Games Should Not Cost $60 Anymore (The Jimquisition)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.ย. 2024
- / jimquisition
www.thejimquisi...
sharkrobot.com/...
There is a constant problem plaguing the game industry, if its spokespeople are to be believed. Games cost $60, and that price doesn't work anymore!
Weirdly enough, The Jimquisition agrees with this assessment. "AAA" games should indeed not cost $60 anymore, and they most certainly have outgrown it.
Loot Box Spiderhead in thumbnail by the talented Jude White!
You can still have physical copies of Free to Play games, just charge something for them ($20, $30 or whatever) and include that amount worth of fake-in-game gems, loot boxes or whatever that game has inside. It's happened before.
Poki#3 that is what games like Heroes of the Storm, DOTA, and LoL did with a “character starter pack” after all
that's a good idea.
Justin said the same thing to me earlier today. Yeah, it's a nice tidy solution.
They could do a promotion with GameStop. Hell, you could sell a disk for a season pass or a collector's edition.
I have one like that for League of Legends, i think it even came with some skin that would be worth hundreds of euros now if i hadn't activated it. ._.
"Single Player is dead. We know it, because we stopped releasing single player games and now single player sales are tiny."
"and we killed studios who would have released single player games. "
Didn't Breath of the Wild outsell Battlefront II?
I´m glad Horizon, Zelda, Witcher, RE7 etc. are selling well. Well enough to prove the AAA CEOs wrong.
Problem, reaction, solution. Not everything Alex Jones says is wrong, afterall a broken clock is twice right per day. Almost like these so called companies.
Shadow of War and Shadow of Mordor were good games.
Ah... My daily "triiiiiiple ayyyyy" fix.
It's weekly, right?
Not if you rewatch!
You don't get it, guys, I need my increased dosage.
My favorite battle review channel watches the Jimquisition? Coincimazing.
Well, we are all gamers, and I think that Jim is on the forefront of the battle for the consumer rights in gaming. :-)
Single player is dead? Nintendo is laughing all the way to the bank.
nice to see you here cap.
Sup captain sauce
Nintendo games have 0 appeal to me, but there are a lot of single player games on ps4 and pc coming which is nice.
CaptainSauce Good thing Nintendo established a cult on top of their brand. They can release shit games like Breath of the Wild and people will still eat it up.
Even with Nintendo's success, I doubt the profits from their games matches what some of these more "service" oriented games generate with MTX. I mean GTA 5 Online made 500 million last year alone on MTX off a 5 year old game. Mario Odyssey on the other hand (assuming $60 a pop) made 384 million. Not saying Mario wasn't profitable but executives, especially US executives look at that and see it as insufficient.
''Let your Bethedas continue crafting quality story driven content (with no microtransactions)''
And then Fallout 76 happened.
Yeah, listening to this almost a year and a half on from this vid, and... Damn, that happened fast. We all thought Bethesda was still decent- if bad at programming, buggy games were their staple- a year and a half ago.
exactly what I was thinking!
Same for Wolfenstein
@@TOSkwar22 Bethesda has a decent track record publishing single player games from third parties. There's no denying Youngblood sets a pretty bad precedent, but for the time being they still seem to be commited to putting at least SOME decent single player experiences out there.
Don't forget the entire reason skyrim was re released with the special edition was to avoid the PR disaster of adding the creation club microtransaction store to the original skyrim from 2011, so instead they made a quick remaster even giving it for free to those who owned the game so that they would move to the game with microtransactions
Americans - "60$ price is fine, never changed!"
Rest of the World -"why are all games 80$"
Australia - "Maybe I can sell my house to play Monster Hunter"
Da fu
Martin Léger I see what you are doing there.
Yeah, Dynasty Warriors 9 on the PSN store here in Australia, $130 for the 'deluxe' version, thats just cruel and unusual punishment.
Years ago, back in the days before digital, the justification was that we're so far away that it costs more to ship stuff over, hence the higher price. Theres no justification for digital downloads to cost more though, its not like its more expensive to ship bytes over to Australia
60-70 euros for a game in Buglaria... that's 1/3 or 1/4 of an average monthly wage.
Too fucking accurate, mate.
The best games of 2017, we're almost all primarily single player. Hell, the only reason anyone even gives GTAV a pass is because of its fantastic campaign. Single player won't die, there's too many of us without friends
It Was I, ZA WARUDO! I have friends but I would trade them all for half life 3.
and 2018 is continuing this trend.
+Gentlemen Z
Do it. Feed me.
It Was I, ZA WARUDO! If you've been gaming earlier than 2012 (especially around the 90's-2000's) ...
You'd know how shallow, manipulative and casual most games have become as far as AAA goes
Like Jim said it will only die for the EA/Activision's etc. Other big companies are still comfortable with making single player only games. Hell Bethesda keeps raking it in because mods keep their games viable for YEARS.
Honestly, at this point, if this tread keeps going I just won't buy newer games. If the future is pay-to-win, multiplayer only, microtransaction filled games, then I think I'll pass.
nintendo says nay. if nintendo still lives on with shigeru's philosophy, it wont ever be that way. then there is the indie market.
Praise NINTENDO
SEASON pass? Okay, sure!
There will be newer games, it's not the future, only the future of AAA. Just buy new indie games
I think that, after some years, a bubble will burst. That history will repeat itself from the early 80s.
Translation from the publishers: "We're not just doing it for money...We're doing it for a shitload of money!"
When you're right; you're right!
And you; you're always right!
DCdabest Dangit, you beat me to it!
I'm a mog! Half man half dog. I'm my own best friend.
StripesandPipes
"What's your name?"
"Barf!"
"Not in here, mister! This is a Mercedes!"
Just need to emphasize "do you honestly think raising the price will eliminate micro transactions?"
StinklesAFI it wont
Getting paid when people purchase your game is the cocaine of game development/publishing.
Getting paid constantly by whales from MTXs in your pay-to-play OR free-to-play game is the crack, heroin, and crystal meth all rolled up into one of game development/publishing.
It's no wonder those addicts will never get off the sauce, they're hooked now.
Pft. micro transactions are the most profitable tit on this cash cow. Unless the users stop playing, since you don't buy f2p, developers and publishers won't change a thing.
@@Hr1s7i This is why I urge everyone I know (and more) to stop paying *any* microtransactions in games. I don't know if it's ever going to be enough, but I'm trying and others should too :)
Johnny Eyeball you’re actually right about how the dlc, micro transactions, and loot boxes only exist because of greediness of the publisher, and not because they’re being underpaid.
I love how much fun Jim is having with Sterdust. It makes me so happy.
is there a way to watch this live? seems like there should be a twitch stream or something set up... Love it
Me too...that beautiful disaster is having a blast and I love it.
I'd be happier if his spandex was power mesh and fit better. Currently he looks like he's wearing a shiny footy pyjamas.
Sterdust, my fav deviantart OC
Fern you can just say you want to see it riding into the crack of his ass.. nobody is going to judge you bro
Extra Credits presented their thoughts with an idealistic view, Jim Sterling presented his thoughts with a realistic view.
So Extra Credits gets Reshiram and Jim Sterling gets Zekrom?
Yep
That's why I just wait for games to be cheap tbh
I could not agree more. If AAA games want to act like freemium or f2p games, they should be required to be free too.
I hate the idea of pricing poorer people out of the hobby. The barrier to entry is already high enough, and marking up the premium is just going to shrink the audience. The stone-faced avarice, of assuming that the industry can survive on "whales" alone, really is emblematic of how AAA publishers approach the medium, and just how little a shit they give about creators and customers alike.
I agree. I cannot afford a 60 dollar game. Let alone a season pass. And when I can afford 60 dollars it's usually just that, the 60 dollar game. Then you recognize the game is a shell of itself. My money matters because I don't make enough money. 60 is a lot for someone like me.
Something you have forgotten is hobbies are P2P by definition. Can you go skeeing without getting gear? without paying for tickets to GET you there?
Meanwhile, they charge way too much for a lacking gameplay experience. I agree that it's not right, but your argument is off point.
Well typically once you buy the clothing and skis to go skiing you don't need to go buy the screws to go put the skis together before you fork over the money for the ability to use them. Also, the screws have been upped by five bucks since you last saw them, and the skis are already expensive enough without said screws. And so many people are buying the skis and screws that it's almost pointless to make anyone buy the screws because the skis are more expensive by default.
I will agree with Jene, 60 dollars is a lot depending on your situation. Though typically, I purchase games physically simply because it's cheaper. Same thing, much cheaper price, though if you don't have any space to store the games, which will be needed if you just keep getting games and not returning them like myself because GameStop is GameStop, it could be an issue (If anyone cares, I just have them all on a shelf. It looks pretty cool too).
Steam is probably the only viable digital store, mostly because it's almost the only option for it's platform and if they didn't do such great customer service and provide massive sales all the time they'd be down the gutter.
