I’m not young or American, but I can tell gaming has been changing. I can’t even remember what was the last “AAA” game I bought, because it must have been a couple of years ago.
Most games I buy are 40€ connoisseur titles or 20€ indie games. I don’t hear about any “must-play” AAA titles through the grapevine these days. I do hear about interesting indie stuff all the time, though. Most of the 60€+ games I hear about are kind of niche stuff.
Any AAA game I got in the last decade I waited till it was dirt cheap. Red Dead 2 was the last one I bought and played through was maybe 15-20 bucks or something?
Make a timeline comparing the rising cost of games, rising unemployment, addition of tariffs on exports from Japan and this. Notice a pattern?
Its funny that people had more time at home and remote work and the games industry had a massive boost. Now people can barely afford to eat, need to commute hours every day, have the looming threat of being thrown in a concentration camp and maybe even a civil war on the horizon. Why aren’t people buying $100 games???
Tbf, games were $60 for 30+ years…
GameCube games were $50 or $20 for player’s choice titles
Yeah there has always been sales and “greatest hits” type shit, but go back and look at how much they were charging for the NES and Super Mario Bros. 3 back when they came out. Then adjust them for inflation.
Tariffs would likely have very tiny influence on this statistic since most video game spending nowadays is digital, and digital products are protected from tariffs since tariffs are only attached to physical goods.
I rarely buy new AAA games. Mostly indie titles and heavily-discounted AAA games.
Back in the early 90s I would walk into a store, buy a game that came in a box with a manual, take it home and it was mine.
I bought the 1st Civilization like this. I still have it. No Internet needed.
That’s the way it should be. All the online, dlc, mini boxes, group play, create online accounts…fuck all that shit.
Ok but doesn’t every tracking company pretend they don’t track kids’ habits? The whole industry is built on fraud.
This should be the real story
The hobby is getting more expensive while income left over after cost of living is going down. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
They’re charging more money for lower quality games. Glad less people are buying.
Maybe it’s because all the good games are indie games that cost a fraction of the batshit insane prices these shady corpo outfits are pushing?
Young Americans can already barely pay for food and rent let alone luxuries like entertainment
Maybe their parents have less money. Guess who’s fault is it ?
Wall Street Journal that wrote original article have it in their name.I said in another thread but I’ve been unemployed for a while now. Even jobs I’m referred to my old coworkers aren’t giving me interviews. If capital wants me to spend money, they have to pay me money first. Until then, fuck them.
I echo this a developer with a top app on the Meta Quest. My USA sales have fallen off a cliff, while other regions like Asia and Europe have increased a little.
That’s because most of them are playing F2P video games on their mobile devices.
Mayhaps the former young Americans are now aging into, uh… being not young Americans? Mayhaps said former young Americans also don’t have children because this entire county’s culture is all about feeding all the money to 1%ers yacht purchases?
I honestly don’t trust any “adult” who’s my age that doesn’t play viddy games, like what are you into for entertainment? A lamp?
I honestly don’t trust any “adult” who’s my age that doesn’t play viddy games,
This is like the modern version of, “Don’t trust anyone over 30”
Show me the Lämp, brother
Wing noises intensify.
the people around 25-35 that dont play vidya are either into extreme sports outside all the time (adrenaline junkie) or are fat fucks who watch every show on the planet with 100 bucks a month in subscriptions (sedated paypig)
oh and the other option is exhausted parents whose only wish would be uninterrupted sleep
I work a hard job then doomscroll Lemmy and YouTube when I’m not working in my shop.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with shitty half baked $70 games
As a rule, I never buy games on release. From everything I hear, you pay twice the price to get an unfinished game in most cases.
I put them on my wishlist, keep an eye on the reviews and depending on those I decide how much of a discount it will require for me to actually buy the game. Usually I end up getting them at least a year later and/or at least at 50% off.
and the microtransactions inside them. and the underwhelming day 1 dlc.
with no new ideas and safe bets only.
Older games are better plus gamers can play all our existing games.
This is why publisher’s are trying to derail “Stop Killing Games.”
When they are done with a a game the don’t WANT you to continue to play and enjoy it…
…they want you to forget about it and buy the next product they have and financially engage with the microtransaction ecosystem
Can’t wait till the indie wave wakes up the realization that there is a goldmine of 90s games that were incredible. Star control 2 for one could probably be mistaken for a new indie hit nowadays.
I’ve been playing X-Wing. The mad lads who built XWVM have essentially modernized the game and got it working on and with modern hardware, while strictly preserving its feel. It’s amazing.
A new Star Control is coming up, made by the OG developers. I am very much looking forward to it.
Nice! Wish listing now!
