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PBFT t1_j21147y wrote

Reply to comment by rode__16 in Activision's Boston studio workers announce unionization by No-Drawing-6975

They went from 60 to 70 dollars because the cost of AAA game production has essentially doubled since the Xbox 360/ PS3 days. The most expensive games to make these days require millions of copies sold at full price just to break even.

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Kevrawr930 t1_j21b32n wrote

And the revenue stream has increased ten fold.

The poor, multi-billion dollar video game companies are doing just fine, take a peak at their last 20 quarterly reports.

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PBFT t1_j21ctv0 wrote

This is true, but consider that this is only possible because major publishers mostly green-light projects with well established IP or games with additional funding streams like microtransactions. Studios that don’t make a large enough profit often get restructured to work on more profitable games.

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Kevrawr930 t1_j21ezmm wrote

Okay?

What the hell does that have to do with anything? Loads of Indie games make hefty profits because they aren't budgeted like a bloated, sprawling beached whales desperately trying to cling to life. If AAA companies can't make money ethically, then I say that means the Free Market dictates that they fail and make room for someone less out of touch with reality.

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PBFT t1_j21gk88 wrote

I can’t even understand what you’re saying. It’s all just jumble.

If you want to talk free market, consider that there hasn’t been a visible dip in sales among games that raised their prices to $70.

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Kevrawr930 t1_j21nl96 wrote

???

The first comment I replied to was trying to explain the price increase of games away by stating that the cost of game production had increased. I told you that that couldn't be the real reason because their profits have increased even more than their costs.

Now you seem to not understand how I could possibly think the 70 dollar price was just simple capitalist greed and nothing more.

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PBFT t1_j21qda2 wrote

You’re confusing two different values for being the same: one is the profits of a publisher and the other is the profits of a development team within a publisher.

Yeah Activision is making record profits off the back of Call of Duty, Diablo Immortal, Candy Crush, etc., but Crash 4 seemingly didn’t meet sales expectations so Toys for Bob was restructured to support Call of Duty development for a while and are now making a GaaS Crash game. If the game rakes in $10 more per game, Activision would be more inclined to let them keep making single player games.

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Kevrawr930 t1_j222rfr wrote

Yes.

One, single entity controls the profits of the teams working under them. The context clues in the previous sentence should lead you to the answer.

If the publishers are doing well, the studios who make the games that are their sole source of revenue should be doing equally well.

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