Some games are also just expensive digitally for seemingly no reason. A good example for this is GTA 5, which somehow has managed to maintain it's $60 price tag for 5 fucking years digitally. The prices drop for digital purchases at around the 3 - 4 month mark, and that game basically forces micro-transactions if you don't like grinding, or have friends.
You buy your 5 year old skis at the brand new price, but they come with screws for free. However, you have to pay twice as much for your ticket each time you get a new bundle of screws.
GTA5 is because T2 are shit. They already said that the MT in GTA5 is just the beggining. Besides, the 60$ price is for the base singleplayer experience. Which they still force you to buy, despite the fact that ~70% of the people who buy it nowdays only do it for GTAonline.
Exactly. Now turn that into a pair of skis.
Much like U.S. colleges where the vast majority of tuition is spent not on educational purposes, but advertisement and marketing....The vast majority of modern video games "development" budget is actually spent on marketing and advertisement as well.
Yep, so many overly inflated marketing budgets out there.
I love how you used the colleges in the US as an example, a thing many people dont even realize :P
Don't forget the massive salaries for the admin, much like the CEO's of these companies. The chancellor of my university was pulling in over $400,000 a year as well as a $100,000 housing allowance. And last year she was forced to step down as chancellor because of corruption and fund misappropriation.
When a movie takes $300 million to make and they charge less than $30 for a ticket, and the same or less for the DVD or digital download, video games that cost less than that don't have any justification for being priced that high.
Because movie's you pay 30$ to see it one time for 3h max, a game have 10+ hour of shit also, channels pay to pass movie's on TV, you pay to rent it, and is more consumable than a game
There is no beta testing for bugs and glitches in a movie. You dont need programmers to write code.
Well movies don't have 20+ hours of content lol
@@alexradice8163 Most games that are $60 don't either.
@@KaiserMattTygore927 actually They really do. Buy better games lol
Here's a crazy thought: If these AAA game developers say loot boxes and micro-transactions aren't necessary to progress or players aren't forced to pay for them... why include them in the first place?
Oh yeah, because green is the color of the season.
This ^
Beacuse Kids Need To Be Savagly Raked Over The Coals To Learn A Valuable Life Lesson! Capitolism Is The God That I Pray Too... Consume & Obey!
Another idiot blaming Capitalism
Ea, Activision, 2K, Bethesda, Ubisoft: Hello I like money!
@@aceclover758 As Jim notes in this video, what makes you think they'll do you right?
Capitalism only values money, and NOTHING ELSE. Not happiness, not humans, not quality or long term survival.
Nothing else matters.
And when money is all that matters, money is all that will remain.
Prove me wrong.
Maybe this games economy problem would be fixed if we started changing currency from dollars to Steeeerrrrr-dust.
I think big gaming CEOs have been snorting enough of that stuff since the 80s to fund a whole new gaming indu- Oh, STERdust. Never mind.
Pound sterling, surely lol
POUNDING IT
Or stercoin
in befor sterrrr-coin
INVEST NAU!!
Where I live, you have to pay $74 for Battlefront 2 through Origin...or $108 for the basic hardcover version.
I'd sooner start a bonfire with my cash rather than spend it on that and the subsequent micro-transactions.
People say that games are more expensive in different places around the world and whatnot but there are special editions of video games in the US that are $150+ that people buy voluntarily, only to brag about being able to afford these types of games, and to feel (and gain whatever advantages that will make them) better than other people.
I literally spent $160 on a fucking game. It was a Christmas sale, so the actual price would've been $280. I didn't even get all the DOCs available at that time. I'm so pissed off about what they gave me.
I feel you man, even though to be honest, I quit buying special editions, pre-orders, limited edition, etc. for different reasons.
decided to give this another watch, and man... the bethesda comment didn’t age well
Yes, how the times change, my friend
I was just thinking that.
Didn't age well? It was never a good comment to begin with. Bethesda invented microtransactions in the video game industry lol.
TheGrayGhost
I think EA did it first with their sports games
@@hyperion3145 I don't think so. I believe it was Betheada selling horse armor in Oblivion.
I realized recently how much the tech industry has skewed my view of companies and everyday business. The purpose of a corporation isn't just to get money, it's supposed to earn money by providing a product or service. If I go down to any of my local stores, they're all doing just that; bakers don't sell me an empty fucking pie as a 'platform' for fillings as microtransactions.
Volkswagen's deceptive actions shocked the rest of the world but lying about what your products can do and evading regulation is just a normal week in tech and video games. Maybe VW should have made a 'vertical slice' of an engine to be checked and reviewed instead.
Someone whose sole purpose is to gain profit by any means, for as little work as possible, is usually a bank robber or a heroin dealer; capitalism is meant to be trade for profit, but the tech industry is mostly just interested in being a blood-sucking parasite.
" lying about what your products can do and evading regulation" it's a normal week in every industry, don't kid yourself. Everybody who earns money does so in a company that is probably involved in something shady even if it's just a "tax efficient structure".
yes but in no other industry, that i have seen have the companies went out of their way to fuck the consumer.
Never had an insurance then? :P
I am from Europe we dont have that kinda shit here.
Yeah, but we have car insurance and various Property insurances.
*When Jim Sterling uploads*
Delicious. Finally some fucking good content.
God I fucking love you
That's funny! I have all these channels I am subbed to. I feel the exact same way you do.
So every monday on the same hour? This man is a fucking machine.
There's a starman waiting in the sky You're a legend by now.
There's a starman waiting in the sky
Thank god for Speedwagon
"You gotta admit, it's a bloody big Mysterio." Indeed, it's close to the same size as Rey Mysterio.
$60? Up here in canada they cost $80. I know that's USD conversion, but my paychecks didn't increase when the dollar went down, games just got more expensive
But maybe it's not because as compared to Canadian monthly salary man 80-60 dollars is not expensive i think..
60 dollars in 2018 on conversion to indian rupees was 3600 Indian rupees now in 2020 the same 60 dollars in conversion costs 4500 indian rupees which is almost a 1000 rs increase in 2 years
And let me tell you
1000rs is my grocery tab and fuel expenses for a week
@@R73949 I wish I lived in the Canada you have in your head, but 80 bucks has always been hefty. That's a week's worth of food.
@@victorsmith509 then wait for sale man, price will go down less then 40 bucks, more like 60 to 80% off..
Wanna hear a joke?
EA still charges for online pass for Dead Space 2.
TheSzakalski they sure do. I was going to buy 2 and 3 when I found that out.
That's not true at all, if you go to the store, it's free, I got the game around a year ago and it was free on the Xbox
I think the bigger joke is that dead space 2 had an online mode. how many people would've played that shit even at launch?
Call of Duty World at War still charges for maps, including like $24.99 for one of the packs
Sounds like some very typical “TrIpLE AaAaAaAaAaAa” behaviour.
I've lost interest in almost all AAA games. I have had so much more fun with small team indie games. They have their flaws, but you can at least appreciate the game for what it is.
chummer2060 I'd probably ask my parents fir more games if they didn't cost $80.
chummer2060 very much this. Honestly I have been ignoring AAA games for two years now, instead I Hunt fresh and Creative Indie games. I give aaa titles the same treatment as I give to mobile crap lol, just ignore its existence. If there is more people like me then a crash is on its way
I used to have issues with small indie games in the past being really shitty but these days they are getting it super right dood.
The best thing about Indie games is if you post a comment about their game, you do get a chance to speak with them directly. When's the last time a game dev from any AAA game ever personally stated thank you for buying their game?
chummer2060 some triple a shit is still genuinely good. Just last year we had the likes of Zelda, Mario, nioh, nier, persona, yakuza, and more.
If the cost of making a game is that much of a problem now, then big name developers and publishers should try to take a step back from games that need a ridiculous budget.
Or don't blow half of your budget on marketing. That could work too.
ChaosLord121 they act like their making movie block busters. They dont know how to budget or advertise their games im looking at dead space which had movies, comics and unesscary side games
You are going to have to cross off Bethesda from the list of AAA game studios that haven't gone to the dark side of greed & laziness. RIP Bethesda.
Skyrim 6 still has potential.
@@hairyerse7576 starfield too
@@fsatak yeah.
Those 12 years better be worth it
So the Oblivion horse Armor didn't exist? Pretty sure Bethesda fans just conveniently forgot 99% of the bad things done. You just have to google to find the greed and laziness.
props for calling out BLIZZARD everytime it fits
They are no better than EA or Ubisoft nowadays but most of the people still perceive them as some jesus game dev company not eligible for any criticism
Charles Ward I love Overwatch and I got all I needed through grinding, I’ve never bought a loot box fuck that.
Wait, when was Blizzard ever benevolent? They were one of the major causes of the Video Game Addiction backlash because they used the Skinner Box method of player retention.
