Submitted 3 days ago by ampersandrew@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
Xbox first party titles expected to hit $80 USD this holiday; Game Pass pricing currently unchanged.
It's strange really. You can buy 4 extremely good indie games for the price of one game. And that's at a 20 each.
And with steam sales and sharing...valve is fun.
Trying to raise the “standard” price to $80 will have very nice ripple effects of more pricing diversity, where each game will really consider what it’s actually worth, which we haven’t had for a long time. Even now we’re getting first-party Microsoft titles releasing at $20, $30, and $50.
I think all it will do is raise the ceiling of what publishers are willing to price games at. If they think they can get away with it, they’ll charge $80 instead of $70, with the rest being $70 and less just like it already is now.
Steam doesn’t advertise at the scale of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. It won’t have a ripple effect because it won’t change the degree to which artificial hype drives people towards the “Buy” button.
Yeah Ex33 at $50 to me was a welcome surprise
How much is Factorio worth though, everything?
you dont own those games brotherman
Not ALL steam games have DRM. Yes, you should buy from GOG whenever you can, but if you use Linux like me, GOG doesn’t give a shit. It can be hard to decide, support DRM free games and proper ownership with GOG, or expanding compatibility with Linux and improve it in general. If its cheaper on steam cause of a sale or something, I’ll buy on steam, then years later like with DOOM 2016 for example, I’ll buy it when it hits like 4 bucks on gog. That way, I have acces to an offline installer, and I show support and interest to valve for investing in proton.
I’d almost argue the same with modern consoles with all the crappy digital bullshit and planned obsolescence
To run the games i wanna play would require a pc worth 3 ps5s
You can also tweak the graphics settings and get a budget PC.
You can play other games, there is so much to choose from just drop the expensive ones.
That’ll fix their record low sales!
“Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some cash for our console, it’s called xCloud”
Thank you so fucking much Nintendo for upping the standard and the everyone else falling in line
Valve hasn’t gotten the memo yet. Someone email them again?
No no no no someone stop them !
I think it was actually publishers like EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard, and Activision that started the price increase. For big titles they started raising them to $70 a year or two ago, then to 80. I think I remember Diablo 4 launching for $80, or so.
I only know this because I refuse to buy from these publishers.
We’re consoles supposed to be the cheaper, more convenient option?
They were until an orange bitch started a trade war. Now everything is going to be too expensive, consoles and PCs alike.
To be fair, the trade war was going on long before trump enacted tariffs.
If you ever saw someone spreading FUD about Huawei or Tiktok, it’s because they’re peddling rhetoric put their by our rulers to stoke the fires.
I mean, barring Nintendo, they still are and will continue to be as long as you don’t need to have games on day one. I very rarely spend more than $20 on Xbox games. Most AAA games go on sale within the first few months. $70 Ubisoft titles will literally be $15 a month after release, not that Ubisoft makes much worth buying these days but it was just an example. The digital storefronts (again, not Nintendo) have sales constantly, you just need a little impulse control.
As we are all switching from Windows to Linux, I’m actually surprised Microsoft is doing this. I guess they really don’t want to be competitive in the consumer market anymore. I guess they are making enough money through military contracts now that they don’t need to cater to us.
We all? I mean, I have, but we represent single digit percentages of the market, which is why they keep shoving more bullshit into Windows that no one wants, because hardly anyone leaves Windows. The most that this affects Linux gamers is if you like their controllers or individual games that they publish, but that would be the same as on Windows as well.
We all, all of me. I don’t have to care about what others are buying, because Steam and Linux is an amazing gaming experience and they’re the ones missing out. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I still use my Xbox One to play some Battlefield games. But I’m never buying a new console ever again. Fuck Microsfot. Fuck Sony. And you know what Nintendo fuck you too. Price gouging, greedy fucks the lot of them. PC+emulators is now the way to go, fuck all these greedy companies.
Wait till you find out about Nvidia and AMD
Unfortunately greed is rampant in the PC market, too.
Well, that settles it. $80 games is going to be the new standard and Sony will quickly trail along. Oh well, nothing much has changed for patient gamers.
$80 on release day. $60 a month later. $40 a year later. $20 a year after that.
What you’re paying for isn’t the game, its the hype. An enormous component of a modern AAA game’s budget is just advertising. That’s what your $80 is going towards. You’re paying to have people tell you to buy it.
