If you aren’t from the United States this message may not ressonate quite the same, but the overall rhetoric remains; A triple A’ price tag, does not equate to a quality title.
I find that as more time goes on and the more commercialized the gaming industry becomes, we see a decline in quality from the Developers/Publishers we once trusted with our hard earned dollars. This poses a question to our budding and veteran gamers: Are the games we play really about joy and entertainment, or like Disney have they also fallen from their graces devolving into nothing more than a profit machine?
I had been thinking about writing this article for some time now and as I saw more and more disappointments from developers big and small, my frustration with the industry grew. The game that sat at the tip of my iceberg of frustration however, was none other than No Man’s Sky. For the readers out there who know me, I like Indie Games, I don’t apologize for it. So when I heard small Indie studio “Hello Games” was making an ambitious space exploration game, I was beyond excited. The initial screenshots that I saw had me pumped more than I had been about a new game in a long time. This excitement of course only made the utter disappointment that much more of unbearable. I write this right after Hello Games breaks their vow of silence after months to actually release content for the vacant game, but unfortunately the damage was already done.
I have looked back over the last 5 years and have looked at the titles that I have spent the most time/gotten the most joy out of playing and the large majority of those titles are sub $60. With all the thinking I have come to realize. I do not trust $60 games. It doesn’t matter who the developer is, big or small, I have gotten more enjoyment out of playing games like Stardew Valley, Minecraft, Don’t Starve, Counter Strike, and Factorio than I have with a lot of my $60 library.
Now I’m not writing this article because I am pessimistic about the future of the game industry. If anything, we have a bright future of games ahead of us, we’ll just have to stay guarded to avoid disappointment. We have the power to change the industry by voting with our wallets and making our voices heard. Don’t let developers get away with crappy ports and unfinished games, and the same goes for major media outlets. We all know when sites clearly are getting paid for their reviews, or paid to show bias, because they give crappy games great scores. Make your voices heard, because you can make an impact. I once exposed IGN for a video showing bias to the console versions of a multiplatform game causing it to eventually be pulled by the editors. Now this is far from a big victory, but any small triumpth only perpetuates the idea that we as gamers can have an impact, especially since this happened before I started writing for DSOG.
I want to know what games you all are looking forward to playing in the comments down below. I have been gone for a long time and would like to be able to engage with this great community again.
Matt Followell is another contributing author here at DSOGaming. A long time fan of PC Gaming and a huge supporter of the open source and homebrew movement. You’ll see him interacting with the community from time to time going by the user-name of Radapples.
Contact: Email
[Unpopular Opinion] No Man’s Sky was fine for a $60 game. Plus, there’s almost no excuse to be paying $60 for new games. Best Buy offers 20% off all new games and Amazon offers 20% off pre-orders and 2 week old games. There’s more you can do to avoid paying $60 for a game. Go PC, PC games are often cheaper than console counterparts. Or just wait, no one needs to be an early adopter, that’s a choice you make.
Seriously you think the game was fine for 60$ well i think the game should be 15$ max from day 1
What (in your opinion) could they do to make the game worth $60?
This is just an idea but what if the game actually had all those features that had been promised? If next years Call of Duty promises Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies, then releases with Campaign and Zombies people would be livid. They would still have hours upon hours of content but a key purchasing reason would be missing
I’m curious then. What feature were you promised that’s missing and making you regret your $60 purchase?
The freaking universe. There are videos.
I didn’t buy it because I’m not an idiot and could see that it was basically impossible for such a small team to deliver such massive promises, the last game I pre-ordered was Watch_Dogs I haven’t pre-ordered a game since then. I still feel for the people who were lied to on multiple counts such as:
planetary physics
ship classes with meaningful differentiation
faction reputation with meaningful gameplay impact
homogenous resource availability
asteroid landings
space station and fleet destruction
large fleets
traveling freighters
large scale battles the player can join
in-atmosphere battles
NPCs outside trading posts and other docks
ringed planets
sand planets
flying between stars (as opposed to warping via the Galactic interface)
complex creature behaviour including environmental interaction
rivers
points of interest such as large structures and crashed freighters
hacking locked doors
radio chatter
interaction with other players
The argument will still be maintained though, it would all come down to choice.
Choice of who puts the price and who buys it.
I bought it for $46, so I might be a tad biased. It felt like an experience that would typically cost $60.