R.J. Poroner true that my dude
yeah, with diablo 2 i started to become a blizzard fanboy, i mean that game was pretty much the game of my childhood (along with super mario and some others, of course). but then with diablo 3 and the always-online-bullshit i already became a bit suspicious. and then they brought overwatch where you pretty much pay 60 € to play an f2p game. that's what made me go "nope, they're just as bad as everyone else, fuck that, i'm out"
Blizzard and Valve made some of the greatest games of the 90s and early 00s, so people are willing to give them a bit more slack for their more recent bullshit due to that vault of good will that was built up over time...
EA and Ubisoft never built up as much good will as Blizzard and Valve with the PC gamers in general, so... that's why they get more guff.
+Luzilyo Stormchild yeah, Diablo 2 was an epic one, but I'd already spent sooo much time on Diablo 1, Warcraft 2, and Starcraft 1 by the time Diablo 2 ever came out. Those 4 games are the main ones I've played of Blizzard's. I have played Warcraft 3 (but not as much), WOW (just a trial), and SC2 (now that it's free to play, I wasn't going to spend 50-60 bucks three times to get the whole SP campaign when it was coming out).
My god. I'm Canadian. If in the US they increase a game's price to $70 or 80 USD, games in Canada will skyrocket to like $120-150+. Games will end up costing a half or third of a console. A sad, sad dystopia.
Yeah, that's my worry, too.
It's hard playing games anywhere outside the US.
BAI GAMING That has always been the case, the console is the razor handle and the games are the blades. A few consoles are sold at break even / small profit but usually it's been at a loss to push marketshare.
I know how you feel brother -_-! Its a sad future the way things are going.
Wait for game sales or buy them used. You'll save A LOT of money
BAI GAMING Yeah, import taxes would ruin most of the market.
I always think back to when you could just buy a game no special editions or micro transactions shoved down your throat I miss that era of gaming
I just switched to nintendo after dead space 3 was wrecked by microtransactions and I haven't dealt with any of that crap since.
Well there were "special editions" back then, but those actually HAD quality bonus content instead of DLC content that was stripped from the base game.
You do know Nintendo does have DLC now?
So we're back to arcades milking pennies from your pocket.
jrcbroolz yeah maybe a little bit, but nowhere near as bad as other companies. BotW seems to be the only big Switch game with paid dlc, while games like splatoon2 and xenoblade chronicles 2 regularly roll out new free content. Nobody could argue that Zelda BotW was an incomplete game without its dlc. Smash bros had a good amount, but it was new and good content that people wanted.
As someone who has briefly dabbled in the industry, have multiple friends who work in said industry, and am an avid purchaser of games myself I will say this.
You are absolutely on point. Games should be less than 60 bucks. Preferably 20-30 bucks.
The reason being is that at their current price point, there have been people actively turned away from buying games. Hell the whole reason why Preorder culture is a thing is because most people actually wait half a year to get the game at a more "reasonable" price when it inevitably goes on sale (which given platforms like Steam, happens far more consistently and predictably than before). If the initial cost is just 20-30 bucks, sales wouldn't be needed. Preorder culture wouldn't be needed. They'd be making half as much money from each individual person on release day (remember, most people actually wait for the price to drop), but would be getting MUCH more people on release day and throughout the lifetime of the game.
There is also a tertiary benefit this brings to games today (but not in the past): More players. As the gaming industry now has a ton of multiplayer-focused games, the lack of a proper population is a death blow to any game. Conversely, much more people on launch day actually keeps the community up, and results in exponential sales via just word of mouth later on. Just look at Battleborn VS Overwatch.
The entire problem is due to the beancounters having absolutely no foresight and demand instant gratification now for the shareholders. What they don't see is that they stand to make exponentially more money, get good will, and essentially free publicity by just taking a hit to the profit on release day. And it's not like a devastating hit either; the majority of successful games make their money back long after the fact, while games that have better opening days often die not long after said opening day (of course outliers exist, but outliers exist in everything or we wouldn't have people who likes watching squirrels in lingerie play a keyboard).
Also I have brought this up with people. And the cold feet they get because them being afraid it will look bad is sobering to see. And I have proof that this works; GamesWorkshop originally tried to gouge the playerbase by writing borderline-broken rules for the flavour of the month, only to invalidate it with the next update and always shilling the biggest most expensive models, and ended up hemmoraging money for a good 5 years. The moment they got a new CEO, started listening to the fanbase, and made an effort to balance their game? Sold out so hard that not only did their warehouse run dry, but manufacturers couldn't even keep up with things being literally made to order.
Gee, it's almost like you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you.
If only companies weren't so stupid and greedy they were incapable of realising this...
The fans' happiness is YOUR happiness.
I think 20 dollars is a little low for the actual effort needed to make games, maybe 32-40 bucks is a little reasonable.
@@pokemonmanyou4239
No it's not. People make PC games and mods for free. Which takes no less effort. And these companies are getting their money back and then more still. So 20$ is more than enough.
@@Gyvulys you forget distribution costs and other stuff like taxes etc.
@@pokemonmanyou4239
Distribution costs are negligible when most games today are sold as digital copies (instead of physical CDs) and most AAA companies have their own distribution servers (instead of using Steam or similar).
I love how developers and publishers state that these predatory tactics to steal money from us is due to how games have become so expensive to develop (mostly due to graphical increments that no one really asks), to maintain (due to "services" and mandatory online connectivity that no one really asks) and to distribute (despite online platforms like Steam making it so that you dont waste money making millions of disks, they still have the need to make overpriced, underdelivering "collector's editions").
All the while putting lootboxes in any game they can get away with, making exhorbitantly overpriced DLC that more often than not is ripped out of the game itself and delivering games that not only graphically underperform (according to the expectations that the publishers/developers themselves set) but are also more often than not, lacking promised features (SOON tm) but in general being buggy, unbalanced pieces of crap.
So yeah, I only buy games that DESERVE my fucking money, even if I literally don't play it after buying (because i've already played it through "other" means). If I play your videogame and I see a blatant attempt to rip me off, then not only will I not buy it but also tell everyone I can to stay the fuck away from that game.
They blame us for setting unrealistic expectations on games (you know, absurd graphics, always open world, etc).
Despite nowadays pretty much all games being distributed online, which cuts pretty much all distribution costs, game prices didn't move a fucking inch.
acheron16 it's hard for me to say "due to graphical advancements nobody is asking for" when the whole Marvel Infinite vs Dragon Ball FighterZ thing happened.
You can bet publishers are noticing what happens when one game is visually amazing and one isnt.
No one is saying that games can't look good. But when you explicitly call attention to that and then under-deliver (most Ubisoft games), then they have nothing to blame but themselves.
I dont play Stardew Valley and go "man, sure wish this game had super realistic graphics."
I've been a hardcore gamer for a better part of the last 20 years. The way they make games now has turned me off from buying new games anymore. For the last 2 years or more, I've been having a blast with older games in my steam library. No need to take part in this absurd gaming market that allows children to gamble and waste money on a FAKE item that has no real world value, will be outdated (useless) in a month, and permanently removed when servers shut down.
Fucking A.
I've bought almost nothing gaming wise recently aside from some deeply discounted stuff on gog.com, and physical copies of some stuff I'll get around to at some point on the Switch. This current time period of absolute shit mainstream and/or AAA games has finally given me time to go back and finish games like the insanely lengthy games in the Persona series (blame P5 for finally getting me fully into the series; I'm amazed an RPG that good came out less than a year ago given the current gaming climate) that I didn't have time for back in the day because, you know, games actually competed and didn't have microtransations and lootboxes and constant updates and DLC and season passes and blargh.
And it actually made me ashamed that I DIDN'T finish Persona 3 like 12 years ago when it came out, that was a damn fine game, maybe one of the best I've ever played. Better than the garbage most companies make today.
Yeah I don't get this defeat-ism some people crying that this is only to show that capitalism itself is dying! While I'm sitting here, buying most AAA games only when they are on heavy discount or not at all.
The gaming world is really really easy if you are just able to a) wait a year or two b) don't need to play anything just because it's flashy and c) if you don't involve yourself in fanboy-sim which might cloud your judgement.
There are a tonne of good, cheap non-AAA games out there, there are countless heavily discounted games all over the year and last but not least, there is an insane amount of games from the past that cost fuck all and are still great today.
Gaming today is pretty darn awesome if you have some self control.
"while i'm sitting here, buying most AAA games only when they are on heavy discount"
Meaningless argument, invalidated by the fact that whether or not you get those a new AAA game for a discounted price, it's still typically filled with lootboxes or MT's, or at the very least- shit tons of content cut out of it that you have to buy back in the form of DLC's which effectively make your discount savings meaningless ;D
"the gaming world is really really easy if you are just able to" "a) wait a year or two"
since it's already been pointed out that most new AAA games are being designed solely around multiplayer and "live-services", you ironically risk losing out on the launch value of any multiplayer online AAA game when it's new and most people are playing it, not when it's already passed 1 or 2 years and has a vastly reduced population.