Even assuming you don’t feel like pirating… Just be patient, play something that came out a few years ago, wait for the next Steam Sale, and own the game for pennies on the dollar.
An enormous component of anything is advertising, I don’t see your point.
I agree with the first paragraph, not the ones after
Yeah, buy most games at half price or less, fully patched up and with all the DLCs. Such a joy!
Oh well, nothing much has changed for patient gamers.
Aye. I wait until games are finished before torrenting them.
Feels good being off the consumer bandwagon. Games are coming out faster than I can beat the ones that came out years ago. I have enough digital entertainment for the rest of my life without ever having to spend a dime.
PC Linux Sales
I didnt know Linux manufactured solid controllers. Can you link me one? /s
Like for real: Xbox Controllers are actually good.
8bitdo controllers are fucking amazing.
Wish I could agree, but the consistently broken bumpers really irritate me.
I have gone through probably 20ish Xbox controllers, the 360 controllers were the most durable (except the stick rubber bit) whereas the core and series controllers and even my elite 2 controllers have all had the bumpers break or otherwise stop functioning.
I replaces the bumpers several times manually, then with the elite 2 they changed the design but now it breaks at the actual button instead of the flimsy plastic piece like on the core/series controllers.
Luckily putting some ISO on the button and throughly cleaning it along with sticking a small piece of paper near the actuator seems to have fixed it for several months.
I would love a solid controller with Xbox style layout (particularly the thumbsticks) replaceable sticks and 4 back paddles. I think the Playstation TouchPad would also be a welcome addition for PC navigation or steam input mapping.
Playstation controllers have more features though, and arguably better Linux support.
So are the vastly more affordable 8BitDo controllers!
Oh no.
Anyway.
Thank you Microsoft, for taking pressure off Nintendo. 😛
The difference is: Microsoft and Sony 1st party titles go on sale and eventually come down in price over time.
Nintendo first party titles are always full price, even for 5 year old games.
Try 10 years! I went on the Wii-U shop right before it shut down. Zelda et al still $50. Insane.
Yup. The reality, while shitty, Microsoft still publishes games on multiple platforms (2 at minimum - PC and xbox). On PC, the games are sold on multiple storefronts with varying discounts and sales.
Nintendo has a complete monopoly on the platform they publish for and completely control the prices.
For me, all these price increases are doing is moving me more towards PC. And to a larger degree off AAA titles all together.
Fuck the US for inflicting this on the rest of the world.
At least the ones that voted the orange guy.
I wonder if the price increase will be spent on making a chart that tells me which XBox is which?
I don’t know exactly when I got old, but I feel angry every time Xbox reminds me that I’m too old to know which is which.
There has always been an inherent value to consoles but if that goes away then I can genuinely see them dying off. Personally I thinks the current gen is a huge disappointment anyway and this news just makes it even more ridiculous.
I’ve always been a console peasant for the convenience of having a dedicated gaming device hooked up to the TV that uses a controller as well as the ability to trade in games when I’m done with them, not to mention consoles are cheaper than comparable PCs. I do have a decent PC, but I find I rarely play through entire games when I have to sit at a desk to do so. With digital games looking like the only game in town in the future and consoles being walled gardens with no other places to buy games for them, that cost advantage will be gone and it will be cheaper in the long run to pay more up front for a PC and get games cheaper. I got a Steam Deck recently, and it’s been a great showcase for how a PC hooked up to the TV using only a controller can work. I had no idea Steam had such a robust system for remapping controllers and have been able to play games with them that would have been a huge hassle before.
If Sony does away with physical games like Nintendo is come the PS6, I’m definitely switching to PC gaming.
To be fair PC gaming is a whole different monster to deal with because of the extortionate prices of new hardware and extreme consumerism.
I just want to play games and not be a target for all these companies :/
And you may ask yourself “my god! Where are the games?”
ARGGGGHH ya filthy vermin 😂 Fuck your subscriptions. 10tb checking in.
A 2TB Xbox Series X now costs more than a PS5 Pro (in the US at least).
That is mental. Xbox hardware division must be bleeding money hand over fist. I honestly doubt they’ll do another generation, and stick to trying to monetise GamePass through PC and streaming. Maybe you’ll even see GamePass for PS6 since they own so many studios now.
