It is 80€ in Spain, and it‘s the main reason I’m not getting a PS5 anytime soon. It‘s not only that I don’t want to validate that kind of price policy, it‘s that I straight can’t afford it. It‘s extremely delusional to ask for 100€ (80€ + the usual 20 for the season pass or whatever DLC nonsense they have) for a single game. I really really hope this bullshit doesn’t work out for Sony.
I was and am still horrified by the act of a single new release having a total price, after taxes^1, of over $100.00. I mean, I know the “more than $60?? for a videogame???” thing was always a benchmark in USD, but I have vague recollections of at least the retail price before taxes of a brand spankin‘ new videogame being $60 CAD… sometimes when I come across that conversation it feels so distant, like I’m listening in from a dystopian future timeline…
^1 - Unless you live in Saskatchewan, Alberta, or one of the territories, I guess.
But after GST it ends up at… what, like $94? Something like that, which is still… a lot.
It’s still not anywhere near Japanese retail for some Super Famicom games in the 90’s (or markup for importing them), so I guess I shouldn’t complain!
I have been enjoying Returnal immensely.
Also, consider the "PlayStation Plus Extra Money" tier. I don't play AAA games more than once generally and I (personally) feel like I've gotten good value out of it already with _Returnal_, _Stray_ (which comes to the service next week), and others. _FFVII Remake_ is also on the service as of next week.
I mentioned to a friend of mine that I picked up some switch games—one off kijiji and one off ebay—and he told me he‘d never thought to look in those places for games, so I’m mentioning them here. FB marketplace, too. It‘s easy enough to find new condition, or just straight up unopened, for like half off, unless you’re looking for a marquee nintendo title. Look at this shit!!
Re: exuberant price of first party games. I don‘t know what sales and discounts are like in other countries but in the UK the prices drop hard after a few months if you know where to look. Demon Souls, Returnal and Miles Morales Ultimate Edition all have an RRP of £70 and I’ve had them all for barely £40 brand new - barely £30 for MMUE during Black Friday or January sales.
Sure, that does mean that you're not going to be getting games day one but I would struggle to imagine many people, if anyone, being devoid of any available unplayed games that waiting a while for a fine discount is a problem.
This in itself is a problem I think, it turns purchasing new games into a privilege certain people won‘t ever be able to afford, creating first and second class users, which could even end up warping the conversations around new games (those with the privileged access being able to establish a discourse around the title before the bulk of the users can get to play it for example). It’s classist and it sucks!
(Although I agree with you that getting games late is better than not getting them at all)
@JoJoestar Wanna be clear before I say this that I'm not disputing you so much as trying to agree extend the thought: this has always been the case! New games have always been pretty expensive compared to what money was worth at the time. $50 for a new PS2 game back when I was a kid/teen seemed insurmountable. $60 for a PS4 game as a young adult working minimum wage jobs was also a massive ask. And back in the day games varied wildly in price so it was always a question of when a game would pop up used or drop in price lol. Or knowing you want something when it comes out and saving up for however long you needed to or trading in games to afford it.
I think now the $70 price tag feels really egregious because it's really only a small amount of companies pushing for it and it feels insanely arbitrary. Plus the general state of the world, capitalism, COVID, inflation, discourse being more immediately available etc makes it just look like, frankly, some straight up bullshit.
@sabertoothalex I guess I was exactly in the threshold of 60€ being doable but 80€ completely out of the question, but you are right. And there is also that thing that you said, they didn‘t even convert the prices properly across regions. We Europeans get the shorter end of the stick because $70 already doesn’t translate to 70€, but they made it 80€? At least put the minimum effort to hide your massive greed is what I would say to every company pushing for this crap.
@Karasu I would offer my condolences to you for having to live in Alberta, but I know that's a whole crappy cliche.
My personal issue with this is that, for the most part, I am fine with waiting a practically indefinite length of time to play most things, and I regularly browse seasonal sales and such, and generally won‘t pay more than 50% of a game’s retail price to play it. I know this is the point of why they do it, and I have a smaller backlog than most, but I don‘t fear my backlog, to me it feels more like I’m some kind of gamer squirrel rooting through trash to dig out the easiest morsels of food to obtain, which I can then store for later.
or
For usually around 1 or 2 releases in a year I absolutely must play it day one. It‘s an unfortunate inclination but no length of time or even being terribly busy with other things seems to really alleviate it. In times of plenty I’ll set aside money or fully pay off preorders for something I‘m really anticipating a long time in advance if I’m not sure I won‘t be having lean times when something’s been announced to be released.
