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Games Should Not Cost $60 Anymore - Inflation, Microtransactions, and Publishing - Extra Credits

Extra Credits

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678K views8 years ago2 recommendations

Game developmentCareers and interviewsGame designThe tech industry

Extra Credits explains the economic pressures on AAA game developers that drive the adoption of DLC, microtransactions, and loot boxes.

You would think that paying $60 for a game would be enough, but so many games these days ask for money with DLC, microtransactions, and yes, lootboxes. There's a reason for that. Subscribe for more episodes every Wednesday! bit.ly/SubToEC ___________ Get your Extra Credits gear at the store! bit.ly/ExtraStore Play games with us on Extra Play! bit.ly/WatchEXP Watch more episodes from this season of Extra Credits! youtube.com/watch?v=MzZ2IphdFGw&index=1&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Ab3… Thanks for participating in this week's discussion! We want you to be aware of our community posting guidelines so that we can have high-quality conversations: goo.gl/HkzwQh Contribute community subtitles to Extra Credits: youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?c=UCCODtTcd5M1JavPCOr_Uydg&ta… Talk to us on Twitter (@ExtraCreditz): bit.ly/ECTweet Follow us on Facebook: bit.ly/ECFBPage Get our list of recommended games on Steam: bit.ly/ECCurator ___________ Would you like James to speak at your school or organization? For info, contact us at: contact@extra-credits.net ___________ ♪ Intro Music: "Penguin Cap" by CarboHydroM bit.ly/1eIHTDS ♪ Outro Music: “The Observer ~Theme of Time Mage~” by halc ocremix.org/album/73/final-fantasy-v-the-fabled-warriors-ii-…

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as a clear explanation of the economics behind modern video game pricing and the rise of microtransactions.

autarchon Hacker News • Recommends

On “The User Experience of Lootboxes”

Extra Credits did a good video on AAA game pricing recently ( link to this video ) that talks about why developers are going down the lootbox and microtransaction roads. Their argument is basically that AAA games are just way too cheap. The price has been at $60 for a long time, and even though the market has expanded since then, it's still not enough to cover the development costs, which have skyrocketed. Finding other revenue streams has become a necessity. The alternative would be $80 or $100 AAA games.
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Leftiumon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Video Game Pricing [video]”

Related: link to this video This 6 min video explains from game dev perspective why (AAA) games have been pegged at $60 on release, even though they should be priced higher to be sustainable ($85-$90 in 2018). So game developers tried various ideas to make up for this gap: DLC, perpetual experiences (map packs & expansions), loot boxes, microtransactions...
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PhasmaFelison Hacker News • Mentions

On “Loot boxes are obviously gambling”

This sort of thing is going to keep happening, and not just because game publishers are greedy bastards. These days, it's very, very difficult to make a profit on a AAA game at only $60 a pop, but if anyone tries to raise that price the fans will cry bloody murder. So publishers are desperately trying to find ways to make up the difference. Cosmetic sales, DLC packs, loot boxes, anything. Making loot boxes illegal doesn't fix the problem; it just pushes it somewhere else. Source, among others: link to this video
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Leftiumon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Video Game Pricing [video]”

There's a bit of handwaving and the the video admits $90 is just a gut estimate. However, I think they did try to account for things like that: they started with an estimate games should cost $225-$300 before accounting for larger audience size. Larger market size and efficiencies like reusable game engines are balanced by increased productions costs. The first versions of Final Fantasy just had text captions in 2D. Now they are in full 3D with fully acted voice actors. Starts here: link to this video
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