"b) don't need to play anything just because it's flashy"
Vague description.
"c) if you don't involve yourself in fanboyism"
Fanboyism isn't relevant to discussions specifically talking about business practices and the economics of an industry. Fanboyism is specifically a reference to a person's extremely emotional affinity for something.
"There are a ton of good, cheap non-AAA games out there"
since "good" is subjective and based on opinion, and "cheap" usually is an immediate indication of poor quality in most cases (as can be observed through how a game library like steam has an ocean of trash, with a few gems)
"gaming today is pretty darn awesome" Nope, ironically none of your talking points had anything in them in regards to how to remove mediocre pathetic monetization models that destroy the quality of gaming today, so, to the contrary, "gaming today is pretty darn awesome" actually can more relevantly refer to people refusing to buy these mediocre new games, and just playing OLD games which aren't infected by corporate greed cancer.
"if you have some self control"
irrelevant talking point, whether or not a person has "self control" or not, does not change whether or not there are or are not loot boxes/microtransactions in a game, actively reducing the quality of the product if you refuse to shell out extra cash for something you already paid for.
fuckin-A that, too. I won't buy triple A games. Last game I bought was Sexy Brutale... not a long game but i thoroughly enjoyed it. A great game with lovely grfx that remind me of some early Bioware games but more cartoon-like grfx with a very deep and dark mystery that eventually opens up the story.
I play the old games from 2000s and 1990s. Currently playing 'Jagged Alliance 2' and loving it. Still have Mass Effect 2 and 3 to play as well as a shitload more stuff to complete like GTAV SP and playing Bioshock 1 and Infinite+DLC again cos i loved those games and I still play games that are heavily 'modded' like Medieval 2: Total War and Hearts of Iron 3 and 4.
I was gonna buy Mafia 3 but it looks so buggy I think I'll finish Mafia 2 and a bunch of other games I never got round to playing. Witcher 3 is worth buying when I get round to it... but as the game industry has been so greedy and acting like it's a wild west bandit ripping off customers without a care in the world? I won't be buying any games. I didn't even bother with Deus EX and I usually love cyberpunk and my PC can easily run it smoothly [I wish I hadn't bothered spending so much on a fast cpu/grfx card/SSDs and fast ram now... I just don't need a GTX1080. Completely unnecessary for my needs ].
Indies my dude.
Yup. Big companies don't want to compete. They hate competition. They'll kill off their competition by any means they can manage.
What they want is not competition. They want domination.
...And that wrestling clip was amazing, BTW. XD
If capitalism is about competition (among other things, amassing wealth), and companies strive for snuffing it out, then true capitalism doesn't look different from an utopia, sort of like the communist one.
No, if they cared about snuffing out competition then companies would lower their prices for AAA games. Snuffing out competition isn't their priority, instead it's to keep a peaceful coexistence in which they all keep their prices high so that they can all make as much money as possible. It's basically a trust, but it's less noticeable because rather than making an agreement to collectively raise their prices in the typical fashion of trusts, they already had a high price tag that they all just individually decided not to lower. No explicit agreements were made, but it's an implied trust of sorts, and it makes the gaming market the fucking mess it is today.
"collectively raise their prices" thats forbidden in many countries.
Broken Games I explicitly said that that's NOT what they're doing. That's what allows it to fly under the radar. They've simply failed to adjust their prices to a changing market, which ultimately gives the same effect, but is much less noticeable
you cry a river .. yet still lay their games... you are the problem
Man, classic episodes like this are almost cathartic to watch. Something about Jim tearing these problems to shreds while still being funny and making good points is very satisfying
I've stopped buying paid DLC platforms masquerading as games. If the paid DLC is more than the supposed base game then the sham is up and you're essentially paying an entry fee. That is completely inexcusable.
I now always wait at least a month or two after release before buying any game. And I never pre-order. Well, except for CD Projekt Red games... I'll probably pre-order Cyberpunk. And I am looking forward to Monster Hunter World for PC... REALLY hoping they don't fuck that up with a bunch of microtransactions.
I DID get suckered into buying Destiny 2 early. I jumped on the bandwagon JUST BEFORE it turned to shit. It was a learning experience. I now think of Destiny 2 whenever I'm tempted to pre-order, and that immediately corrects me. It's like the video game equivalent of an old nun, or baseball.
Well. Then you miss on the best dlc on the market.
Borderlands 2 and witcher 3 comes to mind first.
Then destiny 1 but they shipped the whole game with only 3rd dlc so they don't count.
Graham Barth I preordered only one game.
It was overwatch. As a tf2 fan that played on all betas non stop I was really pleased with the game so as my friends.
sdobitoo Witcher 3 costs $40. Hearts of Stone and Blood & Wine cost $24 TOGETHER. Despite the amount of content the xpacs add, they still charge less for them than the base game. He's not missing out. That's why CD's the best.
Borderlands 2 DLC is $100 worth of skins and about $50 worth of content... of debatable quality. Though to their (marginal) credit they do let you buy the GOTY edition for $50 that foregoes all the stupid and worthless DLC.
Graham Barth well I just wanna say just not be too sure about anything.
The extremism ( the extent we go to defend our believes and the extremes these believes go) is bane of modern society.
Don't say its only cause there is lots of dlc = bad game. Its better to judge in case by case basis. Yes its a warning sign. But its like you are automatically a bad person if you are rich. No, world doesn't work like that. We have gray areas.
It's basically already been happening in a form people don't mention.
When companies stopped adding proper instruction booklets for their games, did the price go down? nope. I think it was Ubisoft that included a little sheet saying how they were being so lovely by saving tree's etc when the real reason was how they don't have to spend on making a proper booklet anymore and not pass those savings onto the consumer.
DLC? before it was a way to add little freebies for customers, an extra free level or vehicle for a race game. Other games did a small purchase for a map pack. Now everyone sells DLC at much higher prices.
Season pass? Battlefield 3 offered the first major (or first entirely) pass and it offered quite good value for what you got, full expansion packs, extra unique gifts for having it, 2x XP sessions, a road map for all the content you'll be getting etc. Now? Season pass = five characters oh and it misses out on this thing or that thing, you still have to buy those.
So like the booklet mention above, if you "help" the publisher by buying a game at $70 to offset the costs of DLC etc, it won't happen. It'll all stay the same.
Reduce the price? get more people to buy your only $20 game that is quality and THEN because they like it so much they spend some extra on DLC? nah can't have that. That means we're getting slightly less than usual! can't have those horrible customers getting even $1 off the standard.
Aw, I love booklets! I remember how good it felt to read those before starting the game. Now when I open my PS4 cases...it's so...empty inside. Sad, really.
Here is what I was wondering while watching the Jimquisition.
Me: You know Jim hasn't used Skeleton Warriors in a while for the copyright deadlock, I wonder where it is.
Literally 5 seconds later
SKELETON WARRIORS!
Me: Oh Jim you never fail to impress us. Lol.
Oh and if you want to see how the free AAA game with micro transactions could work, look no further than Wareframe! And they don't even have loot boxes!!!
can someone make a compilation of sterling saying "triple a"
I don't need "positive news" about the game industry, especially when that positive news is just an example of them performing at the fucking baseline. What's that? A Triple A publisher put out a functioning game that was fun? That's literally their fucking job they don't get points for doing that.
Wesley Brock Why?
entitled much.
Taurelith How is that entitled? You don't go to a restaurant and over tip the waitress for just barely doing her job, you over tip the waitress for doing a fucking amazing job. I've had some amazing waitresses and I've had some who barely do the bare minimum so they get an average tip from me. XP
Publishers perform a service that you pay for. You buying their product entitles you to a good experience. Please stop being delusional and realize that being upset when you paid for a product that didn't meet the standards of work that the average for the industry meets and instead start calling them out. Being critical allows for positive change, it's not being entitled.
Retro Kattiah a functioning game that is fun believe it or not is not the baseline. the baseline is doing the bare minimum: no innovation, no improvements upon previous titles, no trying to listen to your playerbase and we see thi kind of games every fucking year and people still buy them. people are still gonna buy it but the fun is not really going to be there. the publisher will live off their fame and just keep pumping out titles with little to no care for what players want. now i commented a while ago and cant quite recall all of the video but i remember it mentioned at least one pretty fucking good title: one that built up from what it had attained before, that's why i felt the need to comment (i rarely do it). while i agree on the fact that criticism is the main driving force behind any impovement, the kind of game that was talked about is good news, it deserved praise instead of bitterness and complaining about it in a world where 'good' is much more than the bare minimum is in fact being entitled and will not always get you what you want since human beings dont live and strive to improve on criticism alone and they definitely do not exist solely to satisfy people's need for games (btw shitting on companies and programmers that work hard to deliver a good experience for apparently 'just doing the bare minimum to keep you satisfied' and refusing to give praise when it's due is something i'd hardly define constructive criticism). now i know this is a part of human nature: it's much easier for people to feel and speak passionately about what they want and what their life lacks than about what they can have in the present but bad reviews and lack of passionate supporters sometimes might just kill off said game (especially indies supported by larger publishers) instead of making devs want to work on it. i may have been blunt in my first comment but sometimes we need a reality check and the truth is that praise/positive feedback is needed, especially in the gaming community where people can and will be very toxic if they dont get exactly what they want.
