Gamers frustrated by “broken” AAA game releases as $70 games become standard

The conversation around $70 video game releases has been a heated one, and many gamers are opting to wait for titles to be on the market for a few years rather than buying games on launch day.

The latest trend in the world of gaming is the ever-increasing price tag on some of the hottest games dropping each year. While not every AAA studio has opted to sell their newest titles for $70, publishers are slowly but surely making it the new standard.

While many don’t seem opposed to paying 70 dollars for a game if it’s worth the price, it appears some are fed up with the state in which many popular modern games release while carrying a heftier price tag.

Some gamers have cited the “rapidly increasing degradation of quality and performance” as a reason to wait out AAA releases entirely and either wait a few years to pick them up on sale, or just skip the game entirely.

Gamers are waiting years for sales on $70 games

As many Reddit users mentioned on a post discussing their thoughts on $70 dollar games, being patient and waiting for sales can get you hot and trending $70 games for half the price. If you’re willing to wait for potentially a few years, that is.

One user lamented that they couldn’t justify spending $70 on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor despite wanting to play it. “Fallen Order was $4 this Steam Spring Sale, and now I want to play Survivor but refuse to pay $70. I’ll wait another 3 years.” That says nothing of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s performance issues at launch, or the issues a game like Cyberpunk 2077 suffered with a “broken” release.

But why are gamers willing to wait so long to play games they’re looking forward to?

Another reddit user chimed in on the issue, saying that the price tag itself wasn’t the main thing they took issue with. “My issue isn’t with the cost increase by itself, it’d be fine if that’s all it was… The real issue is the rapidly increasing degradation of quality and performance on top of the price increase.”

There are several examples of this trend, such as Redfall getting middling reviews at best upon release. And that says nothing of a game like Gollum that, while not priced at $70 dollars, has gamers skeptical of new releases even if they’ve got big names attached to them has overwhelming negative reviews.

However, there are also examples of games being worth the price people pay for them. Take Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, for example.

The President of Nintendo America, Doug Bowser, argued that Tears of the Kingdom’s $70 price tag is justified based around the quality of the game. And, considering that it’s the fastest-selling game in the franchise, gamers don’t seem too bothered by paying $70 dollars for a game if the value proposition is there.