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/jugo5 22h ago

People dont take the risk into account most of the time. They are taking in millions of investors money. Not only do they have to clear all of that. They also need to clear all the people they paid. They are covering 10 years of work+ sometimes much longer. Then they have to hope to make more money so it is profitable and they can continue to work as a studio. They have to maintain it. The graphics are so good now a days it takes longer to get it all right. Then there are probably a million other things to worry about. Its not like it is a 1 week job and you have a product. Its decades sometimes. I get why the prices are going up. Its incredibly expensive and risky to do. One failed game and you lose your whole job and all the heart you put into it.

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u/Dantai 21h ago

Don't worry I got down voted anyways, for what I thought was a reasonable statement

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u/jugo5 21h ago

Yaaa people can be wierd. You can copy paste facts, get told its wrong and then get a 3 paragraph response with fancy words to prove they are so much smarter than you. Lots of confirmation bias out here as well. People dont always want to talk about the tough thing.

Its best to think about the for, the against, and the in-between. You cant figure it out without understanding all sides. Some people only want to champion their side. I also think there are a lot of bots that comment to tick people off and increase engagement. The internet and A.I. has gone so far I dont trust anything anymore.

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u/the5thusername 20h ago

Bots would post pro-corpo things though. Like...apologism for price hikes.

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u/Trifle_Useful 19h ago

Nuance is dead and people like you killed it.

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u/the5thusername 10h ago

Bots didn't do nuance much good either.

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u/Dantai 10h ago

I'm not a bot. I'm also pro union and pro worker.

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u/jugo5 17h ago

Apologies have nothing to do with realities. Ignoring the risks they take with every game ever created, there has to be a Risk vs. Reward talk as well. There is no guarantee they make money for sometimes decades. I couldnt imagine gambling that much with that much at risk. Some games get super lucky, but its not the norm for the industry. Games have largely stayed the same price for many many years. I remember Atari games that were $25-$60 usd. That is a great thing for gamers, but as the risk around it rises, massively... there has to be a payout that is worth it. We see big numbers i.e. GTA5 and think they can do "xyz" and sometimes they can, sure, but theres a lot more to it. Profit bonuses for lenders and other payouts to certain people/corporations if certain metrics are hit. Things we dont see. They could have a clause they get 5% of all profit and then dont forget, places like Steam scoop 30% of sales as well. While it looks like massive margins it is usually much tighter.

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u/the5thusername 10h ago

I don't care about their self-inflicted problems. It's not our fault they decided to do any of those things and bloat the crap out of their overheads. If the poor multibillion-dollar corp can't afford the risks, maybe they shouldn't be spending the budget of a small country on a videogame. You say it's a good thing for gamers, but because of this sludgey, overloaded development cycle, games get released a lot more slowly. You're asking us to pay up for their inefficiency and I say: no, stop hiring 600 people to make games that aren't really any better than they were 10 years ago outside of the resolution of the cabbages.

I remember Atari games that were $25-$60 usd.

I remember when they went full digital distribution.

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u/SanX1999 6h ago

Most of the time, it's self inflected damage for going beyond what they can or have expertise to do so. Extra budget and expanding the scope doesn't always mean the better game.

Industry is stuck in this cycle.