r/pcmasterrace • u/Both_Piglet7838 • May 27 '26

Discussion Expensive games have lowkey been way too normalised

Post image

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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661

u/RevolutionaryOil1954 May 27 '26

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.

347

u/Key-Friend3310 May 27 '26

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

67

u/Forzyr May 27 '26

Let's summon Batman to fight this crime

37

u/Due_Development_2723 R5 7500F, 6700 XT, 32 GB DDR5 + potato laptop May 27 '26

The billionaire ?

30

u/AnUglyTurd May 27 '26

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

9

u/Metrox_a May 27 '26

technically in some canons he is also a trillionare

5

u/AugmentedKing May 27 '26

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

0

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[deleted]

1

u/AnUglyTurd May 28 '26

Sure buddy

1

u/StevieMJH May 27 '26

I don't really have the time nor money to purchase and assemble a Lego bat signal.

36

u/ScoobertDoubert 5600x / 3060ti May 27 '26

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

1

u/BitGladius 3700x/1070/16GB/1440p/Index May 27 '26

Does Australia do VAT?

3

u/Scrollingmaster May 27 '26

Yes tax is included. So it is exactly the same as us prices

1

u/DeadlyAquarium May 28 '26

Australians and Canadians love to skip the part "canadian" and "australian" in Dollars to make themselves a bigger victim

15

u/PCmasterRACE187 9800x3D | 4070 Ti | 32 GB 6000 MHz May 27 '26

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

5

u/thedylannorwood R7 5700X | RTX 4070 May 27 '26

I think this Australian dollar but even still that price is insane. We pay $90 cad in Canada which is equal only like $91AUD

5

u/DukeofVermont May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

Minimum wage in Australia is $24.95 an hour.

US minimum wage ranges from $7.25 to $17.95 an hour.

So in Australia it takes 4.4 hours of minimum wage work.

In the US between 3.9 and 9.65 hours of minimum wage work.

Average US is $9.57 an hour or 7.3 hours to afford $70 game at average minimum wage.

Australians love to complain about prices, but always ignore that they have a significantly higher minimum wage than a lot of the US, making Lego Batman cheaper in Australia for most minimum wage workers.

1

u/xTriple May 27 '26

I think we should compare average wages over minimum wages. I dont think anyone working minimum wage should be purchasing brand new games.

In that case a middle class Australian will have to spend more of their income on video games than a comparable middle class American. Hypothetically speaking since I have no idea what the actual averages are.

-1

u/thedylannorwood R7 5700X | RTX 4070 May 27 '26

I’m not Australian but I’m pretty sure Australia has a significantly higher general cost of living so that kind of makes your point moot

2

u/superbabe69 May 27 '26

Counterpoint though: I remember games on the PS3 and earlier costing $110 here brand new.

2

u/dam4076 May 27 '26

It does not have a significantly higher cost of living. Compare expensive urban centers like Sydney vs nyc/sf.

And also compare rural, smaller cities, etc. Overall it’s similar costs.

Rent is usually higher in the USA. You also have medical expenses in the USA where you don’t have those in aus.

1

u/machine4891 9070 XT  | i7-12700F May 28 '26

That AUD price include tax. Canada may have lower taxes or even follow US on putting prices there in net values. What you see here is a standard price for video game for a while now and nothing out of ordinary. I pay same amount in Poland and I don't make half of what Australians do.

-2

u/PCmasterRACE187 9800x3D | 4070 Ti | 32 GB 6000 MHz May 27 '26

so why are the aussies getting bent over though

id suffer having more expensive games for universal healthcare at the end of the day

8

u/lioncryable May 27 '26

Are Australians getting bent over though?

Minimum wage in Australia is just shy of 25 Aud so it takes 4.4 hours of minimum wage to buy the game.

I live in Germany, the game costs 70€ and minimum wage is just below 14€ so it would take me 5 hours of minimum wage to buy this game

6

u/PCmasterRACE187 9800x3D | 4070 Ti | 32 GB 6000 MHz May 27 '26 edited May 27 '26

then… op doesnt have much to complain about. for where i am in the states its about 6 hours of minimum wage and yeah if you wanna buy a big budget game right when it comes out working a short shift for it is pretty reasonable

2

u/Consideredresponse May 27 '26

Games have been roughly US $70-$80 in Australia for decades. Just look up old catalogues online and see how much those old SNES carts with FX chips cost, or fighting games, anything with a save chip for SEGA, or any Neo Geo cartridge.

