Pricing is likely "fair" and inflation sucks

[LtLost]

Base game Skyrim was released in 2011 at 60 USD. Adjusted for inflation that is 81.33 USD in 2023. Pre-purchasing base game Starfield is 79.99 USD. This is just under expected inflation.

Skyrim's first story expansion Dawnguard was released in 2012 at 19.99 USD. Adjusted for inflation that is 27.13 USD in 2023. Pre-purchasing the digital premium edition bumps the price up to 99.99 USD but also includes the Shattered Space story expansion (when available). If the story expansion is roughly an equivalent to Skyrim's story expansion DLC, at 20 USD, it is about 25% lower than what inflation would predict.

Based purely on size on disk (125 GB vs 12 GB) Starfield is a much larger game than Skyrim content wise. This likely holds true even without all the random generation of planets owing to lines of dialogue. In a sense you're getting 10x more game content for same price. Of course more content says nothing about quality of content, but all things considered, initial pricing is nearly always based on cost to produce content and not the quality directly. That leads into the question of whether or nor people should be pre-purchasing rather than waiting for discounts, well there's this thing called opportunity cost. That's something for each individual to decide on based on their circumstances.

Anyways, back to inflation, 80 USD is likely the new industry standard for big games... well until 2025 when it hits 90 USD if going by economic indicators. So I think Starfield pricing is "fair" so to speak.

Anyways, I just hope someone creates an economic disasters mod that simulates inflation, war shortages, and pandemic related shutdowns in game so I can feel pain during my escapism just as I am irl.

Edit note for correction: I wrongly stated base game is 79.99, it is 69.99. That puts it under inflation by 11.33 USD or 14%. I wrongly stated the first story expansion was only 20 USD, whereas it is 30 USD. That puts it above inflation by 2.87 USD or 10%. Overall, the game price is under expected inflation by 8.46 USD.

[Tenoshii]

Originally posted by 1rsm:

Anyways, I just hope someone creates an economic disasters mod that simulates inflation, war shortages, and pandemic related shutdowns in game so I can feel pain during my escapism just as I am irl.

No need. In the early game trying to upgrade your ship will make you feel like you are in an economic disaster given your low earning potential vs. high costs. Once you hit mid-game things are much more affordable though.

[Gamefever]

I think you would have just about as much luck explaining how inflation effected the price of graphics cards.

There will be those that find it reasonable but they will be in the minority of posters at least.

[Cy]

Good topic, OP

[Duffelcoat]

The game being good is more important. If the game is epic no one is going to care so much about the price. Value for money is the key. I always benchmark my games at £1 an hour as value for money. So £60 should give me at least 60 hours gameplay

[herbstwerk]

All good points, but you're preaching to the choir. If you want to reach those users unable/willing to understand basic economic concepts like inflation or basic math you'll be probably more successful making Tik Toks. 290 words are simply too much for the average attention span.

[LtLost]

Originally posted by Tenoshii:

No need. In the early game trying to upgrade your ship will make you feel like you are in an economic disaster given your low earning potential vs. high costs. Once you hit mid-game things are much more affordable though.

Oh, but you see, I'm so used to pain I want... NEED economic pain throughout the entire game to feel normal. Those end game ship parts I'm salivating over? Just always out of my grasp. An epic struggle of trying to increase income faster than inflationary price increases.

Originally posted by Gamefever:

I think you would have just about as much luck explaining how inflation effected the price of graphics cards.

There's a really good YouTube channel called Asianometry. Lots of video essays on semiconductor economics. There's a few on GPUs. The supply chain is scary fragile and largely situated in a geopolitical hot spot. For that reason, US government strong armed TSMC into building a fabrication facility in continental USA, and is effectively subsidizing the project via $15 billion in grants and tax credits. If successful, this shortens the supply chain for GPUs in the US, so hopefully cheaper when adjusted for inflation and increased computational power. On the other hand, AI LLMs use high end GPUs. Industry demand for GPUs is likely to increase faster than production if TSMC construction woes are considered, so more expensive GPUs. It's hard to say.

[A. Silvermane]

If Starfields DLC costs $30 there better be a Season pass

[Paraskeet]

Originally posted by 1rsm:

That leads into the question of whether or nor people should be pre-purchasing rather than waiting for discounts, well there's this thing called opportunity cost. That's something for each individual to decide on based on their circumstances.

I think the vast majority has 10$ to try it on gamepass. that should be enough to help in your decision whether or not paying 80 for the base game is worth it

[Paraskeet]

Originally posted by 1rsm:

There's a really good YouTube channel called Asianometry. Lots of video essays on semiconductor economics. There's a few on GPUs. The supply chain is scary fragile and largely situated in a geopolitical hot spot. For that reason, US government strong armed TSMC into building a fabrication facility in continental USA, and is effectively subsidizing the project via $15 billion in grants and tax credits. If successful, this shortens the supply chain for GPUs in the US, so hopefully cheaper when adjusted for inflation and increased computational power. On the other hand, AI LLMs use high end GPUs. Industry demand for GPUs is likely to increase faster than production if TSMC construction woes are considered, so more expensive GPUs. It's hard to say.

this is a good recommendation for anyone interested in history of semiconductor giants like tsmc etc.

the arizona plant will take at least another 10-15 years until it's on par with taiwan.

the current gpu pricing seems to confuse a lot of people. they forget that both nvidia and amd are sitting on a lot of ampere and rdna2 cards that they need to get rid of first.
the whole point of the current gen is to goad people into buying previous gen.

that's why I ignore this gen and wait for blackwell. until then gddr6w is hopefully going to be a thing and gddr7 and 512bit for the high end.

[LtLost]

Originally posted by Ayato Silvermane:

If Starfields DLC costs $30 there better be a Season pass

There are many large games that do not list high speed internet connection as being a requirement. Why this one? Look at Paradox Interactive's system of DLC development and pricing, now look at all those uninhabited planets. I smell a potential decade of revenue. Not necessarily a bad thing, well bad for my wallet, but I don't think they'll be doing season passes.

[aandaie]

I'm also making way more money at the same job per hour than I was in 2011; I make nearly $10 more per hour than I did back then.

Of course, my apartment rent is also WAY MORE per month than it was then even though I'm in the same apartment.

Even so, I found it far easier to pay $99 for the digital premium preorder than I did the $60 for Skyrim in 2011.

The $99 also includes the first DLC and I think Fallout 4 DLCs were around $19.99, while I forget what Skyrim's were. But that makes it an even better deal.

I actually think people will be saying the OPPOSITE once the DLC comes out; they'll be saying "Why didn't I get the $99 version that includes the DLC when the DLC has now come out for $24.99? SLAP IN THE FACE!"

[Bloodartist]

Pricing is likely fair because this is possibly one of the biggest singleplayer games of all time.

[-={LG}=-]

Originally posted by aandaie:

"Why didn't I get the $99 version that includes the DLC when the DLC has now come out for $24.99? SLAP IN THE FACE!"

Not me! I'm not the sort who waits two years before buying the game, but I am the sort who never buys any DLC until the GOTY version goes on sale for $10. In my experience DLC all suck anyway, no matter which game it is.

[Brother Atheos]

The game is awful in every way and worth 20€ at the very most.