Perhaps a privileged take but I'd be completely willing to pay way more for games with no micro transactions or other "live service" BS. Like if economics make it so that it doesn't make sense to sell most high budget games for $70 without micro transactions then sell me one at $100. Video games were way more expensive when I was a kid and prices haven't risen with inflation at all. Consider that Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time retailed for $59.99 in 1998 while Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom cost $69.99 in 2023. That is a 16.7% increase over 25 years, or an average increase of 0.619% each year. Meanwhile, average CPI inflation is usually ~2% per year.
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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This sentiment for a hobby is actually insane. Press X to doubt you can get that quantity or quality of entertainment anywhere else for what.... Cents per hour in most cases?
No they don't. For every indie dev who made it there are 100s of software engineers doing some voodoo math 90 hours a week to make my triangle look cool getting paid literally half my salary.
Y'all screech and bitch constantly about an absurdly healthy and competitive industry. It's tiresome.
Last game I paid over €20 was Remnant from the ashes 2, and it was €50 with a whole year of DLC content included. Most of the games announced this week like the sequel to Kena, will buy when they are €20 too. You get the game at a fair price AND actually finished.
The only wise approach in these times of unfinished and half-assed games. Just wait a year or so. Added bonus is the discount 😊
I am too drunk to form an opinion, but sure, make games (and everything) cheaper please
Prices did just creep up over the decades. I came across an old flyer frop '93 when I was visiting my house, and there were new games in it for $20 to $30 CAD. Which was expensive, but not like today when you want to get a kid a copy of Smash for Switch and they're still retailing that for €70 over here in France (like... 9 years later).
My favourite games over the last decade have been cheapies.
Have you played Annalynn? On sale for pocket change, short, fun, challenging, cute. Getting Indie games on sale is so great, and you can replace Annalynn with any indie release you want and change the adjectives. Ant game that is made by people that clearly enjoy games is better than the monster overpriced games on store shelves.
AAA games are significantly cheaper in real terms than they were in the 90s.
30 CAD in 1993 is about 58 CAD today, and those weren't even the most expensive games in the flyer you saw then.
Especially console titles were expensive by modern standards, the main titles like Mario games retailed for something like 150 USD in 2026 dollars.
Do you know how inflation works? Cause good God this statement....
