Why Game Prices Are Soaring and What Delayed Releases Mean for Gamers

And welcome to a new episode of Digital Coffee Gaming Brew, and I'm your

host, Brett Deister. If you could please subscribe to this podcast and all your favorite

podcasting apps, leave a five star review. It really does help with the rankings. Let

me know how I'm doing. But this week, we're gonna be talking about

Grand Theft Auto six being delayed and the new trailer. It

was interesting, but I'm still not sold on

it. We're also gonna be talking about EA and Battlefield

because there's news about that. An interesting article about fallout and

fallout two, the originals, and how someone

found the actual source code for the original as well. We're talking

about expedition clear, obscure

expedition 33 and the sales. Also gonna be talking about kingdom

come deliverance two. Can we talking about star

breeze and payday three? We talking about

gears of war reloaded.

Also held divers two, new war bonds, Diablo

four Berserker, and why that's just a terrible waste of

money. Also and the main thing I'm gonna be talking about

is the new pricing scheme of gaming, and I'm kinda gonna,

this is gonna be me theorizing what may actually happen. Not really quite

sure about that one, but

let's get on with the show.

That's good. Alright. I hope you're

having a wonderful Friday and a

good weekend after that. But this the first thing we'll be

talking about is Grand Theft Auto six, and it has been delayed

until 05/26/2026. So we got

about a month or not a month, a year for

the new game to come out. And basically, everybody rejoiced for

this because all the other publishers and developers

were were, like, holding their breath, figuring out when this game was gonna come

out so they could move around their game release for

this. But it looks like it's not going to be coming

out. Now Rockstar Games has reportedly made changes to its corporate culture

to avoid previous issues of employee burnout, such as implementing

a flex time policy. GTA

six took three days to reach 1,000,000,000 in sales and the research

groups estimated that GTA six could make

1,000,000,000 from pre orders alone and

3,200,000,000.0 in its first

year. So it could make a

lot. I mean, there are issues with this maybe

a more woke. GTA six, not really so

set on that and not really so set on actually getting in the game either.

I think out of all the Grand Theft autos, I've beat

none. I don't know why I just gotta stop playing it. You're I mean,

you're supposed to get it, but I just never finished the game for whatever

reason. I know there's an online component, but I just never really cared about it

too much. But

should be interesting. I mean, they did release a new trailer. New trailer look

interesting. It's back in Vice City. It

looks like it's not in the eighties vibe anymore. It's gonna be more

towards current day, and there's a a guy

and a chick, kind of the main characters in

this game, I guess. I mean, there's a whole lot

going on. Supposedly, it was captured in the PlayStation

five, not the pro, but the PlayStation five. So

it looks good, but we'll see what they actually

bring to the table when it finally comes out

in a year. Alright. EA

has reportedly implemented layoffs at Codemaster

shortly after announcing the end of the development of World Rally Championship.

Codemaster has been in the fully owned property for over five years. The

studio has worked on f one franchise and also

developed EA racing titles including grid and

WRC. EA announced the cutting of hundreds of rules

and the cancellation of unannounced projects on April

29. The spokesperson stated that the company

is evolving and meeting players' needs and is reducing roles while

redeploying staff to align strategic priorities. He has

history of reef traveling development staff after completing projects.

There is uncertainty regarding the extent of changes to code

master in their internal setup. And, I

mean, just speaking from me, I think they're eventually just gonna get rid of

them because it seems like

the racing games aren't really their priority right

now. The priority is Battlefield right now, Apex

Legends, and really that's

the only two that I see. I mean, split faction really made a

lot of money for them, but they don't really care about that. Oh, mass effect

is the third one. They don't care about dragon age anymore.

Reportedly, they didn't really care about it because it just they just didn't

understand it. So the three main games,

actually, no, four main games right now is the Star Wars Jedi

series, but that's probably going to end after the third game is

released. So that's out after the third game is released.

The Star Wars Zero Company, but that game is probably

going to if it sells well, they'll make more, but if it doesn't sell well,

that will be done. Andrew Wilson does not

really care about the Star Wars collaboration anymore. He just basically

wants to its own its own IP. But Battlefield and Apex

Legends are certainly the two most

important franchises right now for EA. Then you

got the sports series, which is in their own thing, Then you

have mass effect because it seems like Bioware is only gonna be working on mass

effect. No more dragon age. So regardless of Ballou's Gate three

did really well, no more dragon age, which is really stupid.

