Video Game Discussion: Is Gaming Too Expensive?

Aviva's yearly financial report has found that consumers have slightly more disposable income than they had in previous years. In just 2012, the average consumer household had only £27.00 per month of disposable income.
In lieu of this, I was wondering. Is gaming too expensive?

Let's take the two new next-gen- Sorry, current-gen consoles. I really ought to stop saying that now.

Both of them cost upwards of £350/£429 respectively. (PS4/Xbox One.)

Now let's take into consideration the games. The cheapest are £45 but some titles cost £55. Expensive? EA would have you paying £63 as standard per title, bought online or bought as a physical copy.

Let's throw into the mix microtransactions which are in every game that's been released for the new consoles so far. Forza 5 has about 100 cars in the game. Not bad, until you realise that you have to pay for the other 300. Ryse? Microtransactions.

You're not even safe with free game downloads. Games such as Angry Birds Go on the mobile are free to download but contain stupid amounts of premium content that you can buy. (Including a single car for seventy pounds.)

But those are microtransactions and fee-to-play games. Surely they can't phase you.

Well how about games such as Elder Scrolls Online which insist that you have to pay for the console, pay for the game, pay for online and pay a monthly subscription fee and presumably pay for DLC in order to keep up with your friends. Count the number of times I said pay in that sentence.

And what if I told you that it didn't have to be this way?

What if I told you they could fund their servers, pay their employees, pay for art assets and engine costs AND make a firm and tidy profit without charging you for extra online content, subscription fees or online?

You'd call me crazy.

Well what if I told you that they're already doing it?

Forza 5 has immense quanitites of DLC. And costs sixty dollars. And features product placement which includes Top Gear. Powered by an ad-supported AND subscription based game console, which is also sponsored by good ol' Mountain Dew.

Know what that gives Microsoft and Sony? Here's a picture to help you.

Probably even more.

It wouldn't piss me off so much if the gaming industry didn't plead poverty constantly, mentioning how pirating is ruining the industry and games cost tonnes to produce.

If you can look me dead in the eyes and tell me "Charlie, no other possible combination would work. There can be no cheap AAA games with product placement and in-game advertisements and no DLC. There can be no free AAA games with heavy advertising, multiple sponsors and intense DLC. There can be no expensive AAA games with no adverts or product placement at all and limited DLC. There can be no very expensive AAA games with adverts and product placement but multiple packs of free DLC." then I will give you a look that will make you melt into your fucking chair.

Don't give me shit such as "Servers cost tonnes and are incredibly complex. You can't understand them." DOOM had server hosting in the 90's. It's not new.

Stop insisting that servers are magical pieces of alien technology that have just arrived. They've been around long enough for most of them to become old and decommissioned.

The industry lives in financial decadence but is still making money on games, consoles, ads, promos, tie-in apps like Pizza Hut delivery and many other things that I could name but they make me taste something in my mouth that was in my stomach half a second ago.


Yes, gaming IS too expensive. And worse than that, it doesn't have to be.