Game Publishers, Hardware Makers, and the Struggle to Keep Gaming Affordable

This seems to be a very unsustainable hobby.

And what's going to happen if businesses don't realign and readjust?

It's not looking good.

They delayed it.

They also put a hold on stock trading because they knew this was not good for them.

If you can't get this game to be good, I don't want to play it anymore.

Is it worth building a PC anymore?

Is it worth buying a PC?

Because I built my PCs for several years.

All the companies are focused on AI and they forget the customers that have made them the money.

I was excited, not so excited.

Now.

This hobby is becoming unsustainable.

Are prioritizing AI over the consumer and it's showing and it's hurting the consumer and it's hurting their own business.

You are not mandatory.

You are optional.

There's a new game.

I'm like, it's really expensive.

I'd rather just play this old game.

I will play the old game.

And I'm not the only one that feels this way either.

Hey, welcome back to Digital Coffee Gaming Brew.

I'm your digital barista, Brett Dicer.

This week we're unpacking Ubisoft's financial drama.

Wild stats from Arc Raiders updates to Battlefield 6, Blizzard's new Overwatch Hero.

And real talk about the rising cost of PC gaming.

Grab your favorite drink and let's dive into what's brewing in the world of games.

You don't want to miss this one.

Mmm.

That's good.

All right.

I hope you're having a fantastic weekend.

First off, Ubisoft did delay their financial results for the first half of 2025.

2026 fiscal year.

On December 13, 2025, 15 minutes before the actual meeting was supposed to take place, they delayed it.

They also put a hold on stock trading because they knew this was not good for them.

So there are a few things that are very worrying about this also.

They are now finally going to be, or have already it's probably going to be end of today, which is Friday, going to be releasing the financial reports.

It should be interesting to see what's in there and how important it is for us to know if they're going to be acquired or not, because it looks like everything points to being acquired probably by 10 cent, since they're a big majority owner of their offshoot company or whatever they're doing.

So I guarantee, I don't guarantee, I assume it's this is going to be talks of being acquired because Ubisoft has not been doing well for a bit and their Games have not been selling as well as they hoped.

Just look at Assassin's Creed Shadows, which they finally admit wasn't selling as well as they said it was.

Star Wars Outlaws did not sell well, was not that great until the final update of it, which is funny.

We also had X Defiant failing and I don't even know if Avatar did that well.

But we have a whole bunch of games that were either okay and did okay sales wise or just were complete bombs.

So it's up to any of us if what this is going to transpire because unfortunately it's not looking good for Ubisoft.

They were doing really, really well when Assassin's Creed was new, the first one, and that was going along and then they lost it all.

But it just seems like they did really well and then they got formalaic in their making other games.

And that's what was the downfall of them.

All right, moving on to Arc Raiders.

And the players have made 25 million visits to the new map Stella Montes.

Within a week of its release, players have killed the matriarch 26,923 times.

2,270,576 players were knocked down by an arc raider called the Shredder.

Sounds like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles main enemy.

And 37,218 players killed themselves using a new lethal deadline mine.

Whoops.

117 players managed to self Ko with a volcanic rock.

This is just hilarious.

One player donated 24,375 resources to help open the tunnels leading to Stella Montus.

Wow.

Very generous of him.

And the game reached a concurrent peak of 480,000 players on Steam.

And the first community event was completed in under 40 hours.

Man, you guys love to play this game a lot.

I've played it off and on.

It's a good game.

It's not terrible, but I'm not like Shroud or anybody like plays it too much.

But it's a fun game.

It's a great game.

If you don't like the PvP portion of it, go play Dune Awakening because that is part of the game loop.

I understand that originally it wasn't.

It was more of a PvE, but they changed design and that's for the better because it's doing really, really well.

Really well.

All right.

Moving on to Battlefield 6.

Battlefield 6 team has reversed changes to defibrillators for the support class after players complain about difficulties in reviving teammates.

A small update has been released for players on PC and console which includes a hot fix for defibrillators tweaks to the Sabotage game mode and changes to Challenges Players reported that the new requirement for using defibrillators were confusing and inconsistent from the California Resistant update.

The hot fix includes hitboxes or increases him boxes in range for defibrillators back to their previous state.

The AFK timer for Sabotage game mode has been increased from 60 seconds to 180 seconds.

Bot backfilling for the Sabotage mode has been temporarily disabled.

Several challenges requirements have been reduced making them easier to achieve and the new version of Season one has has been released so should be interesting to see it.

Eastwood is a very interesting map.

It's one of the larger maps.

It's a better map than what we got from the new crop of the maps.

