In the video game industry, it’s very easy for things to change at the drop of a hat. We’ve seen this happen all over the place in 2024, and it’s not likely to end as the year goes on. However, there have been some rather unique constants in the gaming industry, and one of them includes game prices. If you look at where we were in the original console generation and where we are now, you’ll see that while gaming prices and console prices have risen, it hasn’t been egregious. However, a Baldur’s Gate 3 teammate thinks that this should change.
That person is the Director of Publishing for Larian Studios, Michael Douse. He made a set of posts on Twitter about this a few days back, and his comments are curious, to say the least. At first, he was commenting on how a newly released title was already offering an “Ultimate Edition” pack for $120, and he didn’t think that was smart, noting:
“I don’t love the artificiality of pricing structures post retail. Use the inflated base price to upsell a subscription, and use vague content promises to inflate ultimate editions to make the base price look better. It all seems a bit dangerous and disconnected from the community.”
He’s not wrong in thinking that this is a “dangerous” practice, especially when the title in question didn’t get the reviews that Ubisoft wanted it to, and many are questioning whether the DLC will be good at all.
However, he doubled down on his thoughts with his next post, where he said:
“Almost all games should cost more at a base level because the cost of making them (inflation, for one) is outpacing pricing trends. But I don’t think we’ll get there with DLC promises so much as quality and communication. Everyone’s just waiting for GTA 6 to do it.”
The reason he brought up Rockstar Games and its next title is that there are rumors that it cost $2 BILLION dollars to create, and so if they were to do the $60-$70 price range for its launch, they’d have to ensure they sold many millions of copies to recoup their costs, and then some.
The problem with this line of thinking is that there are already numerous titles by AAA developers that aren’t worth the $60 they cost, let alone something higher. Baldur’s Gate 3 was incredible and deserved the money it got, but we’ve also seen developers skimp on quality, and players have wanted their money back. Increasing the price doesn’t guarantee the quality is there.
