Looks at:

1. AAA games costing 100€+ between base game and season pass.

2. Online services on consoles constantly raising prices.

3. Consoles that, over the time cost more instead of less.

4. Wages frozen in time for years.

5. Rest of unrelated to videogames stuff but that drain people's wages.

I WONDER WHY YOUNG PEOPLE SPEND LESS IN VIDEOGAMES...

I'm sure it has nothing to do with shitty half baked $70 games

Funny how that happens when people don't have any money.

~~Video games~~ spending by young Americans is dropping

FTFY

I love the constant onslaught of articles that are like “people aren’t spending money anymore!!!” Open your damn eyes. We all got smart and refuse to pay $80 (which is now the new forced norm for “AAA” garbage) and are replaying oldies and indies. Hell, I revamped my 3DS and have dumped a ton of games onto it. I can even play some of them online with people again via Pretendo.

Like all of the reasons are so obvious why people aren’t dumping money into this industry anymore. Capitalists fucked it all up and put profit over fun. We’re not all dipshits that fall for the constant micro transactions and grifts.

I legit don’t give a single shit about any of the new “AAA” games coming out. Give me a call when they’re in the bargain bin years from now.

We can't justify the price. The end. That's it.

I was super interested in the Dune game, then they decided to not participate in the stream sale. Okay. Too bad. Life goes on. Get fucked, greedy devs.

I'm just done with Capitalism in general. I got 1000 games, 200 of which are GOG offline installers. Those are burned onto M-Disc storage for the apocalypse. Cancelled all TV streaming, no buying games or books even. Nothing but food and bills now as I wait for it all to collapse.

It's a two part answer.

One, gamers have less money to spend, along with everyone else.

Two, expensive AAA title games these days tend to be shit, from a graphics, code, community, and content standpoint. If you want good games, cheaper is usually better.

Last AAA title game I bought was Borderlands 3, and I don't see myself buying anymore in the next two years or so.

The hobby is getting more expensive while income left over after cost of living is going down. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

When new games are approaching $100 and you know you can wait a month or two for it to drop $40 it's an easy decision

I’m pushing 40 so I’m not young but I’ve actually been buying more games lately thanks to being patient and not rushing out to buy AAA games along with switching from console to PC, gotta love Steam sales. I just bought two games I’ve been wanting to play for $30.

Older games are better plus gamers can play all our existing games.

Ugh first millennials aren't buying homes fast enough now it's this darn gen Z and not buying video games and 12 different streaming platforms. Such spoiled generations

Every game or movie that comes out now is a reboot/remake. Why would I buy that? I already bought that.

Mayhaps the former young Americans are now aging into, uh… being not young Americans? Mayhaps said former young Americans also don’t have children because this entire county’s culture is all about feeding all the money to 1%ers yacht purchases?

I honestly don’t trust any “adult” who’s my age that doesn’t play viddy games, like what are you into for entertainment? A lamp?

Charging 70 dollars USD for barely 40 USD of content and everyone knows. The only people I know intent on buying all the latest stuff are people into steamer culture, aka trying to be a streamer or interact with them and follow their trends.

Make a timeline comparing the rising cost of games, rising unemployment, addition of tariffs on exports from Japan and this. Notice a pattern?

I don’t need the 7th iteration of the same game dressed up with new graphics for the price they're charging.

I'm not young or American, but I can tell gaming has been changing. I can't even remember what was the last "AAA" game I bought, because it must have been a couple of years ago.

Most games I buy are 40€ connoisseur titles or 20€ indie games. I don't hear about any "must-play" AAA titles through the grapevine these days. I do hear about interesting indie stuff all the time, though. Most of the 60€+ games I hear about are kind of niche stuff.

Single data point: my young, working, well off gaming part of my family is just out of energy. It's easier to watch a YouTube video instead of TV or gaming, before then falling asleep to wake up for work. Seems like much of their circle is similar.

As for myself, I'm going through a, uh, icky phase of life and am not really motivated to play unless it's coop.

...Maybe others are struggling similarly?

Also, the games we do look at tend to be from indie to mid-size studios, with BG3 and KCD2 being the only recent exceptions.

Idk I only spent $25 this steam summer sale on 3 games, I think it was ok

Ok but doesn’t every tracking company pretend they don’t track kids’ habits? The whole industry is built on fraud.

i think the impact of all the free games shows too

i removed a bunch of shit from my wishlist because it was free on epic amazon or gog at some point. my heroic games launcher library keeps growing and i dont see the point of buying games when i have this huge backlog of things i actually want to play. notable exceptions to the no buy are extreme high quality outliers like baldurs gate and cyberpunk(dlc) and niche indie games i want to support. those i buy on steam (or gog)

at the same time i hope i only cost epic and amazon money

Depression has me not so interested in playing games anymore. Reading instead. Gaming is losing its magic for me. I’m 36.

Can’t wait till the indie wave wakes up the realization that there is a goldmine of 90s games that were incredible. Star control 2 for one could probably be mistaken for a new indie hit nowadays.

how much money do young americans have to blow on video games? people are struggling. is it really surprising that, as disposable income vanishes, so does recreation spending?