Video game price attrition is getting ridiculous

As of this post, both Gotham Knights and Callisto Protocol have received their first significant discounts. Both have barely passed their first 30 days of release. Even Sonic Frontiers (which unlike the two games mentioned is outstanding) got a cut less than 30 days from release.

The lesson? Unless it’s a Nintendo game, anyone who buys a game at launch is a fool.

>Buying games at release is foolish

In this point of time, Yes exactly, i just wait a while for the price to go down before i buy a game, in the PS2- Ps3 era i used to buy games in their release week, but that changed with the PS4 era, only game i bought in release was RDR2 was it a good decision? Yes the game was good it deserved the 60$, but now with PS5 era, It's obvious game companies put thier complete focus on money, and forgot that the people who bought it, were actually trying to have fun with it, game companies do give a flying frick about the enjoyment.

@masterkiller103:

Yeah back in the PS2 ps3 era games were not patched up after launch. Especially during the ps2 era, they had to make a complete product or else they would be in big doodoo. There were ps3 games getting updates through the internet but those were mostly online parts of the game. They really need to go back to that type of approach, keep the single player type of games off the internet.

Extra ridiculous now that they're trying to normalize the price of 70 dollars for games. Or even 80 (Square Enix). Plus microtransactions on that.

A good rule would be to never pay more than 40 bucks for a new game.

Anyone paying $70 bucks for a video game in general is a fool I don't care if that shit is Half Life 3.

Bingo, there's no point in paying 70$ for a video game, even for a hardcore gamer, it's stupid.

Callisto Protocol wasn't that expensive over here on release, it's a shame to anyone who paid a premium price because the game is such a disappointment. Spend your money wisely period and avoid the game till it's on bargain shelves, and even then I'd recommend other games.

If nothing else my experience with the game can be used to help others avoid Callisto Protocol.

Yeah I bout a few games at launch for the PS5 only to realize I could have saved $10-$20 if I waited a few weeks. Now I usually wait for atleast 6 months if not a year before buying the game. I have enough on my backlog to keep me busy anyways. I will be pre ordering Diablo IV though, hopefully it’s worth it lol.

this is the way the market goes. If a game isn't making much money at the original price, then guess what happens? Price cut. Market sets the price, not the developers and publishers.

so far this gen I bought 3 launch games at launch for 70.

god of war ragnorak (65 hours)

horizon forbidden west (135 hours)

ratchet and clank rift apart (35 hours platinumed it)

I feel like I got my moneys worth.

30 hours or more. if not 30 hours it should not be 70 bucks at launch.

why im glad miles was not 70 bucks.

Hasn't Gotham Knights been out for over two months?

I very rarely pay full price for a game. I usually wait until it's half off on a Steam sale before I even consider it. Here's the thing, I'm not a kid anymore that has to have the newest game on release, because I have no good reason to. Games launch buggy and need day 1 patches and glitches ironed out for almost every new big budget game.

Why would I pay full price for something that, 6 months down the road, will be half price, have multiple patches added, and most likely include the post launch DLC they added to get more money out of early purchasers? The game's not going anywhere, it won't mysteriously disappear in a year post launch, and if it did, you just dodged a bullet.

Bide your time = buy more games

new games are getting too expensive... some are $90 CAD now. I'm not paying that lol, possible others aren't either so they are forced to reduce prices sooner to boost sales

why?

+1.

i've been warning people against it too. that is a game with major, major problems. such a shame, all that wasted potential

$70 dollars for a video game IMO is a scam.

I wouldn't count $10 or less on a $70 game as a significant discount. Callisto Protocol is still close to launch price, but Gotham Knights tanked by quite a bit, for sure.

But I agree, I rarely by games Day 1. Heck I don't usually get to a marquee game until 6-12 months. I'm content w/playing games well after launch.

@Macutchi: Agreed, it's a shame CP turned out the way it did. Went off the spoiler/ marketing radar in hopes it would go well and not ruin my playthrough. Now wish I looked at all the signs to its troubled development.

I'll give Striking Distance credit to try something different but I think they went too far off the deep-end and never considered if what they're developing is enjoyable.

It is probably the worst game I played in 2022, not because it's a buggy mess, but because they went beyond themselves and ended up with a repetitive, boring, and grossly linear experience.

Try my best to admit and say 'not every game is for me', yet I honestly believe Callisto Protocol is not designed for anyone in mind. Not in anyway that benefits the customer. It is not a fun game in any regard, it is painful to finish this game on many levels.

Presentation is the only positive the game has to offer and it's not as though great looking horror games are rare.

