A lot of games priced at $70 right now are having a rough go of it, so charging more on top of that isn’t going to help, but there are the likes of South of Midnight and Clair Obscur launching at $50. If your game isn’t as hot of a commodity as Mario Kart, you’re probably going to try to lure people in with a lower price.
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.
You haven’t even played the games I mentioned. How on earth would you know? Also, take a look at the credits of Crash Bandicoot, and learn something about how games are made. 84 people, including the publisher and marketing. Naughty Dog itself was only 9 people. Here’s Indika, a cinematic puzzle/story game, not a far cry from 2018’s God of War without the combat, an indie game from last year; the development studio dwarfs Naughty Dog from the 90s. UFO 50 is an indie game from last year that has 50 full, new, original games contained in it, designed to portray a fictional game development studio’s catalog from the 80s. It was made by 6 people over the course of 7 years. And I’m clueless, huh?
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.
The Metal Gear Solid games are some of my favorites, and I’ve played all of them. If you’re referring to the PS1 Crash Bandicoot games, those were made with similar team sizes and “levels of effort” as most games that would be called “indie” are today, for very similar economic reasons. Blue Prince was made over the course of 8 years largely by one person, and I guarantee you he wasn’t trying to find a way to make bank by doing little effort; a famous development talk pointed out that people getting into game development to make big bucks with little effort would have been better off opening a Subway franchise instead. Balatro was also made largely by one person, and it was a nominee for Game of the Year last year. Split Fiction was made with a team size and project scope reminiscent of MGS2 or 3, and it too will be a Game of the Year contender.
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.
It’s fine if you’re completely ignorant of the great games that have come out lately, but I wouldn’t consider it admirable to be proud of being this ignorant about great games or how they’re made.
You’re not accepting more expensive entertainment either. You’re pirating it. None of these games were made with less effort; they’re typically just made by fewer people. Adding more people to the project doesn’t make the game any better, or else Ubisoft games would be the greatest games ever made. I think I see why you’ve got this perspective that’s completely divorced from reality. Yes, most games have microtransactions if you completely disregard most games. I’d encourage you to give some of those games you’re ignoring a try.
I’d say check out Case of the Golden Idol on a deep sale to test the waters. Lorelei is definitely hard mode if you’re not sure if this is something you’d want, but we found that having two people to approach solving the puzzles helped a lot.
My wife loves Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and she’s been way into Hello Kitty: Island Adventure lately. It seems to split the difference between those things and add some of its own spice on top.
That depends on what you’re looking for. From this year alone, there’s Split Fiction, Avowed, and Knights in Tight Spaces, and I haven’t finished Blue Prince yet, but it’s pretty cool so far. What is it about indie titles, however you define that term, that doesn’t interest you? Because at this point, it’s most video games (AAA games take a long, long time to make these days), and that would go a long way toward explaining how you feel most good games have microtransactions, if you’re willing to ignore most good games.
Is DLC a problem if a game had been “finished” for years and then they go back and make one for an old game? It’s been known to happen. I don’t see it as a problem, because it’s arbitrary. In many ways, a DLC can be reactionary for what a game needs after they’ve had time to observe the completed thing. It also depends on your definition of indie, since there’s as wide of a range in production value among games called “indie” as there is among “AAA”. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II probably cost one tenth what the next Grand Theft Auto cost to make, and a game like Indika or Clair Obscur could fool plenty of people into thinking they were made by enormous teams.
But like I said, even if I filtered for games without any sort of DLC, there’s still tons to play.
If you like puzzle games, you might try a game that’s not technically multiplayer but that the two of you can work on solving together, which is what my wife and I do. Good candidates for that are Case/Rise of the Golden Idol, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, and we’re currently playing Blue Prince.
I think you’re having trouble finding the good stuff in the first place then. We’re flooded with more great games than ever. And microtransactions are one thing, but something like a DLC expansion isn’t pressuring you to buy it if you like the base game. Even still, if you had a problem with the existence of any DLC for a game whatsoever, there’s still tons to play.
It was a Titanfall extraction shooter, so not the Titanfall you were looking for.
Playing through those old games now, I feel like they could use some kind of dodge move to get an escape from guaranteed damage, so if the movement does that, I’ll be happy. But those games are also littered with level designs that make you take the long way around due to a single ledge being too high, so hopefully it alleviates that problem a bit too. The Destiny personal vehicle seems like a departure from Catch a Ride, but maybe those already weren’t in 3 for all I know, and being able to spawn it out of nowhere probably is an improvement.
If you think the only way to find fantastic games without microtransactions is to pirate, then you’re missing tons of great games.
This one’s on Steam.
They can’t lay people off, so they just put them in a room with no work to do until they get so bored that they quit. It’s the same thing but different.
The breadth of the Game Pass catalog is far larger, and Microsoft isn’t exiting the console market, as much as they don’t care about exclusivity. So personally, I doubt it, but I don’t have a crystal ball.