$70 is the New $60: Ubisoft on AAA Game Pricing Going Forward

[S73fan]

I don't buy $70 games that just offer the same thing, like the far cry series. As the prices decrease over time, then it will be bought.

 

[Chomiq]

Hate all you want but this will trickle down to other devs, it started with next gen, then it was Activision/Blizzard and now other companies will follow suit.

Don't buy games on release, wait for sales.

 

[Bomby569]

considering the state they released AC Valhalla, it pays to wait and buy at 20, so no worries there.

 

[kapone32]

This unfortunately has become the norm. To be honest I would just get Ubisoft Connect and wait until one of their Games is offered through Epic or Humble and you will get more. As an example I got AC Valhalla on Epic as a free and in my library I got everyone before that. I also got WatchDogs 2 from Epic or Humble and I also was given the first one. If I absolutely must have a new release I will always check Green Man Gaming though as you are pretty much guaranteed 12 to 20% off new titles. You will also get the same if you are a Humble Choice member which is also a thing that makes paying full price for any Game a crapshoot. Just this month The Ascent is part of Choice and Hot Wheels Racing.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Ubisoft stated that USD $70 will be the new norm for pricing of its AAA game titles going forward.

Yay! How delightful. Yet another narrowminded, greedy, bonehead move by Ubisoft that gives us all two more reasons to avoid them..

Well done Ubisoft, well done indeed!

 

[zlobby]

And for those like me, who want to play fair? Simple - just give them the finger and move to other games!

 

[lexluthermiester]

And for those like me, who want to play fair? Simple - just give them the finger and move to other games!

Exactly! Voting with your wallet and being vocal about it!

 

[Mac the Geek]

Hey, Ubisoft! If you're not making enough profit, you could stop wasting money on Uplay. Just a thought.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Hey, Ubisoft! If you're not making enough profit, you could stop wasting money on Uplay. Just a thought.

And they could also quit wasting money and time on crap DRM like Denuvo...

 

[Deleted member 177333]

With so many free of them going around, dose people still pay for games??

I haven't done so in 3 years or so..

From Ubisoft's constant 7-years+ of deliberate cringe worthy woke titles, later, Ubi's hard push on microtransactions, then, Ubi activates (in secret, sort of) a deliberate campaign to nerf all NVIDIA's cards in favor of AMD's sponsored titles, then Ubi open the gates for its NFTs, and now, they are in bed with Tencent and the final product? Ubi raises its prices...

Uhm... yeah.

Yep. Lots of reasons to not pay for anything from Ubisoft. Are they now removing DLC from earlier games like the Assassin's Creed games due to taking authentication servers offline?
I haven't bought a Ubisoft game for around 5 years and have no plans to do so anytime soon. They can raise the price to $200 per game if they like. It won't have any impact on my wallet as I always vote with it.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Yves Guillemot is a villain, I've hated this guy ever since I've known about him after he ran his mouth about 95% of PC gamers being pirates 10 years ago, a statement that to the best of my knowledge he never retracted from. Ubisoft itself never really made games I was very interested on anyway.

PC gaming has "around a 93-95% piracy rate" claims Ubisoft CEO

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been speaking to GamesIndustry International about Ubi's reasons for embracing the free to play model. He says free to play games are more cost effective to create because typical PC releases are so heavily pirated. He claims that "only about five to seven per...

www.pcgamer.com

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yves Guillemot is a villain, I've hated this guy ever since I've known about him after he ran his mouth about 95% of PC gamers being pirates 10 years ago, a statement that to the best of my knowledge he never retracted from. Ubisoft itself never really made games I was very interested on anyway.

PC gaming has "around a 93-95% piracy rate" claims Ubisoft CEO

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been speaking to GamesIndustry International about Ubi's reasons for embracing the free to play model. He says free to play games are more cost effective to create because typical PC releases are so heavily pirated. He claims that "only about five to seven per...

www.pcgamer.com

That statement was and still is so far out of wack and absent of any merit that it comes off as pathetically delusional. It's a perfect example of company execs crying wolf and putting a retarded amount of spin on what was and is a purely minor problem.

Back in the 80's and 90's when games came on carts that cost a fair amount of money to make, charging $60, $70, $80 and even $90 for some titles was actually reasonable because of the cost of manufacturing. Today, there is ZERO cost of manufacturing. It's all digital distribution and I know from personal/professional experience that hosting costs for digital distro is fractions of a penny on the dollar. So Ubisoft's price hike in absence of any real improvement to the quality and appeal to their product lineup amounts to little more than blatant greed.

This should come as no surprise to people who see Ubisoft, and others like them(looking at you EA & Microsoft), for what it is, a soulless business that has lost sight of the fact that the products they make are a form of artistic entertainment expression that are meant to captivate and titillate the audience with a quality experience. Instead they pump out mindless drivel crafted for the half-witted and dimly-lit masses.

EDIT, @Dr. Dro , no offense intended to you personally. My remarks were focused exclusively on the content you mentioned, not at you.

 

[hat]

I'd have no problem paying $70 for a new game at launch time. I do have a problem, however, paying $70 for a game, then another $20 for the day one DLC, then another $50 for the season pass, all to play a game infested with a bunch of pay2win features...

 

[londiste]

Count this as 16.6% inflation over the $60 ($59.99) that was normal for AAA games a few years ago.

