We are now well entrenched in the era of the USD 70 Triple-A video game. I do understand the economics involved creating a game, as they bear similarities with that of software development. The amount of money that goes into design, development, testing, infrastructure, content and marketing can be astronomical and whoever it is playing the role of financial controller in the studios responsible for Diablo IV (Blizzard), Santa Monica Studio (God of War: Ragnarök), FromSoftware (Elden Ring) or Avalanche Software (Hogwart’s Legacy), I don’t envy your job.

The latest game that I purchased this year was Diablo IV, and even that I had on pre-order ever since the game was made available for such a purchase. It turned out to be a prudent move since the Malaysian Ringgit is on even poorer footing versus the greenback now than ever before.

That’s right, not only do we have to contend with USD 70 games, we need to deal with the exchange rate of RM 4.58 to a dollar in a country which the citizens have a median wage of RM 2,250 and a rising cost of living. A USD 70 triple-A game will cost around RM 320 after conversion and will take a large chunk out of that amount. When compared to the US, the same game will have a 1% dent on a typical US median wage.

So, how has the USD 70 Triple-A game pricing impacted my purchasing habits?

I’ve practically given almost all of the USD 70 games a miss. This included Gotham Knights, God of War: Ragnarok, The Callisto Protocol and Hogwart’s Legacy. The last one has been on my Steam wish list for some time. The penny-pinching has resulted in only two USD 70 games being purchased, namely The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and the aforementioned Diablo IV. I’ve also become more diligent when it comes to looking out for seasonal sales on Steam.

Probably I should start scouring Humble Bundles again.

I noticed there’s an uptick in used games being bought and sold on Facebook. Used copies of Diablo IV for the PS5 are sold at around RM 260, RM 60 less than what you pay for new at a video games store. A friend of mine is still operating a used games stall at a popular flea market in PJ. The recent opening of a new used-games store from the UK in one of the large malls in Malaysia created quite a bit of fanfare as well.

One triple-A game seems to have bucked the USD 70 trend, the recently released USD 60 Baldur’s Gate 3. But since I’m not really into the fantasy-type of RPG (I’m more of a sci-fi or wasteland-type kind of RPG gamer, think Fallout or The Outer Worlds,

I’ll give that a skip and put that USD 60 towards a Starfield fund :).

I leave you with a decision tree that Bing and GPT-4 came up with:

Should I get that shiny new triple-A USD 70 video game?

  1. Do you have enough money?
    • Yes -> Go ahead and buy it, you rich gamer!
    • No -> Proceed to Question 2
  2. Do you have a job or a steady source of income?
    • Yes -> Set aside some money every month until you can afford it
    • No -> Proceed to Question 3
  3. Do you have any valuable items or skills that you can sell or trade?
    • Yes -> Sell or trade them for cash or store credit
    • No -> Proceed to Question 4
  4. Do you have any friends or family who are willing to lend you money or the game itself?
    • Yes -> Ask them nicely and promise to pay them back or return the game in good condition
    • No -> Proceed to Question 5
  5. Do you have any other games that you haven’t played or finished yet?
    • Yes -> Play those games first and wait for the price of the new game to drop
    • No -> Proceed to Question 6
  6. Do you really need the new game right now?
    • Yes -> Consider your priorities and rethink your life choices
    • No -> Congratulations, you have just saved USD 70!