I recently saw the announced price tag for the new generation of consoles. I’m a Playstation gamer when it comes to consoles. With the new prices and then the slowly creeping in $70 USD price tag on games that are coming out for PS5. I am slowly realizing that gaming is becoming a rich persons hobby kind of like golf, boating, etc. Consoles used to be the cheaper way for gamers to gain access to all the new titles coming out because having a PC is even pricer than a console. This is still true even in the new price arena. This is why I have come to the opinion that I have had.
Gaming companies be they console manufactures or game developers have lost touch with the lower end income markets. Long term this is going to cause a drop in their overall profits. There are a lot of people already that struggle to get one or two new games a year at the prices they currently sell for. I know that I can’t afford the new console and I would struggle to pay $70 dollars for a new title. This means that a lot of people, myself included, are going to have to wait for used versions of everything instead. Like I said it’s going to eat into profits for the makers. See the makers of games/consoles already greatly dislike the used market. They get very little if any of the profits from resale so they’d like to get rid of it. It’s one of the reasons they are pushing so hard for all digital. Then they have total control of how the consumer uses the games. In fact if you go into the small print on a digital purchase it actually says that you are paying a one time payment to LEASE the game. At anytime that they want to they can block access to redownload or even log into the game. It’s the same kind of small print on digital movie and tv show purchases.
Digital releases aren’t discounted even though there are no manufacturing costs involved with a digital version.
They are normalizing the takeover of consumer rights.
On top of this they are raising the prices of everything that can be used to game to a level that is going to become out of reach for most people unless they are married with an above minimum wage job with no children. Or higher income with children. I’ve been known on here as well is in person to get on a soap box about this kind of topic a lot. The price for a game, console, movie, etc. has increased much faster than actual inflation. Kind of like the housing prices in California. It can not sustain itself and is going to cause the market in those areas to crash or at the very least shrink down again unless they wake up.
Derek's Mindscape 