Are AAA games worth the $70 price tag these days?

[Veronica Winston]

I've been seeing a lot of new AAA games coming out with a $70 price tag lately. It's got me wondering if they're really worth it. I mean, sure, the graphics are usually insane and there's tons of content, but I've also been burned by overhyped games before. Plus, with all the DLC and microtransactions these days, it feels like you're not even getting the full game sometimes. What do you all think? Are you still dropping $70 on day one, or are you waiting for sales? Or maybe you've switched to indie games instead? Just curious about everyone's take on this.

 

[anonpuffs]

Yes

/thread

 

[JAHGamer]

Yes, not all games but some are easily worth $70.

I bought three $70 games day 1 this year and they were all worth it

Yakuza/LAD Infinite Wealth - 120 hours played, 9.5/10 (my GOTY)
FF7 Rebirth - 110 hours played, 9.5/10 - I bought the $100 deluxe edition and it was still very much worth it
Stellar Blade - 55 hours played, 9/10

 

[Vertigo]

It’s been normalized. $90 N64 carts for Shadows of the Empire and Zelda wasn’t uncommon.

I won’t be surprised if triple A goes $90 for next gen with $150 standard for deluxe editions. They’re already on their way there with early access bs.

Compared to the price increase of everything else… still not as bad as groceries

 

[arvfab]

I wouldn't mind paying even more if a game on day-1 was as good as bug-free and feature-complete, and of course completely playable offline from disc.

Unfortunately even devs which I regarded as "fail-safe" have been dropping the ball in this regard, so I'm slowly changing my purchasing behavior, with almost no pre-orders and lesser day-1 purchases. In fact, after getting DD2 day-1 (which I haven't even started yet), I haven't bought anything and only pre-ordered LRG games (Clock Tower and Tomba!).

 

[Shadow2027]

From Western Development, no not worth it. From the East games like Liek a Dragon, Rebirth, Stellar Blade and Persona 3 Reload have been highly worth with like 50+ hours for them and of high quality and entertaining play

 

[ethomaz]

Nothing to complain at all.
The games I paid $70 give well worth experiences.

 

[Gediminas]

i see, some likes to bring the length of the games to justify the price, i think, that requires more nuance discussion on its own, because, if a game is shit, is the length can justify the price?
what is more justifiable, 5-7h of great game or 50h of shit game for the 70$? add on, what kind of game is that? open world? semi open? linear? can effect that too..

personally, there is plenty of games worth 70$, some which are even cheaper or less than AAA like AA type, still can be worth 70$.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

On a middle-class salary from friggin' Portugal where salaries are shit, I can easily afford a lot more games than the time I have to play them and it's still a much cheaper hobby than many others, so yes.


What's a bit weird is how game prices stayed the same for almost 25 years, to be honest.

 

[ethomaz]

i see, some likes to bring the length of the games to justify the price, i think, that requires more nuance discussion on its own, because, if a game is shit, is the length can justify the price?
what is more justifiable, 5-7h of great game or 50h of shit game for the 70$? add on, what kind of game is that? open world? semi open? linear? can effect that too..

personally, there is plenty of game worth 70$, some which are even cheaper or less than AAA like AA type, still can be worth 70$.

Are there any game that is shit to everybody? That is something you need to take in mind.
Something not worth to you is probably worth to somebody else.

And I don't take length time as measurement of if a game is worth or not $70.
For me it is pure based in the experience I had with it... be it 1 hour or 50 hours.

 

[ethomaz]

What's a bit weird is how game prices stayed the same for almost 25 years, to be honest.

Exactly.

I live in a country that increased game prices over time.

But if you look at US prices... inflation happened, salaries increased, material increased, devcosts increased, energy increased, even Big Mac price increased etc etc etc in the last 20 years and games was always the same price.

It was indeed very weird... I can understand they could maintain the same price because the number of copies sold where becoming bigger and bigger but even so it was weird.

 

[Maverick]

Depends.

For Cyberpunk 2077, God of War, Baldur's Gate III, RDR2? Absolutely.

For Starfield, DD2, Saints Row? No.

 

[Gediminas]

Are there any game that is shit to everybody? That is something you need to take in mind.
Something not worth to you is probably worth to somebody else.

And I don't take length time as measurement of if a game is worth or not $70.
For me it is pure based in the experience I had with it... be it 1 hour or 50 hours.

i don't need to take anything to mind. not what i wrote. we talk about personal experience.

 

[Entropi]

I paid 70-80 DLLs for SNES and N64 games in the mid-late 90s. Adjust that for inflation, and, well, you get the idea.

But Microtransactions on full-priced games? That's evil.

 

[peter42O]

Depends on the individual and their gaming tastes/preferences. I buy games for $60/$70 that im interested in playing but if it's disc based, it gets traded in once completed and more times than not, I get back at least half my money which is perfectly fine. Since im a subscription guy though, if a game is on Game Pass/Ubisoft+/PlayStation Plus day one that I want to play, I play it through the subscription service because there's no reason to spend $40+ on a game that's a one and done for me. I will buy games digitally though as well depending on the game. For example, I recently purchased Ys IX: Monstrom Nox for $30 on PSN because disc based wise, it goes for $60+ everywhere I looked so not worth the hassle of buying/selling/trading to get back half my money when I can just buy it for the same price digitally. More than anything though, the game has to be of interest to where I want to play it. If it isn't, doesn't matter what the price/cost is nor does it matter what the critical/fan reception is.

 

[Jim Ryan]

Usually not.

I will pay for PlayStation exclusives, From games, some Capcom games and very few select others
.
But I think companies could get more people on board day 1 at 60 per game.

 

[voke]

Yes

 

[Killer_Sakoman]

By asking this question, you are just asking developers to increase the " find my hadband " and " collect 100 ****" mission while increasing the map size from 1000000km to 200000000 km.
I remember this argument fueled by the media and xbots back in mid 2000s and it only lead AAA games to move from Uncharted 2 to Starfield and Anthem. Since then every game has to be big, open world with endless game time to justify $60 price tag.