then don’t buy it
people keep buying it, so why wouldn’t they raise the price?
Typical moron gamer moment, though: Bitch about price, buy it anyway, leave a bad review at 500 hours played, and repeat next year.
They named this pathology The Maddening.
Now that FIFA’s gone, EA needs another cash cow.
Fifa isn’t gone, only the FIFA in-game branding is gone. It’s just called FC24 instead of FIFA 24.
And most of the world that plays FIFA isn’t going to play an American football game. American football is completely different and not relatable to pretty much anyone except those from USA (or maybe Canada, dunno).
The game isn’t for you.
They continue to do very little updates and charge full price because people keep buying it.
They sell like crazy. There was a chart that showed Madden selling more per year than most Nintendo games.
Sport games should be sold as game as service rather than yearly releases.
I wonder if they’d have a hard time selling a service that doesn’t include the micro-transactions.
Relying on only seasonal subscriptions is not enough. They have to sell something else és well to keep up.
Why? They’re probably making way more money this way anyways.
It’s a free market. Just don’t buy it
No game should be 70$ if you ask me
Games should not follow inflation at all?
N64 games were 50$ in the 90s, more limited releases (Ogre Battle 64 for example) were 60$.
Games pricing has stagnated, that’s good for the consumers but bad for smaller developers…
Surely the difference in overheads involved in physical vs digital would mean profits are increasing at a higher rate then sale price
Maybe, development cost hasn’t gone down though, not one bit!
Not really.
Optical discs are dirt cheap. This old answer from Quora says physical media (disc, case, artwork, inserts, etc) accounted for $2-$5 of the cost of a game.
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The medium games came in were more expensive
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The gaming audience was much smaller
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Games were only sold in stores
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If you add all the season passes you’re paying the same or even more with further microtransactions
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Games in general now have a longer shelf life
AAA games in my country have been 69,99€ since the PS3 launch and now they’re asking 79,99€. It’s true development costs have ballooned, but I just don’t think that’s a good price/time ratio and rarely do I buy games over 15€. I really don’t mind waiting a couple years.
Bad price/time ratio? I don’t know many hobbies where you’ll spend that kind of money for 100h+ of enjoyment…
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If you’re going to count in inflation then I’m going to count in the poor quality of those games
Rose tinted glasses.
Tears of the Kingdom was $70, and I honestly feel like it was worth it because it’s quite an entertaining and enthralling experience.
“Pro football video game v. 34” is probably not in the same caliber though.
TofK could be the best game ever made (and I don’t think it’s too far fetched given how good it is) and I still wouldn’t justify anything bigger than 50€, 60€ being generous.
New releases used to be £40 when I was a kid (twenty years ago), given inflation, £70 sounds not too bad.
That $40 included plastic packaging and a disc both of which largely don’t exist anymore.
And a complete game!
Never was a significant cost. So complaining, you are never going to get you 50c of plastic to burn down the planet to spite publishers.
Those cost pennies. They were never part of the cost.
Absolutely agree with you. However it’s what’s been said to people for years to justify the cost
I guess I just have never heard that before. 🤷
40? I remember when they were 20. Hell, I remember when you could get slightly older titles for 10. I used to go to Egghead and buy slightly older games with my allowance.
No you don’t. You are just imagining. At no point ever was $20 typical for a new game.
It absolutely was in the 1980s.
Edit: Here. Even cheaper than I claimed.
Go take a look at https://www.cgwmuseum.org/ - Computer Gaming World scans from when they started in 1981 and the primordial soup of the games industry was still trying to figure things out. There’s a variety of prices in the mail order listings, but within a few years there’s a bunch of titles that go for around the $50 level.
Let me share a secret with you: Madden (Year) is the same game as Madden (Year-1).
Wait, if I rename my Madden1.exe to Madden23.exe will I get the latest game?
… You’re gonna need to rename to madden25.exe
Thanks. I feel like, I just saved 70$.
“SportGame (Year-1) is literally unplayable because my favorite player is no longer in Team X.”
– Every sport sim players
PS3 NCAA 14 blows next gen Madden out of the water. It’s not even close.
No yearly release should be $70.
Just take your John Madden Football Sega Genesis ROM and use this tool to update the roster yourself. Who’d be able to tell the difference?
those of us that actually play the game
They know that people are going to pay for it. For exactly the same reason I haven’t bought a Formula 1 game in a few years. Every year it’s just not quite worth the 60-70 euro’s for me. I’m not even that mad about the 70 euro price tag if I get something nice for it in return, everything has gotten more expensive and games have been 60 euro since forever, but last year’s game with some small changes is not going to cut it for that price.
EA sucks. They suck, EA fucking sucks and can I say it again? Fuck EA. Price gouging for shitty products. What they did to battlefront 2? Lootbox pay to win bullshit. The AI in EAs F1 is so abysmal, 2022 was such a colossal disappointment and they are saying 80 bucks USD is a sale price for F1 2023. Naw fam fuck EA and their entire product line. I’ll only buy on steam sale at 70% discount on principal
Thankfully they backed down from Battlefront 2 and removed every single microtransaction. It’s a really fun game actually.
Oh totally. Over 2000 hours in it. I love it but it could have been so much better. Imagine balanced teams (like Nintendo does with Mario cart) instead of total domination by one side which is western philosophy encapsulated. Imagine showing server population so we can join what’s bumping instead of showing no data for fear of investment analysis hurting stock price. Imagine if they supported the community at fucking all.
I love BF2 but so much wasted potential it’s just depressing
God look at those crusty ass grass textures, def not $70 material
Not my problem really.
What is the allure to a yearly new Madden game?
Statistics of players being updated and new character models being added. Nothing that couldn’t be done in an update. Honestly most sports games should literally just be games as a service already.
Updated stats and roster. Slight gameplay tweaks.
I’d say that’s its because there’s only really 1 country that’s going to buy it in large numbers but the reality is it’s the standard ea tax. Stop buying it every year or stop complaining.
Same for FIFA. Or EAFC.
Are these still cut down releases based on last-gen console versions? That seems to be the historical trend with EA PC ports.
But even if not, that price is still high.