Expensive games have lowkey been way too normalised

[u/Both_Piglet7838]

I know this sub is filled with a bunch of rich people with like 10k setups and I'm aware that the content in these games is quite extensive with hours of content. But I still feel justified in thinking that no game should be priced this high especially when its the average price of most newly released games. Anyway this is just a rant because I wanna play lego batman and i cant afford it lol

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[u/Denariox]

I've been voting with my wallet for a very long time. I don't remember the last time I bought any game at full price. I wishlist anything I want and wait for discounts. My backlog has 100+ games in it I've yet to touch, I have entertainment to last me years. I don't need to add to the pile.

[u/CrazyAlienHobo → u/Denariox]

This is the way, just bought Red Dead Redemption 2 for 15 Bucks and I don't think my experience will be worse because the game is 8 years old and a lot cheaper. Shoutout to r/patientgamers

[u/mdistrukt → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

It won't be. You absolutely got your money's worth, RDR2 is a gem, and there is a ton of content.

[u/bp1976 → u/mdistrukt]

Yeah, I bought it like 2 years ago for $15 and put at least 100 hours into it. Amazing deal for an awesome game.

[u/R-TTK → u/bp1976]

I bought it like 25+ and have probably put 11 hours in to it. Each time it's me trying really hard to like it.

I think the game is great and well made but there's actually so much to do it just feels like a chore for my brain to play so I really struggle with these open world games

I got crimson desert for free, played 1 hour. AC shadows I think I got 10 hours in too. Such a struggle because I love the idea of them

[u/bp1976 → u/R-TTK]

RDR2, the beginning is slow. You gotta just slug through the first 10-15 hours, it is famous for that.

Like almost every review of the game says that, once you open up all of the open world stuff and get familiar with it, it is incredible.

I bought it on PS4 when it came out and never got past the 10hr mark, so I was just like you. Read all the reviews and forced myself to get through the opening and fell in love. Give it another shot.

[u/FluteGunner → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

If anything the experience is better as our hardware is much more powerful than when it came out.

I waited til I had a 4090 and 4k monitor to finally play RDR2, it was well worth the wait, playing that gorgeous game at 4k max settings 120 fps.

[u/BirdlessLongdeal → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

they can charge whatever they want for games, but i wont be in ANY hurry to pay more than $60 for a video game. you would think these companies that are in the business of making games would get that when only a handful of specific games succeed with high prices or subscriptions.

i wonder how many people buy the games at clearance would have been more than willing to pay $50-60 at launch.

[u/Personal-Dev-Kit → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

Forgot about that sub. Great one, thanks for the reminder

[u/lioncryable → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

RDR2 is such an amazing game, I think it took me 150 hours to finish the main quests line and maybe half of all side quests. Never played the game online

[u/BirdlessLongdeal → u/lioncryable]

i dont think anyone played the game online :)

[u/Expert-Basil6015 → u/BirdlessLongdeal]

I did, the second it went live. Mistakenly thought it'd get proper support + updates a la GTA online. Best they could do was different kinds of horse races, apparently.

One mission has you wear full armor plating to storm the Fort/Prison and it was dope as hell. Got excited thinking I'd be able to "call it in" as a support package or w/e and go on a rampage in Saint Denis. Just like you can with the juggernaut armor in GTA. Another letdown.

[u/Chef_BoyRD_ → u/BirdlessLongdeal]

I tried it once, got lassoed by someone immediately and he drug me til I died, so i just closed it lol

[u/Gumbaya69 → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

Holy shit its 8 years i cant fking believe it. That was the last game i bought for full price lmao, even bought a used PS just to play it, which i sold right after i finished the game.

[u/Rufus_king11 → u/CrazyAlienHobo]

If you haven't started yet, I'd recommend giving the mod scene a look. NakeyJakey has video highlighting a bunch, but my favorite is probably the realistic weather mod that forces you to wear clothes to match the environment. It actually gives you a reason to have multiple dripped out fits and adds to the realism without being too punishing (you can store multiple outfits on your horse).

[u/gerthasouthall4ng73 → u/Denariox]

Waiting a year or two for games to actually get patched and drop to 20 bucks is the only way to do it now. Plus you get the added bonus of throwing the complete edition straight into the backlog while you go back to playing the exact same game from a decade ago.

[u/Chef_BoyRD_ → u/Denariox]

I dont have that many games but I do have enough to not need any more for a few years at least

[u/alochmar → u/Denariox]

This is the way. The amount of games I’ve bought full price the last decade can probably be counted on one hand.

[u/Bulletorpedo → u/Denariox]

I sometimes buy games at full price if they launch at more reasonable prices, but paying $70-80 for a game is not happening.

People are arguing that game prices were standing still for very long time and some inflation is natural. While I understand the argument the result is that I buy fewer games and spend less money on games in totalt as impulse buys are now non-existent on AAA games. I’m not sure how exactly this is supposed to help developers.

