The video game industry has scored a massive advantage in the COVID-19 era; one of the very few industries that are set to make a profit as everyone shelters inside.
With scores of microtransactions littering a massive number of titles, never-ending early-access funding while developers fail to produce results, half-baked DLC schemes that seem cut from the title to nickel-and-dime consumers, and the sports franchises adding scripting to events in the game (and little else), it’s not difficult to see why, or how, multiple companies are setting their sights on to the industry to turn a quick buck.
Which, granted, hasn’t proven entirely too fruitful for some.
Yet 2K, which made news recently for allegedly failing to pay their developers their agreed-upon salaries while executives take free stipends from projects ear-marked for development, has announced that the upcoming NBA 2K21 will cost $70 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
The same franchise that has been riddled with microtransactions and piecemeal progression which fails to update much more than the cover art every yearly iteration, is now asking for more money from the consumers that continue to purchase their titles.
It’s likely going to still work, truth be told: the demographic that repurchases roughly the same game year after year, whether it’s Electronic Art’s notorious FIFA franchise, or 2K regurgitating the NBA title time and again.
Sports titles are popular as the yearly iterations update rosters, and everyone wants to play on the newest edition, giving developers a large proverbial farm that they can expect to generate income with every year, regardless of how well certain mechanics have been executed.
While many are drawing lines between 2K asking for more money and the actual fluctuating value of a dollar over the past four decades, there isn’t much math to be done unless we’re all attempting to get into mental gymnastics. You can’t argue for inflation when the average US worker hasn’t received any shift to take inflation into account, and politicians are fighting (and being supported by certain constituents) to keep the minimum wage as low as humanly possible.
This will simply result in users being able to purchase fewer titles, and in-game transactions will continue to nickel-and-dime users for every possible cent they can get their hands on. For the shareholders, of course.
Developers and publishers are profiting now more than they ever have in the past, with gross incomes on financial reviews reaching well into the billions on microtransactions alone: Rockstar has been swimming in money since they devised the GTA Online scheme with Shark Cards, which is why they’ve stopped developing anything other than that; it’s paying the bills.