a Kickstarter. Fortnite however pulls in that much revenue every single quarter. There's a model investors are looking to ape in this industry and it's not the former.

The cheapest iPhone is $1,400 dollars.
Apple is the biggest provider of smartphones in the world, but there is no premium version of the iPhone that a billionaire can buy that a person on median income can't. There's no 'Ferarri' of smartphones. Apple, as an example, disproves your point. You probably have the same smartphone as the average billionaire.
 
Apple could sell a phone for $100. They like that variable pricing don't they?


You're certainly smart enough not to interact with a troll for this long. You know I'm not. You know I actually believe this stuff. You want me to be a troll because I represent the face of progress in gaming. I'm the Ostrich who digs down next to your head in the sand to tell you "Hey buddy, you're heads in the sand on this stuff."

Maybe I'm annoying but you have been feeling grains of sand on your cheeks more and more over the last few years.

Looooool.

Nope. That's it. I am now certain this is all elaborate shit posting. At first I wasn't sure and just thought you were a bit retarded (no offence), which is why I continued to engage.

That's my last post in here. Fair play. You had me going for a long time. I really should have noticed it in the deranged "Mario 64" thread.
 
A luxury game is a high quality game sold for a high price.

I don't know if Mario Kart World is a luxury game, but Nintendo seems to think it is. I'm sure it's the most expensive Mario Kart to date and will be supported better than any Mario Kart in history.

We'll see if the market agrees with Nintendo soon enough.

High end hardware is silly. The market plays their favorite games on toasters.

It's not a luxury game, just like games going from $50 to $60 and $60 to $70 weren't luxury games. Don't forget that to play this one online you'll need to pay Nintendo a subscription, and make sure you buy that season pass to get all the new tracks and shit.

The car market also mostly drives affordable cars, but that didn't stop you from making a silly comparison. Hardware is where the luxury comes in so the gaming, not the software.
 
Hardware advancements have gotten close to unappreciable levels. Most gamers are playing Roblox, Minecraft, and Fortnite on their toasters because the masses don't care about raw performance.

Most people also drive Hondas, Toyotas, etc. Should Ferrari stop making cars?
 
It's not a luxury game, just like games going from $50 to $60 and $60 to $70 weren't luxury games.
That's for Nintendo to find out. There's a ton of games that release cheaper than Mario Kart. I suspect it will do gangbusters for Nintendo at that price.
Don't forget that to play this one online you'll need to pay Nintendo a subscription, and make sure you buy that season pass to get all the new tracks and shit.
Non GAAS gamer identified! Destroy. Destroy.
The car market also mostly drives affordable cars, but that didn't stop you from making a silly comparison. Hardware is where the luxury comes in so the gaming, not the software.
Yeah, most people buy the Huffy. Trek enderstands that.

Hardware is a scam. Toasters playing the best games is where it's at.
 
I get what you're saying Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes

People complain about games being incomplete or not working at launch, but you know whose games always work without a 50 GB day one update? Nintendo's.

Could you imagine if EA or Bethesda or CD Projekt tried to make Tears of the Kingdom?

Whether or not that's worth an extra $10-$20 is up to the person buying it, and I will be the first to say I'm not ready to pay for $80 games, but it's okay if you are.
 
Single-player games are budgeted based on sales expectations. R* can spend insane money on development because they sell insane numbers of games. Games that don't meet expectations fail.
They're budgeted based revenue expectations, not sales expectations.
Star Citizen has raised $800,000,000 in thirteen years - impressive for a Kickstarter. Fortnite however pulls in that much revenue every single quarter. There's a model investors are looking to ape in this industry and it's not the former.
I like how we're sneezing at TWO CONCORDS worth of games. If you think the industry isn't learning from Srar Citizen, then I have a bridge to sell you. As if MMA fighters only study boxing, wrestling, or jiu jitsu.