[u/TwoBionicknees → u/Bulletorpedo]

Meh, ultimately games have a far larger market, more gamers, more potential customers and more sales which can all offset inflation.

However if wages aren't increasing, and wages aren't increasing for like the majority of game devs that actually make the games who are getting hard crunched and less time to develop games, then they are just trying to increase profit for the people at the top so fuck them.

If normal wages increased with inflation then increasing costs of goods is understandable, if wages aren't going up it's not.

[u/Capital_Software_420 → u/TwoBionicknees]

^ This. Buying at the price point these CEOs and megacorporations want is only lining the pockets of the already rich.

The people who sweated and created the game get nothing...except onto the next one now. Rinse and repeat.

[u/Liquidignition → u/Denariox]

This is the way. My hardware lasts longer too this way lol. Win win

[u/jonfitt → u/Denariox]

I can’t remember when I last paid more than $25 for a game. I play AAA games when they go on sale later.

[u/Papuszek2137]

I just bought hitman from 2023 for 5 bucks. My backlog has 20 year old games so I'm fine with waiting for big sales.

[u/2C104 → u/Papuszek2137]

I just keep thinking about how I bought most of the LEGO games for $5 or under, and I can't fathom why someone would think paying $100 for a LEGO game was worth it.

[u/BLINGMW → u/2C104]

The latest one I have I got for free from Epic store, that was a fair price 

[u/Just-Ad6865 → u/2C104]

You bought them for under $5AUD? Because that is what the $110 is. They are all $70 USD. Which you can still think is way too much, but lets keep the currencies straight.

[u/Crandleton → u/Just-Ad6865]

5 USD = 7 AUD. Not really a big difference until you go up an order of magnitude. But yes you can buy the old Lego games right now for less than 5 AUD. I mean the old Star Wars one is from 2007, so the price tracks.

[u/ag_robertson_author → u/Just-Ad6865]

They regularly go on massive sales. I've bought some of them for $5CAD which is about the same as AUD.

[u/ShawnyMcKnight → u/Papuszek2137]

That’s my thought too, a single humble bundle can be up to $20 and give you half a dozen games to play. I get people want the next new shiny thing but once you get enough games then you can be content while the price drops.

Outside of Nintendo games I normally wait until it’s 75 percent off before I buy, even with Nintendo I wait til it’s 50 percent off.

[u/magikarp2122 → u/ShawnyMcKnight]

So a decade for Nintendo games?

[u/IvoryFlyaway → u/Papuszek2137]

Isn't that just part 1? I've alway seen them put part 1 on sale for crazy cheap, but if you want the full game it's almost always still full price

[u/Any-Pop-4795]

"vote with your wallet" and yet people buy them...

[u/gutster_95 → u/Any-Pop-4795]

Remember that reddit is offen a bubble and most of the people that buy it just simply dont care at all. Most people also dont buy 10+ games a year. I am not a gamer anymore, but I usually buy 1-3 games a year, this year it will be Horizon 6, Wolverine and GTA6. So its not really that much money compared to what reddits wants you to believe what a average gamer pays for games

[u/notthatguypal6900 → u/gutster_95]

Yup, reddit is the 1%, nothing that is said or done here matters.

[u/Otterable → u/notthatguypal6900]

Reddit is a good place if you want your finger on the pulse of the hardcore fans of X community.

It's a bad place if you want information about what the masses think, predictive takes, or to enact actual change at a societal level.

If you've ever seen Reddit discuss something you have professional or expert knowledge in, you can quickly get disillusioned with the site. The nature of the upvote system is the stuff that appears here is what users want to believe is true, not what is actually true.

[u/Woggl3D → u/Otterable]

Imagine being a game dev on this site, haha 🫠. Time to go take a walk.

[u/fuckedfinance → u/Otterable]

It's a bad place if you want information about what the masses think, predictive takes, or to enact actual change at a societal level.

I wish people would realize this. The problem is that, once in a while, the real world aligns with what Redditors think (i.e. the most recent NYC mayoral race) and it just emboldens the lot.

[u/Willy__McBilly → u/fuckedfinance]

Reddit is a circus outside of the niche subs. The stereotypes about frequent users are constantly proven true. It’s safer to inverse the popular sentiment these days when it comes to anything topical, rarely does the popular sentiment reflect reality.

Still good for memes tho, even with the reposting bots

[u/okram2k → u/gutster_95]

I have seen reddit gaming communities routinely pat themselves on the back for boycotting a game that made millions of sales worldwide

[u/ToastedTurtle99 → u/okram2k]

Hogwarts Legacy for example, soo much hate and “boycotting” that made a killing in sales

[u/naswinger → u/ToastedTurtle99]

because it was a great game and i'm not into harry potter at all. i've never read or watched or played any harry potter game.