The game isnt worth anything if it gets boring after 2hours
😀
Plus No Man’s Sky was a mistake
Preaching to the choir here. If I don’t review the game and pay out of pocket I never pay full price, there is no reason to, if anything it is foolish to. Pre-ordering is also a bad idea even if it offers a discount, even from trusted developers simply because there are lemons and this particular game could be a steaming pile.
No mans sky was a early access game at best. How on earth was good enough for 60 when your average AAA game has more conent something that was not the case a few years ago.
We all have our opinions.
What is this? You went away without noticing us first and them come back all throwing opinions and what not? WELL F*CK YOU!
?/? ????, ??? ??? ????
And although I don’t engage in the “fight” anymore , nice article 😉
Haha I didn’t leave because I wanted to be gone. Life gets busy and the day job makes things even harder.
If you select games based on price tag alone rather than by content, you’re not very bright. There are enough internet resources that would enable any consumer to make informed buying decisions beforehand regardless of whether the game is indie or AAA.
I myself play AAA almost exclusively and have seldom been disappointed because I did my research.
This is essentially my mantra, just because a game has a big budget does not always equate to a quality title. In fact it can be quite the opposite with the same applying to the film industry. That’s not to say big budget games can’t be good and low budget games can’t be terrible. (Indie Trash is a term for a reason)
That’s all well and good but your article states otherwise. Your issue with disappointing games focuses on AAA exclusively as if indie games get a free pass because they are shining examples of perfect game design and ample content. I’d have liked it if your article presented a stronger and more impartial case for gaming in general.
No Man’s Sky was made by an Indie Studio, which was a focal point of my article. Indie games by far do not get a pass. My point was to express my frustration with the state of a large number of big budget games and remind our community that we all have a voice. We are in control.
Well I’d hardly call No Man’s Sky indie because of the support it received from Sony as well as it selling for 60$. And if you sell your game at a AAA price, people will expect AAA quality. The issue that you are referring to deals with the content per dollar, as opposed to a “60$” problem. There are plenty of 60$ games which give tons of content as well. That is what should have been addressed as a contrast to games selling short content-wise instead of hinging on No Man’s Sky’s example to generalize the entire nature of AAA gaming.
Take what you wish from the article, but the intent was not to say that all AAA titles are bad. It was more of a jab at the many studios and publishers that churn out games for the sake of profit without any regards to producing actual memorable content. There are many great AAA titles that have come out this year and many that have fallen short.
Your intent did not come across as such in the article. Your criteria of judging a bad game as per the article seems to be the price tag in particular. It makes no mention of the plethora of indie shovelware that pass for paid games these days thanks to the easy availability of engines like Unity.
“I myself play AAA almost exclusively and have seldom been disappointed because I did my research.”
That is the opinion of pretty much everyone who upvoted you, ITS NOT THE GAME ITS NOT THE DEV, ITS YOU, I LL HAVE YOU KNOW I PLAY AAA GAMES.
Yeah ok, but its the same kind of people who get pissed when someone criticizes something, which brings me to my point, who gave you all that research when it comes to buying games? It wasnt the devs or the industry or the gaming media, it was independent gamers on youtube. The very same people that had different tastes than the vast majority.
What are you talking about? I don’t follow any particular YouTubers. I check normal benchmark videos and gameplay videos without commentary but that’s pretty much it. I also read reviews on Steam and on other places like Amazon and GMG before purchasing. If you know where to look, you’ll always find the information you’re looking for.
always thought the filter “sort from highest price” in steam game searches was a pretty dumb to way thumb through its library. but then again sorting from the bottom up prices bombards you with a mind-boggling amount free to play.
Dont know man witcher 3 had plenty of content for its price
Witcher 3 was worth 10 relatively good games and the DLC’s were better than most full games.
Yep for me dlc felt more like an each new game lol
and about the length of one too lol, sad when a dlc is leaps and bounds beyond what most AAA companies pump out.
And funny at the same time 😀
Cant wait for cyberpunk
I might be exaggerating a tad but I believe Witcher 3 plus Expansions and DLCs pretty much set a new all time high in the price-to-quality ratio for videogames.
It is truly remarkable in my view how such a relatively small software house like CDPR managed in just a few years to go from basically unheard of (with Witcher 1) to mild acknowledgement (Witcher 2) to industry giant – Witcher 3 now officially being the most awarded game ever.