Whelp hope the next one turns out good_

I support games I want to at launch. Cheapening out to try to save a little bit of money actually hurts the developer and the industry.

im with you in general in that games are expensive these days. there's very few games i'd be willing to pay £70 for (which is about $85 so even more expensive for us). but for hl3 i would pay £70 in a heartbeat. day one. minute one. take my fckin money gabe lol.

maybe you wouldn't be tempted, say, if gta vi hype was off the charts, was getting 10s everywhere, said to have an amazing sp but was launching at $70. maybe you'd be ok with not playing it at launch and having to swerve spoilers on the internet for months waiting / hoping for a price drop, and maybe that would be worth it to you for the $20-30 you'd save, eventually.

but if you gave in and bought it day one, that doesn't make you a fool it's just, relative to you and your taste, $70 is an acceptable price to pay for that particular piece of entertainment at that particular time (i.e. launch). it's all relative

@RSM-HQ said:

@Macutchi: Agreed, it's a shame CP turned out the way it did. Went off the spoiler/ marketing radar in hopes it would go well and not ruin my playthrough. Now wish I looked at all the signs to its troubled development.

I'll give Striking Distance credit to try something different but I think they went too far off the deep-end and never considered if what they're developing is enjoyable.

It is probably the worst game I played in 2022, not because it's a buggy mess, but because they went beyond themselves and ended up with a repetitive, boring, and grossly linear experience.

Try my best to admit and say 'not every game is for me', yet I honestly believe Callisto Protocol is not designed for anyone in mind. Not in anyway that benefits the customer. It is not a fun game in any regard, it is painful to finish this game on many levels.

Presentation is the only positive the game has to offer and it's not as though great looking horror games are rare.

Whelp hope the next one turns out good_

100% with you.

i rode it out not due to enjoyment but more due to morbid curiosity just to see where it would go. plus it was a xmas present so i felt obligated too lol.

besides admiring the technical quality of the visuals (artistically i thought it was run of the mill, but the detail on the character models, for example, was excellent), there was very little to enjoy about it throughout, and some bits were just downright awful. combat was like a qte just without the onscreen prompts.

it's like someone thinking they can bake a cake by ignoring the recipe and just taking a list of ingredients, chucking them all into a pan, popping it in the oven for a few hours and hoping a tasty cake comes out. it feels a bit like what striking distance have done here. not really understood what makes a good game and so instead focused just on the ingredients. took like 50% of dead space, a bunch of horror and movie game tropes, chucked them all in the pan together and hoped the result would be a tasty third person cinematic horror game. it did not taste good, sadly lol

I knew a couple friends in high school back in 2006-2010 that had waited several years to even touch any of the ps2 games and by that point in time about 2007, they were picking these games up at dirt cheap prices. They didn't care that they hadn't played Mafia 1 on release but when they paid a fraction of the price and were then blown away by it, it was the best of both worlds: playing really great games at extremely low prices.

I can't exactly follow that myself because at some point I'm going to break down and buy the game, but I sure as hell am not paying $70 or even $60 anymore for any game nowadays. I wait for sales or use gift cards I saved from B-days and Christmas and with how extremely picky I am, it works for me as I don't buy a bunch of games every month like I used to back then.

Times change so I gotta adapt or else I'm gonna stay a fool blowing hard-earned money on every new game like I'm 15 again. Just doesn't make sense to do that anymore.

For me it's a matter of principle it doesn't make a difference what the game is.

@warmblur: what's the principle? and where's the line for you when it becomes ok? $60? $50?

This is why I think the PS3 was the best console ever.

For me $60 bucks was the last straw anything higher is ridiculous. You have to keep in mind also that there was no reason to raise the price to $70 bucks it was out of pure greed. These AAA publishers make millions off of microtransactions/lootboxes etc..

I remember Ps2 games being 39.99 to 49.99. gamnes are nearly $70 now for a standard edition! i cant complain though i mainly play free to play games now lol

Yet another sign that games are too expensive to create and priced too high at retail.

Looking at last year I bought Horizon Forbidden West for $32 digitally and that launched in February 2022. I am fine waiting for games to drop in price over a year. I remember Borderlands 3 launched and I was tempted to get it. But waited for the Season Pass and then the second one and the directors cut mode, etc. Ended up getting it for under $30 on sale which would have costed me more at launch. I have enough games in my backlog to keep me busy till next year. I did buy God of War Ragnarok for Christmas and that costed me $80 though that's the last game I buy at launch.

I even remember as a kid that N64 games were $59.99 and that was insane back then for a cartridge. Games do cost more money to produce and I can understand why the price went up but then you see games that don't sell well even with a price increase of $70.