{"id":530,"date":"2025-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/?p=530"},"modified":"2025-04-14T02:52:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T02:52:52","slug":"rising-costs-are-turning-video-games-into-something-only-for-the-rich-readers-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/13\/rising-costs-are-turning-video-games-into-something-only-for-the-rich-readers-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising costs are turning video games into something only for the rich \u2013 Reader\u2019s Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"Mario\t<\/div>
Could Mario Kart World end up seeming cheap? (Nintendo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A reader thinks that the video games<\/a> industry is headed for a massive price increase across the board and the Nintendo Switch 2<\/a> is only the half of it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of complaints and arguments about the price of Nintendo Switch 2 games<\/a> this week and I totally get it. \u00a375 for a physical copy of any game is an absurd amount of money to pay, even if it is technically good value for money, compared to things like going to the cinema.<\/p>\n

The problem with that is that is that even if it is good value in theory, it\u2019s still a huge chunk of money that almost anyone would think twice about paying, especially given all the money uncertainty in the news at the moment.<\/p>\n

What worries me is the idea raised by GC and others that we could be heading to a future where all games cost at least that much. That rather than Nintendo<\/a> being the most expensive they\u2019ll be leap-frogged by other publishers and still end up being the cheapest.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but I don\u2019t like the thought of a new generation of gaming where \u00a375 is \u2018cheap\u2019 or even the norm. Some triple-A games are already \u00a370 but we\u2019ve seen this week that The Last Of Us collector\u2019s edition<\/a> costs \u00a3100 and who knows what GTA 6 is going to end up as<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s pretty obvious what\u2019s going on here. The price of making games has gone up \u2013 we\u2019ve known this for years now \u2013 and what is the obvious response going to be from publishers? To decrease budgets? To make shorter games? To expand free-to-play concepts to include single-player games? No. No, they\u2019re just going to increase the price and make it our problem.<\/p>\n

That is such a dumb, unimaginative, response to a complex problem that you could\u2019ve guaranteed immediately it\u2019s what they\u2019d do.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s not a difficult issue. We all want our games to look as good as possible and to have plenty of content, but a sensible publisher would consider the negative side of that, where games take forever to make and you can only make your money back by charging through the roof.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"GTA\t<\/div>
GTA 6 will probably be more than \u00a370 too (Rockstar Games)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problems are obvious, not least the fact that this is going to push people even more to play only free-to-play games, which is what these companies were supposed to be trying to avoid. If it\u2019s a choice between a \u00a375+ game and a completely free one, that everyone is playing, the average casual gamer isn\u2019t even going to think twice.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the problem that the number of games that can justify that sort of money are very small. First party Sony games and things like Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows are one thing but who\u2019s going to spend \u00a375 on a game that got a good but not great review or which you\u2019re just not sure you\u2019ll like.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to end up with a two-lane video games industry, where triple-A games, in an increasingly small number of franchises and genres, cost \u00a375+ and indie games are \u00a320 or so at most.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s not the worst thing in the world (although I do think the originality and innovation of indie games can be overexaggerated at times) but it\u2019s going to mean so many great games are going to be out of the reach of a lot of people.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s a shame that subscription services didn\u2019t really take off but beyond that I don\u2019t really see anyone round the problem. Games are just going to get more and more expensive and the number of people that can afford to get them, as more than just the occasional luxury purchase, is going to shrink and shrink.<\/p>\n

By reader Taylor Moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"The\t<\/div>
The Last Of Us Complete isn\u2019t cheap either (Sony Interactive Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The reader\u2019s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk<\/a> or use our Submit Stuff page<\/a> and you won\u2019t need to send an email.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/12\/nintendo-repeating-old-mistakes-switch-2-readers-feature-22893614\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">Nintendo are repeating some very old mistakes with the Switch 2 – Reader’s Feature<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><title>Arrow<\/title><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/12\/ex-nintendo-fan-sells-ps5-pro-buy-switch-2-readers-feature-22893708\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">Ex-Nintendo fan sells PS5 Pro to buy Switch 2 – Reader’s Feature<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><title>Arrow<\/title><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2025\/04\/06\/solved-mid-life-gaming-crisis-retro-games-readers-feature-22854754\/?ico=more_text_links\" class=\"\">How I solved my mid-life gaming crisis with retro games \u2013 Reader\u2019s Feature<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could Mario Kart World end up seeming cheap? (Nintendo) A reader thinks that the video games industry is headed for a massive price increase across the board and the Nintendo Switch 2 is only the half of it. There\u2019s been a lot of complaints and arguments about the price of Nintendo Switch 2 games this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":535,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scubadiscounters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}