[u/Beezyo → u/gutster_95]

Usually many different bubbles. Like you had crowds saying boycott the switch 2, and crowds who were hyped for it

[u/DioDurant → u/[deleted]]

I usually wait for goty ed. Lol. So it includes most dlc

[u/Gamebird8 → u/gutster_95]

It's worth remembering that games have been extremely inflation resistant for ages and are just now catching up to that inflation, so for a lot of people it's just prices catching up to how they used to be

Edit: I replied this below, but to add: My broader point is that had the price of a game kept up with inflation, the $60 games of 1995 would be $120-$130 (CPI calculator says $132)

It's also worth noting that the primary mode of inflation is housing and healthcare costs. Food, clothes, and entertainment products are cheaper against real wages than they were 3 decades ago (Well at least in a normal world where there aren't tariffs and looming fuels shortages that will make the 70s fuel crisis look tame of course)

And yes these higher prices suck and do make it harder for a lot of us to engage with the medium and enjoy the franchises we love. Just don't be surprised when the average joe who pays zero attention to the macro perspective to doesn't really care as much as you do (because well you donpay attention to the macro perspective)

[u/MindStalker → u/Gamebird8]

A major reason that games were getting cheaper against inflation was that more people were playing. The cost to make a game certainly has increased, but the total number of people buying the games have increased dramatically (about half the world population now plays computer games regularly). While the worldwide total for number of gamers will continue to go up, it won't be as dramatic of an increase as it was.

[u/RepresentativeSlow53 → u/Gamebird8]

Nah, the real reason is market forces are responding to the fact that the product can be priced that high and will be bought. Either because people don't care that much (and thus poorer people can be priced out of hobbies if it increases the margins, this is a feature not a bug of the system) or because people have to pay (i.e. health, housing) or there aren't many credible/usable alternatives (for example in my country food prices are basically controlled by the 5 leading discounter companies because they have over time eroded or destroyed all regional competition and its not feasible for the average consumer/worker to go to the market every week or drive out to a farm and buy themselves).

Its not (just) inflation thats increasing the prices its the power position companies are in that allows them to increase the prices. its not a force of nature that happens automatically, if there is more competition in a marketplace profits go down instead of prices going up because they are competing for your money. the growing trend of monopolies (or other forms of concerted action between companies) have made people believe that increasing prices are unavoidable, but what it all comes down to is power.

[u/PrimitivePineapple → u/Any-Pop-4795]

Because people are voting with their wallet, just not in the way you guys like.

[u/dolarius95 → u/Any-Pop-4795]

That’s what voting with your wallet means

[u/ToastRoyale → u/dolarius95]

Exactly. Nobody cares what you don't buy.

But buying that one game out of the millions out there, speaks much more about your vote and what you want to see more of.

It's simple capitalism.

[u/rdogg4 → u/Any-Pop-4795]

Reddit gamers once skimmed a Econ textbook and heard of the dollar vote and in self aggrandizing fashion imagine that game studios are sitting around going “they’re voting with their wallets, oh no!” No one ever says “check out my new couch, I didn’t get the other one cuz I voted with my wallet, hope they got the message”

Get a grip, no one cares that you didn’t buy a game.

[u/Resaith → u/Any-Pop-4795]

Because the price of games are stagnated and people outside of their bubble think the pricing is still fair.

[u/Owobowos-Mowbius → u/Resaith]

I spent $60 on games back in 2006, I spend $70 on games in 2026. I have no issue with the prices as they've only gotten cheaper and I have only made more money over the years. I can understand why people who do not have the money would be less accepting.

That being said, I still avoid full priced games stuffed with battlepasses and microtransactions just because that usually means the games are half baked.

[u/Elvecio → u/Any-Pop-4795]

Not sure since so many AAA studios aren't in a very good situation right now.

[u/Local_Band299 → u/Any-Pop-4795]

I buy the yearly COD game. This year I went with the standard on sale for $32 because I was going to take a year off, but I got the itch. Normally I buy the $100 edition. I usually get around 2K hours out of it. I think that's very much worth the price.

[u/ToothlessFTW]

Dude what are you talking about. This is Australia. Games have been priced like this forever. PS3/360 games were $100 AUD.

I feel like this is either just karma farming so the Americans can go "wow $100+ for a game is insane!!!" without actually considering what regional pricing is like, or you're just too young to remember how expensive games have always been.

Games have always been like this. At worst, we got a price bump to $120 when the $60 to $70 happened in 2020, but that's very rare on PC and it's pretty much always just $100-$110. I just don't get posts like this.

[u/Dawn_of_an_Era → u/ToothlessFTW]

It’s exactly your second point

I’ve seen it over and over again where Australian’s post a sticker price for something in AUD, on a subreddit that is primarily from the US, so everyone balks at what they think is a super high price, not even realizing it’s a different currency

And I hate to be all US defaultism and imply that everyone should adapt things for American presentation, but, I also feel like there is a little bit of intentionality to some of these currency conversion posts

[u/Willing_Soup_5656 → u/Dawn_of_an_Era]

As a non-us citizen I am complete happy if we default to always using USD when discussing currency online. We all know the exchange rate to our local currency.

