https://ma.fellr.net/@fell/111504811722666890
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You won't like hearing this, but video games must become more expensive. When I was little, my dad got me a PlayStation 2 for christmas, but without any games. My mum was very generous and took me out to pick two games for it. They were 60€ each. Nowadays you would call those full-price games. But now, 20 years later, a full-price game is still about 60€. If you correct that for inflation, it should really be 86€ now. And that's not even covering the fact that games have massively increased in visual fidelity, which is much more expensive to produce. If you don't want games to be littered with microtransactions or ads, then you have to accept that a regular video game must be at least 90€. (98 USD, 77 GBP, 149 AUD, 134 CAD) #Gaming #GameDev #GameDevelopment #Steam #Inflation #Economy #PlayStation
Can't wait to buy the next installment of insert sports game here/call of duty for 100 USD base, 200 for the dlc, maybe even 300 for the ultimate deluxe extreme version.
I mean it depends. The PS2 is the console with the most sales of all time, over 150 million units sold. It had the biggest install base in AAA gaming history. A lot of game franchise's biggest sellers are still from the PS2 era. Need For Speed Most Wanted sold 18 million copies on all systems, which is still their record seller. GTA San Andreas sold 18 million on the PS2 alone, and nearly 30 million across all systems. Only GTA 5 with it's billion re releases is more popular. Metal Gear Solid 2 is still holds the sales record for the franchise, with 7.4 million copies sold. Gran Turismo 3 is still the best selling Gran Turismo game with 15 million copies sold.
Honestly I think the gaming audience size peaked in the late PS2/Xbox - early PS3/X360 era in the mid 2000s. The 2008-09 financial crash hit the gaming industry hard, you can see that through total console sales. It basically extended the life of the PS3 and Xbox 360 by over 3 years, and they still had dissapointing sales numbers. Gaming is an expensive hobby for the majority of the world. I only think gaming is starting to recover now on the AAA front, you can see with the amount of sales the Nintendo switch and PS4 achieved in the late 2010s.
The upfront cost is high, but the durability of the product makes it very cheap by hours-consumed. I spent around $350 to get my ~~Halo Playing Machine~~ X-Box back in 2001, but holy fuck did my friends and I ever play the bajezus out of that one hit classic. Hundreds of hours, easily. Probably over a thousand if you count each of my friends. Compare that to an equivalent number of DVD rentals or frames of bowling or drinks at the local bar. Way cheaper than after school sports classes or summer camps. Cheaper even than a pair of roller blades and protective kit (and way cheaper than medical bills).
Second-hand games (excluding the vintage collector's market) make the hobby cheaper still. Right now, I can get a used PS4 and a fist-full of classics for half what I paid to play Halo, fairly easily.
Getting games day-of release is still a rich kid's hobby. But nothing is stopping you from burning a hundred hours playing Starcraft or Mario Galaxy for pocket change.
You're fixating on individual game sales over the total market. 2008-2009 did not really hit the industry hard. There is a mid-generation lul in the market for consoles that occurs in each console generation but besides that gaming really wasn't particularly affected at all.
I also think you're fixated on console here when PC and mobile platforms have exploded, particularly outside of NA/EU.
What this graph doesn't tell you is that the market is nearly double what this graph shows now, $270bn.
You can't just say "mobile doesn't count" either when the top mobile games are HoK - a moba very similar to League, Genshin Impact which is just a port of pc/console, PubG which is yet another serious game, Roblox, etc etc. The mobile platform is a serious platform at this point where the highest revenue games are genuinely serious games.
Who was playing mobile games in 1996 and what kind of phone would even allow such a thing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagenuk_MT-2000