Taurelith
jeezuz
tap-dancing
christ
FUCK the games industry!
RIGHT UP THE SHITTER!
Publishers are middle men, ie, LEECHES, PARASITES
I will pirate games as long as I can because I will NOT pay for crap. An example of crap? Thief4... I was a great fan of Thief 1,2,3... T4 was utter drivel. It looked good on my PC but it had some major issues with the sound which is critical to a game where you use the shadows and silence to move about.
GTAV-superb SP game and decent MP game until they started arsing around with the missions and adding annoying too many PvP games - I paid for that game. Twice. On Xbox and PC.
Bioshock Infinite and the DLCs - loved the whole game [even tho some have complained that it was little more than a shooting gallery where you couldn't leave an area until you had killed everything first], bought the game And the DLC.
I have a very powerful PC and I'm beginning to wish I'd simply bought 8GB ram w a GTX970 as I find I am buying old 1999 and 2000s games these days from GOG.
There is NOTHING I want to buy as I am almost certain there will be a lootbox or some other way to scavenge more cash out of me.
Playing Jagged Alliance 2 Gold atm and fully enjoying it. You can pretend to be as positive as you like as the game industry has become a 'grab the cash and run' affair when they sell YOU barely completed or tested code for full price but then , not satisfied with that, they now want to put games in Tiers so the rich get to play the 'Platinum Version', the not so rich get to afford the 'Gold Version' and the poor get to afford the 'Bronze Version' of the game.
But stay positive, pal. I'll be trying out the 'Platinum Version' for free.
{and I am WELL AWARE of the overtime coders put into their work whilst publishers sit back and give themselves a $2 million bonus for "working hard this year... I deserve it".}
Be positive! [ffs!]
I would just like to point out, the Battlefront season pass costs the same as Nioh with all its DLC and doesn't offer 1% of the content quantity or quality as Team Ninja's game. Why support a developer that does not respect you ?
KaiserAfini Nioh is a game I want to get at some point, worth the money then u say
The Reaper95 Also, monster hunter world and persona 5.
Worth every last cent, it has Bloodborne levels of fluid combat, amazing production values, a killer soundtrack, a 50 hour single player campaign (or, as we call it in the community, the tutorial), two huge DLCs included, NG+, co-op, PVP, a satisfying loot system, each weapon is a world of depth in itself, plus cosmetics you can earn in online mode, a cool crafting system, NO MICROTRANSACTIONS AT ALL. You can play it for 300+ hours and the game will still figure out how to challenge you. For $50, its dirt cheap for the amount of value you get, just like Salt & Sanctuary. Plus the devs should win an award based on how well they researched and represented Japanese culture and history, even with the liberties they took for the yokai hunting, there is tons of historically accurate stuff. Overall, Team Ninja did a magnificent job, they certainly earned my patronage from now on.
The Reaper95 I also want to point out Borderlands the handsome collection
KaiserAfini I think I'll buy it sounds great and no microtransactions im in!
Let Bethesda continue to make quality single player conte- ... actually scratch that 😬😬
The existance of The Witcher 3 makes me call BS on the "games are too expensive to make". The problem is the existance of publishers. They are an unecessary middle man than needs to be cut out.
Plus, games have been $60 in the US for about 20 years. Some were even as high as $75 adjusted for inflation.
The Wicher 3 was financed by the Polish gov and the EU...
Doesnt matter because it made massive profits.
Anybody who played Witcher 3 200+ hours and did all the sidequests and events possible, knows that AAA publishers who say games are too expensive to make are full of shit.
....So where are studios going to get their funding? From the crowd middle man? TW3 was not self-funded and TW3's developers weren't exactly living in luxury.
Never buy microtransactions. Never compromise. No matter what.
or act like a normal well adjusted adult and decide for yourself what you do and do not spend you money on instead of listening to some numpty on the internet
Never buy microtransactions. Never buy games with loot boxes. Never compromise. No matter what.
Never, unless it's a decent f2p game.
Exile Studios a normal well adjusted adult can tell the difference between an order and a plea to "numpties" like you to stop ruining shit for all sensible consumers
I've been gaming for 32 years now and it's amazing how so many people love to defend mindless consumption.
I've never bought a microtransaction in my life. How is this hard, people?
I know it’s unrealistic, but sometimes I wish that somebody loved me as much as Jim loves warframe.
It'll pass after the first few hundred hours. It always does.
ah he will lose interest in warframe later on anyway as warframe is something u kinda have to spend a lot of time if u really want to get the great primes and thier builds and so on
Only the first few hundred? But I'm already past the first thousand.
+Abekrie Then you must really really really like syandanas, legs, shoulders and chest accessories. Or survival runs. Good to know know that you're still enjoying it.
If Warframe could add some slightly more interesting endgame content (like the leviathan raid in destiny, but, you know, more than one raid and not buggy as fuck) I'd still be playing it. Still enjoyed the 100 or so hours I put it, but I got bored of grinding.
This is why I play a lot of indie and "B" games on my PC, as well as having a Nintendo Switch. AAA games just aren't worth it anymore.
I keep wondering why are they called AAA games in the first place, since after all, they are most certainly of what quality you would expect when you hear "triple A" - is it just because of the size and value of the companies making them?
I just buy old games on g2a
Modern games are so bad I've been firing up emulators.
@@LiberatedMind1 ok boomer
@@thegrayghost1786 I'm not even 30 asshole.
It's funny, I just came here from Extra Credit's video, y'know the one actually advocating higher prices. I was just saying how development costs should never have gotten so high in the first place. I'm actually disgusted with the industry, it seems the more they focus on making games shiny, the more the spirit of fun dies.
Vordaq indeed. Its more like making grass even more realistic than making game, a game...
Do not forget all the money they pump into marketing and buttering up the critics. The costs to bring the game to shelf of the store has bloated massively.
games can be both beautiful and good, the witcher 3, persona 5, hell's blade, horizon zero dawn, FFXV certainly prove you can have the best of both as well as no bushit practices. They just can't help themselves.
Mad Blood God and taaadaaa Witcher 3 won game of the year award to boot
FFXV is meh at best. But yeah, at least the problems were addressed, it's just that they're so deep rooted that it's impossible to get rid of them entirely.
should marketing be 70% of the budget? is that why the cost is so high.
the marketers mostly spend their time trying to market their own services to the companies. The 70% comes from that.
Yeah...bit circular isn't it? "You have to pay us a ton more money for our inferior products because we had to spend a bunch of money on advertising to get you to buy our inferior products"
yeah and horses that shit themselves in real time with individually animated strands of hair
*Marketing, Production, Paying Third Party that help with the game, Software/Graphic designers, Developers. Remember that people in this genre of career usually make $50-$100K+/year and the one that's paying them is the Company/C.E.O just like how you're company is paying you and i bet your company is making their stuff cheap and selling it high and yet you still want a higher wage for all your hard work right?*
It's ridiculous that the games that least need such large marketing budgets gets the largest marketing budget. Lets be honest games like CoD, Starwars Battlefront, etc will sell even if they had a shoestring marketing budget.
Jim is making everyone take note of how corporations have no limit to their greed. Not just in the gaming industry either.
People/Corporations have been wanting to maximize their investments for hundreds of years, this is nothing new. This is an entertainment industry and ROI is even more important with the volatility of said market in recent years. Social media has made those markets volatile since a few people can inflate any outrage into this large matter and can tank a game or movie. Video games are a hobby for 99% of people, and hobbies shouldn't be 85% of the time complaining about said hobby and 15% of actual participating.
Destiny 2 be like “we’re free...but you have to pay $60 to actually play the game”
Not to criticize the Extra Credits people, but $70 or $80 for a game makes it a game that peasants like myself can't afford because those are prices for gods. But I will pay $20 to $30 for a game.
my strategy is simple -- I scan TH-cam and Twitch for interesting new indy games, and sometimes invest in one. A lot of game devs have caught up with that trend and are promoting their games aggressively via streamers. That's how I bought my last 4 mainstream games -- Hearts of Iron IV, Elite: Dangerous, Cities: Skylines and XCom: Enemy Unknown
Agreed. 60 is already pushing it unless I can see myself getting hours and hours of play out of it. 70 or 80$ you are literally reaching the point of paying my bills or buying groceries for the week. I can buy a damn dining set, table chairs and all for a few more dollars LOL
There are plenty of great indie games that cost less than $30.
