stop saying $80 games are anti-consumer
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Date: 2025-05-31
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Comments and reviews: 20
xtieburn
I think this is way more complicated. I mean ignoring the fact that nobody actually asked for games production to get to the absurd sizes that AAA studios are at, and often make it quite explicit that they dont need those budgets given they are buying indie or mid tier games like hot cakes, there is also the fact that the increasing price of games will undoubtedly not stop companies from throwing in a ton of microtransactions and other such mechanics that see marked drop in quality or content to make even more money than the increasing prices indicate.
There is a lot more as well, you cant just look at price, price increased with inflation and go 'Its all fine' if the market has dramatically changed, which it absolutely has. Its increased by literally orders of magnitude, its tools are vastly more sophisticated, etc, etc, which means they can make more sophisticated products for less money and sell it to more people for more profit. You know, when the games industry has surpassed the movie industry in size, why exactly is the expectation for you to spend 80 for a game but like 15 for a movie even when they had comparable production budgets
tl; dr Yes, peoples wages should go up. Doesnt mean AAA games arnt overpriced though.
Edit: I missed a big one and its going to bug me that I didnt mention it: The industry has also reduced job security, increased staff turn over, and little indication theyve done much of anything to improve dire working conditions. So the increased prices are hardly going to maintaining high internal industry standards and actually help solve the problem this video is highlighting. Its all just more profit for the CEOs.
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I think this is way more complicated. I mean ignoring the fact that nobody actually asked for games production to get to the absurd sizes that AAA studios are at, and often make it quite explicit that they dont need those budgets given they are buying indie or mid tier games like hot cakes, there is also the fact that the increasing price of games will undoubtedly not stop companies from throwing in a ton of microtransactions and other such mechanics that see marked drop in quality or content to make even more money than the increasing prices indicate.
There is a lot more as well, you cant just look at price, price increased with inflation and go 'Its all fine' if the market has dramatically changed, which it absolutely has. Its increased by literally orders of magnitude, its tools are vastly more sophisticated, etc, etc, which means they can make more sophisticated products for less money and sell it to more people for more profit. You know, when the games industry has surpassed the movie industry in size, why exactly is the expectation for you to spend 80 for a game but like 15 for a movie even when they had comparable production budgets
tl; dr Yes, peoples wages should go up. Doesnt mean AAA games arnt overpriced though.
Edit: I missed a big one and its going to bug me that I didnt mention it: The industry has also reduced job security, increased staff turn over, and little indication theyve done much of anything to improve dire working conditions. So the increased prices are hardly going to maintaining high internal industry standards and actually help solve the problem this video is highlighting. Its all just more profit for the CEOs.
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Skyking549
While i agree with you that worker wages are a huge part of the problem.
The games industry makes billions on Microtransactions and DLC. They have found ways to scrape every penny in an enconomy where taising their core price upsets its customer base.
Part of the problem stems from peoples belief that games have already gotten more expensive WITHOUT the price hike.
Most games come with a litany of alternative expenses. Even when you openly buy the product for full price first.
The games industry has a serious problem with using gambling mindset to scrape money from the pockets of their players. With that in mind. 80 dollar games would have been fine, if the price for video games hadnt already gone up.
I think Nintendo is one of the few companies i would trust to purchase the game for 80 dollars, (except pokemon. But like woth EVERY PRACTICE in the games industry, when we let 1 company try something all the others will do it immediatly. So EA will raise its Madden price to 80, despite the fact they are over charging their players with microtransactions.
Blizzard will follow suit. And they have a number of exploitative games. In the end this problem is complex and it is disingenuous to say the games industry wont 'Take a Mile' with this inch they are being given.
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While i agree with you that worker wages are a huge part of the problem.
The games industry makes billions on Microtransactions and DLC. They have found ways to scrape every penny in an enconomy where taising their core price upsets its customer base.
Part of the problem stems from peoples belief that games have already gotten more expensive WITHOUT the price hike.
Most games come with a litany of alternative expenses. Even when you openly buy the product for full price first.
