Video Games/Pricing

Information from The State of Sarkhan Official Records

💸 $80 Games: The Corporate Gaslighting of a Generation

Or how we learned to stop owning games and love the digital leash

Here we are, fellow screen-staring, button-mashing, subscription-juggling consumers of pixelated content: $80 is the new normal. Or at least that’s what the gaming industry would really like you to believe. Don’t think — just Kl*rna it. Four easy payments, and you too can be underwhelmed by another half-baked AAA experience held together with rubber bands, microtransactions, and a prayer.

But let’s back up and ask: how did we get here?

🎮 From $60 to $70 to $80: The Boiling Frog Theory of Game Pricing

It used to be $60. That was the golden standard for AAA titles for nearly two decades. A price point that managed to balance profitability with consumer sanity. But then publishers whispered the magic word into the ears of gamers already worn down by broken launches and battle passes:

“Inflation.”

Cute. The same inflation that somehow doesn’t apply to wages or Steam regional pricing?

Meanwhile, costs are shifted to you — the customer — through:

Let’s be real: you’re not buying a game anymore. You’re leasing a “live service experience” that requires day-one patches and optional “Founder's Packs” to unlock actual content.

🎭 “But Game Dev Costs Are Up!”

Shut the fuck up and take it with your industry’s favorite sob story. Development costs are rising! Studios are struggling! Never mind the billion-dollar mergers, record profits, and golden parachutes for C-suite executives.

If we had actually seen a bump in quality alongside the price hike, this might be forgivable. But what we’re getting instead is:

  • Half-finished games pushed out to meet fiscal quarters
  • Day-one DLC that feels like it was carved out of the base game
  • Live service models that treat your wallet like a renewable resource
  • “Next-gen” versions that are just shinier with more bugs

Where’s that $20 extra per game going?

Because it sure as hell isn’t going to QA testing.

📦 Console Peasants Get the Short End (and Pay for the Stick Too)

PC players can at least mod, troubleshoot, and wait for Steam Sales. But console players?

You:

  • Pay $500+ for the console
  • Get forced into Xbox Live or PS Plus
  • Still pay full price for digital games
  • And have zero resale rights because it’s all just a license now

Congratulations! You just spent $80 for the privilege of being DRM-locked and server-dependent.

And if you do buy physical? Half the time it’s just a disc with a 10MB bootloader that starts the 80GB download.

🐢 The Patient Gamer Wins

While Day-One Danny is paying $80 to beta test for the devs, the Patient Gamer is chilling.

One year later:

  • That $80 game is $19.99 on Steam.
  • All the major patches have been released.
  • Most of the DLCs are bundled in.
  • And if the game sucked? You found out without paying.

It’s not even a flex anymore — it’s just basic self-respect.

📉 Only Corporations Win at $80

Let’s break it down:

  • You pay more.
  • You get less.
  • You’re trained to think that’s just “the industry now.”
  • They get record profits.
  • And your complaints are drowned out by day-one hype cycles and sponsored streamers who got the game for free.

Publishers say it’s about “keeping up with costs.”

Funny, because Steam’s suggested regional prices say otherwise. Games meant to cost $10 in Southeast Asia are being sold for $30+ because the publisher unchecked the “follow regional suggestions” box in their dashboard. It’s not inflation — it’s predation.

✅ What Should a Game Cost?

Let’s keep it simple:

  • $60 should be the standard for AAA games.
  • If you’re charging $80, that game better be complete, optimized, and worth it.
  • If it’s broken, unfinished, or held hostage by a battle pass? It shouldn’t even be on shelves.

🛒 Final Thoughts: Don’t Preorder, Don’t Comply, Just Wait

Stop letting your need for FOMO be weaponized against your wallet.

You don’t need to play on Day One.

You don’t need to pay $80 to get the “deluxe” version that unlocks a few skins and a weapon that’ll be nerfed next patch.

Let the dust settle. Let the patches patch. Let the YouTubers scream.

Then, wait for the Steam Sale, grab it at 75% off, and enjoy the actual finished version.

Because no corporation deserves your blind compliance — especially not for $80.

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