For the record I agree with everything you wrote.
since that is illegal, I’m pretty sure thats not what is happening.
Honestly, I kinda wish game prices would rise a bit, so that we could avoid the all the lootbox shenanigans. Its amazing how long the pricing has been at the same level, or even a big higher back in the day in Denmark at least, than it is today. Especially given how much manpower is poured into some of these games.
Then again, seeing how big business games are today, increased pricing would probably not do away with loot boxes.
I think its good on Paradox to experiment with pricing - the games business needs to evolve away from lootboxes so anything that helps that, is good.
The whole “I don’t want to pay full price” we see everywhere really doesn’t help either. Not that I dont understand it, but it doesnt help the business.
Price fixing happens. Greed is a strong motivator if companies think they can get away with it. Look at the ebook price fixing collusion case that happened fairly recently as an example. Apple paid a $450 million fine for that little piece of work. Hands may not get slapped for it as often as they should, but it happens.
I really, really doubt there is a conspiracy amongst all the game developers to fix pricing. That would be immensely stupid - Very few companies can afford to pay the fines, like Apple can.
Sure - it happens, but thats not what we are seeing here. I do think its the right move to not dump prices to 80 percent, like we used to see. That road leads to what we have now - people clamoring that every damn thing should be free, or a game is “a 5 buck game”.
We need to pay more for our games.
Absolutely, I agree. In the gaming industry, that would be like trying to herd cats. I was just pointing out that being illegal is not a very strong argument for it not happening because clearly it has. And ebook publishing does have a few similarities with the game publishing industry.
Ah, sorry - I misunderstood then. Love the “herding cats” analogy! Never heard that before :-D
For you!
In an overly simplified manner, it’s a demand curve issue. That’s why prices are so similar, not collusion.
Likewise, the notion that we need to spend more on games is overly simplified. Sure, more money flowing into the game development market is better for the game development market (unintended consequences notwithstanding), but that also means less money flowing elsewhere and causing harm to those markets. If the solution is buy fewer games, then that’s less recipients of the money which in turn causes harm to any industry, and I’d argue especially so to a creative one.
Hum, yeah, because something being illegal means no one is doing it.
Right I was wondering about the common delivery mechanism involved, not the developers themselves.
I got that- Steam is a big business, and trying to get a ton of people to stay at a certain price range WOULD get out, and as such, it being illegal, would not be something Steam would try.
Or, am I misunderstanding what you say about delivery mechanisms again?
Yeah, it’s steam I’m thinking of here. It’s just struck me as interesting how over the last couple of sales the pricing for pretty much everything in their catalog pulled back a notch. In what appeared to me at least a very calculated way. Everything I saw previously that was 75% off is now say 60 or maybe 66 off. Like we’re talking even the very same games mind you, which is particularly odd because they would necessarily be either 6 months or a year older yet cost more in the last couple of rounds of steam sales.
That’s rather curious.
I think Steam will help publishers set their price. Since Steam is the big dog they don’t need to collude with others. The price on their platform is the default price. We’ve seen others come in and offer better prices. But, even GreenManGamings prices aren’t as good as they used to be, but that is probably a response to their price not needing to be as good to complete with Steam.
Rising game prices would mean higher prices and the same shenanigans.
I have no problem with reasonable DLC- AOW3 DLC was very reasonable. What Stardock does DLC-wise is fine, especially with the $100 Founder’s editions (if Paradox did that I’d be fine with their model)
Paradox crosses the line.
I do think Valve forces some devs to price things higher than they want- I’ve heard multiple stories of this. There’s a legit concern about race to the bottom- but once things are used to a certain price, making them pay more is difficult.
It definitely makes PC gaming less attractive as an option.
I think you are being very naive as to how price fixing works in reality. No, companies do not get together at a big meeting and say, “Let’s fix prices.” They use more subtle methods to communicate and establish price floors and the like. That is why it is so difficult to prevent.
I think the issue is that I don’t really think there’s much more money to be extracted from gamers. We’ve seen out backlogs grow with similar games with the same grind year after year, and while they’re a lot shinier and thus more expensive, how much does that add? Oh look, all these boring towers to climb/planets to scan/monsters to hunt/bullet sponges to shoot… yawn. And while PDX’s 3d models are nice, I’m not going to zoom in just to watch them, I’m playing a serious map painting game here!
There might be a lot people who care about 120fps 4k gaming, I’m sure this has come up on this site, can someone enlighten me on numbers?
Skinner boxes allowed them to extract a bit more after the big market expansion, but IMO, purchasing power isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I don’t think it’s sustainable as is.
As to collusion, I’m more concerned about the 30% digital shelf space cost, I don’t think that’s anywhere near infrastructure cost.
If there was competition in the DD space, these margins would go down, but consumers wouldn’t see the benefit, and customers in the PC space like a single dominant provider (Valve)
Valve also is smart enough to know how much they can rock the boat.
Not strictly related, but your post reminded me of this:
pretty much
I have to ask if this is just a very vocal minority, and the majority are happily, quietly, playing your game somewhere.
Back on topic, whatever TS are working on, I’m confident it’ll be worth my attention.