They’ll only get Game Pass on PlayStation with Sony’s blessing, which is unlikely. And the next Xbox will just be a PC. I don’t think any of the consoles are in the market of selling units at a loss anymore. Those days are done. So with tariffs and inflation, this is the only way it could go.
EA Play is on PS5.
Assuming MS exit the console market, I don’t see why Sony wouldn’t allow it (as long as they get their pound of flesh from every sale of it). They’d basically just be another publisher.
Steam can’t release a “console” soon enough.
Thousands of them already exist. They’re called PCs.
Millions you mean.
There’s some nuance.
And if you want that SteamOS experience; Bazzite and ChimeraOS is nice
You can connect the deck to your tv if you want a “console” experience.
I did that at my friends place: Worked very good. Screen was turned off and connected my xbox controller.
Minor nitpick: If it’s connected via a powered dock they should circumvent the battery.
It ain’t powerful enough for modern titles sadly. I’m trying to say that there’s a space where Valve made steam machine with niceties of SteamOS and power of say PS5 can really thrive.
The tariff situation makes it a bad idea to release or even announce new hardware right now. What they should do is finish Steam OS so they can officially release it for all platforms.
Microsoft may as well just cancel their whole Xbox hardware business. Xbox Series is a secondary market for Microsoft games after PlayStation and any console successor they release is going to limp to the starting line. At least the XSX had hype from the Bethesda acquisition and previous Obsidian/Inxile/etc acquisitions
Really we all need a Steam Deck 2 and a stronger Valve produced Strix Halo mini-PC
The last three games I paid for were Minecraft, Factorio and Dwarf Fortress (pre-Kitfox).
I haven’t needed a new one since that.
And the amount of money I spend on Xbox consoles, controllers, and games will be unchanged this year.
My last Xbox was Xbox one. Never going back.
Old games are better anyway. Covid knocks off two IQ points every time you catch it, and it shows in the quality of software these days.
Even though I stopped buying new games on Xbox for sometime now, numerous reasons to boycott Microsoft I’m sure you have yours too. There is still probably another Xbox console or two in my life due to the over 300 game digital library I have accumulated over three generations due to Xbox Live Gold and Microsoft Rewards.
After my series s becomes irrelevant, I’m switching to a PC.
Slowly being turned towards the sea
porthos@startrek.website 3 days ago
That is because the job of gamepass isn’t to make money, it is to funnel customers into subscription services and destroy the idea that people buy games from artists.
simple@lemm.ee 3 days ago
Correction: It is to make money, but the goal is to get people to subscribe now then jack up the prices once people start relying on it.
slimerancher@lemmy.world 3 days ago
It’s a long con.
samus12345@lemm.ee 3 days ago
It’s already happened and will happen again.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 days ago
They’ve already plateaued and basically admitted to it. It’s a large revenue stream that’s not as large as they thought it would be, so now they’re going to coast with it and rely on just being a massive publisher instead.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 days ago
People never bought music from artists.
They bought it from record labels.
Whenever you see an artist complain they had a million streams and made twenty dollars, it’s not Spotify that’s keeping it all.
pulido@lemmings.world 2 days ago
It’s happening across the board at every industry.
Rather than try to appeal to a larger audience, they’ve found it’s more profitable to take greater advantage of an ever-shrinking pool of saps.
Mark my words, they legitimately don’t want the business of people with standards or self-respect. They want to cultivate communities where the only participants are Stockholm Syndrome victims and their abusers.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
“Artists” lol.
The ratio is 100:1 (1 being an actual artist or a studio still enacting on this believe)
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 days ago
Renting games and music seems like a bad idea to me, but I am in the minority. Buy a new album once a month for $8, after a year I have 12 albums. Pay that to spotify and I have nothing.
Gamepass is priced more aggressively at $12/mo, but I assume it’s a loss so they can eventually raise prices. Even so, if I buy a new somewhat discounted game for $36 every three months, after a year I have four games. With gamepass, I’m pretty sure I end up with nothing.
But I don’t think humans are known for long term thinking.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 2 days ago
GamePass used to be such a good value, but it’s gotten so overpriced. I’d rather keep the money and spend it on a few games a year I get to keep. Plus, not being available on Linux and/or Steam Deck makes it easier to ignore. Never going back to Windows.
TwinTitans@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Yeah, subscriptions are trash. Will be glad to see it go when it finally does.