so at TGS the head of capcom gave a statement that he feels like AAA needs to raise their prices, noting that game prices haven't kept up with development costs, salary increases etc (In fact they haven't even kept up with inflation).
I'm so torn on this, because there are a bunch of intersecting colliding facts that are all true here:
- AAA gamedev is unsustainably expensive
- Buy-once has faded in favour of inserting F2P elements into "premium" games because gambling pays the bills and unit purchases at current prices do not
- AAA has massively consolidated into way fewer games a year and midtier studios died out because betting the farm on every release in terms of volume sales only works if every game is a megahit
So obviously something needs to change there. But also, he then adds... “Just because there’s a recession doesn’t mean you won’t go to the movie theater or go to your favorite artist’s concert. High-quality games will continue to sell,”
But here's the thing. Can AAA actually go back to 90s-tier game pricing, or higher, and survive? The 90s was an economic boom period - the 90s was a period in which game companies had far less price competition. Right now, if you release a $150 AAA game, you're making a really aggressive bet that people won't just play the hundreds of games on game pass or playstation plus or whatever they bought on deep-discount on steam instead. How far can hype get you? I genuinely suspect the outcome of a decision like this would actually be further industry consolidation until we only have a few AAA games releasing a year, because the fact is that people have limited income and a LOT of options, and they WILL buy fewer games if they get really expensive.
This is all to say: IDK. I continue to strongly feel that AAA needs to bring DOWN dev costs, not bring UP prices, if it wants to be sustainable, no matter how much it upsets platform holders and gamers trained on photorealism. Otherwise AAA games are pretty much destined to become even more of a luxury than they already are. Or maybe just go extinct.
And even as we talk about larger upfront sticker prices, there's a number of other factors at work that are making gaming increasingly unaffordable this very minute:
-We're three years into the current console cycle, and hardware prices have not dropped like they used to. In fact, they've gone up: aside from the Nintendo Switch, which has maintained its price, both Xbox and PlayStation raised the prices of their consoles everywhere but North America, but it feels like it's only a matter of time before that also happens here.
-You rarely, if ever, see permanent price decreases for games anymore. Oh, sure, there's sales! Companies like Capcom and Ubisoft have massive sales almost every month. But when's the last time you saw a 1-2 year old game receive the Greatest Hits treatment? A permanent price drop, or markdown from a retailer? They practically don't exist.
-Every single console charges monthly/annual subscription fees for playing online today, and some games simply won't start unless you have that subscription. And the prices are increasing! Microsoft raised theirs by a few dollars, and starting this month, Sony's charging a whopping $80 USD for their most basic online package. $80!!! It's criminal.
At the rate things are going, we'll either see an industry that scales down to work at a more affordable, sustainable pace, or they'll squeeze out most of the audience they have entirely until their studios can't afford to keep running anymore. The worst part? We're almost certain it'll take the latter before they realize that they need the former.
