cross-posted from: lemmy.today/post/55364693
“Gaming is becoming unaffordable” — Xbox CEO says the industry has an accessibility crisis
Submitted 2 weeks ago by FoxtrotDeltaTango@sh.itjust.works to games@lemmy.world
Comments
pnwpixel@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
arcine@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
Their solution is probably gonna be game pass. Everyone is distracted by the anti-AI crusade but we should not forget the anti-Subscription crusade too !
flamingos@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Presumably they must think this is a good thing, given they run a cloud gaming platform.
Ilixtze@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Destroy ebtire industries through their corruption and greed, only to wonder over othe debris why they are not making any more money. The capitalist brain is amazing.
sundray@lemmus.org 2 weeks ago
“Who could have done this?”
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gee I wonder who made things so expensive MICROSOFT? Who could have possibly been responsible for this MICROSOFT?
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
MicroSLOP!
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Gaming is unaffordable? Yeah. GTA 6 is going to be $80, digital only, with single player locked behind a $100 price tag.
Yeah. Gaming IS unaffordable.
Return_of_Chippy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
A new game was 60 dollars when I was 12. Im 31 now. Inflation puts the pricetag around 100 bucks if they stayed roughly the same cost. If gaming is unaffordable now its been that way since at least 2005…
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
NES games were $80. Thats why most households usually only had 1-2 games.
It wasn’t until resell shops came around that everyone sold their games, and bought 2-3 used games with that money.
Video gaming was unaffordable in the 80s too. I think if you compare lifetime sales of most NES games to most modern games, you’ll find the trend was that if your game wasn’t mario, it didn’t sell all that well on the NES. Even Zelda in the early days had a rough start.
Whereas these days, the industry has grown so much due to keeping prices relatively stable for 40 years. So now consoles sell more, games in general sell 10x more.
Prop that price up and watch the sales fall.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 2 weeks ago
You really shouldn’t be downvoted for stating facts. Inflation is a real thing and prices of games have lagged significantly behind it for decades - that is an observable fact. The $60 price point was held static for almost two decades but inflation marches on, so in real terms most games are cheaper than ever.
The one thing that kind of does make gaming unaffordable currently is hardware prices, but you can still do the indie gaming you mentioned on a cheaper PC so it’s mostly just the AAA market that is getting pricier.
Goodeye8@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
In the last 22 years the per game production cost has gone down. Back then games were largely physical and had a huge distribution network. You had the cost of putting the game on a disk or a cartridge or whatever physical medium, then you had the logistics cost to distribute it and finally the store selling you the game put their own marginal to justify keeping it on shelf. That was also what kept the indie scene from springing into existence because getting your game released was a massive undertaking. And you had to test test test because patching games post-launch was a pain in the ass. Now physical media is largely streamlined and the focus is shifting more on digital (because it gives better margins). Development tools have also improved and day 1 patches are the norm, all of which bring down development costs. So you can’t really compare the cost of a game from 20-25 years ago to the cost of a game from today because the industry has matured massively in that period.
And the industry has been complaining about game development being on the verge of collapse for around 15 years. I made the argument back then and that argument has largely stayed true for most of that period. The argument is that if making games is so unsustainable we should see a reduction of scope. Instead of throwing every bog-standard AAA feature into a bloated AAA game we should see games with a more focused vision and minimal bloat. It’s only in the last few years that we’ve seen studios try to cut the bloat. So I believe gaming right now has reached a point where it’s unsustainable for AAA but in previous years I’d argue it was just fearmongering to justify squeezing out more money. But it doesn’t mean the price increase is justified. Indie games and games made by private companies prove that the price increase isn’t necessary. The best game of 2025, Clair Obscur, was $50. One of the best games of 2024, Balatro, was $15. The best game of 2023, Baldurs Gate 3, was $60. None of those games were made by a publicly traded company. It’s the publicly traded company mindset that necessitates the price increase because you need to spend every penny you get and your returns need to grow with every release so you could get more money to spend which then means you need to make even more profits.
I’m not saying the price should stay at $60 for forever, but so far I haven’t seen a good reason why it should increase when we can get quality games at that price point or even at a lower price point.
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Salaries do not keep up with inflation.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
GTA 6 is going to be $80, digital only, with single player locked behind a $100 price tag
Single player is $80. A bunch of extra in-game trinkets are locked behind the $20 upsell.
Exec@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
with single player locked behind a $100 price tag.
wait what?
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Cosmetics. Not sure why they said single player.
placebo@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Some bonuses that come with the ultimate edition.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, I’m hearing they’re selling an “Ultimate” version. Which is $100, and thats the only way to play single player.
atro_city@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
High seas for everyone!
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
It’s only on PS5 and XBOX, good luck with that!
P00ptart@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Your parent company has a lot to do with that.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Just your games actually
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Last game I bought were 10€ and could be run on a potato.
If a person in their home can do a cheap fun game in their spare time so can you.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
OH I WONDER FUCKED UP THE WHOLE INDUSTRY.
Laser@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Obi-Wan Kenobi, head of gaming division
c64z86@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It wouldn’t actually be so bad if everything else wasn’t fast becoming unaffordable as well. If bills, rent, shopping and other expenses were not already sky high, then we might be able to afford the higher game prices.
Zephyr@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
What type of gaming? Me over here retro gaming for free for the most part.
64bithero@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Where is that hot dog costume guy meme when you need it ….
cheers_queers@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
everyone should watch I Think You Should Leave
melsaskca@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
In other news, Cribbage is taking off like wildfire.
atro_city@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
It's unaffordable for those who don't sail the high seas.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Those are some great examples of old games that are real lookers, but quite frankly, I’m on a 5-year-old machine, and there are only a few of the latest games that have made it break a sweat. It runs most of the cutting edge games at high settings, high frame rates, and 1440p.
HeyJoe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I was going to say, my PC is only 3 years old but from what I noticed is if you had an above average GPU from the past 6 years then you are absolutely still ok to play a lot of stuff from today just fine. I dont think thats really going to change much for a while either as cards have turned to faking pixels over trying to achieve higher performance gains so progress is a bit slower in that area.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Channel looks onteresting and isn’t only on Youtube, so huge thanks!
atro_city@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
To be honest, I haven’t read the article, but games have never been so cheap for me.
When I was a kid, NES games were around CHF 120.-.
Then as teenager they were around CHF 89.- on Playstation 2 or 3.
Nowadays, my most expensive game on Playstation 5 was probably CHF 79.-.
And on my Steam Deck, I don’t think I’ve paid more than CHF 20.- for a game.
Related to inflation, my Playstation 3 was probably my most expensive console.
Now it’s true that the hardware prices are increasing (bought my Playstation 5 at around CHF 500.- and I guess it’d be at least CHF 150.- more expensive now), but games have become cheaper over time in my country (Switzerland).
I don’t know how much the Steam Machine is gonna be in Switzerland, but it’ll probably still be cheaper than a medium gaming PC was 10 years ago.
Exec@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Prices are already out: store.steampowered.com/sale/steammachine
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Everything is more expensive. Leisure activities are early budget cuts.
newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Well that’s your fault too. You decided AI was more important.
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They also fired thousands of workers who could have helped make shit more affordable or even improved Xbox. Now it’s going to be sold off, drawn and quartered.