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Push Square “The Price of Playing PS5 Games Day One Is Getting Higher and Higher”

ArtHands

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
www.pushsquare.com

Opinion: The Price of Playing PS5 Games Day One Is Getting Higher and Higher

And no one's really talking about it
www.pushsquare.com www.pushsquare.com

There was condemnation of the industry’s decision to transition to $70 new releases at the start of the PS5 generation. For many, this price point breaks a psychological barrier, with software simply too expensive to be justified. Some have argued that cartridge-based software in the 90s was more costly, especially when adjusted for inflation; others have pointed out that budgets on AAA titles have exploded over the past decade. Either way, the prices aren’t coming down.

In fact, they’re quietly going up – but publishers are being sneaky about it. Many are now locking “early access” behind expensive Ultimate Editions of their games, pushing the price of new releases up to $100 or more. This is a trend we’ve noticed become increasingly common over the past few months, with titles like Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and Silent Hill 2 adopting it as recently as last week.
Click to expand...

Publishers sell the concept of “early access”, but really you’re paying extra to play on day one. In the case of Bandai Namco’s aforementioned anime battler, it cost $100 to play the game 72 hours earlier than its “official” release date. To be fair, the arena outing’s Deluxe Edition does also include a Season Pass, so you get added value beyond the “early access” – but this is the very definition of upselling, and consumers are showing up in droves.
Click to expand...
 
Quasicat

Quasicat

Member
In most cases, I wait six months or so for a game since I know that it will probably have a sale at some point in there. Plus, I like to play them after they have been updated after a few months since there are a bunch of changes that take place during that time. Nintendo games are really the only exception to this.
 
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Y

yogaflame

Member
Inflation and also needless over budget production. A.I. might help decrease the cost on production to help bring down the price, but not on the creative side. I'm still not approve with full AI implementation since human side is 100% more important, safe, and ethical and of course we are human and have the soul.
But AI has it uses especially in the technical part and assistance like graphic effects, for example resolution, frame rate, effects like RT and can help cut cost. ML just like what DLLS Nvidia, FSR AMD, PSSR ML will help cut cost.
 
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LectureMaster

LectureMaster

Gold Member
Even though I still occasionally buy games day one, I hardly play any new releases in day one anymore.

Wait for couple months, you usually get the best experience:
  • Discounted price
  • Better optimizations
  • Added features like NG+, extra modes, etc.
  • Better community guides

There is few incentive for me to rush in immediately. I have huge backlog such that I won't feel drought or anything.
 
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BennyBlanco

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
DB Sparking Zero had 90k concurrent players that bought the deluxe edition. I honestly don’t mind if it’s a game where I know I’ll buy the DLC anyway and the early unlock lines up with my day off.
 
Tiago Rodrigues

Tiago Rodrigues

Member
Games are getting more expensive everywhere. Gaming is getting more expensive everywhere both hardware and software.

That said, you don't need to buy games day one or even new copies.

You can still game and not sell a kidney if you do things right. I bought Mortal Kombat 11 and almost all its DLCs for like 10 or 15€ a while ago.
 
ssringo

ssringo

Member
It pushed me from "sure, I'll give this $60 game a chance even if I'm not 100% sold on it" to "Yeah, think I'll just wait until this $70+ game I'm actually interested is on sale." Which in turn could actually just make me skip the game entirely as my time gets spent playing one the many $20-$30 indie games instead.
 
Shake Your Rump

Shake Your Rump

Banned
I noticed something weird about the Microsoft store on the Xbox. Every game is advertised as the most expensive edition. It took me a moment to realize why games that were “40% off” were still $80. I wonder how many people buy these digital deluxe editions straight from the Home Screen without even noticing there is a standard edition.
 
J

JaksGhost

Member
Some of y’all can’t read for shit because it’s talking about deluxe versions that grant early access, not the standard price. Day 1 in gaming no longer means the day it’s officially released. Starfield has a 5 day early access period if you bought the $100 version or paid $30 to upgrade via a Gamepass subscription. Star Wars Outlaws was even more outrageous with early access being behind a $130 version.
 
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Pimpbaa

Pimpbaa

Member
I always wait for sales (unless it’s the next collaboration from Sony and Shift Up). I mean the sales this upcoming holidays will probably be crazy for all platforms (both digital and physical). Except for Nintendo published games.
 
T

touchfuzzy

Member
I barely get any $70 USD releases anymore,
It’s gotta be a slam dunk. I did TOTK and Metaphor. I don’t think I’d ever pay more than that
 
Justin9mm

Justin9mm

Member
I'm 41 and up until very recently, I've always bought new physical releases as I like to experience and play them while everyone else is with all the hype surrounding it. It's some deep seeded FOMO psychological thing. I get hyped for games and want to be part of the first to play them day one. This feeling has slowly eroded from recent years of bad releases, unfinished games and high prices. I've recently started cancelling pre orders, I also refuse to pay full price for a game like Wukong from the digital store with no physical release. I've started to change my ways and now waiting until patches have fixed games or there is a price drop enough to justify the purchase. This is 100% the publishers and devs that are to blame. They don't listen to gamers; they push out unfinished shit and then expect us to pay full price to be their guinea pigs to their bug-ridden game and then complain about how gamers are the problem and games cost too much to make and shame on us for not buying them. There is like 5 new games I want to play right now and haven't bought one waiting for price drop or patches to fix or provide missing features.
 