“Witcher 3 plus Expansions and DLCs pretty much set a new all time high in the price-to-quality ratio for videogames.”
Set/reset, depending on how you perceive pre-PS3/X360 games in regards to size-quality-cost ratios etc.
It definitely set a bar for PS4/XONE generation games, however, which will endure for a long time.
Like I said, there are definitely exceptions. The Witcher 3 being a HUGE exception to that. Not to mention its expansions are games in themselves.
I agree that The Witcher 3 is huge and worth the price BUT even with the final version ( 1.31 ) the game still has a lot of bugs and lack of polish. Don’t get me wrong it’s a great game ( Especially compared to crap like Fallout 4 ) but when you see the kind of bugs or oversight even this great game has you can’t help but notice that there IS a drop in the quality of polish in the games we get in these times.
Just finished it for the fourth time…didnt saw any of those bugs you mention…altough I dont like that combat system assistance!
goVEGAN
A couple games justified their price tag. Witcher 3 was amazing. GTA V was as well ( even if you don’t like the story, nobody can deny how detailed the world is ). Most Ubisoft titles do not justify their price tag and it has been the case for a long time.
Only a mad man could deny the quality of the writing and the details in Gta V.Grand at every level even if they left some things out from Gta IV and San Andreas.Sad but the quality is still there.No doubt about that.Yes me to I think that Gta V is worth every peny.I’m very happy with my purchase.
i hardly buy full priced games anymore but a few may of exception i guess. AAA that i may be getting probably andromeda.. it’s been very long i havent get very expensive full priced game. as for some indie, that i love (it depends on games). i pay full price for pillars of eternity and the likes.
Agree with you 100%.A friend of mine just bought Battlefield 1 and I did the same thing (60$ normal/default edition) and while the game is good and fun I fell nausea everytime I think of that “premium or deluxe” edition.I faqing hate those guys but my hate for them was lower then my desire to play with my friend online.Now I think that hate is getting at huge proportions and I’m angry because I like Dice’s games since Bad Company days.I don’t practice pre-orders but I still feel guilty for buying Battlefield.Most of the gamers don’t care about bad pc ports because they know the console version is going to be good.Or even bad console ports because they don’t care that much as long as they’re having fun.I have some friends that cannot tell the difference beetwen 30 vs 60 and don’t mind bugs and they don’t care for tearing or aliasing.I do care for those things so when I try to update my drivers or update a game in their eyes I’m some kind of a wierd person who is obsessed with framerates.SOOOO..nowadays If you want a normal thing..like a game running like it supose too..is now a wierd thing.That happened to you Matt? Cause it happened to me and it sucks.Developers that I trust? Yes..well..from the pc area I think Monolith(random order),IO Interactive,Rockstar (even if they are some of the biggest pigs out there lastest pc ports were superb) and the Metro guys 4A Games, former Ilussion Softworks (Daniel Vavra and his team) , …Remedy..even if they faqed up with Quantum Break,Crytek (in a way) and well a couple of more that I don.t remember now.From consoles only Santa Monica Studios and Naughty Dogs for now.So I guess we need to educate our friends so they won’t buy crap ports or games.And educate ourselfs from time to time.This article for example.Good piece of work dude very good article!
I play a good mix of “AAA,” middle market and indie games. I always wait for reviews & release to make sure the game itself is good and the port is acceptable.
AAA games are not something I need on day one. People capriciously preorder games and season passes all based on what marketing presents, without a real product to inspect or demo. In my line of work, it is never a good idea to procure anything based on a promise and I always practice waiting for a real product before buying anything. The problem is that this is not realistic for everyone since we live in an instant gratification seeking culture that protects the companies that bring that juicy digital e-crack fix.
This is a crazy world we have to live in.
The game industry reminds me too much of grandson. At first is was a small adorable little thing with so much potential. Then as time goes on it grew and started showing amazing talents and all you can think about is what the future is has in store. Then you reach where it’s now, it a young adult, and it doesn’t care for your approval, but will ask for money none the less. It uses it’s talents to swindle you and tricking you into something you have already seen. “You’re old and angry” it yells at you if you don’t send it a check, “stop looking at my girlfriend’s rack” it yells everytime i check out an indie title. This was eventually going to happen, this what it’s grown up to be. You cannot change that. It will only reflect back on it’s past mistakes when it’s as old as you and on death’s door.
