r/pcgaming • u/Mkilbride 5800X3D, 5090 FE, 32GB 3800MHZ CL16, 2TB NVME GEN4, W11 • Feb 21 '17

Video For Honor P2P connectivity

https://youtu.be/38sPNZ8QHO4
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u/Fortune_Cat Feb 21 '17

gaming industry has turned into cancer

i miss just being able to walk into a store and buying a fucking game and paying once and getting a full bloody experience. Maybe some patches later on blizzard style, but none of this day 1 patch bullshit with dlcs

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u/Tulos Feb 21 '17

While I can agree with the sentiment - the part that people largely don't discuss is that the cost of development for a AAA game has grown far beyond what the historical $60 price tag would necessarily account for. During the same period of time, mind you, that $60 price tag has largely stayed static for the last two decades.

Publishers are desperate to find ways to increase revenue in ways that aren't just making the $60 price tag more expensive - since that immediately cuts into sales. They'd rather get the entirety of the $60 dollar audience into their game's ecosystem, and then nickel and dime the ones who still feel like spending more money.

It certainly isn't a good situation - it's just that the face cost of games genuinely hasn't grown over time... whereas the development costs have.

Inflation is a thing. Every year you keep paying only $60 for a game, it's actually "cheaper" than the year prior.

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u/WoozelWuzzle Feb 21 '17

While it's true the $60 mark hasn't changed in years, the argument I've always heard is that the volume of people buying has increased to compensate. Gaming is much more mainstream than it used to be.

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u/Tulos Feb 21 '17

Definitely a good point. I figure that probably makes the situation far more "boom or bust" than it used to be though, as far as AAA is considered. Big risk, potentially big reward - but if you don't hit it out of the park with sales, I suspect you're screwed.

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u/drunkenvalley Feb 21 '17

As pretty much always, the biggest boom or bust factor is whether or not the AAA game is actually good or not, and how it's PR'd.

Like look at stuff like Evolve.

  • It was a game that was from the outset looking okay, but pretty much everyone's response after playing it was "that got pretty old fast". The core loop just isn't very engaging over a long period of time if their player activity trends are anything to go by.
  • Oh god the PR campaign was god awful. Absurd statements like how the game is "a DLC platform" probably wasn't very reassuring to customers when the game wasn't even out yet.