A
Then just wait. Every $60 games becomes $20. That's what I do
Movies cost far more to make than games yet usually make a ton of money. And remember that a cinema ticket is about $10 and a DVD $15. Meanwhile games cost less to make and sell for a minimum of $60 (plus deluxe editions, DLC, season passes, Microtransactions, etc)
Games also still have a much much smaller audience than music or videos... games are getting more into the mainstream but are still kind of their own separate thing to an extent.
It would be really intersting to get a hard comparison between say A transformers movie and call of Duty. Interms of what they cost to make and what they earn.
Not that I support the pricing trends of the gaming industry even a little, but you should account for the fact that on average, you get significantly more hours of entertainment from games than from movies. Movies are about 2 hours of entertainment. Some games can potentially give a hundredfold that. And even if you get maybe 20 hours of entertainment from a game costing $60, that's only $3/hr of entertainment. Where as a 2 hour movie at $10 admission is $5/hr of entertainment. Obviously there's subjective things to consider such as level of enjoyment for each hour put in, but that's feasibly calculable.
So true
More people go to see movies. Then again the video game consumer base has grown a lot over recent years too.
Best 1$/month patreon you'll ever spend.
For a price of 60$ game, you can't get Jim.Sterlin show every Monday for the next 60 months (5 years) worth.
Just think about it.
Not interested in listening to this whiner
Solaxe S What do you mean whiner? He's absolutely correct.
Solaxe S then why are you on the video?
"Not interested in listening to this whiner" whined some nobody after listening to this whiner
not only listened to "this whiner" but took the time to read and comment about how he doesn't listen to this whiner. --__--
Jim, Id be ok if you reuploaded this every 6 months.
2017: Year of Lootboxes.
2018. Year of *Live Services*? That would be even worse than lootboxes.
Also that ending - made me laugh out loud. Thanks for the jokes Sir Jim.
mantazzo Won’t 2018 be the Year of the Monetization AI?
And in 2019, they'll find something even worse. Maybe the games will connect to your bank account and charge you by the hour.
Maybe a mandatory connection to Facebook/Twitter and (for example, let's take CoD) it posts to Facebook Wall/Twitter Feed every kill you do or every match you play because of course everyone has to know you played the game?.. Because "social interaction" (read it in sassy Jim Sterling voice) or something like that.
Thank fuck we still have some decent AA developers who don't do stupid things yet. Keyword: YET.
Well, they haven't got into that yet because they're privately owned. All publicly traded corporations go by the mantra of "screw the customer and please the shareholder".
Tiered live services with advertising. Subscriber "Exclusive" pay to win content that builds player reputation with every additional dollar spent "Get your OP Platinum hat today".
I remember back when you can spend $40 for a game and get the full game in the game had tons of replay value to it
crash bandicoot The PS2 days... times have changed unfortunately
They can't go free to play because then they would be forced to actually produce a good game where people want to play. Destiny 2 would have been taken offline at this point if it was free, rightfully so.
The EAs and Activisions don't actually know how to make games anymore, all they know how to do is market games.
The sick thing is that EA could be the financial powerhouse they are today AND be respected by their costumers IF they hadn't fucked over every single studio they have ever bought out.
Sure maybe a few people from those studios would have jumped ship, but look at Bioware; EVERYONE from their original DA and ME crews have jumped ship because EA were micromanaging them and ruining the actual game-development. If EA had only stuck to their forte: marketing and let the developers do the actual developing :-/
I don't hate EA because it's trendy, I hate them because they are moronic idiots who could have had it all without ruining the industry...
This comment aged well.... Destiny 2 went F2P and is doing really well.
wouldnt they make the same amount of money, or even more if they made it less money? more people would be willing to spend money if it was cheaper.
I know
According the economic law of price elasticity of demand, it would depend how willing people would be to keep buying the games after the price change.
"Its a bloody big Mysterio."
Unlike Rey. Look I'm sorry but he IS small.
Jesus YT, not only did I not get notified of this video, it's not even on the channel page.
COME ON...
In South Africa (because our currency is trash) $1 is equal to R13 for us (Rand).
$60 = R780.
Thats beyond insane for a game that then pushes DLC too. Its just un-affordable for non 1st-world countries...
Seth Lancaster FIFA 18 standard edition cost R1100 on release.
Ikr, here in India also, 1 game may cost about 1000 rupees for the pc version, maybe even more more for console versions and that's just INSANE !!
1000 rupees is like £10 thats fuck all mate getting a bargin compared to the £60 i pay
Hell, Canada and Australia it's an ass too! Canada is the weirdest, it is just across the boarder. Makes no sense.
Bill Kerman Dont forget that for an Indian, that amount is a lot. Accounting for exchange rates it doesnt seem that bad, but take into account the salary of a recently graduated student in India, or a child in a decent family
Bethesda are commited to publishing single player games without the need for gambling mechanics
*fallout 76 has entered the chat*
I fucking love you Jim you seem to be one of the only ones who has a sane mind on this issue
The year is 2021. Runaway cryptocurrency mining has destroyed the PC games market as even basic GPUs break $3000 in value. Traditional consoles offer only immersive skinner boxes, custom-tailored by AI to induce a state of compliance to squeeze money out of users whilst brainwashing them with corporate advertisements and capitalist propaganda.
Nintendo still makes toys and is still wildly successful.
Meanwhile, 100 game developers have been airdropped onto an island in a new reality show, hoping to win the ultimate prize of a 6 month employment contract.
Dream wait what? 100 gamedev on an island? Youre joking, right? RIGHT?!
I'd rather drop 100 corporate executives onto an island to fight each other to the death. Last man standing gets to go home.
And this time, the movie isn't going to be called Battle Royale, it'll be called PUBG: Za Mubi.
"The year is 2021"
God that sounds so far away, but it's only less than 3 years from now.
Nobody should be going home from the gul- I mean Fyre Festival.
Don't worry Jim, you're still not as *RRREdick-Qless* as putting loot boxes in $60 games.
looks at EA
well is this true??
yes, it is true......this man has no dick.....WELL THAT'S WHAT I HEARD!
I never buy games when they first come out full price. I'm a patient man, and I can wait till the price goes down. I also NEVER buy DLC.
we need more people like you
in exterme rare cases DLC is decent but very rarely
Monster hunter earth frozen something DLC
@@lorekeeper685 It's Iceborne
Maybe if they actually expand the game
Same
Never bought DLC
Or buy a game on release
Or spend a single Penny on microtransactions
After Marvel Heroes Online failed last year and basically vanished along with all its money players had paid in. I have to say that a game tied to a license, particularly a license held by Disney is kind of a ticking time bomb anyway, particularly if tied to a live service. If it is simply a game on its own without any major need for online services it is not such an issue, but for online only games, you should remind yourself that whatever you pay in will basically be lost in a few years with no recourse, when the license for that IP moves somewhere else or the publisher loses interest in the game.
MHO was just pure sin.
I mean you could look at MvC:I. Not on Capcom Pro Tour, not on EVO this year? Almost zero news so far this year for further DLC or patch support.
So this might be a Disney thing.
Yeah it also shows how pointless it is to buy any micro transactions, you might as well go outside and throw your money down the drain. At least you stand a chance of being able to retrieve it.
Darkmoone1 that probably has more to do with capcom wanting people to get into Street Fighter V AE. "So far this year" You know it hasn't even been two months yet, right? And Capcom doesn't have final say in what games are put onto EVO's main stage.
> I'm not ridiculous.
> Sterdust
> Oh yeah...
Top kek
Thank God for him.
Joe J - correction, a lot of SWEATY spandex.
STOP PLEASE! I can only get so erect
MHW still only cost $60 and they give more content than those bs paid dlc and season pass "AAA" game
MeowAlien にゃあエイリアン With FREE dlc coming as well. The MH devs know how to give a worthwile gaming experience.
I'm almost 200 hours in and still haven't done everything. Mhw is what games should be.
Not to mention they are on track to keep up their other consumer friendly practice, free content updates. They're releasing a new monster for free pretty soon and have plans for more.
Alex Elsaadi do you sleep? Work? School?
The only thing that cost money for DLC so far from them was: An armor set, a few gestures related to it, and that's it. You don't miss anything from not having it, since the armor given gets outshined almost immediately by the first monster's gear. I love it, the Mon Hun division of Capcom is always consumer friendly and it shows in their sales. 6M sales and rising just in the first two weeks.
I hate multiplayer focused games. Spawn, Die, Repeat. No content.
That's because multiplayer games have practically infinite depth. If you're willing to explore it that is
Ikr
@r h Because it might enable this cheese af build or playstyle or whatever that might be fun!
If your focus is just BIG SWORD HIT GOOD, you're really going to miss out even if you manage to do all of the content.
@r h Why? So I can wreck the fools in Crucible of course
@@TheNinjaCrash it's true multiplayer games are basically infinite possebilities
I’m so happy Jim Sterling found Warframe and loves it. It really is the pinnacle of what a free to play game should be with an amazing develop team that actually LISTENS to their fans
That and it's simply a well made game.