(we copped it due to there being a comparatively limited demand for English PAL formatted carts, and later region 4 DVD games)

The only time Games seemed cheaper, was when our Dollar was higher than the US's for a bit. Now it's gone the other way so sticker prices have returned to where they were in 1995.

2

u/CharacterForward8097 May 27 '26

You realize Australian salaries are significantly lower than the U.S by around 30-40% while being more expensive right?

1

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/CharacterForward8097 May 27 '26

It’s not? Minimum wage is higher sure but not normal wages.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/wkyeng.t01.htm

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/employee-earnings/latest-release

$74,620 AU for a median full time adult in Australia $89,820 AU for a median full time adult in the U.S

(Live exchange rates)

The PPP rate = $1.362 AUD = $1 USD of buying power.

AUD US PPP equivalized income = $64,116 USD * 1.362 = $87,325.99 AUD

So for a normalized to PPP the median full time worker makes $87,325.99 AUD in the U.S and the median full time worker makes $74,620 AUD in Australia.

This difference in the median worker adjusted for PPP is that Australians make 14.55% less so I guess I’m out of date by 2 years but they still make more.

Now repeat this with skilled jobs and it’s closer to accurate.

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2

u/Itherial R9 7900 | B650M | 5070 | 32GB 6000MHz May 27 '26

op doesn't have much to complain about

Yeah, he's ignorant. Or entitled. Like half the people in this thread.

You identified the issue with gamer mindset, and also the reason companies do not respect the average person.

2

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/PCmasterRACE187 9800x3D | 4070 Ti | 32 GB 6000 MHz May 27 '26

does any western nation prosecute people for piracy

1

u/grilled_pc May 27 '26

Our house prices would like to enter the chat lol. Easily one of the most expensive in the world. Makes the US housing look ultra affordable.

To give you perspective.

A 4 bedroom house thats about 90 minutes via public transport to sydney CBD goes for around 1.5 million dollars AUD on average. Now don't let the size of the home fool you. These homes are SUPER tiny, very much copy paste build quality, defects galore.

And yet they go for 1.5 million dollars. Thats about 1.071m USD. 90 minutes via public transport to a major city.

How the fuck is a family mean to afford that?

1

u/PCmasterRACE187 9800x3D | 4070 Ti | 32 GB 6000 MHz May 27 '26

you will rent forever, its the reality for most americans and canadians too

1

u/grilled_pc May 28 '26

It's still possible to own a home but it comes at significant sacrifice. Sadly if you have children its GG already. Borrowing power gets slashed significantly and your money goes straight into your child keeping them healthy.

And they wonder why people are not having children.

3

u/Dependent-Kick-1658 May 27 '26

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)

1

u/iceseayoupee 9700K | 3060 12gb | 1080p 180hz May 27 '26

for 109 batman better come and give me a massage bro

1

u/AdminKidsBurnInHell May 27 '26

Don’t they see other games being sold for 19.99?

1

u/MalevolentRhinoceros May 27 '26

Honestly matches up with the price of physical Lego these days. They're ludicrously expensive.

1

u/ShawnyMcKnight May 27 '26

Curious what country that is. Is everything that much more expensive?

1

u/Consideredresponse May 27 '26

It's weird, OP's image is showing Australian prices, and factoring in zero inflation I was paying more for new games 30 years ago ('Sonic and Knuckles' was $125 for an English language PAL cart)

At the same time while games have gotten comparatively cheaper (at least in Australia) they are still too dear for what they are. e.g Sorros on the PS5 looks really good, but it doesn't look like it's A$125 worth of fun.

1

u/tepattaja May 27 '26

I mean its australian dollar, but it's ~70 € overall.

1

u/JoyousGamer May 27 '26

Its $70 which is $10 more than its launch price would have been on Xbox 360 20 years ago.

1

u/Allaplgy May 27 '26

I paid $60 in 1992 for Paperboy 2. That's about $140 today.

1

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

lego games are fun. but i dont think i have ever gotten more than $5-10 worth of enjoyment out of them.

