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I will admit: I’m in this picture.

Game developers have to eat, too, so a (!) price hike at some point was expected, the price for AAA games was set to 60$ before smart phones existed. They only stayed at 60 so long because gaming got much more popular in that time, driving sales. IF (!) this increase would allow developers to pay their employees more and eliminated the crunch culture, I’d have no problem with it.

But we know this is just corporate greed. Pay extra to own your game physically, pay extra to play your old games, join our subscription program. Oh, you’re in Europe and your wages kept up with inflation? Forget the 33%, you can afford a 50% price increase instead.

With the Japanese-only model being the singular exception, you’d think the directed by 3 new faces just so Nintendo could put the blame on them when the thing doesn’t sell well because of the price.

Oh, and Skull and Bones was dog shit, of course everyone hated it’s ludicrous price point.

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Shirasho@lemmings.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
As you alluded to, the developers will get exactly 0% of the profits from that price hike. Games today are very profitable at $60. The problem is that execs are eating into those profits before pissing the rest down to the developers. There is also a really shitty tech bro culture that many game studios have, decorating their studios with overpriced and expensive tat which should have been spent on employees.

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sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
You know the tariffs mean the Switch 2 may actually now cost $600, not $450, right?

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- Tudsamfa@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  Oh I know. Would suck to be American right now 😎.
  
  I instead get to pay a converted 98$, 50% more than Xenoblade X or Brothership cost here…
  
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  - sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    Ah, my American is showing, assumed you were ‘one of us’ lol.
    
    Apologies.
    
    But uh yeah… we are completely fucked lol.
    
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  - vithigar@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    By odd coincidence you just named the most recent two games that I purchased.
    
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HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
I think a big part of it is that a lot of gaming companies keep wanting to make AAA gaming, but no one wants to pay for AAA gaming.

Mario Kart 8 was already a recycled game from the Wii U and it sold well. After it stopped selling copies, Nintendo sold more DLC with the Booster Course Pass.

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WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
With the more robust tools developers have available now and the reduced need for optimization due to more powerful hardware games should be cheaper to produce, not more expensive. Especially if you use a cartoon art style like most Nintendo games.

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