The games industry has a serious problem with using gambling mindset to scrape money from the pockets of their players. With that in mind. 80 dollar games would have been fine, if the price for video games hadnt already gone up.
I think Nintendo is one of the few companies i would trust to purchase the game for 80 dollars, (except pokemon. But like woth EVERY PRACTICE in the games industry, when we let 1 company try something all the others will do it immediatly. So EA will raise its Madden price to 80, despite the fact they are over charging their players with microtransactions.
Blizzard will follow suit. And they have a number of exploitative games. In the end this problem is complex and it is disingenuous to say the games industry wont 'Take a Mile' with this inch they are being given.
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michelbro8727
While there are points that can there, i have the feeling that the video is picking up 2 things that are only in some points directly connected and isent really for every place on the world.
While we can say that we need more salary in general to buy the same of games like in the past, this are 2 topics with just some strings that they connect this topics. The rise of costs are a way bigger things, that not only affect games as a hobby.
Beside that, i cant stay the reason games are way more now and bigger. Thats only true to a part and even there not everytime. Games found more ways to collect money. In the past you had 60. - game and maybe later a 20. - Dlc.
Now games target 80. - plus collector editions with this mission is only in this edition Dlc pass with around 30. - ingameshop with potential spending into infinity.
People would be ready to pay more, if we see the big diffrence. The trust is just broken with 80. - games that are unfinished or game as a service. This fact that games are bigger without more facts how games now collect money in diffrent ways is just half the infos.
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While there are points that can there, i have the feeling that the video is picking up 2 things that are only in some points directly connected and isent really for every place on the world.
While we can say that we need more salary in general to buy the same of games like in the past, this are 2 topics with just some strings that they connect this topics. The rise of costs are a way bigger things, that not only affect games as a hobby.
Beside that, i cant stay the reason games are way more now and bigger. Thats only true to a part and even there not everytime. Games found more ways to collect money. In the past you had 60. - game and maybe later a 20. - Dlc.
Now games target 80. - plus collector editions with this mission is only in this edition Dlc pass with around 30. - ingameshop with potential spending into infinity.
People would be ready to pay more, if we see the big diffrence. The trust is just broken with 80. - games that are unfinished or game as a service. This fact that games are bigger without more facts how games now collect money in diffrent ways is just half the infos.
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original_demonic
Okay but I just wanna let you knowthe thing you’re paying $80 for is an empty cartridge that lets you download it to your system. You aren’t paying for a physical copy of the game, but instead a digital copy with a physical key, which is insane because as a result Nintendo can just not let you play that game anymore if they recall it or take it off the Eshop. Anyone playing Switch 2 games in the future after the Eshop has shut down is out of luck unless they homebrew their device (something Nintendo is cracking down on specifically and can deactivate your device permanently for at any time remotely, the device will be unusable.
It’s one thing saying the price tag is anti consumer (personally I think that there should be a slight discount on download copies of games if the physical version is an actual physical version, but this is why people are upset. People want physical copies of games, and will pay more for that copy. But we’re not even allowed the right to have that anymore, and that’s what’s truly the problem now.
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Okay but I just wanna let you knowthe thing you’re paying $80 for is an empty cartridge that lets you download it to your system. You aren’t paying for a physical copy of the game, but instead a digital copy with a physical key, which is insane because as a result Nintendo can just not let you play that game anymore if they recall it or take it off the Eshop. Anyone playing Switch 2 games in the future after the Eshop has shut down is out of luck unless they homebrew their device (something Nintendo is cracking down on specifically and can deactivate your device permanently for at any time remotely, the device will be unusable.
It’s one thing saying the price tag is anti consumer (personally I think that there should be a slight discount on download copies of games if the physical version is an actual physical version, but this is why people are upset. People want physical copies of games, and will pay more for that copy. But we’re not even allowed the right to have that anymore, and that’s what’s truly the problem now.
