Game Pass pricing currently unchanged.
That is because the job of Game Pass isn't to make money, it is to funnel customers into subscription services and destroy the idea that people buy games from artists.
Game Pass either succeeds and destroys the gaming industry like spotify did to music or Microsoft will abandon Game Pass.
Correction: It is to make money, but the goal is to get people to subscribe now then jack up the prices once people start relying on it.
It's a long con.
it’s bog standard capitalist formula. always has been.
It's already happened and will happen again.
They've already plateaued and basically admitted to it. It's a large revenue stream that's not as large as they thought it would be, so now they're going to coast with it and rely on just being a massive publisher instead.
It's strange really. You can buy 4 extremely good indie games for the price of one game. And that's at a 20 each.
And with steam sales and sharing...valve is fun.
Trying to raise the "standard" price to $80 will have very nice ripple effects of more pricing diversity, where each game will really consider what it's actually worth, which we haven't had for a long time. Even now we're getting first-party Microsoft titles releasing at $20, $30, and $50.
Steam doesn't advertise at the scale of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. It won't have a ripple effect because it won't change the degree to which artificial hype drives people towards the "Buy" button.
A lot of games priced at $70 right now are having a rough go of it, so charging more on top of that isn't going to help, but there are the likes of South of Midnight and Clair Obscur launching at $50. If your game isn't as hot of a commodity as Mario Kart, you're probably going to try to lure people in with a lower price.
there are the likes of South of Midnight and Clair Obscur launching at $50.
Beautiful games, both. But again, they aren't having the full court press of advertising like a new Call of Duty or Final Fantasy or Diablo would.
That's the real cost savings. You don't need to change $80+ for a game if you aren't focused entirely on presale figures to justify your studio's budget.
Incidentally, you also get to focus on a better game. Balatro didn't need wall to wall subway ads in New York to end up on everyone's phones.
Steam doesn't need to. It's got the steam sale and a hundred million people to share memes of "sale so good spent all my money no time to play all the games I bought in such massive sale"
How much is Factorio worth though, everything?
The amount of time I've put in it could have cost me $200 and it would still be one of the best $/hr games I have
I think all it will do is raise the ceiling of what publishers are willing to price games at. If they think they can get away with it, they'll charge $80 instead of $70, with the rest being $70 and less just like it already is now.
Yeah Ex33 at $50 to me was a welcome surprise
if anyone was looking for a good time to switch to PC, it's now. some stuff will be harder but you'll have steam sales and control over your own device (more than a console anyway, if your running windows you'll still have to put up with Microsoft).
if your running windows you'll still have to put up with Microsoft
Luckily, there is another choice. Linux runs pretty smooth and has gotten much simpler to use over the years.
All hail Proton!
Well, that settles it. $80 games is going to be the new standard and Sony will quickly trail along. Oh well, nothing much has changed for patient gamers.
Yeah, buy most games at half price or less, fully patched up and with all the DLCs. Such a joy!
$80 on release day. $60 a month later. $40 a year later. $20 a year after that.
What you're paying for isn't the game, its the hype. An enormous component of a modern AAA game's budget is just advertising. That's what your $80 is going towards. You're paying to have people tell you to buy it.
Even assuming you don't feel like pirating... Just be patient, play something that came out a few years ago, wait for the next Steam Sale, and own the game for pennies on the dollar.
An enormous component of anything is advertising, I don't see your point.
Thank you Microsoft, for taking pressure off Nintendo. 😛
The difference is: Microsoft and Sony 1st party titles go on sale and eventually come down in price over time.
Nintendo first party titles are always full price, even for 5 year old games.
Try 10 years! I went on the Wii-U shop right before it shut down. Zelda et al still $50. Insane.
The discounts usually aren't too steep, but games do go on sale periodically. DekuDeals is a fantastic resource for price tracking.
Yup. The reality, while shitty, Microsoft still publishes games on multiple platforms (2 at minimum - PC and xbox). On PC, the games are sold on multiple storefronts with varying discounts and sales. Oblivion remastered just launched with a 17% discount on another store on PC for example.
Nintendo has a complete monopoly on the platform they publish for and completely control the prices.
For me, all these price increases are doing is moving me more towards PC. And to a larger degree off AAA titles all together.
Every game that has a physical release (and even some that don't) does get sold by other retailers, and those retailers do regularly have sales.
Even, yes, for first party Nintendo games.
A 2TB Xbox Series X now costs more than a PS5 Pro (in the US at least).
That is mental. Xbox hardware division must be bleeding money hand over fist. I honestly doubt they'll do another generation, and stick to trying to monetise GamePass through PC and streaming. Maybe you'll even see GamePass for PS6 since they own so many studios now.
They'll only get Game Pass on PlayStation with Sony's blessing, which is unlikely. And the next Xbox will just be a PC. I don't think any of the consoles are in the market of selling units at a loss anymore. Those days are done. So with tariffs and inflation, this is the only way it could go.
EA Play is on PS5.
Assuming MS exit the console market, I don't see why Sony wouldn't allow it (as long as they get their pound of flesh from every sale of it). They'd basically just be another publisher.
The breadth of the Game Pass catalog is far larger, and Microsoft isn't exiting the console market, as much as they don't care about exclusivity. So personally, I doubt it, but I don't have a crystal ball.
There has always been an inherent value to consoles but if that goes away then I can genuinely see them dying off. Personally I thinks the current gen is a huge disappointment anyway and this news just makes it even more ridiculous.
I've always been a console peasant for the convenience of having a dedicated gaming device hooked up to the TV that uses a controller as well as the ability to trade in games when I'm done with them, not to mention consoles are cheaper than comparable PCs. I do have a decent PC, but I find I rarely play through entire games when I have to sit at a desk to do so. With digital games looking like the only game in town in the future and consoles being walled gardens with no other places to buy games for them, that cost advantage will be gone and it will be cheaper in the long run to pay more up front for a PC and get games for less. I got a Steam Deck recently, and it's been a great showcase for how a PC hooked up to the TV using only a controller can work. I had no idea Steam had such a robust system for remapping controllers and have been able to play games with them that would have been a huge hassle before.
If Sony does away with physical games like Nintendo is come the PS6, I'm definitely switching to PC gaming.
To be fair PC gaming is a whole different monster to deal with because of the extortionate prices of new hardware and extreme consumerism.
I just want to play games and not be a target for all these companies :/
Considering consoles no longer go down in price and are even getting price hikes, not to mention mid-gen refreshes like the PS4 and PS5 Pro, I'd argue they're no less susceptible to "extreme consumerism." PCs do require more effort and research to get what you want at a price that makes sense, that's true, but you don't have to have the latest bleeding edge tech for everything, especially if you're okay with running games at 1080p and 60fps like I am.
The lack of alternative places to buy games for consoles used to be mitigated by the second hand market. Without it, console games are just going to be too damn expensive for me, especially considering they're nothing more than data. There is no reason they should cost this much other than pure greed.
Weren’t consoles supposed to be the cheaper, more convenient option?
And the amount of money I spend on Xbox consoles, controllers, and games will be unchanged this year.
Thank you so fucking much Nintendo for upping the standard and the everyone else falling in line because consoomers didn't scoff at all and sold out pre-orders
Valve hasn’t gotten the memo yet. Someone email them again?
ARGGGGHH ya filthy vermin 😂 Fuck your subscriptions. 10tb checking in.
Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.
Submissions have to be related to games
No bigotry or harassment, be civil
No excessive self-promotion
Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts
Mark Spoilers and NSFW
No linking to piracy
More information about the community rules can be found here and here.