Considering Microsoft continues to layoff developers, I think we can safely rule that out as a possibility.

It’s possible that in this specific instance Microsoft would not spend the extra money wisely. But for the industry as a whole, if the financials look better, fewer people will be laid off and companies will be willing to take more risks.

The second is the assumption that games are more expensive than ever to develop. This is beyond untrue; games have actually never been cheaper to develop.

Yes, indie games are cheaper to produce, which is why they cost less. The prevalence of mid-budget indie games strengthens my point: gamers have many options at many price points, and raising the cost of AAA games to $80 isn’t pricing anyone out.

In any case, we’re not talking about indie games. A big game like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Elden Ring costs $100M+ to make, which is a lot more expensive than it used to be.

Hot take, but $80 is a perfectly reasonable price for a “mainline” game.

Back in 1998, I saved all my money to buy Quest 64 for the suggested retail price of $60. That’s $120 in today’s money, and I guarantee you I didn’t get as much game as I will with Outer Worlds 2. Games dipped to $50 when they moved to discs, but even that was more expensive than today once you factor in inflation.

Realistically, an extra $10 isn’t pricing anyone out. All modern gaming platforms are expensive. There are still plenty of ways to enjoy gaming for cheap; they just don’t involve the newest platforms. That has been the case for most of the history of gaming.

Meanwhile games are more expensive than ever to develop. We want developers to get paid, and we want them to take more risks, but both of those things cost money.

If you haven’t played Anthem, you missed out.

It has some of the tightest gameplay I’ve ever experienced. Combat was satisfying. Traversal was a joy.

I’ll never understand how people could throw that away just because the endgame wasn’t there yet. The gameplay is the hardest part to get right!

My favorite part about my Dark Urge playthrough is that they often phrase the option as something like, “think about hurting the cat,” and that cat was just a dick to me so while I’d never actually hurt the cat, I can certainly think- oops, I just fucking tortured and murdered that cat.