In your fleeting moments before you pass on into the infinite void you think back to the happiest moments like how great that indie’s rack was.
It’s the growing pains. Just a phase.
That’s deep man. Really deep.
I have my very own personal stalker?! :O
D’awwww
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd2125dc276966cabd13215b0567fc604889bb36ce4bbd0c5d7ee1b408625636.jpg
This makes me feel all warm & mushy inside ^^
Full price day 1 is generally for patient-less kids who want the shiny new game NOW and think a game from 5 years ago is ‘old’.
Personally, I don’t touch any AAA until it’s heavily discounted and patched. Usually takes between 1 and 2 years.
I totally agree with the 2nd part of your posting. After awaiting the initial user reactions and considering the state the game was released in (usually unfinished and a bad console port IMHO), I usually decide to wait until the game priced what it is worth to me. And that is usually 5-10€.
Meh some games i don’t want to wait cause i’m to much of a fan of the series. Rarely does it happen with me though even mankind divided i bought for like 42$ and i’m a big dues ex fan.
This is a great tool for that:
isthereanydeal[.]com/?by=title:asc#/filter:price/0/5,&cut/75/100,&hidedlc,&hidemac,&historylow,&dealbest
I buy PC games for $20 max.
we can laugh at the sonyponies and xboner blowers that buy games they know nothing of for 60$+
lel, you think that only PC gamers look for deals?
not quite, the implication of that comment was that they readily dont have access to the discounts we take for granted. they get black friday and xmas, thats usually about it. one of my freinds that has xbox said he got titanfall 2 for 48$ during black friday. if i wanted i could have gotten it on pc for 35$. similar rates were pretty abundant. consoles just dont have the access to the sales we as pc gamers are used to.
Those assumptions are long gone, there’s retail and other digital stores where you can find fine deals for consoles games just like on PC. The sales on the “official storefronts” are less likely to happen though, but they still do.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c146879012d78b94588e4f77fcdd2fe3ab8878cc782885e1f591a946063be4fd.jpg
I already operate on that rule cause I’m a poor cheapskate. 🙂
Considering how many times I have been burnt by terrible ports and broken releases, I now never buy my keys from Steam anymore. The cheaper, the better. The industry has only itself to blame for that.
I don’t trust 70€ games (translation: AAA games). Why pay 70€ for a game filled with bugs, that barelly works and with very little content and that need constan money inversion untill it is finished?
The Euro is more valuable that the US Dollar and you guys still pay more…. Seriously, highway robbery.
Depends on the country, poo europe pays 40.
Can anyone guess what game above all others I am excited for? Let’s see how well you guys know me. Haha
Yooka – Laylee!(?) 😀
Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Banjo has long been my favorite series and MS kind of soiled the name. Yooka is a true spiritual successor.
Been waiting for that one aswell, I 100% Banjo-Kazooie on my old N64 and the GBA one, but never touched Tooie or Nuts and Bolts.
What?! You never played Tooie? My man, you are missing out. Nuts and Bolts is fun, but a Farcry from the 1st 2 games.
I did enjoy Gruntilda’s Revenge, it was a quirky little title and not bad for a GBA version of a 3D Platformer.
My N64 busted before I could get my hands on the cart. 🙁
I could play it through ~other sources~ but… the backlog man. >.<
Boy do I understand that. If you own an Xbox One Rare Replay would be a good way to play it. It is also available digitally on the 360. Assuming you clear up that backlog. Lol
Also, how did you manage to break an N64? Those things are tanks.
Well, first I couldn’t get my hands on a original expansion pack (f’cking hard to find and hugely expensive here at the time), so used a aftermarket one that started to get really hot and games started to freeze, and just to fml over, the standard pack that comes with the system started to act weird too.
Then it was the joystick, first the analog (always the analog isn’t it?), then the z button.
And last both video and energy cables just busted out because… I don’t know, maybe they where bored inside the cabinet.
By the time I grew up and had my own resources to find replacements I went and bought a PS2 and then the backlog nightmares began.
I feel you there, I didn’t get an Expansion Pak for mine until like 4 months ago. Haha, I got this huge wave of nostalgia and went and picked one up for like $5 as well as a copy for Donkey Kong 64 and Majorca’s Mask since I never had my own copy. They were not as cheap.
I never played any of them. hmm, heard something about a mouse mod for n64, lets try it with banjo and kazooie.
Not going to work, the injector it is made for Goldeneye and Perfect Dark only.