"LISTENS to their fans" Didn't Warframe had lots of problems with the playerbase?
It took them months to put in universal vaccuum, until they just got tired of people saying they wanted it. They didn't put that in out of care they just gave us what we wanted to shut us up, and it was a good choice now people can use any sentinel they want and not just Carrier Prime.
@@TorneraFoda In the first few years, yes. But they're going strong for quite a while now and are pretty much one of the most beloved developers in the business.
Shame it’s shit though. Well at least a few years ago when I tried it.
New AAA Games are $80 CDN in Canada. I, uh, don't buy games brand new very often anymore.
yanipheonu its $100 here in australia we get over charged
The last AAA mainstream game I bought at full price was probably Skyrim. Unless Elite: Dangerous counts as AAA, and TBH, Elite: Dangerous is more of a AA game in my mind.
Yarr, it's a pirate's life for me!
I don't understand why no big youtuber talks about this. 60$ in the us may be too much already, but in other parts of the world thats pretty cheap
Fireassassin16 Lol I love when people say that but don't realize,E Australian money is fucking worthless.
I'm so mad. I just found out that the people working on Dragon Age 4 are taking extra time to add "live elements" into the game. F************ you EA. Dragon Age is amazing and your gonna ruin it with loot boxes and micro transactions!
they say that “live” means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story, but I've gotta say with all the BS they've been pulling lately they don't exactly have my trust.
DA died after Origins.
Oh Jesus tapdancing christ....... Welp thats an embuggerance. I loved those games.....
Me too, my dude. me too
I respect but disagree with your opinion. Personally my favorite in the series is Inquisition. #IronBullbestcharactereva!
Don't you mean DA "JIMquisition"?
"Your Bethesdas" have already changed so much since this...
It’s simple:
-If the game has no microtransactions, DLC and offers quality gameplay for your buy-in charge, they can ask for any amount they want. All the content is there and waiting for you, so you pay for what you get.
-If a game has a season pass and elements of gameplay have been cut behind a DLC paywall, the game will be between $20-30. Assuming the season pass is also $20-30, it means you pay half now for the base game and half later when the other content gets released. The exception to this is if no gameplay has been sacrificed and DLC is released later, expanding to the game, but not completing it, then they’re free to charge what they like. Example of this is Witcher 3, a quality base game and the DLC adds new content, as if the DLC content alone is its own game.
-If a game has microtransactions and/or obligatory lootboxes, the game is free. Because there is no limit to how much you pay for and most of the content will be hidden behind these paywalls, you pay for what you feel the game deserves instead of paying the base price only to have _more_ spending to do.
Games should cost three fiddy
Clorox Bleach don't give them ideas- the AAA videogame industry would take that to mean 350$ in a heart beat while still keeping all the same bullshit they have now, and we know it.
God dam Loch Ness monster, I ain’t gonna give my god damn money.....
Damnit monster, I ain’t giving you no three fiddy
Naw dawg, games should cost fiddy cent.
Last week i gave him a dollar
This is why games like Monster Hunter need to be supported. No loot boxes, no season pass, just a giant fucking awesome game for the base price. And the few microtransactions, while disappointing that they are there at all, are entirely pointless and easily ignored.
6 million sold in 3 weeks. 5 million in 3 days is bloody extraordinary
I know! Pretty astonishing! Maybe this is people voting for the 'real game' model with their wallets? Can but hope - maybe others will take note. Capcom must be very pleased - lets just hope they now don't get greedy!
Same. The fact is I’ve never cared for God Of War but I’m going to be a day one customer because they promised no Season Pass.
Sorry mate, but Monster Hunters World is just as bad as the other guys on this one. Their microtransactions are dumb and meaningless but they're still present after being sold on the promise of no micro transactions. You may like the game and think it's the best ever, but being slightly less scummy after lampbasting the other scum bags for being scummy is still pretty scummy.
Plus it's not all that feature rich - it just repeats a lot of the content over and over again, and features lots of prolonged fights. They took a 10 hour game and padded it out to 100 hours. That's why they can flood the market with so many of these things so quickly. MHW is just a Triple A game trying to make you think it's not like the rest of the bad guys. And yeah, it's not as scummy as it could have been. It's also not has honest as it could have been either.
Honestly bought it day one just to support it despite it not looking like my cup of tea. Played like 5 minutes so far.
i remember when we considered 30 bucks much for a game... and those just, y'know, were games.
Thief 1 PC in box and jewel case; £25 at HMV and Electronics Boutique on day of release
Thief 1 is not a small game
Yeah but the prices for games dropped before that. I remember buying Zelda Majora's Mask for 120 Deutsche Mark.
@@p529. that's because cartridges are actually expensive to make, unlike DVDs and digital downloads.
you can't compare having a file on some AWS storage with literally molding the plastic in a custom shape, manufacturing a PCB, burning a masked ROM and soldering it all together before extensive quality control on every single unite.
Have have cost 60 dollars for decades
@@slightlyskywalking2195 have have not.
I agree with the slant of this episode.
I've sometimes asked myself the question 'if a physical copy of the game gave you the equivalent of $60 in the special currency to spend as you like, would I care about it costing $60'. I've gone back and forth on it.
What would a dead service be anyway?
I agree with your price tag but for a completely different reason. I think certain AAA games should be free because that's actually more than they are worth.
Sluppie lol amen
I know. Take Halo 5 for instance. It's almost 5 years old, it had one of the most controversial microtransaction systems (they offered free DLC for the introduction of microtransactions, but the DLC was just cut content that existed in other halo games like the gravity hammer.)
The original UI for the game was BEYOND BROKEN and crashed at least once per session. They have since made a different UI but even the new one is still buggy and crashes. The game also completely lacks any explanation of how the UI or unlock system works, you have to look into it all yourself online, and they still have the audacity to charge full price for all the "Req Packs" after all this fucking garbage.
I have been a die hard Halo fan since the beginning and I still play Halo today, but this predatory shit has got to fucking go.
think you are right. the future is where every single companyl/publisher even the indies will be on a subscritpion service, so all games are "Free to play" if you have the subscription.
also this means we will NEVER AGAIN BE ABLE TO BUY A SINGLE GAME.
Well...pretty much all games cost $79.99 in Canada right now. Add any form of season pass/DLC/ etc. and you're down another $40. Add in the taxes and the total cost becomes near $150. I've pretty much gone the emulation route; let the market crash.
if you execute justin castro the price of games should tumble - just an idea !
Other countries have even 5x more expensive games and we don't whine. You're so fucking spoiled. I'd love to pay 150$ for a video game
Is that USD or Canadian Dollars?
Solaxe S Your 3rd world education is showing, you aren't getting the point of what these people are saying.
Dude.... $60 USD is $75.60 CAD at this very moment. It's not more expensive in your country. Your money is worth less and you have import fees and tax. The cost is still the same.
Just because your price has a higher numerical value doesn't mean it costs more. Hell, a game would cost 1,117.54 MXN Peso. Because the number is higher it must be expensive? No, their money is worth less.
When developers insist on releasing unfinished, buggy trash, I agree that games should not cost you 60 American Dollars to buy.
I feel compelled whenever the topic comes up to mention that WB Games in Shadow of War tried to make money off a man who died of cancer.
+redmotive One of the developers died and they set it up so you could buy him as an orc, claiming the money would go to the family. I think in the end it went to the developers aswell or something. I'm not super sure about it, give it a goog
Erm remember they cleared that up and no, all the money on that pack did in fact go to the family. Don't smear companies with baseless shit.
+ErgonomicChair Chap, I was just writing what I vaguely remember about a story from months ago. At the end of the comment I say "Not 100℅ tho, look it up yourself." Why are you treating it like I shat on your mother's grave?
Not you, the OP. The OP is outright iterating and running slam pieces by people so shitty as Sid Alpha for example... A guy who literally pushed a false conspiracy theory so laughable flat earthers would have went "I don't think that makes sense..."
They released a statement on what happened and WB is in fact a publicly traded company, you can actually look at their financial statements and quarterlies. They stated that money is going to their family and if they went back on that it would be publicly visible instantly and all over the news.
It's ok everyone, a major corporation released a statement. As we know they are always 100% truthful and so there is no legitimacy in these accusations. That's why they instantly stopped what they were doing.
To be more precise on what they did. They kept some of the money as costs. Which I'm sure they do get per unit sold. They also couldn't use the money for charity in some places I believe (because of laws on charities). Now the real issue is that, why didn't they just absorb the costs and give every penny they got? Well because they are greedy pigs that's why. Next time how about just link to a "just give" page (or something) and give the orc for free to promote it? Because it served to sell more DLC with it. Again, greed.
What about the movie industry where they have budgets that are on par or higher than the gaming industry but only charges about $15 a ticket at a cinema & charges anywhere between $15 & $30 to purchase the movie's at a later date. All of those big budget companies aren't going bankrupt because "it's too expensive" to make their multi billion dollar projects, in fact, they are practically swimming in cash.
