I’m not paying $80 for this game.
I kinda dislike this excuse for the higher prices these days.
While it was pretty valid for the PS3 era and before, the PS4 and the PS5 have both been sold at profit well within the first year. This is just a console tax to make more money from people.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/sony-says-499-ps5-no-longer-sells-at-a-loss
PS4 - 6 months to be profitable
PS5 - 8 months to be profitable(despite the chip shortages as well).The revenue split is the same (30%) on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox, which seems like the number that should matter to the publisher.
It’s not that simple. This article is from 2021, so the numbers may be a different now, but the point remains. Steam takes about the same cut as Sony to start, but Steam reduces the percent the more the game sales. Given the 5 million+ units sold on steam, Larian made an additional $25 million+ because of the reduced rates.
https://www.theverge.com/21445923/platform-fees-apps-games-business-marketplace-apple-google
So what?
They sold consoles at a loss to begin with, they overcharge for games to make up for it and people ‘happily’ paid it. Just because they cost less now, they still need to make up for the loss they accrued when they were selling at a loss. When they truly break even on the costs, why would they lower the price? If people have been paying $70 for new games, why would they drop the price when their costs go down.