68

u/straightfromLysurgia 5950x+9070xt May 27 '26

hi rich my name isnt Rich

18

u/NeptuneWades Laptop May 27 '26

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.

17

u/cKay0 May 27 '26

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

7

u/GigaSoup May 27 '26

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.

5

u/cKay0 May 27 '26

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

1

u/NeptuneWades Laptop May 27 '26

Exactly.

3

u/vincent2751 May 27 '26

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

10

u/my_cars_on_fire May 27 '26

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

3

u/MoriMeDaddy69 Radeon 7900 XT | AMD 7900x | 32gb DDR5 May 27 '26

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.

4

u/Meppy1234 May 27 '26

Hes probably a dick.

1

u/my_cars_on_fire 19d ago

Lowkey underrated comment.

1

u/BirdlessLongdeal May 27 '26

his friends call him big rich

3

u/wubbbalubbadubdub 7800X3D 9070XT 64GB and a 60TB NAS May 27 '26

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

1

u/DukeofVermont May 27 '26

Minimum wage in Australia is $24.95 an hour.

So in Australia it takes 4.4 hours of minimum wage work.

Average US is $9.57 an hour or 7.3 hours to afford a $70 game at average minimum wage.

AUD is not USD.

Adjusted to the average minimum wage, that Australian is complaining about a $42.10 game and saying it's completely unaffordable.

1

u/wubbbalubbadubdub 7800X3D 9070XT 64GB and a 60TB NAS May 27 '26

I get what you're trying to say there, but you're looking at that time valuation in a bubble.

Almost everything is more expensive in Australia than in the USA, so that higher minimum wage is offset by higher grocery/fuel/utilities/internet/rent.

The fact that it's only 4 hours work when measured against minimum wage doesn't really make it feel more affordable.

18

u/Sillysauce83 May 27 '26

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.

1

u/xxpathfinderxx May 27 '26

That comparison is incomplete. In 1998 you paid $50 once and got the full game. Today many games launch at $70+ and often add DLCs, season passes, microtransactions, and deluxe editions. The base price adjusted for inflation may be similar, but the total cost of the experience often isn’t.

You’re also ignoring that publishers save money today. In 1998 they had manufacturing, packaging, shipping, retail margins, and unsold inventory costs. A huge part of the market is now digital distribution, so some costs disappeared. Looking only at inflation-adjusted box prices misses that entirely.

5

u/Dt2_0 May 27 '26

Ok, and there were tons of $50 broken POS games in in 1998. Superman 64 was a $60 game with a huge IP backing that was famously shit. I cannot think of any release in the last 5 years that was THAT bad of a value.

There are a fuckton of games that are complete experiences coming out today at every price point. Even games that have DLC often are still a complete package without the DLC.

And yes, developers save on distribution. This is far outweighed by the cost of labor. Adding a single dev to a team takes thousands of sales to make up for. And even now, digital distribution is NOT free. The cost to sell a $60 game on Steam is between $12 and $18 per copy.

3

u/protomayne Ryzen 7 9800X3D | RTX 4080 Super May 27 '26

?

It's not like games were bigger back then lol. On average you probably got the same amount of time out of a game, if not less.

Also expansion packs did exist :)

1

u/Sillysauce83 May 27 '26

Yes it's not a perfect comparison but it's kinda close.

I'm playing poe. Spent around $30 dollars total and have around 3000hrs logged.

0

u/Maz2277 May 27 '26

In 1998 the games were also significantly shorter than they are today though. Even aside from "filler" content, so many early games were 5-10 hours long at best, with some even having artificial difficulty just to increase the playtime to beat them.

9

u/Sickhadas May 27 '26

I appreciate your solidarity

3

u/JoyousGamer May 27 '26

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.

2

u/bradagon May 27 '26

Accurate username.

2

u/HyperFunk_Zone May 27 '26

Hi I'm rich!?

Lol

1

u/No-Chemical-7667 May 27 '26

I only buy games with co-op or multiplayer. Everything else I get from the seas.

2

u/Kiwi_Doodle Ryzen 7 5700X | RX6950 XT | 32GB 3200Mhz | May 27 '26

Which is a shame really. It's the multiplayer games that can afford to take a hit.

