strat wrote:VideoGameCritic wrote:Good observation MSR. Companies always marketed CD systems as if YOU were getting add these added benefits, when in fact THEY were going to enjoy the true benefits in terms of costs.
That extra money from the cheaper CDs went to FMV studios (a completely wild, but educated, guess) so you see, it was totally worth paying the normal retail price.
From the beginning, the cost of making games was always going up, from single programmers writing the code and the costs of marketing, shipping, production of physical cart/packaging and all the licenses (if they applied) to the era of multiple programmers, artists to do the graphics, composers to write the musical score, anti_piracy programming and increasing marketing/advertising costs, to the era of huge teams just to do graphics, write briefs for story/ gameplay direction, licensed music, actors to voice/appear in the games, and beyond.
Small wonder that mega corps like EA and Ubisoft heavily push the online add-on dlc to such an exaggerated degree, as their costs are NOT recouped by selling their games at 60+ a copy. I don't like it, but it is an inherit evil of publishing games (especially when you have all the licenses (players, teams, music, voice actors, etc.) and dev costs, never mind shipping, marketing and production.
This is one of the reasons indie games thrive on digital format, as they take years to develop (some like Owlboy took over a decade if I recall right) and digital release doesn't have the production and shipping/distribution costs as a big physical release (indie games usually get a physical release if they do well, and even then if a special company like Limited Run Games picks them up)