Why I Refuse to Pay $80 for Video Games

There’s a running joke from the classic sitcom 30 Rock that my wife and I love to reference and feels apt this week when thinking about The Outer Worlds 2. Main character Liz Lemon’s incredibly bridge-and-tunnel-coded boyfriend, while attempting to start a number of new businesses, finally lands on the subject of beepers. You know, pagers. Like what old business people once used. When defending his choice, he says the devices will make a comeback because “technology is cyclical”.

I sometimes feel like this joke sums up the world of video games. The same arguments and worries constantly come back around, like how much we pay.

Maybe the passage of time has fully smoothed my brain, but it feels like only yesterday that the discussion on raising prices to $70 took place. And $60. And let us not forget the great NFL 2K 2005 price debate, where the prime Madden competitor came out at a staggering $20 price tag. This was in response to an impending exclusivity deal that EA would sign that year with the NFL.

But even then, prices mattered. It would be easy to assume that the price of games is moot now that we’re living in a world made up of live-service titles. Clearly though, it matters more than ever. Technology prices increase, tariffs make all our lives miserable, and companies keep firing workers while canceling projects that in a different world we would have been doing by now. Even through all of that, we’re still having the same debate about the price of a new video game.

Here’s the thing: Maybe my brain is actually that smooth now, because I’m not willing to pay a higher price for a new video game right now than I already am. We’ve crossed the Rubicon and there’s no turning back. All this talk about GTA 6 potentially being the game to break open the price increase dam?

Go ahead. I won’t be coming along for the ride.

The Outer Worlds 2 Is Not Worth $80

Hubris is one hell of a thing. In light of tariffs and new consoles coming out, a number of companies potentially see an opportunity to finally raise the standard price for triple-A titles. It was only a few months ago that Microsoft declared that The Outer Worlds 2 would cost $80. Only for the company to walk that price back with two announcements – including a pretty tone-deaf, in-universe message.

“We have received your SOS via skip drone about the pricing. “As an organization devoted to making sure that corporations do not go unfettered, we at the Earth Directorate have worked with [REDACTED] to revise the price of The Outer Worlds 2.”

Blegh.

If I didn’t hate this series before, I certainly do now. I think what amuses me about the entire situation is the absolute gall for Microsoft to even consider the move. Sure, they looked at Nintendo charging more for Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2, but there are some pretty heavy caveats to consider with that one.

The bundle offered some actual value, while World was one of the very few exclusive launch titles to arrive alongside the console.

And after all this happened, I had a thought: Do I even really want to pay full price for games if this is what awaits me?

The Mid-Life Gaming Crisis Approaches

I’m turning 40 next month, so how I spend my hard-earned money and very rare pockets of spare time have grown increasingly important. Do I want to waste all of this on video games that are only growing more expensive and time-consuming?

A game’s value for the consumer, by and large, begins and ends when they play it the first time and when said playthrough ends. There are outliers, of course. Games you play forever. Indie titles with creative approaches. But I cannot remember the last time I felt well and truly floored by a traditional triple-A experience.

The industry has changed. How I play has changed. More importantly, the focus and factors for what makes a video game these days are rapidly shifting underneath our feet. Roblox is the biggest game in the world, and it’s essentially a video game sweatshop – but a lucrative one that other publishers want to follow in the footsteps of.

Where Nostalgia Lays Its Head

I’m nostalgic for a period when all games didn’t just feel like every IP ever smooshed into one thing.

Free-to-play gaming has fully become a rule and not an exception. The next generation of gamers – who, according to a recent IGN Trends report, don’t even call themselves ‘gamers’; they say they’re a fan of specific experiences – will not play games the same way. They will not be nostalgic for games in the same way as my generation either.

Ten years from now, that nostalgia will be for games like Cookie Run, Grow a Garden, and Genshin Impact. It won’t be for these massive tent pole, full-priced video game experiences that have ruled since I was a teenager.

Something has changed along the way. A potential threat of a price increase feels less like players getting more value for that increase and more like a dare – as if publishers want to see how much they can get away with. And this isn’t a matter of GTA 6 not being my jam and that’s why I snub my nose at its potential price tag. Simply, I do not see the value proposition. The market will speak for itself if players agree, but I won’t be there on day one.

Is this to say I’m done with gaming? Of course not. But I need more fulfilling experiences at price points that feel reasonable. In no world does $80 or above feel like a price I’m willing to pay for a video game anymore. I’m not that same 20 – or even 30 – year-old trying to keep up with social media and my friends.

Keep GTA 6. I don’t want it or its price tag.

The Outer Worlds

4.0/5

Released

October 25, 2019

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

Publisher(s)

Private Division

• 

•