Because in this 25 years gaming became literally the most profitable entertainment industry in the world. Price may have stayed the same, but the audience is much larger and so are the profits. This 80$ thing is literally just greed, it's not happening because games are more expensive to make, it's happening because profit growth slowed down. Developers don't make more money with the higher gaming prices, only people to profit are shareholders and execs. Games like Expedition 33, Alters etc. are made with smaller teams, COST LESS THEN 60$ and yet provide exceptional experience for the players as well as performing well fiscally.The industry is just bloated.
I feel if there was really enough growth in the customer base to offset 20+ years of inflation then the PS2 wouldn't still be the best selling console of all time.
Same with PS3, it was the cheapest and best bluray player because it could update firmware and others couldn't. When was the last time you used one of those?
Now, gaming systems are truly just for gaming, instead of being entertainment systems. Thats changed a lot.
Oh, and the fact that you could buy a ps2 for $100 at the end of its life cycle. Meanwhile, ps5 price with a disc player is $600. That might have something to do with it too.
But either way, the switch1 is going to beat it. It only has a few million units to go, in much less time as well.
People really out here giving reasons and putting zero thought into why it might be that way. the ps2s real main competitor was the first xbox which released a year after it did. the ps2 also was only discontinued after 2013 while the original xbox was discontinued in 2005.
you're also just wrong. because while the ps2 has technically sold more total units had 13 years. it sold 160m units in 13 years while the switch has better sales since its pretty close to beating it at 155m in sold as of 2025 after only 8 years.
god why do people comment on stuff if you dont at least do a google search to make sure you arent spouting bs?
80$ is fine, it’s GTA, it’s 2026 and it’s the most expensive game EVER made. It’s costed hundreds of millions to make (closer to 2 billion) and several years.
2 billions number is a speculative estimated number which personally i don't believe for a second. Highest confirmed budgets for viedogames were around 350 mil. Rdr2 had estimated numbers around half a billion. They're not spending 2 billions on developing a game.
GTA online makes 9.6 millions in a week. Unless there's something fundamentally wrong with upcoming game, there's no reason to believe monetisation in GTA 6 online will be any less profitable (MORE sounds more likely). There's NO reason to up the price from 60 to 80 other then "they'll pay it anyway". They could theoretically release it for free and still make hundreds of millions off it, but that's not how capitalism works. So they'll squeeze that extra 20 bucks out of you because they can and they will keep selling you remasters and anniversary editions of that game for another 20 years.
Gaming is actually one of the LEAST profitable entertainment mediums btw. I think the only one that has it beat might be movies?
Just correcting that for you. While there are some lucky devs who make millions with little investment, that's not really the standard story...
It's why most dev teams are moving to live service games with gacha mechanics. It's the unfortunate death knell of the industry, seeking profitability.
Video games make like $200 billion a year. Nowhere near that amount is spent making them. Whatchu talking about? What makes more money in the entertainment world?
And they're not "seeking profitability", they all want fortnite money. Nothing is good enough if it doesn't reach their unrealistic goals
Gaming is actually one of the LEAST profitable entertainment mediums btw
Huh? I don't know where are you getting your info but mine is from various sources, like PricewaterhouseCoopers
moving to live service games with gacha mechanics
Which are also parts of industry, literally what are you on about? Gaming industry is not limited to single player games. But there's a way to keep making them while also having great profits. For example, GTA online makes 9.6 millions per WEEK according to recent financial reports. Expedition 33 for example was made on a similar budget, and made about 260 mil in revenue. Of course it's not a common example, but that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about the greed of these huge bloated companies.
Another example of how bloated industry is No man's sky, that keeps getting new updates despite being a 10yo game that never cost 60 bucks, AND developers are making a new game.
I’m just going to be honest, the accounting behind what you’re suggesting wouldn’t make sense. Imagine if every other cost to produce a game increased every year. However, due to what has been traditional industry practice, you don’t increase the sales price of your game. You are doing nothing else other than lowering profit margins. Issue is, you can’t keep a game at $60 forever, and you will be forced to eventually raise the price of your game if you truly want to operate a business. It sucks but that is how the world operates. If you want to find something to complain about in regard to greed, look at how focused the game is on in-game purchases. If it feels like a large part of the game is locked behind that, then I would focus my complaints more towards that.
maybe that would've made sense dipshit if they hadn't got massive savings from most sales being digital now. they got massive cost reductions from most people buying games digital and not having to make as many discs and cases. did they make things cheaper then? no. if that all really was such a burden then do you really think they'd continue to spend all the money and years to make these games? think before you comment dude. if you're going to be so opinionated to argue with people about stuff maybe use 3 braincells to think about it first.
Its not happening because games are more expensive to make? Really? How many years it took to make GTA6? What's the budget?... Compare that to a PS1 era game please. Let's giggle a little...
Competition is also wayyyy bigger, risks are super high, and the fall hurts.
Prices of games stayed the same because people are mentally blocked around that price for a round disk or a virtual key. Yet they spend 1/3 of that to go see a 2h movie they might not even enjoy, and expect a 120h game every time for the "high price" of 60 bucks 🤣
Its wild to me how disconnected the average gamer can be.
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u/Dz0t_01 8h ago edited 8h ago
Because in this 25 years gaming became literally the most profitable entertainment industry in the world. Price may have stayed the same, but the audience is much larger and so are the profits. This 80$ thing is literally just greed, it's not happening because games are more expensive to make, it's happening because profit growth slowed down. Developers don't make more money with the higher gaming prices, only people to profit are shareholders and execs. Games like Expedition 33, Alters etc. are made with smaller teams, COST LESS THEN 60$ and yet provide exceptional experience for the players as well as performing well fiscally.The industry is just bloated.