I still say Storm is still the best one even though people will disagree me But Firestorm has been around since Battlefield 3 so players have loved the that map since Battlefield 3 and then Battlefield 4 and now Battlefield 6.

It skipped Battlefield 5, Battlefield Hardline and Battlefield 2042 as well and Battlefield 1.

It skipped all those but it came back in Battlefield 6.

All right, so here are the new requirements for challenges.

So Recon 2 gets a headshot beyond 150 meters as Recon and the discipline update to get shots hits beyond 75 meters as recon.

So there's that recon expert 3 get headshot kills beyond 200 meters as a recon in a match which has been updated to get headshot kills beyond 125 meters in a match as recon.

Did I too get headshot kills over 200 meters with a sniper rifle and this has changed to get headshot kills beyond 125 meters with sniper rifles.

Engineer 3 deal damage to laser designated enemies vehicles using lock on weapons.

This has been removed.

Thank God because there was that one and there was also you had to get damage for air vehicles using the AA launcher.

There was a lot Rapid Fire 2 gets get kills beyond 50 meters with assault rifles.

Updated to get kills beyond 40 meters with assault rifles.

So a little bit closer and then rapid fire 3 inflict damage under 15 meters while hip firing with assault rifle and this has been updated to inflict damage while in ADS with assault rifles.

Bulletstorm 1 suppress enemies with LMG that has been removed.

Bulletstorm 1 inflict hit damage with LMG's challenges update to inflict damage with LMG.

So no hip fire.

So you can do it ADS or hip fire, which helps a lot because just doing hip fire can be very not accurate.

So it does help squad death match 5 enemy squad wipes of the whole squad in a round.

Adjust to add squad to the criteria.

Rush forward, destroy mcoms and Rush and the update has been destroyed.

Or disarm mcoms and Rush.

So it adds the.

So it's not just you attacking but also defending, which kind of makes it a little easier.

Battle Royale 3 call in three air strike packages in a match.

Battle Royale added teammates to this criteria, so it's you or your teammates better.

Comet expert to perform 10 takedowns in a round.

Challenge was updated to just perform takedowns, so there really is not a mount which 10 takedowns in a round can be a lot.

I've done maybe three the most, so you'd have to go hunting for that and make sure that you are not heard or they don't turn around randomly.

Protection expert 3 is destroy a vehicle with the power tool.

This has been removed, which I've done it before.

It's not that hard.

You just need to get on the tank without them knowing about it and make sure you damage it or it's damaged before so it's easier to actually destroy because it goes pretty quickly with that repair tool.

All right, moving on to Blizzard.

And Blizzard has released their new hero, Vendetta.

Now, apparently Blizzard has had a pattern for releasing one tank, one support and one damage healer each year since Overwatch 2's launch.

Now, this is a DPS melee hero, so there is that.

And you expect with these games, especially specifically hero based shooter games, there's always going to be more DPS characters than tanks and healers.

Now I know Marvel Rivals recently released Gambit, which is a hybrid healer slash damage character.

From what I've seen, I haven't played in a while.

But this is what you expect from these types of games is that they're always going to be more DPS heroes than any other class.

But luckily with Marvel Rivals, you can pick and choose which one you want and you're not roll locked into it.

Unfortunately, with Overwatch 2 and a lot of the main game modes, you are locked into it.

So you can't change.

You can change to a new tank or new healer.

You just can't change to another healer or another dps.

So that is the issue.

Now, does she look interesting?

Sure, she looks interesting.

Looks interesting that she's a melee character.

The first one, apparently for dps, I guess.

Yeah, because Genji really wasn't.

He still through projectiles.

So it should be interesting to see how overpowered and how much the community likes her and if she'll be as hated as Sombra, which will never, never happen.

I think it's part of the reason why I just stopped playing because I couldn't even play the DPS Hero I wanted to play because you just get banned the whole time and then I have to figure out something new.

And so I was like, I'll just play Tank or Healer because it's a lot easier for me at least.

All right, moving on to EA claims that Battlefield 6 is the best selling shooter game of the year the game's official website features a statement encouraging purchases and claims it is the best selling shooter.

And then sales data from Sir Sana supports is claim indicating that Battlefield 6 is the highest selling first person shooter of 2025.

Battlefield 6 numbers is number one on PC and Xbox and ranks second on PlayStation behind NBA 2K26.

Battlefield 6 has set a series record becoming the best selling entry in a franchise with October sales surpassing lifetime sales of Battlefield 1.

And Battlefield 1 was a good game for me and a lot of people.

Not for everybody, but it was a really good game.

This is a testament to Dice and the rest of the devs that created this game that they were on the right track, they did the right things and they made the game really good.