No Man’s Sky 2.
Only if that 2 means twice the content, then maybe we’ll have half a game.
Yup, twice the resources (on the planets) & inventory size, and twice the size of the first game (whole universe), same mechanics and gameplay like every major AAA games that came out past decade also some new bugs and performance issues.
My problem with that is this artificially “content for price”.
I’ve bought the sodding thing day one and I’m still playing it daily.
I have criticisms mind you, but I’m totally “getting my moneys worth” for what it has now.
What do we get from that? (apart from me being a fanboy or accusing of buyers remorse? *rolls eyes*)
You enjoy it ? then more power to you. why someone accused of being fanboy ? because they replay to every damn criticism about the said game and they are being offended by it.
“content for price”
The whole argument around this is bulls**t. Quality must play a big role here otherwise it’s just a hollow and stupid measurement.
Exactly, and that’s why I sort of stop “fighting”, it reaches a point where everybody will say “that game isn’t worth $60, this ones is because it has more stuff in it” and that is so damaging, at that point you are being just the same as the people that are selling the game to you.
As in, treating it like a product before anything else.
Yeah, for me it’s Witcher 3, best AAA game that i played in the past decade, it has lots of problems and it has performance issues for some users, i talk about the things i like in this game (Content and it’s Quality) but at the same time, never going to defend it, it’s product after all and i’m the customer.
“Only if that 2 means twice the content”
What do you want, 36 quintillion planets? 😀
Well they keep updating it. At some point it might be decent.
Don’t think thats going to happen, like ever…
Red Dead Redemption 2 or Final Fantasy XV on pc?
If the game is on Steam: well 45-50$ goes to Publisher (not devs) and the rest of the money to Steam,most of the time.
If is on Origin or Ubi then full price goes to them.
Gog has lower prices and taxes.
I had completely forgotten about when you called IGN on that video. Good times.
Regarding the content of the article, I’d say take a look at Halo 5 or Titanfall 2 or Witcher 3, just for the first couple that come to mind.
I have played through both Titanfall 2 and The Witcher 3, they are both fantastic titles. Titanfall 2 was the most surprising tbh, especially coming after OG Titanfall. Respawn definitely listened to the criticism and took it to heart.
I have yet to play Halo 5 outside of the multiplayer, but it is on my list. That backlog doe.
basically i rather play something like Bastion than most of the broken trash from ubisoft or bethesda
Love these articles.
“we see a decline in quality”
And rise in fanboysm, customers who don’t know what they want but they know they have to defend a product they bought or hyped for.
I missed the days when s**ty practices had stong backlash from customers (always online drms/securom/overpriced dlcs/EA/simcity etc..) now they simply lable you as a hater/whiner/entitled and they unleash their dogs upon you. steam forums and reddit is filled with these people.
Memeber when Simcity (2013) had always online drm people tore EA apart ? oh i member, member when Diablo 3 (2012) had the same drm for no reason and people defended it and destroyed any criticism and it became normal for some companies to do whatever they want without any backlashes ? Fanboysm, people who defend a product to feel good about their purchase or i don’t know, maybe their dad made the game. last i checked, defending a product is not in it’s EULA.
Anyway, plan to make a great city in Cities Skyline and waiting for next year’s CRPGs.
The one practice that’s been annoying me above all the others in recent times, has to be the act of “upgrading” your hardware to play said multiplat AAA game at ultra settings. The asking price for said hardware doesn’t even come close to being absolutely worth it for the minute differences, and that’s what’s doing my head in, because it shows that the industry is more smug enough to ask you to cough up more cash, yet they won’t output for what they are asking of you on your end.
‘Ultra’ settings are mostly a scam, though. In the old days (!) I remember there were very strong differences between low-mid-high settings, these days not so much.
True that. These days I just settle for high since Ultra hardly makes much of a difference and the ultra settings aren’t anywhere worth £700 GPU’s.
Yeah, even subs that were good before like PCMR, it’s now a shill fest, specially for EA/Ubi games or any new hardware that comes out.
See the last game i bought for 60$ and not from GOG or kinguin is probably the Stick of truth and GTA5.
Yes i bought GTA5 for the PC for 60$ day one and i do not regret it. Fallout 4 i got for 20$ but to be honest i put so many hours in the game i think i would have bought it for 60$ if i knew i’d like the game so much.
