Games

For the GTA delay, if it is so they can release a less bug filled finished product instead of the usual AAA strategy as of late of throwing whatever out and maybe kinda patching it later on, then good on them for doing it how it should be done. I probably won't buy it either way since I haven't cared for the tone of any of the GTA games since San Andreas personally, but for the people that will it is a good thing.

As for the price of games in general. I'm not opposed to theoretically paying $80, or even more, for a game I deem worth that kind of money. Never have been. The issue is 99% of the time the games in question aren't worth that kind of money. As an example, I am a Hitman fan. Over the course of the varies releases since 2016 to what is now just called Hitman: World of Assassination, I have spent well over $100 for maps and content. And I don't regret it because the end result is a huge game that I have gotten untold hours of enjoyment out of over the last ~9 years.

The AAA players have simply started to price themselves out of their own market, and smaller players have started to fill the void they left behind.

Just like other aspects of commerce, we’ll see what the market does. I hate to say it that way, but that’s simply how it works. Look at what’s happening to McDonalds right now. They’ve been raising prices for years, now tariffs have made things even worse, and people have responded accordingly and go to McDonalds less. Ball is in their court.

Another good example is the recent news about Beyoncé no longer filling major concert venues. I know there’s a lot of factors going on in these situations, but the truth at the core of it is that prices finally went up to a point where a not insignificant portion of her audience noped out of the transaction. Simple commerce.

I’ve only bought one $80 game thus far (And that was during a 30% steam sale so only $55) and from my years of experience of buying games, I can confidently say that my enjoyment in games goes down as price goes up.

Although weirdly all of the $80 games that released so far have been pretty bad so that’s strange.

I will continue to wait until games go on discount

That's basically what I've been saying ever since the switch 2 announcement, I'm glad I can just copy the Sources from this article to support my intuition. Thank you, Superjoost!

What AAA title is worth $80? The most time I spend gaming is in a 10 year old shooter, and an indie survival game. Both of which I bought for <$20.

I made a rule that I can't spend over $10 on a game until I've played through my entire backlog. I haven't bought a game over $10 in 10 years and I've spent $6k on Steam since I started using it.

I pirate games first before buying. Too many games become shit past the return window on Steam. I buy every game I like.

I have 170 games in my backlog and the summer sale is coming. I ain't spending 80 bucks on one video game.

I think Titanfall 2 is still on sale on steam for uh... 5 dollars.

Its got Northstar, a custom client that allows for private multiplayer servers... also works on linux, literally has its own custom proton version.

Oh and there are mods as well, guided installers, mod managers, etc, for windows and linux.

Runs great on a steam deck!

... and looks ... basically the same as a shooter from 10 years later, at least at 1280 x 800?

(its built on a custom forked version of the portal 2 source engine, so it actually runs efficiently and looks good =D)

Doesn't have a huge playerbase, but it is decent enough that you can probably find a few well populated servers, at least in NA region.

... looks like titanfall 3 got turned into an extraction shooter and then cancelled.

So anyway yeah, hilariously its time to return to tradition for enthusiasts of many old school competetive games from before the bullshit of endless battlepasses and MTX kicked into high gear... and as others have pointed out, the indie scene is full of gems.