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polygon
Hello, I usually agree with polygon, and specially Simone, but in this case there are a couple of points for which delivery is not correct, in my opinion, and there are also other factors that are not properly being discussed. 1. Saying stop saying. feels like correcting a term for the sake of language, and hides the fact the that there is protest for increased prices; yes other arguments are made for why the prices are rising, but the way the video is delivered it feels like correcting a spelling error in an Allan Poe poem, again delivery. 2. The question of: are gamers feeling they are getting there money's worth on 70-80. Dollars games I think is the more important question, in the context of video games. Putting aside inflation, wages. And other social parameters. And the question of are getting our money's worth is never address, maybe we don't want 80 usd games because they are not worth it, so stop making expensive games.
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Hello, I usually agree with polygon, and specially Simone, but in this case there are a couple of points for which delivery is not correct, in my opinion, and there are also other factors that are not properly being discussed. 1. Saying stop saying. feels like correcting a term for the sake of language, and hides the fact the that there is protest for increased prices; yes other arguments are made for why the prices are rising, but the way the video is delivered it feels like correcting a spelling error in an Allan Poe poem, again delivery. 2. The question of: are gamers feeling they are getting there money's worth on 70-80. Dollars games I think is the more important question, in the context of video games. Putting aside inflation, wages. And other social parameters. And the question of are getting our money's worth is never address, maybe we don't want 80 usd games because they are not worth it, so stop making expensive games.
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Paroex
I happen to be An Old, so I still have my gaming magazines from the mid 90s, and on the topic of the $60 AAA price point being standardised in 2005: New games were $60 in 1995 as well, so game prices have actually been stagnant and inflation-proof even longer. With some variation, SNES games tended to be $60-70, N64 $60-75, and with PS1 the CD format allowed an upper limit of $60 for most new games due to reduced production costs. That's roughly $120-145 in today's worth. The cumulative inflation during those 30 years was 109 %, and even if we assume that no new games exceeded $60 in 1995 (which they often did) and that all new games from similarly major studios in 2025 were to cost $80 (they don't, that would still only be an increase of 33 %, substantially lower than the overall increase of 109 %.
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I happen to be An Old, so I still have my gaming magazines from the mid 90s, and on the topic of the $60 AAA price point being standardised in 2005: New games were $60 in 1995 as well, so game prices have actually been stagnant and inflation-proof even longer. With some variation, SNES games tended to be $60-70, N64 $60-75, and with PS1 the CD format allowed an upper limit of $60 for most new games due to reduced production costs. That's roughly $120-145 in today's worth. The cumulative inflation during those 30 years was 109 %, and even if we assume that no new games exceeded $60 in 1995 (which they often did) and that all new games from similarly major studios in 2025 were to cost $80 (they don't, that would still only be an increase of 33 %, substantially lower than the overall increase of 109 %.
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Recraptorbeta
I disagree.
All that the companies care about is that the line goes up and that the share holders are happy. This is completely separate from the economy, wages, and even human population. When companies don't sell as many games as they want because there isn't a population big enough that even buys games. They find ways to get more money, and raising prices is the result.
The economy doesn't matter, your wage doesn't matter, the birth rate and console adoption rate doesn't matter. The line must go up. If we had better wages that would have just meant our starting point would have been $120 and now we would be facing the price going up to $200. For the investors portfolio not the consumers product.
That's at least 1 reason why it's anti-consumer.
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I disagree.
All that the companies care about is that the line goes up and that the share holders are happy. This is completely separate from the economy, wages, and even human population. When companies don't sell as many games as they want because there isn't a population big enough that even buys games. They find ways to get more money, and raising prices is the result.
The economy doesn't matter, your wage doesn't matter, the birth rate and console adoption rate doesn't matter. The line must go up. If we had better wages that would have just meant our starting point would have been $120 and now we would be facing the price going up to $200. For the investors portfolio not the consumers product.
That's at least 1 reason why it's anti-consumer.
