One problem that is largely unique to gaming though is that they can't really increase prices in the same way that many other industries have done to compensate for the inflation. I mentioned above that some places are paying 40% or more than they did pre-Covid, well those places also tend to be charging alot more now. For instance McDonalds in my area was paying $8.50 an hour pre-Covid, now they pay $14 an hour, a $5.5 an hour increase in just 4 years. However, prices have increased to compensate, a combo meal was about $5-7 pre-Covid depending on which exact combo, now $8.50-11 depending on the combo, the McChicken and the McDouble were on the dollar menu before Covid, now they cost $2.50 and $2.70 respectively, a whopping 150% and 170% increase in just 4 years. Small/medium/large fries went up from $1/1.50/2 to $2/3/3.50.
However the gaming industry can't really increase prices in the same way as many other industries can. They increased the price of games to $70 right at the beginning of the pandemic and saw huge blowback from gamers over that increase, so they know they can't afford to push it to $80 so soon. They tried to compensate by releasing more GaaS games so they could sell more microtransactions, but many gamers don't want those either. In a way their hand has been forced, if they can't charge more for their product the only way they can protect their bottom line is to reduce their payroll by laying off employees. Sucks for sure.
