re: Borderlands 4 coming 2025

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PS2 games cost $50 in 2000. That $50 in 2025 is $93. I can’t imagine those discs were expensive to produce or distribute.

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They cost upwards of $5 to produce.

Also, the markup was largely due to retailers.

Nintendo and Sony weren’t selling them to retailers for $50-60.

They were selling them for half that.

Now, digital copies “largely” remove that cost.

If you consider the price it was sold to retailers for, we should be paying ~$60 now, if you consider inflation, since retailers are largely a non-factor with digital gaming.

All of the prices we are basing our thoughts on are based off of prices we paid through Walmart, GameStop, etc.

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They cost upwards of $5 to produce. Also, the markup was largely due to retailers. Nintendo and Sony weren’t selling them to retailers for $50-60. They were selling them for half that. Now, digital copies “largely” remove that cost. If you consider the price it was sold to retailers for, we should be paying ~$60 now, if you consider inflation, since retailers are largely a non-factor with digital gaming. All of the prices we are basing our thoughts on are based off of prices we paid through Walmart, GameStop, etc.

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Now compensate for the significant increase in the cost of game development.

I’m not saying I’m happy prices are going up; I just can’t say that I’m surprised or overly upset about it.

I can remember N64 games being $70 or $75 new. I even saw Strider on Genesis once for $70. It wasn't every game but there were definitely some super expensive games back in the day. Plus there wasn't really a used games market or constant digital sales. These games will all be 20% off within 6 months of release.

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Games have gone from "hey this is Bob, he made the music and sound design for this game" to entire teams of people devoted to every aspect of the game. This includes marketing and all other avenues for getting a modern game out the door.

Frankly i am astonished we have stayed at level game prices for so long.

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yeah I watched a video of Ed Boon talking about the biggest difference between developing now and back then, and his answer was that back then if you had a cool idea for how to do something, you could have a playable prototype done that afternoon or the next day. Now? It's months lol

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why?
does more people/devs = better titles?

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what does something being a better title have to do in a conversation about cost of manufacturing cartridges vs cost today of making games that are mostly purchased by the consumer digitally? The quality of the games are not in this discussion.

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it wasn’t meant to be a smart arse take. the general discussion seemed to indicate that in the current day AAA titles are made by massive gaming studios.

I was simply asking why can’t quality video games be created by significantly smaller teams like they used to be?

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they can...plenty of independent studios out there pumping out quality games (and much quicker than the big developers).

That's not how the world works though.

it's the same issue that infects most creative endeavors in our current era.

The cost of development and the sheer scope have eroded any sense of creativity or vision and replaced it with pursuing formulas to generate a guaranteed return or at least minimize the risk of failure.

The problem that arises is that people grow tired of formulas and look for something new and captivating after a while.

And going to the cost aspect. I can understand that we have not adjusted the pricing of games for inflation in quite some time. However, I will counter that by saying the introduction of microtransactions, in game currencies, and in game storefronts have largely made up the shortfall.

If we were to move to a more rational price point for today's economy, what assurance do I have that the excessive predatory practices of current day game development go away? I already know the answer, there is zero chance. Which is why I largely do not support any sort of a price hike. We are already getting gouged and largely getting mass produced trend chasing slop which means there is no incentive for these devs to change. No sale.

I do think that there is a burgeoning AA/indie market that may help to alleviate some of the problems that some of us have with the mainstream AAA product offerings. Will that result in a renaissance of gaming in its entirety? probably a pipe dream.