Is the price hike that hit consoles coming to steam?

[rarutero]

So you guys think we are about to see prices increase in general here on steam too, should i try to get as many of the games i want before that?

Of course without stressing myself financially but i have around 150 games on my whishlist, when i see good sales like 70% or more in AAA games or 40% on indies i try to get them at least a couple of games, mainly on the big sales i get like 10 games with good discounts usually paying like the price of 1 or 2 full priced games and i get between 5 to 10 games depending on the type if its indie, AA or AAA.

I usually dont get games at release(ocasionally with top tier games like BG3, MHWilds,Elden Ring) since im on a so called 3rd world country so im fine being patient but its not the same a 70% discount if the game is 100 dollars instead of 60.

[Start_Running]

Wouldn't be surprised if the publishers used the excuse to jack their prices

[rawWwRrr]

Usually the industry follows the leader.

[我喜歡熊貓快餐]

sadly most likely steam just a store front they are not in charge of the prices set by the developers they just take their cut

[󠀡󠀡]

I don't care.

[MonkehMaster]

meh, doesnt matter if they do, people will still wait for sales, mostly deep sales, so they still wont be getting what they are begging for.

but ofc, they will find anyway possible to raise prices, not like they arent constantly doing it already, not to mention "nickel and diming" everyone, for everything under the sun.

[Chompman]

PC game companies will 100% follow suit as consoles tend to lead the way for higher priced games as they have less competition and can have games that are only available on their console and can set whatever price they want.

As the cost to make games increases because of various reasons such as the tariffs that can increase prices for many items companies will increase their prices to compensate and we are still far behind what games used to cost in the 90's when you factor inflation.

The games back then that were costing $60 would be over $140 these days.

As for steam itself their hardware can start to increases in prices such as the steam deck.

[Chika Ogiue]

There are too many factors to take into consideration to give a definitive answer.

If you're talking about the hardware price hikes, this isn't the first time Sony and Microsoft have raised the prices of their consoles for several regions, such as mine.

Series X initially sold in my region for 55,000 JPY. The first price hike put that up to about 67,000 JPY. The latest hike puts it nearer 88,000 JPY. PS5 jumped from 67,000 JPY to 80,000 JPY with the pro costing 120,000 JPY. Prices on Steam for games didn't change when the PS5 hardware prices went up. They likely won't now. But we've had rolling price increases every couple of months since the PS2 days, so a triple A base game already costs over 9,000 JPY. (Knock off the last two zeros, and that's the local equivalent USD pricing)

As for Steam deck... Cheapest model now costs 85,000 JPY and most expensive is 100,000 JPY. But we only get two options, as the third party selling them never bothered to restock the entry level model. And last but not least, Switch 2 will cost either 50,000 JPY or 70,000 JPY -- Japan has two models. The cheapest being region and language locked and the more expensive unrestricted model only being sold by Nintendo directly. Even the price increase in their games isn't going to be noticed because Sony and Steam have been charging those sorts of prices for years.

[Haruspex]

Publishers set the prices, but it's gamers who buy the games. If gamers decide that $80 or even more is too much, they won't buy it, and the publishers will backpedal on the $80 price point really quickly.

Ultimately, it's gamers who will make the decision. If gamers pay, that will be the new price of AAA games.

AA and indie publishers seem to be doing a great job lately at lower price points, so it's not like we don't have alternatives.

Knowing your average gamer though, they'll probably pay... Oh well. Embrace the patient gamer lifestyle.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

the publishers will backpedal on the $80 price point really quickly.

Or, and this is what happened in my region, they just keep pushing the prices up. Suit reasoning is this: smaller number of buyers == higher price to make same or better profit. Lower the price == less profit or a total loss with no guarantee that lost customer base will return.

This is why gacha games became so popular in the first place. As long as people are paying in increments, they don't notice or care if they're actually paying way more than they should. The allure of cute 2D images / 3D models to get people forking out even more money came later.

[Paratech2008]

I'm not a customer to the gaming industry. I'm poor and have a limited income and don't spend a lot of money, let alone buy Playstation 4 or 5, Xbox One S and X consoles. I have a Switch and a 5 year old PC.

I'm happy with what I have and my limited purchases have no impact on the industry.

The people who day one purchase and have modern consoles are all the gaming industry cares about.

[Wolfpig]

Which price hike do you mean exactly?

The recent ones for the hardware?

The ones which happend at ps4 Release for games?
The ones which happend with ps5 Release on games?

The ones for the switch 2 as they do not have any competition in the handheld market?

[RPG Gamer Man]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Wouldn't be surprised if the publishers used the excuse to jack their prices

Yea, some lame excuse about the price of installing guides on your pc digitally or some crap like that..

[Chompman]

Originally posted by Wolfpig:

Which price hike do you mean exactly?

The recent ones for the hardware?

The ones which happend at ps4 Release for games?
The ones which happend with ps5 Release on games?

The ones for the switch 2 as they do not have any competition in the handheld market?

Both the playstation and xbox consoles are increasing the cost of their hardware and game prices and the switch 2 will also have a higher cost for their games.

Usually it's the opposite as the prices of consoles usually drop over time but the opposite is happening for those two in areas outside of the tariffs to subsidize the increased costs of the tariffs in the US or the costs of moving their production outside of China and game prices increasing for all three.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by Chika Ogiue:

This is why gacha games became so popular in the first place. As long as people are paying in increments, they don't notice or care if they're actually paying way more than they should. The allure of cute 2D images / 3D models to get people forking out even more money came later.

Gacha is a little different. More players, but relatively few "whales" who spend way more than is healthy. And the free players will see all the cool skins and items the paid players are using, which puts pressure on them to spend money out of FOMO.

In a AAA single player game, they don't have the same kind of motivations, so if people aren't buying, driving the price up higher just means even fewer people will be buying.

Of course this might just motivate publishers to make EVERY game a multiplayer, live-service title, but as history has shown, there's only so much room in the market for those, and that's part of what's leading to a AAA collapse as we speak.

My hope is that Clair Obscure is the future of game development. Smaller teams. 3-5 year development times. Smaller budgets used effectively. Good leadership with a clear vision. Sell it at a lower price, but higher volumes. Kind of like how games were made about a decade ago.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Gacha is a little different. More players, but relatively few "whales" who spend way more than is healthy.

Well, yeah, to a point. I can only speak for my region, but depending on the player's age there is generally an enforced spending limit. The limit's are ridiculously high, but there are limits. But my point was more that even for those who know how to not overspend on gacha, the allure of a free to play with optional spending model compared to the constantly increasing price of games on home consoles, absolutely drove players to gacha models. The luring of whales came later.

Your hope is good one, but I'm not so optimistic.