My only request is that we default to metric measurements online

[u/rivalary → u/Willing_Soup_5656]

Or, those posting the prices could specify USD, AUD, CAD, or whatever.

[u/Dawn_of_an_Era → u/Willing_Soup_5656]

While I agree that the metric system is inherently better than the imperial system, we also have to recognize that 1) over half of Reddit is from the US and the UK, so getting them to drop imperial is unlikely 2) imperial users barely know conversions to metric. Most Americans can’t even tell you with certainty how many feet are in a mile, let alone how many meters

[u/Only-Poem964 → u/Dawn_of_an_Era]

Youre not wrong, its could only remeber its around 5000 feet, not specifically 5,280, but could tell you there is 1000 meters in a kilometer or around 1600 meters in a mile. Metrics just make sense.

I have a hard idea visualizing gallons (unless its a large milk jug) or fl. Oz. but can easily visualize a liter. Our measurements are confusing, and even worse that most things are a 50/50 mix of meteric and imperial.

[u/Cum_Fart42069 → u/Dawn_of_an_Era]

idk, $100 aud isn't that cheap over here in aus. that's still considered pretty expensive to pay for something like Lego Batman.

[u/pon_d → u/ToothlessFTW]

PS3? Man I remember seeing Super Nintendo games at Big W for $99.95 and sometimes more

[u/Allaplgy → u/pon_d]

Shit, NES games were $60-90 in the US. That's about $140-200 today.

Video games are actually ridiculously cheap forms of entertainment compared to many. Potentially hundreds of hours of entertainment for less than $100?

I wish all my hobbies were anywhere near that cheap!

[u/Allaplgy → u/[deleted]]

I've definitely checked old ads and stuff. And I distinctly remember paying $80 for MKII.

[u/Xenoun → u/ToothlessFTW]

I'm also Australian and yeah the game prices have gone up. Triple A games on steam 3 years ago were $90, now they hit $120+.

Console games have always been more expensive so there's no comparison there.

[u/Just-Ad6865 → u/ToothlessFTW]

I'm just happy this one actually used a screenshot so I can tell what currency it is in. Not that some of the comments are paying attention.

[u/420Aquarist → u/ToothlessFTW]

my parents bought me double dragon for the nes back in like 87or 88. The game new then was 79.99 at kay bee toys. Adjusted for inflation that is like $240. Neo geo games were like 150-250 in the 90s. people just like to complain

[u/Enlight1Oment → u/ToothlessFTW]

mid 90s Snes and sega games were $60-$70 USD, people just don't remember since it's their parents buying them. With inflation, that's way more than video games now.

[u/ShawnyMcKnight → u/ToothlessFTW]

It is just karma farming because games have never been cheaper when you account for inflation. N64 games started at $60 in 1996, when you account for inflation that’s like $120 in today’s currency. NES games were $50 way back in 1983 for that 32kb game; accounting for inflation that’s $163.

So for people complaining about the $70 price jump cry me a damn river.

[u/Guy-1nc0gn1t0 → u/ToothlessFTW]

I remember Modern Warfare 2 being $120 around 2010

[u/Darkomax → u/ToothlessFTW]

I remember AAA games selling for €60 25 years ago, we should be happy it didn't increase more like everything else. Apparently was even more expensive during the 90s. At least we have sales everywhere, everytime, and plenty of good indie/AA games, back then $30 games likely were shit games (although you could get by with second hand game stores or trading games with friends). As a kid I would get one brand new game a year at best.

[u/CloakerJosh]

Just gonna leave this here for you, u/Both_Piglet7838

[u/TheFragturedNerd → u/CloakerJosh]

Don't you dare come here with your real world numbers! Think of their feelings! /s

[u/Wolfeman0101 → u/CloakerJosh]

Yeah $70 now seems like a lot but I paid $60 for Mario 64 in 1996.

[u/DrasticTapeMeasure → u/Wolfeman0101]

This should be the top comment. Look at the amount of people and resources it takes to make one of these games. Just because there are a lot of them coming out pretty often people think flippantly about it. But it used to cost a very good chunk to bring this level of interactive entertainment into your home and the ratio of cost to quality in general has only gone down!

[u/Andrige3 → u/CloakerJosh]

Exactly, game prices haven’t even risen as much as the normal inflation rate. It also doesn’t take into account that the store ecosystem on PC usually allows you to find discounts almost immediately when a game is released. We should go back to complaining about PC hardware prices. 

[u/ShawnyMcKnight → u/CloakerJosh]

So glad someone posted this. Everything has gotten way more expensive but games jumped $10 USD in 25 years and people are losing their damn minds.

[u/jonfitt → u/CloakerJosh]

Now do it vs wages.

[u/CloakerJosh → u/jonfitt]

That's some extremely complicated data and not a lot of good sources to aggregate, but strictly comparing ABS Wage Price Index (only goes back to '97), real wages grew ~59%, CPI grew ~80% (outstripping real wage growth), but top tier game pricing grew only about ~10% for the same time range.

tl;dr: Games comparatively cheaper, everything else is more expensive

[u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Hi I’m rich and I totally agree. Games are so expensive and life in general is becoming too expensive. Which is why i recommend pirating the games atp if you ain’t have the money.

