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They probably should cost more, but they can't. If not enough people are willing to pay $100 for a game, then you cant sell it at that price or you don't have a business. That is where the problem lies. That's why EA is getting out of the liner story gaming business and focusing only on games they can monetize post launch. People can be convinced to pay $100-250 for a game if they get DLC and some art books and statues. Its interesting how that works... but most of the time those types of games need to be established series or have insane hype. I could see myself paying $75 for a base game so long as its not bullshit. That's me though. The higher you go in price, mistakes and bombs are going to hurt more, and cost consumer confidence faster. No one is willing to take that chance yet. The same goes for consoles. They're always going to be limited until people are willing to pay $500. We live in a world where people get triggered over every small thing they perceive as getting taken advantage of over. And that sentiment becomes infectious on Reddit. Sometimes its jusitifed, but when its not, the results are terrible. (I watched my favorite game's expac get ruined over shit like this). The thing I don't want to see is "early access" become the norm. I think that's a bunch of bullshit.

I feel like I'm going the be the only one playing devil's advocate but I agree with the EC video, games shouldn't cost $60 anymore (and I wouldn't say they're playing Spin Doctor or that they're to calm, they're taking a rational approach to a subject that get gamers way to fucking angry every time it comes up (and no I don't agree with the inflation argument, I just generally think games should cost more based on what the employees in this industry make and what they have to go through to get said game out (they really need to be paid more but that's another subject for another time))). While I don't look forward to that time when games cost more than this it's a sad fact. Honestly I'm still surprised that they're still $60, I've been expecting a price hike for years. It's inevitable, it will happen once DLC/loot boxes stop paying the bills (and with the recent Battlefront 2 debacle it'll happen sooner than later). While Jim brings up a lot of great points sadly he seems to have no grasp about how things work in the industry. Sadly I'm not going any further with this argument. Honestly I now enough about the industry to agree with the video (I have a degree in this, I've had to take classes that explain the overhead costs a studio has and how much money they actually get compared to the publisher. I literally had to make a business plan for a final in my Game Management class with a budget, you'd be fucking surprised how much a AAA game actually takes to make (and how much having a person with a degree in Business Management would help most developers out)) and I'll leave it at that. Please note I'm not defending the industry for what it does I just agree that games should cost more, it's inevitable with everything else we buy so why shouldn't it hold true here.

Counter point: Movie going hit a 22 year low in 2017. It has less to do with the pricing and more with the product though. Reboots, remakes, sequels. Games can't go up because of the frequency they need to come out now. Annual titles like COD have bred short attention spans. It's not like a car or a mattress that had a 5-10 year turn around. Plus you gotta pay for the console, and a yearly subscription to play most of the games. There is too much money going everywhere else. If they raised the prices, DLC and lootboxes wouldnt go away at this point so they dug their own grave.

I don't agree with the inflation argument. Sure inflation has been happening but wages have not been increasing at the same rate, at least for me it sure hasn't. There's alot of products that haven't gone up in price in over a decade. Milk, bread and eggs still cost the same as in 2006. Yes it's not a fair comparison of eggs to video game development but some things we are used to being a specific price. On the other hand the price of a movie ticket has almost doubled since 2006, but ppl will still go to the movies. Once a movie ticket starts hitting the $20 mark I bet ppl will go to a hell of a lot less movies especially since everyone has to watch 30 minutes of trailers and commercials before the movie even starts as it is. But movies have something to offer a video game doesn't when it comes to piracy. If someone buys a movie ticket they buy an experience that won't happen again after a certain point in time. Being able to watch that movie in a theater with amazing sound and a giant screen. But a video game doesn't offer an experience like that to counter piracy. If someone pirates a game they have the same experience as the person that bought the game on release. The fact that going to a movie is something you can't recreate at home is why ppl pay the price of a ticket with current inflation rates. But if video games kept raising their prices then piracy would most like rise right along with it negating any extra profits they might have gotten from those higher prices. Mobile gaming has proved that the real cash cow is to get as many ppl playing the game as possible and then sell the microtransactions.

As much as I liked Extra Credits, Extra Credits has a way of defending or promoting AAA Games in a way that I'm uncertain if they're playing Spin Doctor or are just too calm. I think my main problem with this Extra Credits video is they talk about how inflation hurts the game industry but fail to note that inflation has hurt gamers who live on minimum wage.