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helge5565
1. Games did get bigger and more graphically intense, but so did programming tools
2. There are MUCH more people buying and playing games, so the companies definitely earn more than in the past
3. Games has gotten more expensive to make. Yeah, you know why BECAUSE YOU WASTE MONEY ON DUMB ST. I’m not paying that much, just because you spend 5 years on a game that could have been made in 2 years if you didn’t change direction 4 times, or because you spend 50 mil on ineffective marketing
4. Many companies are starting to say that we don’t own games, but instead pay for a license to play for some time. If I pay that much, then at a very least I should own the game
So, either start listening to your consumers, or get ready to have your games pirated
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1. Games did get bigger and more graphically intense, but so did programming tools
2. There are MUCH more people buying and playing games, so the companies definitely earn more than in the past
3. Games has gotten more expensive to make. Yeah, you know why BECAUSE YOU WASTE MONEY ON DUMB ST. I’m not paying that much, just because you spend 5 years on a game that could have been made in 2 years if you didn’t change direction 4 times, or because you spend 50 mil on ineffective marketing
4. Many companies are starting to say that we don’t own games, but instead pay for a license to play for some time. If I pay that much, then at a very least I should own the game
So, either start listening to your consumers, or get ready to have your games pirated
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K0r0k0_17
The cost to make games hasn't inceased that much in the AAA world.
We don't throw as much into R&D as we used to, engines (internal or external) come with a lot of framework to build games so we don't spend that much time working on the engine anymore, we're way better at making games grow to a certain scale, marketing costs less since we do slightly less of it.
And with all this we're not even speaking about the fact that it's only big publishers that are pushing for 80$ games, even though what they're making are games with mostly recycled game designs, mostly known quantity, porting isn't as hard anymore especially when the publisher is the same company that's making the console, there's a lot of institutional knowledge.
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The cost to make games hasn't inceased that much in the AAA world.
We don't throw as much into R&D as we used to, engines (internal or external) come with a lot of framework to build games so we don't spend that much time working on the engine anymore, we're way better at making games grow to a certain scale, marketing costs less since we do slightly less of it.
And with all this we're not even speaking about the fact that it's only big publishers that are pushing for 80$ games, even though what they're making are games with mostly recycled game designs, mostly known quantity, porting isn't as hard anymore especially when the publisher is the same company that's making the console, there's a lot of institutional knowledge.
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polygon
Okay except that IS still anti consumer. I’m not going to begin to mention the fact that most $80 games now have a significant dlc catalogue attached to them as well. But just to be clear, if prices are keeping up with inflation while your wages don’t EN MASSE that’s still anti-consumer pricing. Whether or not it’s anti-consumer comes down to the dynamic between how much the game costs, and how much it took to make it, and the change in the latter cost, whilst it may have increased, had nothing to do with YOUR SALARY, of which they are still purposefully taking a greater share at a greater profit. Simone is not right, she’s just done more homework than the rest of y’all while still managing to be wrong.
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Okay except that IS still anti consumer. I’m not going to begin to mention the fact that most $80 games now have a significant dlc catalogue attached to them as well. But just to be clear, if prices are keeping up with inflation while your wages don’t EN MASSE that’s still anti-consumer pricing. Whether or not it’s anti-consumer comes down to the dynamic between how much the game costs, and how much it took to make it, and the change in the latter cost, whilst it may have increased, had nothing to do with YOUR SALARY, of which they are still purposefully taking a greater share at a greater profit. Simone is not right, she’s just done more homework than the rest of y’all while still managing to be wrong.
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AWildBrozerker
One of the things that really sucks is that the only positions that tend to keep up are federal positions (USPS, government jobs, etc) but even those are on the bottom base line of enough money to keep you afloat. The other problem is you need proper schooling and health to have a good solid job and make money, but we have to pay way to much for both of those things that we shouldn't have to pay for at all. People should be able to stay healthy and educated if they want to. That will also help us better the country, but the rich want to keep us unhealthy and uneducated, so we can't fight back. Good luck out there! Stay strong and stay educated.
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One of the things that really sucks is that the only positions that tend to keep up are federal positions (USPS, government jobs, etc) but even those are on the bottom base line of enough money to keep you afloat. The other problem is you need proper schooling and health to have a good solid job and make money, but we have to pay way to much for both of those things that we shouldn't have to pay for at all. People should be able to stay healthy and educated if they want to. That will also help us better the country, but the rich want to keep us unhealthy and uneducated, so we can't fight back. Good luck out there! Stay strong and stay educated.