We need more demo’s and more free play hell even allow us to play big games like fallout 4 for 2 hours free or something. I don’t like the full idea of refunding the game on steam either doesn’t sound right to me.
GTA V is totally worth the money. It has its weird bugs here and there, but it scales well and has TONS of content. Worth it in my book.
Me neither I was really scared how TF|2 will turn out but I still preordered it.
You can find awesome games that put some 60 dollars (or euros) “AAA” games to shame and are cheaper or even free. Icey just released now and it’s 12 euros (looks pretty awesome and my kind of game), Brutal Doom: Hell on Earth Starter Pack and the newly realeased Brutal Doom 64 are free, Megaman Unlimited is also an awesome fangame, and there is this Sonic fangame akin to the Sonic Rush formula called Sonic Dimensions and that one is awesome too. And there are other great. Not to mention Sonic Before The Sequel and Sonic After the Sequel. Also Spark the Electric Jester is set to launch in February 2017, can’t wait for that one.
The 60 dollar/euro premium means nothing now in terms of quality.
pssst n64 emulator has a mouse mod, go play goldeneye, perfect dark and turok 3 with mouse mod.
Really? Didn’t knew about this. I’ll start with Perfect Dark, then. 🙂
I find that charging for above £50, even towards 80 like we are seeing with AAA games like BF1 being combined with season type passes as not being worth the asking price. Most AAA games these days are just coming out as buggy messes and the texture quality for quite a lot of AAA game’s textures aren’t looking representative of the AAA budget either. I look at the recent Resi game and all I see are low res textures, nowhere even close to 2k in scale, along with heavy process effects to make the game look blurry and difficult to see.
I’m seeing indie games like Ark that are able to output high visuals (their optimization is utter tripe though), yet AAA games fort he most part are all about cutting corners, using low res textures or fx for most parts of the game that they think don’t matter, and I’m just here asking myself “why try to pass yourself off as AAA when you aren’t going to strive for it?”, it just makes them look cheap and tacky over time and it’s definitely been showing the past 5 years and more.
Good lord Ark was a mess when I first started playing it, it was virtually unplayable.
Yeah ark sucks to hell in terms of optimization and using different hw. I find it’s ultra settings to be pleasing to the eye, but it’s nigh impossible to play them unless you’re spending well over 2k in order to run it at that.
By the way, the title on the title bar looks ridiculous https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d4447fe4b2084342558398aebf68a99e91bde00fd52f6865e66ff050d6171b3.jpg
It’s as if Matt didn’t trust the whole game industry whatsoever :P.
Haha, don’t look at me. I just write the articles. Maybe John is low key trying to say tsomething.
Also, is that Windows XP?
Yeah, it is! XP is a great system. Unfortunately, it starts showing its age, as 3.2 GB of RAM and x32 are no-go for modern games (don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind sticking with it for way longer if it were only about visuals! :)). The screenshot is from my secondary PC, I also have a newer one with Windows 10.
As for the botched title, actually, I guess it has something to do with the dollar sign, which is used in many programming languages as a special symbol.
Just make sure you are grabbing the community made Security updates or you are using a pretty vulnerable system at this point. I’m sure it makes a great box for playing old games!
Right!
“I’m sure it makes a great box for playing old games!”
It’s cool that, nostalgia aside, XP is relevant even today, for this very reason. Some games just won’t run on newer systems, even with compatibility modes turned on.
Hah, i do the same, still on XP for work and stuff, other system for games and other stuff.
It’s the $ that gets – for some unknown reason – censored. Really funny stuff, so we will leave it like that 😀
Whaaaaaat? I don’t trust them bloody games either!
I thought Windows XP was ded
It’s still good if you don’t want to play new games.
And use new software
Yes, of course. If you use software that uses more than 3.2 GB of RAM, you won’t be happy. However, it’s always good to keep XP as a system for old games.
I said it again and again dont get excited for NMS, a indie studio cant do all that stuff.
I find 60 bucks games nowdays to lack quality, i almost never buy one in 60 bucks, i wait a while. I think the problem is samey games, more of the same games keep coming out. Indie scene is a bit more diverse, still they get their clones as well. I also dont think we are doing bad the games that come out nowdays are gigantic endeavors with alot of content, they just lack originality, i find myself playing old games from the 90s i never tried before, so much originality came back then and the worst thing is that the graphics of the games back then and the art was vastly superior than current indie games, that is a disgrace. i think the reason for that is that indie devs either lack the talent of the 90s or that there are too many people making one game that instead of having a single precise vision, you get a mess to satisfy everyone.