Bit of a blessing and a curse, really. I do like to get emotionally invested in things and it makes the initial experiences with games I‘ve been looking forward to feel special. However, I’ve been that kid who couldn‘t sleep the night before Christmas for a long time I guess, lol. I mean that literally, I get really restless and often wake up unable to get back to sleep the morning of something I really want to play, micromanage getting digital releases preloaded, stare at the countdown, bemoan the existence of midnight digital launches and timezones… I guarantee you if you could do something like rent a digital version of a new release by the hour, I’d absolutely do it to be able to play a game at midnight on the launch day for at least a few hours before bed, then go to get my physical copy in the morning.
I am not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Control Ultimate Edition on PS5 is really fun and enjoyable. Yeah it was a PS4 game but I've heard the PS4 version crashes and glitches a lot.
@JoJoestar Personally, I would never view it as “second class.” Getting games later these days is often better period. The unfortunate truth is a majority of big AAA title games are released with issues or unfinished in some way. Even if a game does come out with out any issues, there will likely be DLC that will then cost you more later…. Whereas, if you wait you can eventually pick up a “Deluxe,” “GOTY,” “Platinum,” “Director's Cut,” or “Complete” edition of the game later and pay considerably less than the cost of the base game at launch AND get all of the DLC, etc.
I picked up the Platinum Edition of the first Dying Light game for $6. If I had bought that game day 1 and all of the DLC full price, it would have cost $280.00! But even if money were no object, playing through a game day 1 means you will likely be missing a good number of patches that could fix all kinds of issues with games, and expand on them.
The likely 2022 GOTY Elden Ring patched in additional questlines that were unfinished at launch. The launch day players likely missed characters and their questlines playing through the game, and would only get to experience them if they replayed it later after the patch.
In the case of Returnal, I‘m pretty sure there were a number of people that returned the game because you couldn’t save your spot in the middle of a run and turn off your PS5. Eventually they patched it so you can save where you are and no longer had to commit to playing through a 2-3 hour successful run all at once in order to progress in the game.
Personally I think it's dumb to care so much about playing games day 1. Day 1 players are paying more to do QA work for the later players who will pay less lol.
All that being said, I do sometimes buy games day 1. But it‘s very rare for me. Maybe once a year or less. I did buy Elden Ring at launch and play it day 1, but I’m a player that plays through all Fromsoft games multiple times. There are a lot of people who do not like to replay games… And I get that. There are games that I do not want to replay too- and not because I don‘t like them. I love Persona 5. But I’m just not interested in committing another 120 hours or whatever just to see what they added in the Royale version of the game. Maybe someday, but I've got a hundred other games to play first.
Anyway, I‘m getting long winded with this rant. I do get excited about new games, but I think it’s smartest to basically be a year behind with buying and playing them. That way, you can learn more about what kind of game it actually is, how it plays, and how people responded to it, while also getting a “fully” patched version of the game potentially with DLC and pay much less for it. I would argue that this approach is in no way putting you in a lower class of players, because you will be the one get to play the more premium experience.
**Just to note- I am pretty much only talking about AAA here. Indie Devs need and deserve your support day 1. That usually isn‘t asking as much, because indie games generally won’t be priced at $60-$70 anyway.
@Gaagaagiins I do completely agree with you there. I should probably add as well that it only seems to be Sony studio developed games that are retailing for £70 in the first place and a lot of third party games seem to be going for the £40 - 50 at launch that‘s been the norm for the last few generations. A cursory search for Soul Hackers 2 has an rrp of £55 yet I’ve seen preorders for as little as £40.
That obviously doesn't make things any better for Sony studio developed games but my point being is that the £70 releases appear to be few and far between (for now).
Edit: I should also add that I don't intend to make anyone feel bad about not getting games day one (I'm more trying to highlight that it's only a few publishers that do it). Not getting games that you're looking forward to on day one sucks if you can't afford it but on the other hand, re: what I said about waiting a few months for not-insignificant discounts - this does sometimes happen in a matter of weeks, soon enough to join in with the discourse.