Marathon is already not F2P so it's not following the Fortnite model.
Apple is the biggest provider of smartphones in the world, but there is no premium version of the iPhone that a billionaire can buy that a person on median income can't. There's no 'Ferarri' of smartphones. Apple, as an example, disproves your point. You probably have the same smartphone as the average billionaire.
A company that sells $1,600 dollar phones disproved my point? I think not.

And just to make it clear, I don't think SP games should sell for the same price as an Apple IPhone or a Ferrari Enzo. My point is simply to suggest $80 dollars was inevitable and soon it will be $90.
 
You won't see them charging $150 a ticket for entry. The reason? It's not economics - it's social.
It's absolutely economics. If they thought they would make more money with a regular ticket price of $150 they would do that, but they know that they would make less money because hardly anybody would be willing to pay it.
 
And a kart game isn't AAA, and isn't worth 80 not matter which way you spin it.
Why not? You have no idea what this game is going to contain. You've seen nothing of it and are basing that off previous Mario Kart games (some of the best and highly respected games in the industry mind you). Sadly, you've been made to think that a $300 million game is triple A and deserves to cost more than anything else. Speak on behalf of yourself and not for me thank you. I'm happy paying the cost of Mario Kart IF it contains what we all think it will in it's open world, much like do with Forza Horizon (which costs over $150 AUD with all the bells and whistles)...
 
Because so many in our hobby are entitled twats.

I don't know why gaming in particular suffers from this.

Perhaps because it is one of the most expensive forms of passive entertainment upfront, and many of us started when we were kids and therefore couldn't afford all the games we wanted?
 
Stop Being Poor British GIF by BabylonBee


My problem isn't the price hikes with an inflation etc it's the price hike PLUS gotta pay even more for the complete game. They are going to microtransaction Mario kart to death want this character $5 want this track $10
 
I'm convinced you're a troll.
He's clinging onto a market that often performs poorly outside of a select few titles, it clearly hurts him a lot.

I suspect he created a failed gaas game in the past and can't let it go, either that or one he liked bombed hard.
 
either that or one he liked bombed hard.
Only multi-player game I loved that "bombed hard" was the original couple of Spies vs Mercs titles. Ever since then I've gravitate towards the more successful titles because cream rises to the top.

I'm the Rick Rubin of GAAS
 
I get what you're saying Men_in_Boxes Men_in_Boxes

People complain about games being incomplete or not working at launch, but you know whose games always work without a 50 GB day one update? Nintendo's.

Could you imagine if EA or Bethesda or CD Projekt tried to make Tears of the Kingdom?

Whether or not that's worth an extra $10-$20 is up to the person buying it, and I will be the first to say I'm not ready to pay for $80 games, but it's okay if you are.
They couldn't make Zelda run at stable 30fps and now are charging $10 to fix the problem.
 
Even if it stimulated innovation you can bet your ass it would be misused greatly if allowed. Just look at some new high end cars nowadays. Full of cheap plastic parts without any quality craftmansship.

What would help more is a reduction of the redicilous development cost by way of innovative technologies or efficiencies to shorten time to market. Cheaper and faster development cycles would open up a chance to allow more experimentation instead of milking the same formulas
 
The optimal price point is probably slightly higher when you have a small (limited by console availability) but very enthusiastic install base compared to if you have a large (effectively unlimited console availability) and less enthusiastic install base. The latter is still probably the more advantageous scenario to sell to, but that isn't an option if they can't produce enough consoles to meet demand.
 
Because so many in our hobby are entitled twats.

I don't know why gaming in particular suffers from this.

Perhaps because it is one of the most expensive forms of passive entertainment upfront, and many of us started when we were kids and therefore couldn't afford all the games we wanted?
And yet movies and shows are much cheaper. I can watch a movie on a massive theater screen for a fraction of Mario Kart World's $.
 
I'm thinking that most other businesses/ media have more than 2 or 3 gate holders/price setters.
As in, more competition to fairly create the fair price for the consumer?
 
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