So, I was browsing in my local game shop the other day, you know, the one that smells slightly soupy due to the eternally malfunctioning heater system. (Thanks, Greg, for never fixing it.) Anyway, I went in to grab a new game for my Xbox Series X, figuring it wouldn’t break the bank. Boy, was I in for a shock.
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There it was, gleaming under the neon lights, a couple of new titles screaming at me with their ridiculous pricing. I mean, since when did physical copies start acting like some luxury collectible? It’s not like they’re lined with gold leaf. I mean, I’m not against paying for quality, but slapping a price tag that’s more than my monthly coffee budget is just savage!
And then there’s the whole nonsense of why pricing is all over the place. Like, I get that some fancy ‘collector’s edition’ games might have a higher price, but when a standard game sits at one hundred bucks, it’s like, really? Really?! What’s next? Payment plans for the Halo series? My younger self would laugh… and probably cry.
I remember as a kid saving up for months, twisting out dollar bills from birthday cards just to nab a single game. Now, even those efforts wouldn’t let me touch the new FIFA release without considering a side hustle. Maybe it’s time to sell lemonade again. Or, I could just stand there gawping at the baffling variety of gadgets and tech stuff people expect us to cough up cash for.
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And here’s the kicker: used games. Seriously, used, battered boxes with stickers upon stickers hiding other stickers over price tags. Still expensive! Like a timewarp with none of the nostalgia, just a sense of being scammed out of your socks. Someone explain to me why a two-year-old game is still priced like it’s fresh off the press?
My eyes still hurt. All I can say is, if this keeps up, I might just build a fort with my old game collection and call it a day. Ugh.