Everyone Stay Calm, this is a story about the economic realities of video games and how they affect companies and consumers.
Baldur’s Gate 3 and Divinity: Original Sin 2 are both video games that Larian’s publishing director says are being priced “below their value” because the studio “believes” it will recoup the money invested , and care about the costs we ordinary people already face.
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In the tweet, there is some context surrounding this assertion, as shown below. Spurred by the pricing of Star Wars: Outlaws, publishing director Michael Douse said in another tweet earlier this week that he believes “the base cost of almost all games should be higher.” High because the cost of making them (e.g. inflation) is outpacing pricing trends.
The developer added that he believes “a game should be priced to match its quality, breadth and depth,” and ended the topic by seemingly joking that the studio was just waiting for GTA 6 to potentially be available at a higher price Recalibrating the market makes it feel like it’s worth doing before following suit.
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Now, Douse is addressing the issue with yet another topic, including “a short economics lesson,” because Twitter is the absolute best medium to deliver that content. Noting that “the bulk of development costs are wages,” he argued that many studios and publishers have reacted to inflation driving up the cost of paying developers, especially in the later stages of development when things start to change in such a way that Several different ways to increase publishing.
This is where things like artificial intelligence that could be seen as simple cost-cutting measures can come into play, and Douse believes another consequence is that many AAA studios try to “reduce risk” by following established trends in gaming. Despite some “anomalies,” the publishing director believes the strategy is unlikely to result in “a *better* game.”
Finally, Douse outlined how he would price Larian’s games based on this issue, saying: “I priced both DOS2 and BG3 below their value because I care about people’s cost of living and have confidence in our compensation.” , adding that collector’s editions are “well below” the price set by the studio.
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Now, let’s all take a breath.
While this is obviously a complicated situation that you can’t really fully examine through a Twitter post, Douse has clearly given it a lot of thought and has a useful perspective that his position provides. There may not be an easy answer to this conundrum, but it’s about ensuring that consumers, who are currently being squeezed by rising costs in every aspect of their lives, and that developers are well compensated for their hard work and have job security in this day and age. Massive layoffs happen every month, and executives who need to look at spreadsheets and please shareholders are equally happy.
Then again, having to find a way to do all this work is supposedly part of the reason why people at the top of the gaming industry are paid more than the developers who actually make the games their companies sell, isn’t it?