I know there's some issues with it.

I know the sliding isn't great for some people.

I know the sliding could be better for others.

I know that you have to fulfill your role and that means sometimes the recon has to put down the sniper rifle and maybe spot with the drone laser designate vehicles or helicopters or I don't know, God forbid you use the tracer dart, which is good by the way.

It's really good.

That came back from Battlefield.

Bad company too.

But this is a testament for what they have done and this is a really encouraging sign that Battlefield is here to stay.

And it's actually a really good competitor to Call of Duty.

When it works, when it doesn't work.

Battlefield 2042 Battlefield 5 When it first came out.

Heck, I'll even Throw in Battlefield 4 when it first came out.

Now I know all of you like but Battlefield 4 is really good.

Yes, a year and a half later it was really good.

We always Forget that Battlefield 4 was like up there with the worst release Battlefield games.

It was bad and I will keep on saying that so you never forget it.

But this is very encouraging.

I think it's the best optimized Battlefield game I've ever played and it just.

It works.

I hear there's issues with the new update with it breaking some things and they need to fix that.

But beyond that, it is a really encouraging thing to see that they did a really good job with this game because man, 2042 was like.

Players were like, if you guys do not make this game good, we're done.

And I was one of those.

I'm like, I'm done after this.

If you can't get this game to be good, I don't want to play it anymore.

I'm not going to spend money on something that isn't good.

So that's where we're at.

But props, props to them on this.

Now we'll see what happens with Call of duty.

Black Ops 7.

I played the single player.

It's weird.

I played the tutorial.

I just, I played it and it was like, I think I'll probably do a review and I probably have to play zombie mode, but I'll probably do a review and I won't even touch the multiplayer because it just gets too sweaty and it's annoying.

I'll review on the more interesting things about single player, which is the end game feature, not the act.

I'll do the actual like review of the single player game because it's weird and it just doesn't work.

And then I'll do the zombies but actually have to play it beyond the tutorial.

I'm like, oh, tutorial.

Okay, I'm good.

Yeah, I need to play a little bit more than that.

Anyways.

Stalker 2, it launched or has launched on PlayStation 5 and we haven't seen any multiplayer cross platform mods.

Even though there was announcements for these updates, there's been no new information so far available regarding the features or any.

Any updates on hardware accelerating ray tracing, which I don't really care, it just adds.

It's just more of a resource hog anyway, so that doesn't really matter to me.

But supposedly the first DLC content for Soccer 2 is scheduled to be released in 2026, so we'll be able to see what that's actually all about.

It's a great game if you love the survival game, but in a more of a first person single player experience is a good game.

Hard game, man.

You die from those radioactive things so quickly.

Sometimes it's like, where'd you come from?

But still a really good game.

All right, moving on to the affordability issue because I was thinking about this week what I want to talk about my main thing and I think this is just kept on coming up where I've seen RAM prices go through the roof.

I've seen NVMe, NAND type of data storage or hard drives, I should say go way up.

It's just so terrible.

And we had the new GPUs come out and they went.

And they never were at MSRP for a while.

I think the PNY for the 5080 was the only one below MSRP and maybe at MSRP because it didn't have lights.

And I'm like, that's fine.

But the problem is that RAM is way, way up.

And it's gone up consistently since June 2025.

So it's gone up over 100%.

And the problem is AI.

It's AI, it's servers, it's this stuff.

And it's companies repositioning themselves to better serve those customers and leaving us high and dry basically because they haven't restocked the consumer side of it.

There are very low stocks in DDR4, there's very low stocks in DDR5 and it has skyrocketed.

I just casually looked a few months ago, oh like how much is getting like 128 gigs of RAM?

And it was like 700.

I'm like.

And no.

Nope, nope, nope.

So it goes back to is it worth building a PC anymore?

Is it worth buying a PC anymore?

Because I've built my PCs for several years, the only way I do it.

And for a while it was the most cost effective way of doing it.

You buy the components and you build the components or you put them together and you have your own PC.

And it was like the cheapest way of doing it because pre built were so expensive.

And now it looks like the pre builts are the cheapest way.

Building your own PC is ridiculously expensive.

I don't know how or why or what came about this, but it was Covid and now it's AI because all the companies are focused on AI and they forget the customers that have made them the money.

Not the new AI, newfangled AI companies, no, the gamers that bought your stuff, looking at you, Samsung, all the other ones.

I mean, come on guys, Like I get it, it's a good lucrative business for AI, but you have to leave some stock for the consumer.

It's not good.

This is not a good look.