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walrusdisease11
Unfun fact when an economy is doing well the price for needed goods go up and prices for wanted goods goes down. Then if the wages don’t go up following production levels. The purchasing power decreases. This is the leading cause of inflation today, that and price hikes because businesses have to sustain constant growth on a limited planet. $80 makes sense but we are also a nation with only 90% lower class population (if you adjust average income from the 80’s to now, I used the consumer price index for the calculations.
Sum up: it is expensive because we got like no money. It’s not expensive in comparison to other inflated prices.
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Unfun fact when an economy is doing well the price for needed goods go up and prices for wanted goods goes down. Then if the wages don’t go up following production levels. The purchasing power decreases. This is the leading cause of inflation today, that and price hikes because businesses have to sustain constant growth on a limited planet. $80 makes sense but we are also a nation with only 90% lower class population (if you adjust average income from the 80’s to now, I used the consumer price index for the calculations.
Sum up: it is expensive because we got like no money. It’s not expensive in comparison to other inflated prices.
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Levitz9
I like this video! The point that we live in an anti-worker economy is a major distinction.
My only issue is that $60 - $80 is only the shell price for a game--games easily cost $100 ALREADY through their DLC, their digital pre-order bonuses, etc. Our wages havent kept up, but even if game prices go up the major studios/developers aren't going to stop slamming us with season passes or Day 1 dlc. But also--an important distinction is that gamers will simply roll over for that because gamers can't really take much of a stance for anything, and both that and the bad economy are hardly Polygon's fault.
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I like this video! The point that we live in an anti-worker economy is a major distinction.
My only issue is that $60 - $80 is only the shell price for a game--games easily cost $100 ALREADY through their DLC, their digital pre-order bonuses, etc. Our wages havent kept up, but even if game prices go up the major studios/developers aren't going to stop slamming us with season passes or Day 1 dlc. But also--an important distinction is that gamers will simply roll over for that because gamers can't really take much of a stance for anything, and both that and the bad economy are hardly Polygon's fault.
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toerroris
The gaming market is based on a discounting structure; you pitch the product at the highest possible price the market can support, and then discount from that level to maximize market cap over time. Companies are getting greedy, and there are fewer products making it to completion, while investors expect higher ROI because of higher interest rates ( meaning they could just buy assets instead of gambling on product development.
Wages remaining stagnant is an argument against increased product costs since the cost to develop the product isn't increasing because of increased staff wages.
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The gaming market is based on a discounting structure; you pitch the product at the highest possible price the market can support, and then discount from that level to maximize market cap over time. Companies are getting greedy, and there are fewer products making it to completion, while investors expect higher ROI because of higher interest rates ( meaning they could just buy assets instead of gambling on product development.
Wages remaining stagnant is an argument against increased product costs since the cost to develop the product isn't increasing because of increased staff wages.
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genericgorilla
lmao what kind of rhetoric is this nintendo is making record profits with games at 60 dollars, there's no reason for this hike except further maximizing profits, which is the same reason why wages have stagnated. you see, you scoundrels are misleading viewers, infllation is not some sort of natural outcome, it's a conscious decision from shareholders to raise prices, it's price gouging what drives more than half of inflation, and it's decisions like these, to raise prices for no reason whatsoever, what drives inflation. screw you, you embarrassing liberals. read a book.
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lmao what kind of rhetoric is this nintendo is making record profits with games at 60 dollars, there's no reason for this hike except further maximizing profits, which is the same reason why wages have stagnated. you see, you scoundrels are misleading viewers, infllation is not some sort of natural outcome, it's a conscious decision from shareholders to raise prices, it's price gouging what drives more than half of inflation, and it's decisions like these, to raise prices for no reason whatsoever, what drives inflation. screw you, you embarrassing liberals. read a book.
