September 28th 2023.
The Thursday letters page recently discussed the possibility of Sony and Xbox HQ having moles in each other’s departments, and one reader brought up the topic of scary video game enemies. It turns out that the pricing of games is a complicated topic, and there are many misconceptions about it. It's not Apple that sets the price of the games on the App Store but rather the developer, and while the price may not have increased since the 90s, the industry is now worth around $220 billion compared to $20 billion back then.
The cost to physically produce and distribute games was more than it is now, and the majority of the $220 billion worth of the industry is the mobile market. Console gaming is currently worth $56 billion, which is a much smaller increase when you consider that the cost of making games has risen from less than $1 million in the SNES days to more than $200 million for a AAA current gen game.
Many gamers reminisce about the days when games were £40-50, and they could buy most big releases at launch. However, since games are now £60-70, the majority of gamers wait for sales to make purchases, or just don’t buy the games at all. Publishers may be tempted to keep raising the price of games, but this doesn’t always lead to more money because it can put off customers.
The discussion then moved on to Freddy and the honest words of Capcom’s president. It’s true that game budgets have increased dramatically over the years, but there are more customers now too and Nintendo regularly sells more units than the competition despite having underpowered consoles. The president said increasing prices would create better wages for the employees, but this could be done in other ways too without increasing the price of games.
Finally, a Hot Topic suggestion for the month of darkness and demons was put forward. What is the scariest creature/enemy you have encountered in a game? Soulsborne games may win this in a landslide, but there are still plenty of other contenders like bosses, Omega Flowey from Undertale, and the weird, body bag style monsters from Silent Hill 2. Even more subtle villains who terrify because of their ideologies can be considered.
The Thursday letters page has sparked an interesting discussion about what makes a scary video game enemy. Is it the monster lurking in the shadows or the ideologies that drive some of the more subtle villains? We’ve seen some great examples from the Soulsborne series, Undertale, and Silent Hill 2.
But what else is out there? We’re looking for the scariest creature or enemy you’ve ever encountered in a game. It could be something overtly monstrous, or something more subtle that terrifies because of its ideology. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
The discussion has also highlighted the huge differences in the cost of making and selling games since the 90s. Developing a game today can cost up to $200 million, compared to less than $1 million in the SNES days. However, the industry was worth around $20 billion in the 90s and now it’s worth around $220 billion. This suggests that even though the cost of making games is higher, the number of customers is also much higher, making up for the discrepancy.
The cost of physically producing and distributing games is also much lower now than it was in the 90s. This is thanks to the increasing digital industry, which is cheaper than disc-based media and disc-based media is cheaper than cartridges.
But what about the price of games? It’s true that the price of games hasn’t increased since the 90s, but as one reader pointed out, a copy of WWF Attitude cost £69.99 back then! This suggests that disposable income plays a major role in how we consume games. As prices have gone up, some of us have become less likely to buy games at launch and are more likely to wait for sales or just not buy them at all.
So let’s keep the discussion going and share our thoughts on what makes a scary video game enemy. We’d love to hear your take on this!
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