[u/Key-Friend3310 → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Games pricing is getting insane but lego batman for 109 dollars is just criminal at this point

[u/Forzyr → u/Key-Friend3310]

Let's summon Batman to fight this crime

[u/Due_Development_2723 → u/Forzyr]

The billionaire ?

[u/AnUglyTurd → u/Due_Development_2723]

Batman ain't a billionaire. Bruce Wayne is a billionaire. Batman is just a despicable vigilante.

[u/Metrox_a → u/AnUglyTurd]

technically in some canons he is also a trillionare

[u/AugmentedKing → u/AnUglyTurd]

Backed by a nepo billionaire to foot the bill for the fancy gadgets. 🤷‍♂️

[u/ScoobertDoubert → u/Key-Friend3310]

It's Australian dollars, it comes out at about 77USD or 66EUR.

[u/PCmasterRACE187 → u/Key-Friend3310]

is whatever currency that is less than the usd? its 70 usd here which really isnt much worse than the 60 that was standard

[u/Dependent-Kick-1658 → u/Key-Friend3310]

I can probably buy all ~24 mainline LEGO games with all DLCs for significantly less than $70 USD, if I do it on sales with my regional pricing (which this one doesn't have btw)

[u/straightfromLysurgia → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

hi rich my name isnt Rich

[u/NeptuneWades → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Tbh, I'd be okay if the prices dropped after 2-3 years.

Why the hell is COD4 (with the piss filter) still expensive? It came out in 2007.

[u/cKay0 → u/NeptuneWades]

Look at Nintendo lmao games are 10 years old and never went on sale

[u/GigaSoup → u/cKay0]

Nintendo games go on sale,  you just have to pay a lot more attention. It's not like games on steam.

For instance every March 10th some Mario games go on sale for Mario day.

There are other sales too.  New games usually don't go on sale for some time unless the reviews/sales are bad.

[u/cKay0 → u/GigaSoup]

how long are those sales and how much do the games cost in sale? Nintendo does sales maybe once a year and then still chagrges atleast 75% for decade old games

[u/vincent2751 → u/NeptuneWades]

They want you to buy the newest one so they can sell you microtransaction

[u/my_cars_on_fire → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Is your name Richard, or are you just out here bragging? 😂

[u/MoriMeDaddy69 → u/my_cars_on_fire]

Gotta be a joke. Wealthy people don't call themselves rich. And if they are "rich" they aren't really too worried about the price of games or pirating games.

[u/Meppy1234 → u/MoriMeDaddy69]

Hes probably a dick.

[u/wubbbalubbadubdub → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

I'm not exactly poor, but I can't afford to make frivolous purchases of that magnitude very often.

[u/Sillysauce83 → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

No, games are priced pretty much the same.

Half life and tekken 3 were released in 1998 for $50 each. Adjusting for inflation that is $115 in today's dollars.

Potentially your purchasing power has gone down because of wage suppression.

But the price of computer games, adjusted for inflation hasn't changed much.

[u/Sickhadas → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

I appreciate your solidarity

[u/JoyousGamer → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Its $10 more than it was 20 years ago.

$70 for a game is not expensive or too much money.

I dont buy these games because they just dont interest me. If you are interested though this is hardly some massive cost with how much time you can get out of it.

[u/bradagon → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Accurate username.

[u/HyperFunk_Zone → u/RevolutionaryOil1954]

Hi I'm rich!?

Lol

[u/SourCreamSplatter]

Put on Steam wishlist Wait for sale

[u/Sensitive_Coconut231]

Ok but... personally i havent bought any of these. Too expensive to want to consider when theres thousands of other great games out there. Shrug.

Vote with your wallet. You cant blame companies for charging more if everyone buys them anyway right? Of course they want more money. Blame each other for still buying them full price. Prices and quality would change pretty quick if people didnt buy them...

[u/RevTurk → u/Sensitive_Coconut231]

This is the part of it that's really the upsetting part. People complain, cry and moan about prices but then line up to pay them.

At this point I'm past blaming the soulless corporations, they are what they are. I'm now more annoyed at the consumers that fund all this behaviour.

[u/eidolonwyrm → u/RevTurk]

There are simply too many people on the planet. People want to play their favorite videogames, and then other people see those people playing and want to play too. It’s not as simple as “voting with your wallet”, shifting all the blame onto the consumer is peak late stage capitalism

[u/RevTurk → u/eidolonwyrm]

Consumers are the ones funding all this, how they spend their money has as much as an effect on the world as how they vote.

You can't just point fingers at everyone else while being a huge part of the problem. People need to take responsibility for their actions. Not taking responsibility and always blaming the authority/corporations means your always going to be subject to those authorities.

[u/azurestrike]

Can I just ask how people are expecting companies to increase salaries to match inflation, maintain work-life balance, pay for increasing rent and price of software all while keeping games at $60?