@Danimal Heh, yeah, when I think about games in the past 5-10 years which occupied no small amount of my active (and passive) thoughts days (or weeks…. (….or months……..)) prior to their release, spiking especially the closer the release came, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. represent a decent chunk of them. I probably would have felt the same about Bloodborne too, but I didn't have a PS4 when it came out (I bought a PS4 about a month and a half after it came out, and of course it was to play Bloodborne).
Besides me just being impatient, I think that makes sense with how the games are presented and especially with how they‘re promoted before release. At least for me I feel really excited about the idea of seeing it all with my own two eyes without knowing what I am going to see. Gameplay wise too, I felt that I really didn’t know all that much about Sekiro in particular and how it would play before it was released, and a huge part of my anticipation reaching a fever pitch was being able to find answers to my questions.
Also this made me think of a stupid and funny story from my childhood. I think one of the first games that I got really really obsessed with in this way was Warcraft III. I followed the official game site for any even minuscule update or detail, I thought about it nearly every day, I probably experienced actual detrimental mood effects from the last minute delays, all of that bullshit. I had the Collector‘s Edition preordered and after the delays were over the game would also be coming out shortly after I was out of school (pretty sure I was in Grade 7) so I could just play the game all day on the day it came out. The city I grew up in is obscenely car dependent and has terrible public transit, so of course, I relied on my parents for transportation, and thankfully my mom has always been the very permissive type, so it was not a big deal for her to take me first thing the morning of the release so I could pick up my collector’s edition. I remember waking up just fuckin' buzzed and ready to do nothing else but get the game and then go to town on it.
For some purely arbitrary reason, my mom decided because my sister was also home and free at that time, that it would be a good time to go to the government office on the way to Electronics Boutique, in order for me and my sister to apply for and receive our Social Insurance Numbers, which in Canada we use for……….. idk, but you need one to have a job.
I still can‘t believe that my mom didn’t figure out I was neurodivergent from how weird I was and intense I could be about certain things, ‘cause I remember feeling like I had been mortally betrayed lmao. Despite this probably only taking, like, an hour, I surely went through 4 out of 5 of the Stages of Grief over this very mundane parenting logistics decision, probably with a prolonged period of Bargaining (I could accept that I needed a SIN, I just didn’t get why we had to do it specifically on July 3rd, 2002!!!), and to this day no Acceptance, cause goddamn, I didn't need a SIN to play Warcraft III, mom!!!
It might be worth paying for whatever tier of ps plus gets you a bunch of PS5 games like Ghostwire. If you are looking to blaze through a bunch of PS5 games within a 12 month period, it might be worth the cost compared to buying a few individual games.
FWIW, I got Ghostwire free in a competition so I played it day one but would never pay full price for first party games. I am very fortunate to be able to buy games that are approx £40 day one but anything £45+ is only getting bought when there's a big discount. These big AAA game's are huge and ridiculously well made and have to cost a lot but life is hard for a lot of people at the moment and £70 is a very big ask.
@Gaagaagiins lol that marketing is how they get ya! That was a good game to get excited about though. I loved it, not only for the gameplay that was built in, but even more so for the customization and everything you could do with the world editor- which basically led to the creation of entire new genres.
I know I didn‘t think you meant it like that. I actually agree that I think it’s definitely a real thing for younger people to feel left out and like a “lower tier” gamer when their friends are all playing the latest releases that they can‘t afford. It’s shitty and I just am trying to disprove it‘s importance more than anything. It’s probably different for us than the average person though…. I mean I know that indie games and retro games have had a resurgence, but I'm pretty sure that the average “casual” gamer is still only interested in playing new/current gen games. While my back catalogue of games I am genuinely excited to play goes back 30 years.
I also think Astro‘s Playroom great. It’s fun to collect all of the PS devices that are rendered in great detail.
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But it's pretty eye rolling that they erased "Made in China" or other countries outside of Japan.
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With the amount of new features and improved performance/presentation, I would definitely recommend Death Stranding Director’s Cut. It doesn’t quite feel the same compared to the PS4 version and was a rather fresh experience that adds in even weirder, more game’y elements. There are MGS1-style VR missions and race tracks!
Agree on DSDC. I played it through on PS4 and liked it but didn‘t love it. Going back to it on PS5 and platinumming it without having to engage with the story really consumed me. Ended up with 100 hours on the clock. I’ve also played something like 200 hours of MGS5. KojiPro are really great at making open world games with very precise controls, lots of options and a decent meta game to give meaning to all the open world activities.