Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game.
For Warhorse's 15th birthday, we chatted with its co-founder about the demand for 'grown-up' RPGs, AI, why games are too cheap, and his role in the collapse of communism
Submitted 3 weeks ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Comments
genzboomer@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Why 20?
iamthetot@piefed.ca 3 weeks ago
It’s a quote from The Secret of Monkey Island, a game released 36 years ago, that some gamers have taken at gospel ever since.
bigmamoth@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Love this guys since he piss half of the planet by not putting black/minorities in his first game then by pissing the other half by putting minorities into the second. So much for historical accuracy. Kinda interesting the implementation. Hope he has time to do kcd defend israel
rollerbang@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Games aren’t too cheap. Market size since the old days has grown astronomically. Execs appetites for 10’s of millions of bonuses are their problem, not the gamers. And that’s with current prices. The other problem is sheer availability and slop. Maybe also lack of being critical when consuming videogame content.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Apparently there are lots of studies and calculations that indeed suggest games are overall way too cheap for the industry to be sustainable. I hear it from insiders again and again. From small indie studios to industry giants.
And many point their fingers at platforms like Steam to be the culprits. Steam in particular is pretty unpopular among developers overall. Looking at how competitive the market is and how many devs are pushed into burnouts in just a single production I tend to believe them. The current model does not seem to be sustainable for studios of any size.
That said, I think a lot of studios could try scaling down their productions too because I hear about feature creep from the same insiders just as much. They really need better planning.
SmoothOperator@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s really interesting. I guess it’s one of the few really competitive markets for digital goods in the world.
Do you have a link to one of these studies?
fushuan@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
Market size can’t be valued in vacuum without considering market share. Sure, there’s a looot more people that can buy your game, but the attention time of those people is fine and the market is oversaturated with games.
Groceries have doubled in price in the last 5 years, game prices have not. I’m not saying they should, I’m giving context. The largest cost of a game production is usually salaries, by far, and those need to keep increasing, which lowers margins, and that then only keeps being sustainable if sales increase, which honestly I don’t see it anymore.
Not every souls player will buy the next non from soft souls like because there are so many already.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
As per the article, the signs we’re seeing are that the market size has stopped growing, which is why something else has to give. Klima hopes that prices will be permitted to increase post GTA6 (I certainly don’t think so), but the situation is bleak for the industry if they can’t. Mathematically, executive bonuses are just not moving the needle, but cost of living in certain parts of the world is.
rollerbang@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Bonuses certainly aren’t meaningless. CEOs (or at least one case) are trying to fake their employees out of bonuses. Billion value acquisitions aren’t helping either, these values all have to be recouped.
If market has stopped growing, it may also have to do with those living cost crisis.
Cash gravs from major companies aren’t working either (Sony and others). Those 400m holes again need to be recouped.
In the end I seriously hope that gamers won’t just swallow the expected increases. I know for a fact that I won’t. There’s plenty to play, I can wait years for the one game I wish for.
BigPotato@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Klima hopes prices go up, Yacht Club Games puts out $20 games.
Katana314@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s a difficult thing to admit, but I do think a change to game prices might incentivize more singleplayer games. If Sony makes a multimillion dollar adventure, they may not win out from a large number of sales as they’d like given the cost. It’s much easier to start with a $0 price tag and nickle and dime people.
But, that’s impossible to change until minimum wages go way up - put more people out of the mode of struggling to survive, and give them money they can safely spend on luxuries.