I'm Scared of Being Priced Out of My Favorite Hobby

A Real Gut-Punch of an Announcement 

 

The beginning weeks of July have unfortunately decided to hit everyone with a double-whammy of major anti-consumer practices from major game publishers. Rockstar revealed that Grand Theft Auto VI will be a digital exclusive with physical copies only containing a code, with Sony themselves announcing not too long after that the company will outright shut down physical disc production for any new release in 2028. There’s no getting around just how blatantly short-sighted and greedy these decisions are. We’re now stripping people of having a variety of options when it comes to how they buy their game and funneling them into a company's proprietary storefront. Pricing is now a decision completely handled and controlled by Sony themselves. The PSN Store doesn’t offer discounts in the same way stores like Best Buy or Amazon does, where games will often casually be cheaper than MSRP. People will now either always be paying full price for a release or be stuck waiting for a sale which might not be that good of a deal.

Pricing has become a hot topic in regards to our world today. Everyone’s feeling just how expensive almost every aspect of our life has become. From our basic needs such as food and housing, to our personal buys for our favorite hobbies, it feels like we’re all expected to pay out a premium in ways we were never expected to when the decade first began. Video game pricing has been a hot topic since the beginning of the current console generation, when Sony (because it always has to start with them) announced that they would be pricing their new AAA releases for the PlayStation 5 at $70 over $60. Microsoft and Nintendo (to a lesser extent) have since followed suit, and the years that followed have been filled with debates over how erratic pricing has been since. Personally, I feel that the price increase was a mistake on Sony’s end. It hit right at the beginning of the pandemic, another time where many began to struggle financially, so right from the start of the current generation people had to reevaluate how they decided what new releases to buy. An $10 price increase changed the game for a lot of people, myself included. I wasn’t buying every single new release as they came out before the price increase, but now more than ever I had to really evaluate every bit of pre-release info on a new hot ticket release to see if it was worth my time at launch at all. And this didn’t stop at just first party titles either. Many third party companies have also adopted the $70 base prince standard for their releases, meaning that for new AAA titles from companies such as Atlus, Square Enix, and Capcom, I still have to scrutinize them to a degree I just never had to before. The existence of physical copies of games and sales help to circumvent this problem now so long as I’m willing to wait, but who knows how much longer that safety net will last.

One of the most well known major benefits of physical games (aside from preservation) is the fact that they frequently go on sale for better deals than their digital counterparts do. For example, at the time of writing this the digital version Spider-Man 2 for the PlayStation 5 is currently running for the base $70 asking price. Currently, a new physical copy of the game from Walmart will only run me roughly $43 before tax. If I search on eBay I can even find people selling the game for around $30-$35. At any given time right now, I could buy Spider-Man 2 for roughly 38% - 50% off the asking price thanks to the physical release. Sure I may not have played it at launch, but waiting paid dividends in the long run. If/When Sony goes through with cutting off physical disc production though, suddenly waiting won’t be anywhere near as viable an option for me. There won’t be second-hand copies on eBay for me to buy, or a special sale at Amazon for me to take advantage of. A hypothetical Spider-Man 3 won’t get any cheaper than Sony would allow it to. I’m either shilling out full MSRP or forced to wait for a sale where they decide the discount. While Sony has put their digital games up on decent sales before (50%+ off), a large part of me questions whether we’ll still see as good of a deal when physical competition for PlayStation games is completely wiped out the map. After all, when no 2028 game has a physical release for other vendors to discount, there’s no threat of people buying the game elsewhere for cheaper, and so no need to try and match those deals. With how blatantly greedy the company has shown itself to be, I can easily imagine a world where discounts only go as far as 30% maximum. And who when Microsoft and Nintendo follow suit and firmly lock us into a digital only market.

Everything just frustrates me about this decision. As I sit here struggling to overcome a year long job hunt, hearing countless stories from my friends who are financially hurting, seeing dozens online fret about their money troubles; here is Sony coldly announcing that they’re “listening to market demands” and cutting away physical media. Why are we doing away with avenues of affordability for one of the most popular mediums on the planet right now? Could the allure of making a couple extra bucks truly be that powerful? Surely at some point the rapid price increases will become unsustainable. How can we expect a world full of financially struggling people to be able to afford the ever rising cost of games? I’m frightened of a future where me and everyone I know just have to bow out of the hobby by force because we lack the financial stability to keep our heads afloat. Video games are not an absolute necessity for humans to live, but as with any hobby they provide so much color to the lives of many that cutting it off from them because of unquenched greed paints my mood a special color of bleak.

A common sentiment I’ve seen towards the situation is that with how things are looking, strictly sticking to what you already own and emulation is the way to go. I can see why people take this stance, and to an extent even agree, but I feel like painting this as the only possible solution to the problem is misguided. Like we’re trying to look away from the heart of the problem. The price of even general technology has skyrocketed so hard that eventually even just accessing the means to emulate will cost an arm and a leg. Laptops, desktops, phones, everything feels like it takes an arm and a leg from you now. If god forbid one day I needed to replace my current laptop, while I do have the necessary funds to make the emergency purchase, the amount of money I would drop would feel so painful to lose right now. Simply not buying any games for myself anymore can’t solve how premium life in general is right now. I’ll still be drained by the rising cost of practically every other expense. Plus, I don’t just want to give up having any more new experiences with the hobby. 

If someone were to ask me if I could live the rest of my life with just the current library of games I own right now across all my systems, I would say yes. From my all time favorites to games I’ve wanted to revisit, my library is quite vast and filled with experiences I love from the bottom of my heart. But just because I could do it doesn’t mean I’d want to do it. Not because I absolutely need to be there for every single new release, but because I don’t want to deny myself the potential new joys that newer games could bring me. I want to be there for that new indie game that could blow me away (Gravity Circuit 2? Or maybe Denshattack?) Seeing what the next 3D Sonic game has to offer has me hyped, especially since Sonic x Shadow Generations showed me so much promise for the series' future level design and production. One day I want to see how the Trails series concludes, how Zelda evolves post-Breath of the Wild. While I don’t absolutely have to have them, I feel that it’s cruel that the greed of others should force others and myself to deny ourselves of these experiences.

It breaks my heart because video games have been a core part of my identity for as long as I can remember, and now that I’m an adult every aspect of my relationship to the medium seems so unstable. I never want to stop playing games, but I’m faced with the very real possibility of being driven out due to not meeting the incredibly high economic entry barrier that’s currently being built. Consoles and computers have never been inexpensive, but when they begin to average over half a grand in price it becomes increasingly hard for me to justify jumping to a new console generation. It feels like we’ve barely explored the possibilities of the current one as it is. As individual games become more expensive I have to over-analyze every sale and possibly purchase to the point of exhaustion. My spending habits have improved, but when that improvement was the result of an entire medium expanding to the point of no return I can’t feel proud of that. My heart also bleeds for those younger than me who don’t have any sort of economic cushion under them and need their parents to buy them new games. Convincing my parents to get me a new game was a struggle before the prices went out of control. I can’t imagine how hard it is to try convincing parents to buy any new game or console outside of Christmas, and even the holidays might not be enough anymore.

Despite all the doom and gloom, I still want to do my best to engage with games as a medium. Whether it be from replaying old favorites, exploring new independent titles; if the current economic state of the world tries to push me out from the joy of a hobby I love then I’m going out swinging. I wouldn’t trade the friends and memories I’ve gained from this hobby for the world, and I want to keep making those memories. I just wish the times weren’t as expensive as they are, but being vocal about that is one of the many ways change can snowball. Regardless of what happens, I’ll do my best to keep trucking along. And maybe along the way, everything will begin to improve.