The Temerity Of Video Game Pricing

Earlier today (12/09/2025) I watched the latest Nintendo Direct, and I walked away from that presentation with some mixed emotions. Speaking as John Video-Gamer I'm very excited about the coming attractions: Kirby Air Riders continues to be my most anticipated title for the Switch 2 since its April announcement, the art for the new Yoshi Game has my interest piqued, and the new Donkey Kong Bananza DLC has preyed on my nostalgia for DK64. I could go on, but I won't.

However, whilst I'm getting giddy about the idea of getting the family together to play some more City Trial my bank card is staring at me nervously and sweating profusely. $20 for a DLC to a $70 game I purchased 2 months ago and $40 to replay a game that I've had since I was in grade school, needless to say my wallet is going to feel the squeeze as I try to keep up.

Don't get me wrong; video games are incredibly difficult and time consuming to make. I've spent plenty of hours in Godot and Blender and Krita with nothing to show for it but the barest of tech demos. It takes a lot of commitment of time, of labor, and of capital to see a project through to its end. You will never catch me saying a developer or an artist or any creative should yield their work for free because I'd rather prefer to keep the digits in my account up. What I will say is that the price tag on a game is not reflective of its worth.

See, worth is impossible to quantify, and the harder you try to do so the more ephemeral it gets. Terraria, Spiritfarer, and Wanderstop are all games which have my full-throated endorsement. That in mind, which of these three would I say is the best value for your money? Well, Terraria is a quick $10, and on Steam alone I have over 400 hours logged. Of these 3 Terraria is easily the most hours played relative to cash spent, ergo it is the most worthy purchase, no? If the equation were that simple I'd say staring at your wall for free is the most cost-effective fun.

So if we can't use plain old hours played to decide what the best purchase is, what about quality? Same problem, different word, I reckon. Which of Spiritfarer or Wanderstop is a higher quality production? I think Wanderstop is the more technically impressive game, what with its beautifully rendered environments, lovingly animated and well-written characters, and its incredibly lengthy atmospheric soundtrack(s) (Wanderstop and Wanderstop FM). It's a shoo-in for my "Best-Game-In-This-Trio-Award". Even so, Spiritfarer evokes in me a much more visceral reaction (i.e. violent sobbing) rivaled in this regard only by my beloved Xenoblade Chronicles (the third one did a number on me, in a good way).

You can see now that this is a trap, can't you? If I were to give these games a dollar value based on how much they are worth to me there wouldn't be a soul that could afford them, because I do not like video games; I love them. And I want to share the things I love with the world so that the world can love them too. But how can we share in the love of video games if nobody can afford them?

I posit that the price of a video game is entirely based on what its creator can get away with charging. When a creator is on the back foot (struggling indie dev, AAA company recovering from a flopped launch) the goal is to set a price low enough that people are willing to take a chance on your creation but high enough that you can afford your next food bill when the last copy is sold. There is an effective upper and lower boundary on the price. But once you get your footing and the demand for your creations grows past a critical point the boundaries start to become suggestions. However high your price may be, the people want what you've got. And having a lot of money is nice, but what if you had even more? Nintendo has found their footing.

What's to be done with this information? On the individual level, not much by my reckoning. Buy the new thing or don't, a million consumers will make sure the gears of the machine stay turning. Perhaps some time from now Nintendo flies too close to the sun and begin the cycle anew; the Nintendo Switch 4 drops at an incredibly affordable price with games so cheap they're practically free. Maybe this iteration outlasts us, and we all get to watch as we're priced out of the hobby. I've a Bachelor's in Computer Science, not Prophecy.

At this point this text has taken on quite a cynical tone, but I'd much prefer to end on some positivity (overdosing on negativity is terrible for the heart). If you're willing to look around there is more art created in a day than you could possibly consume in the same time frame. Passionate creatives continue to work diligently as ever. A couple weeks on Bluesky (other social networks are available) has been more than enough to pad my Wishlist with dopamine. Seek out new and exciting things and you'll find them. If you have the means; support them when you find them. A couple dollars, exposure, or even a few nice remarks can mean the world to a creator. Even if the games industry is never able to be fixed, and I don't believe in such absurd absolutisms, it can be made better.

-JumpyWord | He/Him