lmao.
Veteran investment analyst and researcher Matthew Ball of Epyllion has released a gargantuan, 219-page report about the "State of Video Gaming in 2025,"and some of the presentation looks at how the video game industry can possibly grow in 2025. In a section titled “How Player, Playertime, and Player Spend Might Return to Growth,” Ball mentioned a variety of opportunities, including Grand Theft Auto VI costing as much as $100 when it launches this year.
Ball said “there is hope” that Take-Two will price GTA 6 at “$80 or even $100,” which could prove to be a turning point for the video game industry. This could break a “key price barrier” and allow other developers to raise prices as well, he said. Before this, a Baldur’s Gate 3 developer said GTA 6 could prompt a shift to more expensive games if Take-Two decides to price it above $70.
In terms of the issues the video game industry faces, Ball said there are numerous contributing factors, including an “exhaustion of decade-plus growth drivers,” as well as “competitive and budgetary escalations.” Ball added that “acute macroeconomic financial events and epidemics” negatively affected the video game business, as well as “microeconomic platform policy shifts.” A number of “would-be growth drivers” have also failed to materialize, he said.
: “competitive and budgetary escalations” reads to me as “we forgot how budgets work and refuse to spend a little less money than our competitors so now we’re making it your problem”