I'd be curious to know what else they do for monetization as well. Their model hasn't changed much in the past years, save maybe for the move from VHS to DVD to Bluray etc. And unlike games, the digital copies have gotten cheaper too.
Keep in mind a lot of income from movie production ends up in licensed goods. T-shirts, figures, card games, and so on all make a ton of money as well.
This question is a bit of a mess, because the movie production companies aren't selling to individual punters, they're selling to the chains of cinemas. So are you asking how the studios make money, or are you asking how the cinema makes money?
If it's the studio, then they negotiate a price with the cinema chain before opening. The studio might expect to get 70% to 80% of ticket sales for the opening week and then a declining percentage thereafter. Obviously the cinema is making pretty much nothing - which is why they push concessions so hard, because that's where the lion's share of their profits come from. The cinema also rakes in a fee for trailers based on how many people bought tickets for the showing and also makes about $75 to $100 per advert which they split with the local ad agency that brings the business to them.
I mean, one hesitates to say that concessions are basically the DLC of the movie going world but...
Iain Howe Minato Acos but when a cinema screens a show they are entitled to a 50% cut of the profits, with the exception of Disney who demanded a 60% cut for the last Star Wars movie and the game industry sells their share of merchandise as well.
Not only does EA's Origin service charge full retail price for their games, they continue to charge full price for their DLC as well. The combined DLC for the original Mass Effect trilogy alone will set you back more than the price of all three games put together, and it's been like, 7 years since Mass Effect 3 came out.
100%
Sheo Dagana Yeah, I don't get why the price of digital content doesn't decrease like the cost of physical games do. I just bought Mafia 3 at Walmart for $15. The DLC packs cost as much as when they released.
It makes even less sense with yearly games like CoD.
Only reason I go to/have Origin installed is for the free games they give away every so often. I got Steamworld Dig free and recently got the original PVZ game. Not bad for only having to have an Origin account and a shitty service downloaded to my PC.
-Entry fee - $60-$120 (For "Base Game")
-Season Pass - $30-$50 (To unlock rest of the game)
-Micro transaction's - Unlimited (Basically)
-Maximize grind to incentives micro transaction's (Play to win)
-Live services to force you stay connected, even for single-player games/modes
-Subscriptions for "Premium Services" - $6-$12 (Just like on consoles)
I'm quiet surprised that no company have yet to implement the latter.
Oh god no dont give them ideas
"AAA games should be free"
He's ganna being up Warframe...
Called it!
Edit: yay replace "called it"
That's like predicting I'm gonna have a wank though. It's hardly surprising and you know what's coming.
And yes that last bit was intentional.
Jim Sterling: yeh, guess i was just excited with the news surrounding Warframe and the devs.
Can't wait for the Warframe jimqiustion
Warframe is cancer for entirely different reasons.
Warframe is great but I cannot get into online gaming. I have 100+ hours on it so I did give it a fair chance, but single player is my roots and I am happy with it.
Back in the early, early days of the digital download, the arguement was made to me that a game costs $60 because "The company has to pay for the disk, the packaging and shipping. That's where most of the cost comes from."
So I asked 'why does the online digital version of the game cost $60 too, then?' After all... no disk, no packaging and no shipping.
I never got an answer.
Steam :)
They never pass on the savings to us. They just keep it as profit. I too remember this from like around 10 years ago. Some people said digital would reduce the price of games... lol! Not for us at least!
Worse still games cost £50-60 digital here...
Disk, packaging and shipping? Bollocks!
The disc costs pennies. Much less than a dollar. Packaging? Under 20 cents. Shipping? Please!
I remember this too, from around 2008 when this argument hit my ears.
Brick and mortar were still a thing and 'games as a service' wasn't really on the forefront of the market. So 'sometimes' an AAA game didn't require a steam code and internet connection. Then the industry changes for the worst.
I will never buy a game like that ever again unless its given to me free and even then you'd have to convince me or guilt trip me to take it for free.
I'm with Jim on being less excited/interested in a lot of hype AAA games now, after seeing the way publishers have been butchering big releases lately. Another thing to keep in mind when people mention how publishers can't afford to stay in business without these practices is that microtransactions, at least in the form of virtual currency, cost relatively nothing to develop. Much more profitable than traditional DLC expansions because they cost less to include and there's no limits on how much a player can spend. They're not going to leave that money on the table by simply increasing the base price.
I said this would happen. Publishers aren't just competing with each other, they're competing with other forms of entertainment. The more they pull this bullshit, the more players are going to skip on their games and pick up another hobby instead.
Charles Lindeman you're absolutely right. I'm now looking for a cheap dirt bike because I'd rather learn to ride and bust my ass than deal with the publishers BS
Hope you find one, Travis. You'll find that new places to ride aren't locked behind DLC, and you don't have to micropay for your body's energy, so you can keep riding as much as you like.
Oof the bit about Bethesda making quality single player games rings hollow in 2019
Just want to say Jim, if you've not made enemies then you've never stood for something, the fact your enemies consist of people like the romines says a lot towards your quality of character.
And this is why I stick to indies and retro games.
or Atlus/japanese games
Awesome video!
Cheaper games for the win!
YAY STERDUST FIGHTS AGAINST THE TRIPLE A PUBLISHERS AND SAVES THE DAY!!!
1. Movies cost more to make and charge less.
2. The gaming market has grown exponentially, back in the day it was stigmatised niche.
3. All the server DRM and 'services' they include are an unnecessary cost they choose to spend on that don't benefit the game or gamer in any way.
4. Their marketing budgets have inflated exponentially and are unnecessary.
5. Big publishers are funneling more and more money towards management and CEO pay, boardrooms are big circlejerks where they pat each-other on the back and hand each-other out 'bonuses'. (to get around the fact they can't give themselves ludicrous bonuses they have their buddies do it for them)
6. Massive money thrown at graphics while in most cases the game won't be running at 60fps or high enough resolution to warrant the extra detail.
7. For these big companies gamers are not the customer, shareholders are. Meaning their end goal is to deliver and spend as little as possible while maintaining the higher profit margin.
8. Logistics of physical copies are an expense that has nearly disappeared.
9. Games aren't harder to make, the tools are much easier to use and readily available. Hardware limitations aren't anywhere near as restrictive as the early game market.
As an example look at how many individual developers and small teams have managed to make masterpieces in the last few years. Some with massive scope and depth not even seen in many 'AAA' games.
9:32 THIS! So much THIS!!! Absolutely my thoughts! I stopped palying or even caring for EA games (and other publishers like Ubisoft are increasingly following along) years ago already. Because they just feel like fucking mobile freemium games. It's not only the DLC shit, the season passes, or even the loot boxes. It has felt like this for several years already. I can't understand how so many people are playing those mainstream bars of soap, while there are so many other great gems in this industry already, that don't constantly feel like cheap cash-grabs. But I just guess, that's what they are: Casual games, not made to have any artistic or cultural value, but only mechanisms to lure as much money out of pockets as possible.
Because people don't know. The majority of people are influenced by marketing, and only the big companies (who make the dlc, microtransaction season-pass shit fests) can afford it. Smaller companies who actually DO make quality stuff from the heart, do not have the resources to get the word out on a large enough scale.
Our Old House Although let's players do help with that, and hinder as well
Rachel Heyne Good point.
I bought Final Fantasy 15 finished found about the season pass and I was like: "Nope everyone died the world ended. The end!" Sold my game and bought Persona 5.
the same reasons transformers makes a billion dollars a movie. people are dumb and they want their generic entertainment
If you cant profit off of a 60 dollar game your in the wrong industry
It's not about profit. It's about making as much profit as humanly and inhumanly possible. Investors don't want to just double their money.
Welcome to Business 101; everyone wants to maximize their investments. Who doesn't want a 10% return instead of 3%? Jim doesn't actually break down figures on what it costs to make an AAA game, let alone companies trying to make money back on bad games/investments from prior years. He'll cherry pic the extremes and say "this is happening everywhere". Video games are a hobby for 99% of people, if your hobby stresses you out, then you need something different.
+Click Clack Bang The budget for a AAA game is generally in the 50-200 million range. The most expensive game up to date seems to be Destiny 2, which allegedly had a 500 million budget. And surprise, surprise, Destiny 2 was among the best selling games of 2017. So they made a hefty markup on that one, no doubt. Even games that are considered to be failures, like say Tomb Raider 2013 for example, still do well enough. We wouldn't have Rise of the Tomb Raider if it didn't. The fact of the matter is that microtransactions bring in easy money and there's a lot of demand for it. People like to complain about them, but then go ahead and spend their money anyway. You can't really blame devs and publishers.
Prototype I agree with you 100%. Its the people buying this shit causing the problems. I blame them more then the developers.
I agree even though as a general rule I dont buy games on releace date but wait for the price to drop. I even did that with Nier Automata.