If you had a really good team that wasn't all about

gender identity and gender dysphoria, it actually would have been a really

good game if you had competent writing.

I've played some of it in PlayStation five, but I I still

don't care to come back to it. That's the problem.

Is that I don't care. Before, when new Dragon

Age came out, I I come back to it because I actually care. But right

now, I do not care about it. It does nothing for me.

It is horrendously written. It's just it looks a little too

cartoony. The more gothic

darker, like, feel to it is gone

for a more upbeat, and it that's just not Dragon Age. I mean,

it does have some, but then your choices don't matter from the last three

games. It just they screwed

up terribly, and that's why it didn't sell well.

So maybe when the new CEO

if they ever get a new CEO, he'll come back in and be like, you're

refocusing on these. Technically, they should work on

command and conquer, but I don't think they ever will. So that's how I mean,

they have a lot of good IPs and properties that they probably should

look at again and work on, but they won't because they're focused on very

specific things. Luckily, they aren't gonna raise prices like Microsoft

did, but that's for now. Wait for a few years and

they may raise prices too if they see the other publishers

are getting away with it.

Alright. So in the battlefield or, yeah,

battlefield news, EA will invite more players to battlefield labs

playtest throughout May. Players from select regions of

Asia will now be included in imitations. Battlefield teams

have completed inertial server performance and stability

assessments. The development update highlights accomplishments,

including establishing a solid foundation for smooth, low

latency, and high performance gunplay, finding the right balance

and movement speed for functionalities, like

crouch, sprint, combat role, combat

role, and vaulting using

destruction to enhance tactical gameplay. So I mean, this is

all about it. I'm I you could consider me the

old school battlefield player I played since battlefield

1942. I've played every single one of them

even in 1943 and even modern combat. Modern combat's

not great. But I played all of them, even battlefield heroes.

They all had their interesting things. Battlefield heroes was

by far the most unique one they made. And then

once battlefield bad company and bad company two came out, destruction was

a primary thing. It kinda got lost in the shuffle after bad

company two. But they're

refocusing on it now, and they're using it as more as tactical,

but also allowing you to, like, run up buildings and

stuff through the destruction. So it should be interesting to see what they actually

do, if it will be good, if it will be bad. Combat

rules, I don't really know about that. Please don't

go towards battle black ops four and the

combat diving and the John Wick stuff. It just I played

it. The beta wasn't that fun. Didn't really wanna buy the

game, and rightfully so because,

man, those collaborations are just awful. I just don't understand

all of that. Now moving on

to the original fallout and fallout two. So the

original fallout and fallout two was more of a isometric or

boulder skate three type of gameplay style

because it was then made in the early nineties. You didn't really have that fall

three type of ability to make it like a three d world, so you had

to do more of a top down. But

the creator of fallout previously stated that the source code for fallout and fallout

two was lost and thought to be destroyed, but Rebecca

Hyman, cofounder of Interplay, because that was the original

publisher of the Fallout series. Black Isles was the original

developer, which they basically became

Obsidian, but revealed that the

source code for both games was actually saved. Her and

her team began archiving source codes for inner interplay's games

in 1993 after losing the code for wasteland.

Heinemann's recover recovered the code for Wasteland from a source at EA

and took on the task of preserving interplay's

gaming heritage. She stated that when she left

interplay in 1995, she had copies of every game the

company produced including fallout and fallout two, which is good because

it's good to actually have the archives and the source codes for all that stuff

to preserve the games because these games were really, really good

back when they were created. The story was really good, and I'm pretty sure if

you remade it in kinda like what was gay three, but re

basically remade the game and just into the standards

of what we have today, it still would be really good.

They were fun games. It's just different way of playing than Fallout

three. And remember that Fallout two came back out in the nineties, and

Fallout three didn't get made until way into the early

two thousands. So there was, like, I

would say, over a decade span between there was fallout

tactics, which is kinda good, but the actual the main

line fallout didn't happen until fallout three, and fallout two

came out in the in the nineties. So

it was a long time, and so I could see where that plus interplay just

had really bad business, and they just didn't

really do it very well because they had a lot of great hits.

And they could've they should've been a company that lasted for a while, but they

just they didn't do very good in managing their business.

Alright. So there is sales numbers unlike Assassin's

Creed shadows, which we still don't have sales numbers. I always find that

funny. But Expedition 33 has surpassed

2,000,000 units just under two weeks after its release.