Crayon

Crayon

Member
My default gear is wait for sale. I'm good.

If there are people willing to pay 20-30% to get a game a few days early... Have at it.

I fucked up with Tekken 8. Spent $100 for the season pass bundle, saving $0 on a season pass that wasn't out yet. Got disillusioned with the game before anything came out. Derp. Guess it takes a reminder once in awhile.
 
Topher

Topher

Identifies as young
adamsapple said:
Because it's a PS centric website.
Click to expand...

The article isn't limiting the topic to just PS5 though.

"Prior to its standard edition releasing, almost 90k concurrent Steam players were logged in on Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, confirming an enormous number of consumers had stumped up for the expensive “early access”. "
 
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AmuroChan

AmuroChan

Member
I'm a RPG guy. So $70 for a 60-100 hour experience is worth the cost to me. It's all relative when it comes down to it. I go to movies, concerts, and sporting events and those are far more expensive experiences. So for me, gaming actually offers a lot more bang for the buck when compared to my other hobbies.
 
tmlDan

tmlDan

Member
Pushsquare is poor too?

season 1 sonograms and tube tops GIF by mom


(you don't need to buy deluxe editions, its not hidden, just don't be an idiot and control yourself - go touch grass, go to the gym, 3 days will pass fast)
 
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Lupin25

Lupin25

Member
Never buy a game day 1 unless I’m sure it’s a Mario, GTA, RE, Red Dead, TLOU, BG3, level experience.

You only pay that much for guaranteed quality.
 
Bridges

Bridges

Member
Honestly, I much prefer this to many other monetization practices. You'll never catch me paying an extra $30 to play something a few days early but if someone else wants to that's fine by me, as long as the game is good when I get it.

If Nintendo started doing this I might sweat a little bit though
 
hemo memo

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
I would just wait for the game to go on sale, which would also give the developer enough time to fix any technical issues the game has on release. So basically, it's paying less for a better experience.
 
Calico345

Calico345

Gold Member
I used to buy everything day one. It was never about FOMO for me. I just wanted to support the industry and especially certain developers and game franchises. Gaming is my number one form of entertainment.

However, given the monetized, greedy, corpo state of modern gaming, I buy almost nothing for full price anymore. I wishlist it and wait for 50% of more before I consider a purchase.
 
ShadyAcshuns

ShadyAcshuns

Member
They can go up as high as they want, but I don't have to buy them. On the rare occasion I'll pay day one prices, but not just for any ole game. If more people waited for sales, they'd have to lower the prices, but some people have more money than sense.
 
Nitty_Grimes

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
Justin9mm said:
I'm 41 and up until very recently, I've always bought new physical releases as I like to experience and play them while everyone else is with all the hype surrounding it. It's some deep seeded FOMO psychological thing. I get hyped for games and want to be part of the first to play them day one. This feeling has slowly eroded from recent years of bad releases, unfinished games and high prices. I've recently started cancelling pre orders, I also refuse to pay full price for a game like Wukong from the digital store with no physical release. I've started to change my ways and now waiting until patches have fixed games or there is a price drop enough to justify the purchase. This is 100% the publishers and devs that are to blame. They don't listen to gamers; they push out unfinished shit and then expect us to pay full price to be their guinea pigs to their bug-ridden game and then complain about how gamers are the problem and games cost too much to make and shame on us for not buying them. There is like 5 new games I want to play right now and haven't bought one waiting for price drop or patches to fix or provide missing features.
Click to expand...

They push out ‘unfinished shit’ because people pay up to 6 months in advance for a product that isn’t complete and then the publishers have an obligation to shove something out to satisfy this stupidity.
 
D

dragonyeuw

Member
I wasn't spending $60 on games since like the 7th gen, so for me the price increase to $70 just meant a few extra months wait to shave that $10 off. I'm not that moved by FOMO, mostly play Indies and haven't been into multiplayer since the days of Halo 3, Black Ops and Gears 3, so I feel zero pressure to buy 3 days early, or day 1, or day 180 for that matter. I haven't bought a single 2024 release, in fact the most recent game I've purchased was Dead Space Remake for $8 on Xbox during Xmas sale last year**. Resident Evil Village is under $20 now and RE4 remake will be soon enough, so as a horror game fan I'll grab those soon. Silent Hill 2 will probably be a late 2025 purchase. I'm honestly in no rush.

** Forgot that I bought Robocop Rogue City on Steam last month for like $20. Great game...

Otherwise my backlog keeps me plenty busy until whatever game I want hits my price range. I understand rising costs and inflation, not to mention these companies don't want to just profit but grow into perpetuity....but as a consumer I don't give a single fuck about that. Wages haven't kept up with inflation, and my own personal economic growth takes priority 100% of the time over giving my money to some company to stick out their chest about record profits.
 
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EDMIX

EDMIX

Writes a lot, says very little
I mean, you can pay for this shit early on other platforms too sooooooooo yea.
 
kazuyamishima

kazuyamishima

Member
I dunno, EB Games here in Australia does a lot of trade in deals for new releases. I tend to get cheap games from other stores and dump them there, at the end the cost is usually about half of the normal price for me.

Im happy :)
 
P

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
adamsapple said:
Because it's a PS centric website.
Click to expand...
So is the OP? Are they PS centric to the point they forget Starfield exist or it is well so juicy and important to break this news to the forum that there is only time to copy and paste it as is without any commentary or any original thought?
Yeah, that must be surely it mate… wink wink ;).
 
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