These publishers are doing more than breaking even though. They're posting record profits and still raising prices. And they aren't raising those prices to recoup investment, to deal with inflation, or make their employees lives better through compensation to offset inflation. It's for the share holders and the ceos. That's it.
They're aware. They're just hoping you aren't. The people crying loudest about being accused of "corporate apologism" in this thread are the ones calling users "greedy" and "entitled."
What new gaming opportunities are appearing in the wake of this new 70 dolllar price point? I'm not really sure what you're going on about with the profit thing lol what area do you think publishers aren't making money from
This.Developer salaries is a completely divorced topic from $70 games. Absolutely nothing to do with each other. Nobody is charging an extra $10 per disc and moving to GaaS models so that their employees can earn a better living or have better work conditions. Not one single goddamn publisher.
Plain and simple, this is rampant capitalism. Games are $70 now not because of inflation, but because CEOs and shareholders want more money. And they're getting it. Stop hoping that people will forget that salaries have stagnated and work conditions have barely improved in the last decade while companies brag about record profits.
"Ah, but maybe it is actually YOU who is the greedy one" is maybe the most insultingly disingenuous argument I've seen in this thread.
Same energy:
Gamepass predates the 70 dollar price tag. Sure costs will increase marginally but with publishers pulling in literally all time record high profits it really doesn't look like AAA publishers would suffer in the slightest with the continued 60 dollar price tag (which they found record setting profits with). Just because big multimillion dollar corporations are compelled to make as much money as humanly possible while spending as little as they can get away with doesn't mean they can't be criticized foe it
In the first paragraph, you mentioned that there are new, cheaper options for gamers looking to play on the cheap, like XGP. XGP offers many games on day one, including "next gen" Series X|S enhanced games, and presumably including Microsoft's own "next-gen" first party output.
Exactly. I love the "but inflation!" argument when the US Dollar inflation has been of 20% between 2010 and 2021, while many companies, Sony and Microsoft included, saw their stock prices more than quintuple over the past decade. Shareholders are already earning way past inflation while the people who actually make the games have stagnant salaries and continue to suffer from job insecurity.
But you haven't cited any numbers or sources that indicates that this is to make up for critical underperforming profits in an area we're just not aware of
So instead of saying repeatedly that it's more nuanced and my understanding is simplistic are you capable of explaining?
Your information cited no sources nor were you able to explain which area of revenue AAA publishers are critically underperforming which would be alleviated by this price hike.
The justification is, people hate micro transactions, and this allows them to make the games they want at the quality they want without them.
Dude are you not the one saying that AAA publishers should raise the prices of their games because they're under performing in terms of profits in some area that we just don't know about. I'm asking for you to elaborate on this point so I can understand what the fuck you're talking about haha
$70 price tag is not going to stop micro transactions lmao. Literally the first game to announce the price hike was NBA 2K which is MTX hell.
Yes, of course XGP isnt made up of only AAA games. But this doesn't directly address the earlier point I was making - surely you aren't suggesting that the "increasing development costs" of these next gen exclusives were all borne by Microsoft somehow? That Phil just threw extra sacks of money at these people to release their next-gen versions on XGP for free instead of giving people the leprous last-gen version?
