Lethal company, Pacific Drive, Helldivers 2, balatro… so many good indie* games for $10 to $40 while these $70 games are burning in. All of them overwhelmingly positive too. Really makes you think about the games market and the ones who are actually taking risks and innovating.
*Helldivers isn’t indie, but I also wouldn’t describe them as AAA either.
Helldivers studio is about 100 people, they’re closer to indie than AAA.
Cool, I may try in the future when Epic offers it for free.
I said that about the new Saints Row. Then when it was free, I still didn’t.
I don’t even trust that they will leave the servers up so people can play online so 40% off is still to high. Even 70%.
If this isn’t a sign of market difficulties, I’m not sure what would be.
A sign of a bad game?
This game is hardly the only one being discounted heavily and early on in it’s life cycle, it’s just the most egregious example that I’m aware of.
Any massively popular titles being discontinued heavily and early that you can think of?
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 55% off right now (Steam)
Street Fighter 6 44% off right now (Fanatical)
Starfield 33% off right now (40%, microsoft store, Feb 8 2024)
Fairing a little bit better than the above:
Resident Evil 4 Remake 25% off right now (Steam)
Persona 3 Reload 15% off right now GameBillet
Baldur’s Gate 3 10% off historically (10%, gog, Dec 21 2023)
These are just the ones I’m familiar with off the top of my head. Of them, only Baldur’s Gate 3’s discount levels are what I would call “healthy”. 10% for Christmas and no discount since means it’s doing well.
I’d say anything under 30% is simply a reflection of how high the profit margins are for sellers. Seeing as 30% is the industry fee tacked onto titles by storefronts.
Star Wars, Starfield (Not a good game at all), Resi, and Persona are all ‘free’ on GamePass. So they’ve most likely already made their expected profit from sales if going that route was the more profitable decision. That really just leaves SF6, which these days isn’t that strong a franchise and fighting games are niche.
Videogames are the largest entertainment industry in the world, dwarfing books, film, and music. The industry is seeing record profits year-on-year. Add to that gaming being one of the most resilient entertainment forms during economic downturns due to its price-to-hour ratio, I don’t see these discounts being a reflection of market difficulties.
Didn’t DLC and MTX come about because consumers wouldn’t accept a rise in sticker price for games?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, either, you may very well have a point. I’m just having a hard time reconciling “We added DLC in order to make more money since we can’t raise the sticker price” with “30% discounts are a reflection of how high the profit margins are for sellers”
They came out because the rise of the Internet made it possible and companies found new ways to make more money.
Horse armour wasn’t about recouping costs.
Diablo 4 got 40% off within a few months I find AAA games are increasingly starting with a high price point to capitalize on the hype and advertising campaign, and once that peters out they quickly reduce the price.
Wasn’t Diablo 4 kinda trash as well? Just looking on steam and it’s rated mixed, with people complaining about the monetisation of the game.
It’s a shame what Blizzard has become, because they used to make amazing games.
Anthem? Immortals of Avuem? Starfield? Forspoken? Pretty much every bad game discounts early, because word of mouth spreads, independent reviewers review, amd sales plummet. Even Starfield had a 25% discount about a month after release once people realized the magic was missing.
Did you just call anthem a “massively popular title”
Ah shit, youre right. Must of misread it.
Then Just Starfield I think.
massively popular
Pretty much every bad game discounts early
We’re saying the same thing. Bad games drop in price early.
literally couldn’t pay me to play it
I’d like to see them try, though…
Big budget triple-A games don’t typically see such steep discounts so soon after launch,
Didn’t this just happen with WB last Batman game that didn’t have Batman in it?
Like just a year or so ago?
Same thing happened to D4 and starfield.