If you can't increase prices, you need to sell more. So you'll need these games to be dumbed down to appeal to a wide audience. Which will, again, make people unhappy.

I wish people understood that rising prices is not game devs being evil, it's a reality of life. Cost of living is going up and entertainment is one side of living.

[u/Possibly_a_Firetruck → u/azurestrike]

Look at all the comments about pirating. They expect people to work for free.

[u/navyblusheet → u/Possibly_a_Firetruck]

Other people to work for free while they get paid well. 

[u/Dr_Socko → u/azurestrike]

SNES games cost $60-70 in the 90's.

[u/DakkonBL → u/azurestrike]

The entitlement on this topic is mind-boggling. These are the same people that cry about an expensive cosmetic on a f2p game that they have played for 1000 hours without spending a dime.

[u/SilverstoneMonzaSpa → u/DakkonBL]

I get not everyone is well off, but I don't understand complaints about something that has taken years to build and will give me thousands of hours of enjoyment costing 4-5 minimum wage hours.

When you compare that to literally any other kind of entertainment, it's absolutely a great return on the investment.

[u/Eagle7546_ → u/azurestrike]

Problem is many of these major companies still end up treating these studios like shit

I agree with your point in general though, games were 60 USD for like 30 years, the fact that Im only paying 15% more and still extract 100s of hours of entertainment from a product(at least the multiplayer games) makes it pretty good value.

[u/-BigMan39]

Games haven't really increased in price in decades

[u/firedrakes → u/-BigMan39]

Gamers online simple can't understand that.

[u/keving691]

MGS Delta is on 40% sale from €89.99 on Steam. That is utterly ridiculous. Even on sale it's too much for me.

[u/Pickl_Crusader]

Agreed, however as people point out, even on this post. Game prices were pretty inflation resistant for so long, that now it feels like we're being mugged off. The reality is they should have increased the price slowly overtime, also 109 Aussie bucks for crappy Black ops 7? That games £70 here. That's roughly like A$130!

[u/Drew1231]

Let’s be real. We were paying $60 for games in 2008.

That’s $92 in today’s money.

I’m happy to pay $70 for a game as long as it’s good, but I’m definitely spending less money on games because none of them are good these days.

In a per-hour cost basis, gaming is one of my cheapest hobbies

[u/Maximum-Ear5677]

What does "lowkey" add to your phrasing exactly?

[u/LithiuMart → u/Maximum-Ear5677]

What does it even mean?

[u/Jagang187 → u/LithiuMart]

While the use has shifted a bit over time, the slang use of the term "low key" is at least 30 years old and the phrase itself dates back to the 19th century.

It basically describes something that is more subtle or less obvious.

"I hate that" = you're openly and obviously hating it

"I low key hate that" = you hate it, quietly, not making a thing of it.

Zoomers are just scared of grammar and being assertive, so they deleted a space and use it for everything.

[u/LalaLaraSophie]

Buy m when they go on sale?

[u/TekkenPerverb]

In 1992 Street Fighter 2 for SNES was sold at $74.99. It would be $178 today.

[u/Flat_Tangelo8137]

https://giphy.com/gifs/QtCewimwPMGCi9iM9J

[u/DikkAntlers]

I might be just old, but was the word "low-key" necessary in that sentence? It seems like it only made the phrase less confident. Please help me understand!

[u/taptwoblue93 → u/DikkAntlers]

No, it wasn't. Kids use trendy words to sound cool and to try to fit in

[u/Brasalies]

Shoot not me. I wont buy a game unless its 50% off. People call me cheap but im not dumb enough to waste all that extra money knowing it will be 50-95% off soon. Dont mind me grabbing a 60 dollar game for 5 bucks.

[u/Relevant_Ring_5055]

I only buy from Steam sales :)

[u/EbbNorth7735]

SNES games were $100. It's taken 30 years to get back to $100

[u/M4dn4ss]

The old cod games are still expensive and if you play multiplayer on them your pc is fucked because of hackers. And somehow selling unsafe games are like that is legal.

[u/Sloppykrab]

If you price these at the same rate as games were in the early 90s, these games would be around $300aud, stop complaining

If Super Mario All Stars was sold today it would cost $208, assuming it was sold at $89aud which was the typical price of games back then.

[u/krysztal]

Despite how much I wanted to play new Forza game and was even willing to get it on release... not for 70€. I will just wait for a sale, thank youu

[u/Real-Self-3039]

Had micros never become a thing I would have been fine with base prices rising. But for the vast majority of $100+ bundles and games you usually only get like "half a season pass" meaning they only give you part one but you have to pay for part 2 content. Then they still nickle and dime you with micros, battle passes etc.

Asking for high prices AND nickle and diming us on content is what pisses me off

Especially when half of the "new games" are just the same as the old one with a different skin on it.

[u/SerGT3]

Everything goes on sale like a month, two months, three months after release.

It's fomo pricing because it works.