This is a curious point. Games have been $60 ever since 2005-2007 or so. Looking at inflation since then - US/USD inflation seems to be the most relevant here - it does seem to be in the same range. $60 in 2007 is roughly $70 today.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I do have a problem, however, paying $70 for a game, then another $20 for the day one DLC, then another $50 for the season pass, all to play a game infested with a bunch of pay2win features...

Nice list! And some people wonder why us citizens of GOG are so passionate. It's because we don't have to deal with nonsense like that!

ALL HALE GOG! Long live the true Kings of the gaming world!

 

[GunShot]

This is a curious point. Games have been $60 ever since 2005-2007 or so. Looking at inflation since then - US/USD inflation seems to be the most relevant here - it does seem to be in the same range. $60 in 2007 is roughly $70 today.

The early 2000s era did NOT have full digital titles either, waaaAAaaayy less overhead, so, not a logical comparison here.

Ubi (and Sony, Acti, etc.) will regret this move and feel the burn hard before 2024.

 

[kapone32]

Nice list! And some people wonder why us citizens of GOG are so passionate. It's because we don't have to deal with nonsense like that!

ALL HALE GOG! Long live the true Kings of the gaming world!

The best thing about GOG for me is Galaxy. Now I can see all my Games across 1 platform and have all of those launchers running in the background.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Galaxy

I've recently tried it out. It's not my jam, but I can see why people like it.

 

[AsRock]

Funny part is.that i just wait it out and get the game and all the DLC's for about $25, sure it means waiting but it all so they fixed most of the problems too.

Aint payed no $60 for a UBI game for over a decade lmao.

 

[kapone32]

I've recently tried it out. It's not my jam, but I can see why people like it.

Well you probably have most of your library in GOG but for me Epic alone has over 100 Games and Steam is 99% for discount Games on sites like Fanatical and Green Man Gaming.

 

[Dr. Dro]

That statement was and still is so far out of wack and absent of of any merit that it comes off as pathetically delusional. It's a perfect example of company execs crying wolf and putting a retarded amount of spin on what was and is a purely minor problem.

Back in the 80's and 90's when games came on carts that cost a a fair amount of money to make, charging $60, $70, $80 and even $90 for some titles was actually reasonable because of the cost of manufacturing. Today, there is ZERO cost of manufacturing. It's all digital distribution and I know from personal/professional experience that hosting costs for digital distro is fractions of a penny on the dollar. So Ubisoft's price hike in absence of any real improvement to the quality and appeal to their product lineup amounts to little more than blatant greed.

This should come as no surprise to people who see Ubisoft, and others like them(looking at you EA & Microsoft), for what it is, a soulless business that has lost sight of the fact that the products they make are a form of artistic entertainment expression that are meant to captivate and titillate the audience with a quality experience. Instead they pump out mindless drivel crafted for the half-witted and dimly-lit masses.

EDIT, @Dr. Dro , no offense intended to you personally. My remarks were focused exclusively on the content you mentioned, not at you.

None taken my friend, don't worry about it. Yet it's precisely because of his stance, I feel, that Ubisoft employs such extreme forms of DRM in their games even today.

They just don't respect us as customers.

 

[Easo]

Games have been 60 USD/EUR/GBP for what, like 15 years? More? There is one thing you CAN'T argue about - it's that inflation is a thing and game industry has not followed. 60 USD 15 years ago was way more than it is now and making games is generally more expensive (wages, for once).
What can be argued is how much the increase is justified. Why not 5, instead of 10? 8? 2.5? Plus the whole DLC/Season Pass/in-game purchase debacle.
How much are companies making compared to back then, proportionally of course?

 

[Dr. Dro]

Games have been 60 USD/EUR/GBP for what, like 15 years? More? There is one thing you CAN'T argue about - it's that inflation is a thing and game industry has not followed. 60 USD 15 years ago was way more than it is now and making games is generally more expensive (wages, for once).
What can be argued is how much the increase is justified. Why not 5, instead of 10? 8? 2.5? Plus the whole DLC/Season Pass/in-game purchase debacle.
How much are companies making compared to back then, proportionally of course?

There are many other avenues for revenue than the singular sale price of a game, and the costs with distribution have also considerably decreased. Once a developer pays Valve their 30% or Epic their 12%, they don't have to worry about CDN or bandwidth costs, and that already excludes boxing, packaging, manuals, optical media, etc.

So while inflation is real; so are lower costs of shipment and distribution. True, development costs themselves have significantly ballooned upwards, but mass distribution also greatly offsets that.

End of the day, it's just a CEO wanting to make more money here.

 

[zlobby]

Games have been 60 USD/EUR/GBP for what, like 15 years? More? There is one thing you CAN'T argue about - it's that inflation is a thing and game industry has not followed. 60 USD 15 years ago was way more than it is now and making games is generally more expensive (wages, for once).
What can be argued is how much the increase is justified. Why not 5, instead of 10? 8? 2.5? Plus the whole DLC/Season Pass/in-game purchase debacle.
How much are companies making compared to back then, proportionally of course?

You are right. However, while I have nothing against inflation, I won't pay up for overpriced garbage.

 

[AsRock]

Games have been 60 USD/EUR/GBP for what, like 15 years? More? There is one thing you CAN'T argue about - it's that inflation is a thing and game industry has not followed. 60 USD 15 years ago was way more than it is now and making games is generally more expensive (wages, for once).
What can be argued is how much the increase is justified. Why not 5, instead of 10? 8? 2.5? Plus the whole DLC/Season Pass/in-game purchase debacle.
How much are companies making compared to back then, proportionally of course?

Not when you don't own any of them any more. And by time all the added content they ask way more than $60 for them.