Game prices should have increased with every new generation, former PlayStation US boss says

Comments

• Empricorn@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The purchasing power for myself and other consumers has never been lower.

  Image

  Tell me more about how your profitable company is entitled to more of my shrinking money…

  fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R

  source
• darkkite@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  in a way it did with dlc

  source
• taiyang@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I mean, inflation exists. That said, they just use dlc and other microtransactions to recoup costs (plus in some ways production is cheaper, just not overall).

  I like to remind people that they’re taking advantage of a thing called consumer surplus. In short, any given person will spend X amount of dollars for a product, be it $60, $30 half off, or $120 collectors edition, etc. Hell, “free” gets the most heads, hence how mobile market works.

  Flat $60 (or the shift to $80) will inevitably cut off anyone unwilling to pay that price, which at a certain point is bad for business and why you get sales. Plus, most sales are digital now, so it’s not like there’s a per unit overhead. Keeping a dynamic pricing structure is simply better in spite of inflation, which obviously this former boss apparently doesn’t get.

  source
• MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Someone needs to start cracking Denuvo again.

  source
• ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I think even if they did, we’d still have arrived at exactly where we are right now. They sold more copies of games because, after inflation, the games became cheaper and more accessible for the average consumer. Now that prices are rising again, that average consumer is getting priced out, and they’re not making up for that volume in the higher price. $70 seems to be what the highest tier of production value can get away with in 2025 if they’re maximizing sales, GTA and Mario Kart notwithstanding, as they’re outliers.

  source