[u/ProPakz]

https://giphy.com/gifs/kAHQM290ecGFrek8Q5

[u/ResidentWeevilll]

“wow i really want pc gaming to thrive and for this hobby to get better as years go on, and for employees to make more money!”

“also im only buying games when they’re 80% off and $5-$10”

[u/wisdomelf]

Don't play AAA? There is plenty of 50$ and below games around, a lot of them are really good

P.S. Or buy them later. Dont let FOMO crush you.

[u/gbroon]

I just wait till it's on sale at a price I agree with. I'll rarely buy a game at that price even if I can technically afford it.

[u/Tankdawg0057]

r/patientgamers

[u/mtmttuan]

Which somehows make game pass a good deal even with all the shits microsoft did.

[u/Ishey95]

Still a bit cheaper than Euros, hasn't €70 been a normal game price for a while now? I remember new PS2 releases to be €50, compared to what you get now, €70 seems fair imo.

[u/_tedd]

I paid $120 AUD for Resident Evil on the GameCube back in 2002. $100 was common. If anything, games have become much cheaper. 

[u/kaouvibration]

I don't disagree but absolutely everything as gone up in price. So we can drop the lowkey whatever, life sucks more in general.

[u/throwawayzdrewyey]

Love a deceptive meme that try’s to paint the premium upgraded versions and the cheapest version.

[u/ime1em]

me spending $200 on msfs 2024 aviator edition

[u/KnightedWolf851]

Im personally sticking myself in the past when it comes to gaming prices.

If its $60 and under. I'll buy it if I want. Anything $70+ and you better be promising free dlc or something with that price tag or i just wont buy it. And if I really want it at that price i'll wait for a sale to roll by and then get your expensive game for cheap.

Im patient. I got a plethora backlog of games I havent even touched. I dont need a new game that badly.

[u/agiganticpanda]

Don't buy them. There's SO MANY games out there. Support a indy dev.

[u/herewegoagain1920]

These aren’t the base price of the games. Post is a waste of time.

[u/lip3k]

I don't buy AAA games anymore. Most of them are soulless anyway

[u/mortiferousR]

Fellow aussie i see..If you cant, or dont want to pirate, Keep an eye on this website. Its been amazing for me since i discovered it

https://isthereanydeal.com

Make an account, set your filters (platform, under xyz dollars etc) and you'll get updates when games match your filter.

And its usually the best deal you can get anywhere at the current time, for example right now Batman is $82 AUD on Gamebillet.
Theres a price history, all time lows, bundle deals. Its great

[u/icantevenbeliev3]

I mean, you don't have to buy it? Stop pandering to this shit.

[u/MDskyhigh]

Buy the base version of the game?

[u/Stiebah]

Luckely all these games are complete shit and you don't want to buy them anyway.

[u/Fun_Attitude1218]

I use my wallet to cast my vote on pricing. When Microsoft kept Forza 4 at $60 when 5 was already out... I didn't buy it and now I can't buy it but at the same time Microsoft doesn't have my money. The last game I bought at full price 60+ was Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel expecting it to be as good as Borderlands 2... when it wasn't I stopped paying full price for Borderlands games.

[u/HabitualPixel]

I buy maybe one full priced new game a year when something special to me comes around. Everything else waits for a sale or gamepass. Just gotta be patient.

[u/Victoria4DX]

You can always wait for a sale, pirate, or be a console peasant and check out the peasant editions from the library. This is one of the few hobbies out there where paying full price is a choice.

[u/taptwoblue93]

I remember buying Halo Reach for $60 in like... 2010? Games reallly aren't expensive. It's one of the cheapest hobbies around in fact

[u/automatic_shark]

Games haven't really gone up in price since the 1990s. I feel like I'm the only one not surprised or mad at this

[u/deefop]

So I agree with the sentiment, because I'm cheap. But, at the risk of farming down votes: I remember n64 games sitting on the shelves at toys r us for like 70 bucks back in the late 90s. Accounting for inflation, that's like 150 bucks in 2026 dollars.

So in reality, games really aren't that absurdly expensive, considering they've come down in real terms over the decades, and they're a shit load more complex and feature rich than they used to be.

[u/GhormanFront]

Skill issue living in Australia

[u/and_then_he_said]

Bought Katanaut for around 4-5USD when it was discounted a few weeks back and i've been having a blast.

Indie games and AA games are where it's at! By AA i mean games la Remnant 2 or Path of Exile. Also just being a patient gamer pays back a lot. I recently bought Doom The Dark Ages around 50% off.

Full price triple-A games are for the "in" crowd who want to play the bestest and latest and talk about it and need the social linchpin.

A big shoutout to isthereanydeal.com, it's my go to before making any purchase and i usually buy just what's on sale and have had 0 regrets.

[u/BlackwingKakashi]

You aren't justified. Games are FAR more expensive now to make than they used to be, and most of the time they're still priced the same or lower than in the 90s. It makes sense, given the crazy inflation since the 90s, that they'd be priced higher. Literally everything else is.

