This is why gamers will continue to be screwed by the industry.
Gamers are their own worst enemy.
Remember the Modern Warfare 2 debacle? Those who boycotted it ended up playing.
Suckers…
I’d believe it. 2 more is “more people”.
It makes sense though, people who would preorder a game several months before it comes out would be big enough fans to get the expensive edition. Regular people are not buying any game before launch, expensive or not
Pre-orders for digital content make zero sense tho.
Yeah, because the stock is obviously going to run out
Most people don’t really care about abstract or long term things. You can tell them that buying the game supports bad stuff, and they could at least wait for a sale, but they’re no better than a toddler.
More people are being idiots. Smh.
It is this kind of behavior, that I see in generally almost all walks of life, that pushes me more and more to just mind my own business and associate with those who know better. Simply because, I can’t rally my inner activist if the large majority of the people, the same ones crying for change but yet won’t do it, to exhaust myself in trying to be that change for them. All that I’d be doing, is wasting my time and energy.
So go on, keep buying your $1,000 steam machines, your $100 GTA VIs, you won’t learn any better. Anything for clout and FOMO.
I get calling out pre-ordering a digital game, but what’s the hate for the steam machine? Sure its maybe a bit pricier than a similarish build, but the form factor and other perks of the system can make up for that.
People were highly anticipating a machine from Valve that was affordable, flexible, versatile and able to give mid-range to higher-mid-range PCs a run for their money that you had to build.
I remember arguing with someone on a discord channel about its pricing. He was adamant that the price was going to be around $500 ~ $600 to keep the competition. I kept arguing back that with the prices about where hardware has gone for PCs that it will be more pricier. He was $400 off and there are people like him out there, who’re that gullible to believe Valve is on their side.
Gamers in general are known to be gullible. Buying a Steam Machine at $1,000 because it was made by Valve, proves this. I would argue that Valve should’ve just have upgraded the Steam Deck and I find that a far more worthwhile device.
From what I read, the Steam Machine actually was supposed to be that affordable, but they really didn’t have much choice to have the current price point without having to sacrifice performance.
The market for PC parts is fucked.
Yeah, that’s what I was getting at. I’m not sure how someone is gullible for buying hardware around market rates. Like yeah, it sucks that everything is so expensive, but unless you’re buying used that’s just the way things are right now.
I get that part and everyone did speculate that months and weeks before we got the price reveal. It’s just, why would someone ignore the market of PC components then expect Valve to be the difference maker? But, that didn’t matter because “valve made it, so I buy, just like I do when I buy games I won’t play from their holiday sales :B”
It’s a gaming capable PC that can provide an actual benchmark target…for the first time in the entire history of the industry if you exclude handhelds (even then isn’t the deck the only one that actually became a target for a notable number of studios). That alone is worth some extra cost. It’s a great entry point for people who only know their phone and it’s app store, you know, the vast majority of humanity…also great for people curious about non-windows/apple OS that are intimidated by the sheer volume of knowledge you need to even pick an alternative OS let alone use it reliably. What about all the work Valve keeps doing on open source projects and Linux gaming as a whole?
You’re ignoring everything about the device except the price and a per-piece comparison of hardware, when in reality it’s about the whole package…plus most of your complaints here have straight up just been you upset that some randos online argued with about both of your speculations on price.
I would argue that Valve should’ve just have upgraded the Steam Deck and I find that a far more worthwhile device.
They still do plan making a Steam Deck 2. But given that the Steam Deck OLED also needed a 300 dollar price hike, it’s clear that it would have had a similar fate. IDK how many steam deck players being ready to pay 4 figures for a handheld.
( I say this owning an 800 dollar GPD Win 4).
CEO claims new product is a hit, refuses to give numbers.
They’re wearing bandanas because they smell shit.
This article is literally worthless without hard numbers. “Exceeding expectations” could be 20 people buying it instead of 10. “More people” could be 2 people. It’s all meaningless bullshit.
