I’m sort of going to blame Sony and Microsoft here as well. Since their game subscription services came out, games going on permanent discount seems to be a thing of the past. I reckon they’ve been told to do it just to make the subscription services look better value.
Back in the day, as far back as the ZX Spectrum for me, games would come out at full price and then a couple of years later would come out in a budget range. Even Nintendo would do it on the GameCube. Now it’s just full price forever because fuck you.
I’ve got to be honest, the price of a game is probably the least important factor on whether I make a full price purchase.
I’m not going to rush out and buy something I’ve no real interest in. I can count on one hand the number I’ve made this generation. On PS2 I’d be grabbing something every week or two, but now I just can’t get excited for the latest and greatest updates on old formulas. Half the time I buy just to encourage them to make more games like that, like I did with Talos Principle 2, Astro Bot and Split Fiction.
I might pick it up later if I feel inclined, or see it on a decent discount. Like Clair Obscur, that I picked up for £29 in a sale just because I remembered it existed and fancied something to play over the winter holiday.
If it was going to be cheap, they’d have told us. They’ve prepared us for the worst, and we’ve still got people huffing the copium thinking the Steam Frame will be price-competitive with the Quest 3…
Every award show ever: “Just give most of the prizes to whatever sold the most, with the odd curveball choice to make sure everyone comments to tell us that we are wrong to drive up those engagement metrics”