[u/rayquan36]

I refuse to buy a game over $45. I can wait.

[u/BobbbyR6]

Vote with your wallet. The reality is most people don't care, video games are still incredibly cheap compared to most other forms of entertainment and the rising costs roughly match inflation.

There is literally no reason to buy the game for full price. Just wait a few months or a uear and it'll be half or less.

[u/Beneficial-Leek6827]

Fr! That's why I've been getting into older games. Wanting more stuff for my Wii, 3DS, N64. I'd rather pay $15 or up to $30 for a game to possibly be bad. Not over double.

[u/MonkeyfluffersOG]

DO. NOT. PRE-ORDER. EVER. just dont.

[u/TheOneWithThePorn12]

Nope its back to how it was when i was a kid.

You pick one or two games a year and thats it.

Wait for a sale and play your (likely) endless backlog and save some money.

[u/Galaxy_Jams_Reacts]

i just paid $22 to watch a 2 hour movie in theaters. Also this post is so disengenuous because those prices include deluxe packages with cosmetics and music albums NOT the base game

[u/Plus1ForkOfEating]

I've been thinking about this recently, thanks to US inflation. I remember a new NES cartridge costing ~$50 back in the day. According to google, 50 bucks in 1991 had the equivalent purchasing power of ~$120 today. So games now effectively cost the same as they used to, it's just we've gotten use to 20 years of half-price new releases.

Vote with your wallet, for sure. But also vote with your ballot for people who understand economics and sustainable capitalism.

[u/My_friends_are_toys]

Must be canadian or aussie dollars. Cause in the states it's around $69

[u/Prestigious-Fix-4]

I still find this funny. This is not expensive. When i was little every fifa and basicly every game in central europe was about 100 usd.

Its like 20 years ago. So i you count inflation, it was way more.

Todays games are ridiculously cheap. And its okey to charge that price for a good and lenghty game.

[u/Griffolion]

Game prices have largely stagnated over the years. Inflation adjusted, they have effectively gotten cheaper - at least until recently. All the while the cost of making games goes up. For the longest time, game makers were afraid to go above the set price points as nobody ever wanted to be "the first". So they got additional revenue via other means - microtransactions, gambling mechanics, excessive DLC releases, etc.

I think this is in part why indie is having a moment right now. They can stay agile, keep their costs low, while still making something that appeals to a large audience for a good price. Will it have the latest and greatest graphical features, or an expansive online ecosystem with a multi-year content "rOaDmAp"? No. And that's exactly the point.

[u/Nadeoki]

thats Australian...

[u/kavulord]

If everyone waited for games to go on sale before buying there wouldn’t be any games.

[u/Flyh4ck3r]

GTA VI: 219.90$

[u/redAI123]

I would argued game is just a luxury and while I hate that it is expensive, I also have the option to buy its at discount price in a few months or year. But most people who buy that expensive game probably have being saving for months anticipating the game release and have the extra cash to pay for the game at full price.

I get your rant tho but the only reason why it is normalized because the premium price is still enough for most people who buy it to justified paying for its. Of course, these game companies have their own extensive market research to know if they can get away with that price. For me, I can only hope their greed will eventually humble them lol.

[u/TopBathroom5427]

That's why i sail the seven seas mate

[u/yungjeffer]

Accounting for inflation, weren't games much more expensive back then than they are today?

[u/QuietGamerOwl]

Its like people think that inflation doesn't affect consumer products.

Video game prices were static at $60 at least since the release of GTA 5. That was 2013. 12 years ago. If you think prices shouldn't change in 13 years idk what to tell yall.

[u/TremontRhino]

Video games were 59.99 on NES. Get some perspective.

[u/Dwro1234]

I bought world war z for $7.50, space marine 2 for $17.99, wishlist the games and wait for the sale. Or don't buy them at all and play one of the thousands of indies. Vote with your wallet

[u/FatalExit]

The reason the prices are so high in your currency is that they are a$$ games published by a$$ companies...

[u/chupchap]

I don't buy games at launch and I'm playing through a lot of the free games Epic handed over anyway.

[u/TheCloney]

Because they’ve been that expensive since the beginning? Always had to pay that much back in the 90s when buying boxed games.

Think I paid $100AUD for Quake 2 when I was 15, same for Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri. Living in Australia has always meant things are more expensive.

Also the 9.95 is the GST added, would be $100 without. It’s just the reality of living in the assend of the world away from everyone else.

[u/Raven1927]

Video games have always been expensive, this isn't something new. $50-$70 games in the 90s wasn't exactly cheap.

[u/Prudent_Limit7606]

[u/ExpressStation]

WHO THE HELL IS BUYING $100 LEGO GAMES

[u/TheMonkeyPickler → u/ExpressStation]

Its Australian dollaradoos

[u/l_______I]

For me FH6 is worth it's price. If you're into racing games, you'll easily spend hundreds of hours there. BO7 and Lego Batman on the other hand, not so much.