Paying present dollars for the promise of a future service. It’s not even a good anymore, as they’re free to change or revoke it. Wild stuff
I don’t even get the hype about the game. I played GTA 5 and Online enough that I was tired of it like 10 years ago. Big whoop, they made another one.
Oh, I want to play it. But they’ve made us wait so long, and are milking for every dollar. So, just as with prior GTA game, I’ll wait an additional year or more for a PC port.
Kinda ironic how people say we live in a cost of living crisis but then people also have always money at hand to throw it out the window for top level consumerism stuff. People have no self-restraint, do they
Edit: self-restraint, not self-constraint
the answer to your question is “K-shaped Economy”. Lot of people doing this are in fact doing way better than they were 4 years ago. Some of them are indeed taking out more debt to do this, but most haven’t felt the pain of this modern economy.
It’s because games are cheap compared to many alternatives that people would use to entertain themselves. They are one of the cheapest forms of entertainment when you consider how much time people spend interacting with them. An Uber and a night at a bar, or a dinner for two at a steakhouse could cost more.
I’m not very consumerist, but grew up poor by US standards (and am honestly on my way back). A lot of people seem to want at least some nice things. Sneakers, nice clothes, nails, hair; whatever they’re into. I think it helps distract them, or gives them something to look forward to. Part of it may also be that society seems to conflate a persons worth with their income and possessions, and that has been internalized.
I’m pretty sure there was a study done that found that people with lower incomes tend to spend their extra money on experiences and such (tattoos, games, etc.) rather than save and invest. And they do that bc they figure they aren’t gonna have the money for long so might as well do something enjoyable with the money when they do have some extra. Whereas people who have higher incomes often have some extra money, so they can make plans and invest with the expectation that they will have more extra money later
Yeah, that’s my experience. I think there’s a kind of anxiety that if they don’t spend it now, some unexpected expense may come along where they’ll have to spend it on that. When unexpected expenses are required, they have to borrow/hustle/pawn/pick up another shift/etc. A lot of people couldn’t even balance a budget if they tried (i.e. they don’t have enough income to cover both expected and “unexpected” expenses).
Guessing one of two factors, or a combination.
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People seek escapism in hard times. 1930’s America was going through the Great Depression, but it was also the start of the Golden Age of Hollywood. People still turned out to go to the movies despite the bread lines and poverty. And people will still buy games if they can squeeze it in the budget, even if there are maybe more “responsible” purchases they could make.
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GTA players probably don’t buy as many games. There are gamers who will engage with the medium across dozens of titles catering to various interests. And then there are “gamers” whose entire scope of gaming is some combination of FIFA, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto. When you only buy 1 or 2 games a year, sinking $100 on each doesn’t seem as unreasonable as buying 10 games per year at $40.
Also to add on to this, while we are in a cost of living crisis, that doesn’t mean people can’t save money towards purchases like this either. If you started putting back 5 or 10 a month since it was announced you’d have plenty saved, especially with the delays.
I don’t think it’s a good idea considering we haven’t seen anything yet, but I am not their audience.
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Restraint
You’re right, edited it, thx.
Gamers are fucking stupid marks. We know this.
Yeah. Not be all “told-you-so” but I saw people on reddit talking about how Rockstar have screwed themselves by not doing physical disks and how pricing it so high is going to ruin them and I was thinking “Oh shut up, you’re all going to buy it.” I guarantee when it does eventually release all you’ll see on reddit for weeks is people talking about how awesome it is.
And most of the bitching will be about bugs and performance issues. But never about how much the game costs by default unless it’s a “BUT I BOUGHT THIS GAME FOR $100 AND I EXPECTED PERFECTION!! >:(”
And then we’ll have the angry refund phase that’ll last about two weeks and fade into nothingness. Not, again, about how the game was priced. It’ll be about the performance and the bugs. Rinse and repeat.
I think it’s pretty cool that I can go, “Oh are you excited for GTA6?” And their answer helps me know if theyre worth my time to talk to.
PeoplemoronsCommon clay of the earth
I know a lot of people buying the $100 version, lots of high end gamers out there
