I guess there is kind of the side though, that games cost more to make, everybody expects more from them, but nobody at all is prepared to pay any extra for them, and they're actually cheaper now than they have ever been, because the RRP of a game has been forced to remain pretty much static for 20 years but the actual market the games are being sold to is no longer growing at the pace to support this.

I guess WB in some ways are trying to find the middle ground. Just to play devils advocate to this whole "we're being massively ripped off" malarky.

I'm not sure how you turn a blind eye to some of these publishers and developers trying to butt fuck consumers out of their money with every installment of their games and call it "extra/DLC" content. Besides, there are far more goodness in gaming than their is negativity, in my opinion. It's not every developers/publisher doing this, it's usually a handful but very prominent ones.

"There is no worse blind man than the one who does not want to see. There is no worse deaf man than the one who does not want to hear." EDIT: some ancient prophet according to  Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz
 

The lack of originality (pun intended) was a small part of the problem. Also, Arkham City was a tough act to follow so expectations were too great. Add in the  fact that the game shipped as a bug riddled mess and the publisher / developer decided to work on DLC before addressing several of the more notorious game breaking bugs and you had the perfect storm for fan backlash. Being shorter than its predecessor and lighter on content didn't do much to help the situation either.

@OP

It's about damn time somebody starts to fault Warner Bros. for their approach to game development. I loved Arkham City which was a clear GOTY contender but I'm hesitant to purchase Arkham Knight because of WB's continued involvement in the series.

Given that we don't know how much content is in the $60 game, and what kind of "story content" is in the DLC, it's pretty premature to start complaining about it.

At least two of the three portions of the story DLC do not take place during the main campaign. "Season of Infamy" does not sound like something that would take place during the main campaign (which, I believe, takes place over a single night, rather than a "season," though I could be wrong on both counts) though we won't know for sure until we get details.

We don't know if Arkham Knight contains the same sort of side missions and enemy rooms that the other games did.

Finally, we don't know how much actual content is in the $40 DLC.

So, while the season passes were crappy, and paying for easier fatalities is fucking STUPID (both the concept of selling it and the idea of buying it), I can't really find myself getting worked up here. I'm glad they are making this content, and I kinda doubt we'd be getting a lot of it if DLC weren't a thing, or if WB weren't obsessed with selling it.

You are giving them way too much leeway. Development costs rose 10% with this gen compared to the last. In europe at least, new games are released for 70 euros instead of 60. The launch prices in general went up for all new titles on the new consoles. The extra on top of that is taking the piss. They are taking advantage and they are pushing to see with how much they can get away with.

The guys in the US may be having a better time if they still get games for 60 dollars.

I'm UK. I just know that the general price for a home console game was:

4th gen £44.99
5th gen £44.99
6th gen £39.99 (cartridge games £49.99-£59.99)
7th gen £39.99
8th gen £39.99

Inflation between 1990 and now means that even if NES games were £39.99 (as most games generally retail for now) you'd expect to pay £88.99 for the game today. You don't see people complaining to the same extent that Mars Bars were 25p in the 90s but now you'd be expected to pay about 75p in most shops.

So actually the cost of new games has halved in real terms and that's without considering that it takes far more people to make those games now than it did before.

Luckily much bigger userbases had been offsetting this. This is how we ended up needing games to sell millions to break even while 100,000 on the NES would be the big time.

To be honest, 8th Gen prices are still around £44 - 49 RRP. Not sure you can find a next gen game for less than £40 unless its been out for a month of two.

In general, install base / attach rate has increased with the rise in development costs.

Mario Kart 8's DLC didn't come along right after the game was released. It took months and in some cases, almost a year. So most people who are buying it have been playing the game for some time now. Also, it actually is a good value for what you're getting. Besides, even if you choose not to get any of the DLC, the game by itself is still worth the full price. And that's the key here. You shouldn't have to pay full price for a game and then pay an extra $40 to feel like you're getting the full experience.

As for Jim Sterling, a lot of people complain about his negitivity but the things he talks about are true. It may be an inconveinient truth to some, but it's truth nonetheless. Besides, it's mostly his Jimquisition section that talks about this stuff. He does do other things.

if they wanna get more money per game, they just should raise the price and not cut away the content....