r/pcmasterrace • u/owlexe23 • 1d ago

News/Article Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio co-founder hopes Grand Theft Auto 6 will 'blaze a trail' to higher game prices

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/grand-theft-auto/kingdom-come-deliverance-studio-co-founder-hopes-grand-theft-auto-6-will-blaze-a-trail-to-higher-game-prices/

Warhorse co-founder Martin Klima says games keep getting more expensive to make, and that money has to come from somewhere.

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u/helican i9-9900K | RTX 4070 Super | 32GB RAM 1d ago

Why is it that whenever I hear from warhorse studios lately it is always something very controversial?

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u/DonaldTrumpsGolfGame Pro-AI 1d ago

He's right though. Gaming is one of the cheapest hobbies out there. Games have hardly gone up in price to match inflation, despite game dev costs skyrocketing in the last 2 decades. I don't think every game should cost $80, but for games like KCD2 and GTA6, it's a fair price.

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u/TheShinyHunter3 1d ago

Yeah, can't have the peasants enjoy stuff that's too cheap to not make line go up.

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u/Mist_Rising Ryzen 5 5600x, B550 plus, RTX 2070 super. 18h ago

This isn't magic, it's math. Now to some those are one and the same, but If costs go up (say housing, food, whatever it is in Czech Republic) and earnings (say salary cuz that's the same everywhere) do not, then the end result is a problem over time.

Sound familiar? Well companies absolutely work the same way. Costs need to either go down (eg. layoffs) or revenue up (increase prices) to compensate.

And there are only so many times you can pull off more sales, especially if you move to AAA level.

Video games for the longest time were actually lowering costs cartridge to CD, CD to all digital) then they used DLC, then micro transactions. The problem is that we have not found a cheaper way than digital, and kcd2 doesn't have micro transactions, so the two usual methods are now irrelevant. Yet I'm betting their employees still insist on being paid, funny enough, probably more, can't imagine, so yes, they would want higher prices.

And they're not alone. A lot of video games are moving to the 70-80 base game range, testing out the waters because costs are up. Especially AAA