The game has launched on April 24 for

PlayStation five, Xbox series, PC via Steam, and Epic Game

Store. It's also available through game pass. The game features a quest

to destroy a character known as the painters who has the power

to erase people by painting their cursed

numbers,

which is funny because apparently the guy that created this basically was born to

Ubisoft and created this thing. Square

soft or Square Enix Square soft is actually the original name. Square Enix

has said that these types of

games were old, antiquated, and gamers didn't want it. And then

they did this, and it looks like it's not. The turn based type

style has room in the industry. It's it's weird that these big

publishers go. There's no room for it. They don't want it. And then it's like

some small publisher makes it, and it gets really popular.

And it's like there is room for it. Just like Baldur's Gate three

show that isometric type games like that, there's room for

it. There's room for the old style Final Fantasy with

the turn based system. There's room for it. So Sony dragons

legends of the dragoon two could be actually made or the

remake of the original could be made and successful.

It just stop following trends all the time. Trends do not

make you money. It's doing something different or that hasn't been

done in a while that will make you money because you're gonna have new players

coming up and they'll be like, oh, wow. This is actually a fun strategic way

of playing it. But you just go, nope. Nobody

wants this anymore. This is old. Doesn't work.

And this is where we're at. So I'm happy that they actually

made this. I'm excited that they sold it so

well, and it it wasn't made in a big budget like 300,000,000 or more. It

was more like a $50,000,000 budget, which goes to show

big budgets don't make good games. It just makes

big budgets, and that's it. You don't need a team

of 3,000 to make a good game. You need need a team of

really good competent people, but less of them to make a really good

game. Alright. So King

of Come Deliverance two, which launched in

February 2025, has reached over 3,000,000 players

within three months. Players have collectively killed

500,000,000 humans, and the

most popular weapon is long sword, accounting for 207,000,000

kills, followed by the normal sword, 2,000,000, and

dagger, 40,000,000. Ranged weapons have resulted in

just about over 55,000,000 enemy kills with

headshots accounting for one in seven of those kills. The crossbow is the most

popular range weapon with 29,100,000

kills. Players have sold

38,510,000,000 items valued

at 2,400,000,000,000.0 Russian and picked

up a 31,310,000 pockets.

Cubeling over

107,940,000,000.

Players have spent three hundred and eighty seven million hours in game

while drunk, while 3,120,000

choosing wine and 2,460,000 choosing

beer, over 4,000,000 enemies were killed while the character

was drunk. That's interesting. And the win rate for

Farkle Games is 67 and paid

expansion called Brushes with Death is playing for release later in

May 2025.

So, yeah, we all love Kingdom Come Deliverance

two. I still have not picked it up because I'm actually quite mad with what

they did because now there's been rumors that the actual creative

director of it, yes, did, I guess,

allow this stuff to happen because you don't want to offend anybody. And I'm

like, offend the gaming journalists.

Offend away. We don't care about them. They are useless to

us. Offend away. You should have taken

out the gay scene, and you should have taken out the black guy. Didn't need

to be in the game. You would have actually sold a lot more. You

probably would have been to, like, 4 or 5,000,000,

but I just don't understand why you did

these weird things. It just didn't make any sense,

and I'm still upset about that. Hopefully, there's mods where I can just take it

out unless Nexus mod bans

it. So dumb.

Alright. So Starbreeze has agreed to acquire the publishing

rights for payday three. The acquisition aims to pursue

broader strategic opportunities for the payday franchise. Pay

sales fell from from

44,500,000.0 in year of 2023 to

7,700,000.0 in 2024. And it's because it just

it wasn't ready to be launched. They launched it too early.

Sarmbrisk acknowledged the payday three was underperforming shortly after its

September 2023 launch and initiated a rehabilitation

program. The company appointed well, that's

unfortunate. Adolf Christian Johnson as the new

CEO in March after ousting former CEO, Tobias.

I don't know how to say the last name. Star Breeze agreement with

the well, it oh, it's it's basically

it's basically the publisher allows it to take full publishing responsibilities

for payday investors, updates that states that the deal was

enable Starbreeze to accelerate content development and pursue broader

business opportunities for the franchise. Agreement concludes the current publishing

agreement, but establishes a foundation for long term partnership between

Starbreeze and the publisher for future payday projects.

