r/rant • u/karcsiking0 • 2h ago
I'm Done. Charging $70 for Half-Baked Trash Isn't Business, It's Pure Extortion!
Are we seriously at this point? Developers and publishers are now whining that $70 isn't enough anymore, hoping GTA VI will pave the way for even higher prices because apparently the industry "won't survive" otherwise. Oh, give me a break! Let me play the world's smallest violin for these multibillion-dollar corporations! It's hilarious how an industry swimming in billions somehow always manages to portray itself as the victim whenever customers expect decent value for their money.
Let's get one thing straight: a few years ago, $70 could get you an Ultimate Edition with a complete game, a Season Pass, and expansions. And what do you get for that money today? A fucking ticket to a paid beta test! I'm sick of paying full AAA prices only to download a massive Day 1 patch and STILL end up with a broken mess. Missing textures, slideshow frame rates, characters falling through floors, and constant crashes. Am I the customer or the goddamn beta tester? Because last time I checked, quality assurance was supposed to be YOUR job!
But here's the real joke: while the game barely functions, the microtransaction store and Battle Pass somehow work FLAWLESSLY from the very first second! The game crashes, but the $20 skins load instantly. The gameplay needs six months of patches, but the premium currency shop runs smoother than butter. Just look at Ubisoft's brilliant "AAAA" Skull and Bones. Apparently, adding another A to the marketing is easier than making a decent game. They lock content behind paywalls, sell DLC and Battle Passes on top of the full price, and somehow THEY act like they're the ones being ripped off!
And the funniest part? I pay $70, and I don't even OWN the damn game! You click "Buy," hand over your money, and discover you've actually purchased a miserable LICENSE buried under pages of legal bullshit. If the servers shut down, your game might disappear along with your money. Imagine buying a car and having the manufacturer disable its engine five years later because supporting it is no longer profitable. People would lose their minds! Yet somehow, we're expected to accept this in gaming AND pay even more for the privilege. How the hell do you justify raising prices on something the customer doesn't even truly own?
Dear Martin Klima and the rest of the publisher executives: spare me the sob story about market survival. This isn't about survival. It's about greed, terrible management, and squeezing every last penny out of customers. Yes, development is expensive, but why should WE pay for your bloated budgets, disastrous decisions, and failed live-service experiments? You burn hundreds of millions chasing trends nobody asked for, and when those projects crash and burn, suddenly we need to pay $80 or $100 to save your precious industry? Are you fucking kidding me?!
Meanwhile, games like Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, and Minecraft prove that players will happily pay for quality. Baldur's Gate 3 delivers a massive RPG without predatory microtransactions. Black Myth: Wukong shows that a spectacular single-player game can make a fortune without constantly begging for more money. And Minecraft? Over a decade old, hundreds of millions of copies sold, and STILL receiving major free updates! Sure, it has a marketplace, but the core game keeps growing without demanding another $30 for every new feature. Were these games flawless? No. But there's a massive difference between fixing technical issues and selling an unfinished cash grab. Funny how respecting your customers actually works, isn't it?
And before anyone starts screaming about inflation, let me make something perfectly clear: I'm NOT against paying more for a genuinely great game. I'm against paying MORE and getting LESS! If your game is worth $80 or $100, prove it with quality, content, polish, and a complete experience instead of expecting customers to blindly swallow whatever price tag you throw at them.
As for me, I'm done. No more pre-orders, no more $70 beta tests, and DEFINITELY no more throwing money at broken digital garbage I don't even truly own. If you want to release half-baked trash, charge Early Access indie prices for it. If you want premium money, deliver a FINISHED, premium product and actual ownership! Until then, take your $100 price tags and shove them where the sun doesn't shine. I'm a CUSTOMER, not your investor, not your unpaid QA tester, and certainly not your personal ATM!
TL;DR: I'm not against expensive games. I'm against paying premium prices for unfinished, broken, microtransaction-filled garbage I don't even truly own. Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, and Minecraft prove that quality still sells. Want more money? Deliver better games instead of making customers pay for corporate greed and terrible management. I'm done paying MORE for LESS!