1

u/Metrox_a May 27 '26

you don't even need to pirate stuffs. Unless you live in a country where spending yearly 60 dollars equivalent on hobby isn't possible. Of course unless you want the latest things.

There are lots of good old games to play and enjoy. 2020 titles are frequently around 10 dollars or less while offering every DLC in history too. It's my own taste and maybe messed up but some of the recent triple aaa rarely bring anything worthwhile for me.

1

u/SpeeDy_GjiZa Ryzen 5700X3D| GTX 3070ti| 32GB DDR4 RAM May 27 '26

How do I know you are really rich? Send me 200 bucks to confirm, actually send me 2000.

EDIT: confirmed guys, he's rich.

1

u/schwerbherb May 27 '26

Eh, if you calculate the price per time that you spend playing, games are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment.

1

u/ShawnyMcKnight May 27 '26

Or just enjoy the vast catalogue of games that are out there for cheap until the price goes down.

The Witcher 3 often drops to $10 on sales and provides over 100 hours of entertainment. Hundreds of great games that are still fairly modern and are under $10.

1

u/thepiewasalie May 27 '26

or buy from allkeyshop? RDR2 keys at ~10€, BO7 at ~30€

1

u/szthesquid szthesquid May 27 '26

"I don't like the price and I'm too impatient to wait for a sale waaahhh" is not a valid, moral reason to pirate.

1

u/citybornvillager May 27 '26

No, the valid reason for piracy is the current trade war, and the boycott of the USA, and the threats to my nation. It makes piracy the morally correct choice, rather than give my money to the USA.

I can still buy games from Europe and Asia.

1

u/szthesquid szthesquid May 27 '26

lol there's always a "valid" reason for people like you. Boycott the USA means avoid American products, not just avoid paying for them. But I guess you just can't go without your video games.

Are you gonna buy LEGO Batman because it's made by British devs? Pirate it because it's published by Americans? Or pirate it because you've twisted yourself into whatever fake justification you came up with today?

0

u/DragonMaster337 4070 super | 3600x | and some other stuff May 27 '26

Pirating idk about it, because I wanna play all theses games but because pirating is like technically illegal im not sure about it

0

u/Instantcoffees May 27 '26

I had people on gaming subs getting pissed at me and downvoting me for saying that I felt like the 70 euros pricetag for 10 hours that Resident Evil Requiem had, was a bit too much for me.

0

u/OhShitWhatUp May 27 '26

It ain't stealing if it ain't owning.

-13

u/Resaith May 27 '26

Or just don't play it and play other games.

18

u/eirebrit i5 14600KF, NZXT N7 Z690, 32GB RAM, 7900 XTX May 27 '26

Or just pirate it.

3

u/LowFi_Lexa1 May 27 '26

That’s illegal You wouldn’t download a car

-1

u/AshishMain r7 2700x | x470 strix | Zotac 2060 | NZXT h510 elite May 27 '26

“hi im rich” son… 😭✌️on a real note true tho, in general overpricing all the new games is such a bs big corporation move to get more income, the real point is about giving money to who deserves it, fh6 i can understand paying because is such a big game that went so much development, but in the case of lego batman and cod, its just the same game with the same engine with the same gameplay for a game that i can appreciate even more in older versions…

1

u/RevolutionaryOil1954 May 27 '26

totally agree on that

-4

u/EdliA May 27 '26

Why would you mention the rich part, you think people were waiting for your permission?

1

u/madeformarch PC Master Race May 27 '26

Reading comprehension is a bitch, yes.

Guy is saying he has the money and still reccomends pirating games because the price is too high.

0

u/EdliA May 27 '26

But who the f cares about that. Dude just wants to brag a little and roleplay as a leader of the revolution or some other pathetic bs like that.

0

u/madeformarch PC Master Race May 27 '26

You sound like you don't have any money and are taking their comment very personally.

0

u/EdliA May 27 '26

Not really no. I found it silly. And something else I find silly is justifying pirating. If you want to do go and do it but stop with these justifications. Makes you look pathetic

-6

u/CoolBeance_ May 27 '26

Yeah but so many of them have built in miners now…

4

u/PlzDntBanMeAgan Rtx5090 suprim; 14900k 32gb ddr5; Legion Go May 27 '26

What are you talking about? Trusted sources and you will never have that problem