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TuxieBSOD
Nah. It's both. Because game companies have these things called a budget. They can match the amount of work they put into a product to what can be achieved within that budget. And some of the games they put in that pricetag for are low graphic fidelity games, like Mario Cart, not some vast open world spectacle. Even if we followed your argument, and we believed the premise and ignored nintendo's previous behavior, having too high a pricetag is still anti-consumer. They need to stay within the means of what a consumer can actually buy and compromise with what is achievable.
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Nah. It's both. Because game companies have these things called a budget. They can match the amount of work they put into a product to what can be achieved within that budget. And some of the games they put in that pricetag for are low graphic fidelity games, like Mario Cart, not some vast open world spectacle. Even if we followed your argument, and we believed the premise and ignored nintendo's previous behavior, having too high a pricetag is still anti-consumer. They need to stay within the means of what a consumer can actually buy and compromise with what is achievable.
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lucas_lipp
Not gonna lie, I saw the title and came here, prepared to disagree, but that's honestly a good point.
But also, I'm still waiting for the point that the gaming industry is starting to focus on making smaller, less graphically intense games. There's no way that they can keep getting away with making development more and more bloated and expensive. Then again, I've been thinking that for years, now, and so far, the only ones suffering from it are the devs, and only very rarely the higher ups
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Not gonna lie, I saw the title and came here, prepared to disagree, but that's honestly a good point.
But also, I'm still waiting for the point that the gaming industry is starting to focus on making smaller, less graphically intense games. There's no way that they can keep getting away with making development more and more bloated and expensive. Then again, I've been thinking that for years, now, and so far, the only ones suffering from it are the devs, and only very rarely the higher ups
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OcarinaOfBurr
I watched the whole video, and she's right up to the bigger better games. so many of them are over inflated, yearly cash grabs or just flat unfinished. We already know we don't get paid enough. but the gaming industry as a whole has spent every year since 2006 shaking us for every 5 dollars they can on unfinished games and virtual garbage. why do they need 80 dollars a game when their going to part out it's content for 10 bucks a month(dlc) until it's no longer profitable and then bury it.
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I watched the whole video, and she's right up to the bigger better games. so many of them are over inflated, yearly cash grabs or just flat unfinished. We already know we don't get paid enough. but the gaming industry as a whole has spent every year since 2006 shaking us for every 5 dollars they can on unfinished games and virtual garbage. why do they need 80 dollars a game when their going to part out it's content for 10 bucks a month(dlc) until it's no longer profitable and then bury it.
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trautsj
Size and complexity DO NOT EQUAL QUALITY tho. Games may have gotten bigger and slightly more complex, but how many are TRULY BETTER Or even meet the lofty goal of GREAT If we are pricing things than the quality is always king. Funnily enough tho that is pretty much the absolute last consideration for game devs when making games. A Kia game publisher will still charge Ferrari prices just because they both happen to make video games and that is just inherently flawed on every level.
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Size and complexity DO NOT EQUAL QUALITY tho. Games may have gotten bigger and slightly more complex, but how many are TRULY BETTER Or even meet the lofty goal of GREAT If we are pricing things than the quality is always king. Funnily enough tho that is pretty much the absolute last consideration for game devs when making games. A Kia game publisher will still charge Ferrari prices just because they both happen to make video games and that is just inherently flawed on every level.
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StrawbsIsAway
it also just sucks that on top of the $80 price tag, you don't actually even own the game anymore. they can just decide not to let you have it anymore and theres nothing you can do about it & they expect us to shell out $80 anyway. I'd be willing to pay that price for the new mario kart because it looks like my dream come true, but if i don't actually OWN the game, then what's the point in buying it its truly exhausting. im going to go back to playing with sticks and rocks.
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it also just sucks that on top of the $80 price tag, you don't actually even own the game anymore. they can just decide not to let you have it anymore and theres nothing you can do about it & they expect us to shell out $80 anyway. I'd be willing to pay that price for the new mario kart because it looks like my dream come true, but if i don't actually OWN the game, then what's the point in buying it its truly exhausting. im going to go back to playing with sticks and rocks.
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