From the US here, with the exception of Squad I haven’t paid list price for a game since Aliens: Colonial Marines. At least 35% off or more. majority is 50%
you guys are lucky games cost only $60. in my country, that is equivalent to 200 malaysian ringgit due to low currency. essentially, games cost 4 times more. dear americans, please be more grateful.
Where do I sign it? haha
goVEGAN
Stop being impatient and you will never have to pay $60 for a game.
What’s the rush?
If you have a backlog of untouched games, then you can play those and wait for sales.
The only reason to buy straight away would be for multiplayer games so you don’t fall behind or want to play with friends.
Single player games just wait it out and get the game for 50% off six months later.
Matt, even though you and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum (I have no interest in indie games, and prefer the polished of the polished, since I have so little time to play games) – I feel the biggest reason for this problem – and it is absolutely a problem, I agree with you 100% – comes down simply to the mega-advertising vehicle that is the consoles.
There simply are not enough brave developers who will protest when faced with the money they can earn by satisfying the proprietary systems PS an XB versions of their games require first, and without regard to the sacrifices that inevitably must be made for the long-forgotten PC versions. Rocket science, this is not.
First things first I will never, ever pay more than $40 for any video game on PC.
Second being AAA means nothing to me. I have more fun playing PC focused titles designed for mouse and keyboard and indie titles than i do mega action adv games and FPS.
As for games im looking forward to. Well the new Space Marine Deathwing game right now. Got it for 40% off. Beyond that games i supported on kickstarter like Divinity 2, Bards tale 4 and Battletech.
lol
A brave article about the industry and the way it has evolved ( not for the best unfortunately ) without any agenda behind it? I am on DSOG no doubt, not Kotaku 🙂
As for this industry, so many things are wrong, from the “journalists” to the broken releases, poor ports, bad optimization, Day 1 DLC, pre-orders, unsellable digital copies at retail stores price, fixes months after release, unoriginal repetitive gameplay, SJW agenda… the list goes on and on… And it looks like the industry is clueless when it comes to realizing they are killing their own market.
Thats what i did with Diablo 3 and BF4 as well. I got all the DLC for free, and the main game costed 10$. Thats kind of different compared to the 120$ premium version ;p
I dont see BF4 dying anytime soon either. BFBC2 is still played (it rocks btw, go play it people!)
Buying games later is a much better idea. They work, they are patched with content.. they are also cheaper. You literally dont lose anything.
Dude I recently buyed Bf1 without the premium BS and while is very good I still think that Bad Company 2 is still the best at least for me 🙂 I liked it so much that I’m thinking about buying Bad Company 1 on Ps3.Do people still play that game?
I’m glad to see Factorio mentioned. That game is awesome. Best $20 I ever spent. At this point it comes to about two cents per hour of enjoyment!
20% off new = 47.99. beat it and trade it in with a 50% bonus plus %10 with a $10 coupon for preordering. play the game free and cry less @best buy
buy the game used at gamestop, take it back in a week. cry less.
20% off new games with amazon prime…still crying?
i don’t trust writers or whiny cry babies, buy a game or don’t.
“seriously, boxed versions in other stores are cheaper… and tangible”
I have witnessed that. Steam is great for sales but otherwise, they are too expensive. The gaming industry already duped customers by having the same prices for retail and digital copies. I buy my games but I don’t feel bad anymore to get them for 30€ ( or less ) instead of 59 e or 69€.
Most games I’ve bought I’ve gotten them in sales, even those I looked forward to and enjoyed (like Dragon Age Inquisition). Granted, The Witcher 3 had a 15% discount during pre-order but still, thanks to Origin and GoG’s regional pricing, the full price was below $60. Even in Origin, where I usually read complains about it being more expensive than Steam, games are $50 tops, with the exception being Titanfall 2 and Battlefield 1 (somehow, base game IS $60 but Mirror’s Edge base price was $45). Point being, I don’t think most games grant a $60 price tag. Maybe those AAA multiplayer-based ones considering the time you can play them is virtually indefinite (aren’t there people who still play the original Modern Warfare?). But what about games like Wolfenstein (which I loved) that are single player only and have 12 hour campaign? Say 24 with the second run? For me, a non-US resident where the minimal income is less than $400, $60 is just too much. Now let’s look at the other side of the coin: Fallout 4 is way more than worth it’s price tag considering how long you will be playing it… if you liked it. What if, like me, you just got bored a little more than 40 hours in?
