@iksar
Yes, that is all understandable, but at the same time costs have gone WAY up and sale prices have not. Game companies are having a hard time making money. That means that soon, without micro transactions, games will either die off entirely because no one wants to lose their ass maing them, or prices will go up.
Indie games are cheap and can be made on the cheap, but almost none are AAA titles. Hell most are retro wanna bes.
We have to face the FACT that we have had it good for decades now. Gaming has been a cheap hobby compared to the cost put in.
Game companies are trying to keep prices for their games affordable and still make a profit. Which is a requirement.
They cannot continue to lose money.
kellindil said:@iksar
Yes, that is all understandable, but at the same time costs have gone WAY up and sale prices have not. Game companies are having a hard time making money. That means that soon, without micro transactions, games will either die off entirely because no one wants to lose their ass maing them, or prices will go up.
Indie games are cheap and can be made on the cheap, but almost none are AAA titles. Hell most are retro wanna bes.
We have to face the FACT that we have had it good for decades now. Gaming has been a cheap hobby compared to the cost put in.
Game companies are trying to keep prices for their games affordable and still make a profit. Which is a requirement.
They cannot continue to lose money.
It's not entirely true that prices haven't gone up. With pre-orders, early access, gold/deluxe editions, zero-day DLC and season passes, a game can easily cost upwards of $100.
And it's absolutely not true that the gaming industry as a whole is struggling. It's been growing double digits annually. Yes, out of control blockbusters sink hundreds of millions into a game and have a hard time recouping the investment, but that's not the case fore every game.
@daemonios But isn't that really part of the same monster? DLC is just another micro transaction, so is early access and season passes. These are all the same as cash shops. It's supplamentary revinue for the publisher. We might as well lump these all together. All the DLC and other costs ARE optional, even if you personally do not think so. I don't think I have ever bought any DLC. Closet thing to it would be expansions for MMOs. I rarely pre-order and since we all got burned by EQN I will not buy early access again. With the exception of Pantheon here, which was VERY hard for me to do, but I believe in Brad and Co. and just REALLY want this game to be a success.
@oneADseven I agree that people would still pay $100 for a game, but its a slipery slope. Windows can cost upwards of 200. Office can cost between 100 and 400! While it's easy to say that these aren't games so you can't compare them, I Believe we can. An OS or Office Suite takes the same kind of development power a AAA title does. And at the end of the day, the real point I really want to make is, that cash shops and paid DLC and season passes and all these other supplamentary revinue paths do not HAVE to lower quality. I really believe that developers and publishers just need more time to really figure out all this new stuff. Because it IS still fairly new.
I would love it if game makers didn't have to make these moves to stay afloat. I wish there was another way without drastically increasing initial sale prices. I don't think there really is, and since that looks to be the truth of the matter, I think we should help the makers find the right way instead of thrashing against a wall.
The cost of making AAA titles doesn't mean a whole lot as they typically have a colossal return rate WITHOUT DLC. Fallout 4 made 750 million in one day, GTA V made 1 billion dollars in 3 days, Black Ops 3 made 550 million, Destiny made 500 million day one, and so on. So the argument that they need DLC to somehow recoup the cost is bogus for all but failed AAA titles. Now add in how incredibly common it is for AAA titles to release with features held back or day one/on disc DLC or are buggy, poorly optimized, or otherwise unfinished/unpolished.
But anyway, you don't need to be a AAA title to make a great game that people will love and make plenty of profit in the process without need of paid DLC.