Inflation, Inflation

Anyone who has to do any kind of shopping--especially grocery shopping--has undoubtedly been experiencing the frustration of rolling up to the checkout and getting slammed with a bill that is much higher than it used to be.  (Related note:  I listen to a daily news podcast by NPR and they do a shopping study at Wal-Mart each year where they buy the same items and then compare how much prices have changed--the latest number...23%!  So when we hear that inflation is only 7%...umm, maybe for the things that we don't buy all the time.  It's deeply frustrating--and I probably shouldn't complain, there are people in many other countries who deal with much higher rates of inflation).  So, even though my brain knows that everything basically costs more right now, I still had a very disarmed moment when I started seeing game prices at $69.99.  I suppose that costs could be rising for the companies producing out games...but it just feels like more pain in the ol' wallet and another thing to make you think twice about how much you really want a game.

You're gonna have to pay $69.99 for your Harry Potter action.

My first piece of advice to the gamers our there who are feeling the pinch--patience is a virtue.  The amount of time that you need to wait before that new hot game goes on sale seems to be drastically shorter than it was in the past.  Take Marvel's Midnight Suns--a game that I read many positive reviews about--it's already 40% off and it has only been out for 2 months.  It's also better to wait for the sake of performance--just take a quick minute to think about how many games are released in...let's just say in a  less than ideal playable state. Avoiding the frustration of early bugs and issues is well worth the wait--nowadays issues are generally patched relatively quickly.  I also think it's better to wait just to see if a game will be worth the money--I like to wait for player reviews to start rolling out.  Most of the time they are spot-on (there have been a few though that haven't panned out).

I can't wait for the day when prices start dropping--who knows exactly when or if that will happen, but seeing these $69.99 games is making me worried that maybe we're just seeing the beginning of this trend.  Let's all keep our fingers-crossed that these are just one-offs on highly anticipated triple-A titles.

Update:  Apparently I can't read, because it pretty clearly states that the $69.99 price is for the "deluxe" edition.  There actually is the plain ol' regular edition for $59.99!  In my defense though, I've only seen the "deluxe" edition pop up on my Epic Games store feed--never the regular edition.  It's irritating that they are pushing the pricier edition and not the base game.  I'd still wait for a sale--then maybe you can get your sweet hippogriff mount for 40% off.