I almost just want to file a complaint with all these companies to the FTC saying price gouging because they literally just do not care about us anymore.

Really close to that one.

Because I'm like, this is outrageous.

Like you are deliberately making these prices high.

Deliberately.

And with consoles Getting more expensive Xbox, just razor prices, PlayStation raise their prices was a year ago and now the new talk of new consoles.

The Steam Machine is probably gonna be priced around a PC, which is probably gonna be around 700 to $1,000, which isn't gonna be affordable at all.

Which basically, Valve, you missed the boat on that because we're all still trying to just live with what we have while inflation has completely screwed us all over.

I get it, you're trying to make your money back and you're trying to make a profit.

But the reason why your Steam Machine was so good was because it was affordable.

Because it wasn't the fastest, it wasn't the best one.

It was affordable and you could use it for a while.

And that's why it was good.

It wasn't because of anything else.

And now you want to do a Steam Machine, you're like, it's not going to be like console pricing.

It's going to be more like a PC.

And I'm like, so $1,000.

So now you're basically going to be an Xbox, whatever they name it, the next one, which is they're projecting a thousand to $1,200.

Then what's the point?

You're like, has our OS.

Okay, I'll just use the Steam deck.

Hopefully your controller is actually pretty reasonable price because if that's not, then you're just hurting yourself.

You're just shooting yourself in the foot.

Like, we were all happy for it, but now it looks like you guys are pretty sure.

Pricing this very expensive and people don't want to spend a thousand to $1,200 on a small PC.

Like I said, the best price point would be 500, the second best, 600, the third best, 700.

Anything above that and people are like, yeah, do I really need this?

Probably.

I don't.

I was excited, not so excited.

Now this hobby is becoming unsustainable and the companies, I get it, your prices have gone up too.

But you have to understand, you squeeze the customer more, they are not going to be willing to buy it.

This has to be a really good way of saying we're solving your problem with our Steam Machine, Valve, because if you don't have that messaging, good luck.

Because I'm not excited if this is going to be expensive.

This better be under a thousand dollars.

If it's not under $1,000, you are not making any money or not as much money as you would.

If it's over a thousand dollars, good luck, it's not gonna work.

And then the Other issue is that game prices are going up too.

And so what's going to happen with gamers since the publishers are squeezing us out with more expensive video games, the hardware developers are squeezing us out with very low stocks in rising prices and then the pre builts or the consoles are squeezing us out because they're raising their prices as well.

So what's going to happen is that we're not going to upgrade our PC because why?

I can use my 3090 for a few more years.

Why buy a new one?

Why buy a new gpu?

It'd be nice, it'd be great.

But yeah, it's not worth it.

Mine works because I'm not spending 10% more over MSRP just to get the new graphics card.

That's ridiculous.

I'm not spending more on through ebay because scalpers think they can get more money, which I'm pretty sure that industry is going to collapse soon too because everybody can't afford everything.

And if you inflate it so terribly, it's not going to work.

The problem is that companies, especially the hardware side of it, are prioritizing AI over the consumer and it's showing and it's hurting the consumer and it's hurting their own business.

I get that they have this side of the sector that's going to be well and so investors will be happy to a certain extent, but even that's going to slow down eventually.

It can't always be going up and up and up.

I remember when intel was making a new CPU every day.

It was insane.

It felt like every day.

It might have been every week, but it was like new cpu.

I'm like, didn't you just release an old cpu?

Yes, but we released this new cpu.

I'm like, I don't really understand what is going on here.

And it eventually slowed down.

This will slow down too.

And then you'll have to figure out, oh crap, we screwed over the consumer side of it.

Now we have to flood the market with our other stuff because, well, either the bubble burst or it just stagnated and it eventually will happen.

Not everything goes exponentially up and eventually it flatlines for a while.

So companies, publishers, be mindful about how much you're going to charge because eventually people are not going to charge it.

You are entertainment, remember that.

That means you're optional.

You are not mandatory, you are optional.

There's a new game and I'm like, it's really expensive.

I'd rather just play this old game.

I will play the old game and I'm not the only one that feels this way either.

Please remember that it is important that you remember this.

Your entertainment, you are optional.

We don't need you.

We will be fine and live without you.

Remember that.

All right?

What do you think?

Do you think it's just really crazy, insane?

The prices that have gone up with a lot of PC components and just prices of gaming, the prices of consoles?

Let me know in the comments below.

But thank you for listening to Digital Coffee Gaming Brew.

Really do appreciate it.

As always, subscribe to it on all the places that you listen to podcasting.

And as always, game what you want to game and don't worry about anything else.

All right, guys, see you next week.

Later.