If publishers started to sell games at a lower price (especially on PC), you can bet sales would increase. And if they started to care more about the stability and performance of their games, I’m sure PC gaming would be even more attractive.
@Matt Followell I wrote a 2 page article replying to you but for some reason the comment wasn’t here.Anyone a quick reply would be we need to educate ourselfs from time to time reading articles like this one..and educate our friends also in not buying crap ports/games.
Very good article dude.Congrats for screwing Ign’s evil plan! Keep this going! 🙂
I’m in Canada so for me a $60 USD game is actually around $80-90 CAD depending on how bad our dollar is that day. So even if I did trust $60 USD games I couldn’t afford many. Lucky for me I don’t fully trust any games out there. Unless I get a playable demo I don’t spend more than $20 CAD. My backlog is so big I will never finish it so I can be patient.
What has price, and trust got to do with anything, no unreleased game should be trusted, and whether it’s value for money, is subjective, and much more important than what the price is.
Simply ignore all prerelease propaganda, and only look at released games, then make your choice, based on what’s actually sold.
I ignore all prerelease propaganda, and that includes reviews, at least since day one patching became the norm.
I only want to know about the games I can play, and prefer patch updates to be added to the reviews, when problems are fixed.
Numerical scoring is irrelevant, and useless. I ignore scores, and want to know, what and why, the reviewer liked, or disliked, about aspects of the game.
Seeing gameplay video is best, if independant, and updated with the game.
Well written and this is coming from someone who kinda has zero patience with reading anything modern journalism. It’s the reason why I come on sites like these quite a lot: people here seem to share a lot of common interest and see thing in a more realistic way. But of course we often get fooled and played at each time a new ambitious game becomes a trend.
I always thought it was just my loss of interest in gaming but it wasn’t until a few years ago when I started PC gaming again since my childhood days (was console gaming almost exclusively, outside some titles like Half-Life 2 series), where I felt something was off. It was partially a personal issue of mine, but even once that got resolved I still felt the lack of wanting to explore any of these amazing worlds people have spent years making. All the horrible business practices, which I initially thought was harmless attempt to give players more reasons to enjoy their games, began to spiral out of control in ways to capitalise on their products. Which were designed to simply help us escape our sometimes dull and mundane lifestyles and most of all, to inspire us to make a similar impact on others.
Just like you Matt for over the last few years almost all my focus have just been on indie developed games since that’s where I see so much passion and risk is coming from these days. That and older, more classic games. I often wondered why there is such a lack of commitment and desire of wanting to make a breakthrough IP, that’s completely out of the norm and eye opening like those from a decade ago. And yet when a game tries to do that like Star Citizen, people try to heavily criticise it for all it’s worth and yet wonder why there aren’t many games trying to push the paradigm of gaming we see today. But there are those who can easily be satisfied, which I’ve always found to be odd with the amount of times people have been burned. Like I used to hype games in the past (prior to the digital age) but more often than not those games always turned out to be incredible and revolutionary.
Watch_Dogs was the earliest game of this console gen which I was super stoked for actually. And this was after I bought a gaming PC but man I can’t tell you how many times I replayed that E3 2012 gameplay (I even played it once or twice again this year). I was extremely delighted to be part of golden era where games are now coming to a point where the world feels so rich and alive that you could spend countless hours and never see and expect the same thing twice ever. I believe the term for it was emergent gameplay. That for me wins over any handholding scripted events or cinematics which makes you wish you could of been capable to make all those moves you see and expect a natural response from those actions. It’s why I fell in love with Half-Life 2 all the way to Episode 2 and I’m glad I played it on PC out of all platforms.
It’s just a tad shame its been forever since I’ve had that kind of feeling of really being immersed in a game. But I have been out of the loop so quite frankly I never played all of the big titles over the last few years.
Btw apologies for the wall of text, usually I never write anything this long but I felt kinda compelled to since it felt like a good time 😛
i remember when the MSRP for video games was 50$
50$ is the sweet spot for GOOD GAMES
if you remember correct, witcher 3 offered a discount to pre-orders
i think it was 6$? or was it 10$?
either way it was the most “polished” game i’ve payed for that amount