Starbreeze issued new shares representing 10% of its outstanding

share capital to finance acquisition, totaling

approximately $3.03 or $33,450,000.00

before transaction costs. So this is this is

actually pretty good because

is it beta three wasn't great when it launched. It was okay, but it wasn't

great. And then they should have waited

probably a year or so and kind of, like, really gotten it into it.

There really was no single player mode. You still had to be online, which I

don't really understand why you always have to be online when you don't play single

player. And so people went to other games

that were similar to it, or they just went back to payday two until they

fixed the issue, which it seems like they fixed a lot of the issues, but

I think it still has a way to go. But I'm I'm hoping that they

will continue to update this and make us a better game. Do

what no man's sky did and I mean, they turned their

game around, and it's probably one of the best games you can get right now

because it's got so much content in there.

Alright. So Microsoft has it down. Gears of War Reloaded.

This game will be available on Xbox series x and s,

PC, and PlayStation five. It's one of the first times on

August 26 for the price of $40.

Subscribers to the game pass ultimate and PC pass will have access to

this game on day one. The remaster includes all content

from Gears of War ultimate edition and all post launch downloadable

content such as a bonus campaign act, multiplayer maps, modes,

characters, and cosmetics. The game features two player local and

online co op for the campaign and supports multiplayer matches with up to eight

players. Bonus the original Gears of War

ultimate edition purchased before May 5,

so it's already passed, at 11AM Eastern will receive a free

upgrade to the remastered edition. Gears of war was really

launched by Microsoft in 02/2006 and

since spawn sequel spin off in books, Microsoft has

previously announced plans to bring other games to different platforms

including Forza Horizon five

to PlayStation and various titles to Nintendo switch in

more likely than Nintendo switch two. So this is great.

I mean, can't hate him

for that. I mean, Gears of War is a great title. It was

originally made by Epic and kind of a partnership with

Microsoft, and then Epic eventually after Gears of War three handed it

off to Microsoft and Coalition Studios is now working on

this specifically. I really haven't cared since Gears of War

three kinda ended. There's a new story and everything, but

it is. I think this is gonna bring back a lot of nostalgia and new

players the from the PlayStation side to see how well this actually

will do. And if it's any indicator what Oblivion did remastered

did, this is a good sign for it. Not bad price, but it's still an

old games from 02/2006, so it's almost 10 years old.

But we'll see. Alright. So

early access of Titan Quest two has been delayed from

winter twenty four twenty five to summer twenty twenty

five, which is weird because, well,

it is almost this summer. But, anyways, the decision

delay was made by publisher THQ Nordic and developer

Grim Lord games due to crowded action or we achieve release

window. Yeah. There's a lot. Before we

use of Titan quest two will fall for PlayStation five Xbox series and

PS and PC. Thousands of players

participated in a recent demo test with over 92% rating their experience

pos positively, which is pretty good. Players

pay praise the game for capturing the spirit of the original Titan quest while

incorporating modernized systems. The game features new

masteries includes a boss named Apollo

Paulina the Terrible. Visuals and audio

receive average scores of 5.25 out of six and

five point one six out of six respectively. Developer

acknowledge areas needing refinement, including combat fluidity, ability

aiming, and balance, performance optimization, and new improvements such

as customizable controller schemes and enhanced UI indicators are in

progress. Grimlore Games is committed to delivering a true successor to

Titan Quest, and it wasn't the original developer either. Ironside Games was the

original developer of the original Titan Quest, but I

think they went under because they really didn't make anything after Titan

Quest. And then THQ, when they went under and

was bought out, decided to update the original Titan

Quest and announced the new Titan Quest two. And I'm glad that that they

decided to let because it is a very crowded action RPG. You got no rest

for the wicked. You got Diablo four. You got path of exile

two. I mean, it is very crowded right now in action

RPGs and you don't need to actually add another one. So it's

good delay. Plus they can actually implement more of these

features and make early access smoother than what it

was. So I'm excited to see

what what happens with it, but kudos to them to actually make a

really positive ranking on there. Alright.

So Helldivers two is coming with a new war bonnet on

May 15, which includes a sword specifically a curved

saber named the q c q dash two saber.

So original in the naming. This saber is the second melee

weapon added to the game following a previous melee weapon, a stun baton.

The war bond also contains the following items,

the re dash eighteen sixty one parade commander and

the r e twenty three ten honorary guard sets, the r

dash two amendment, a new bayonet rifle, the c q c

dash one, a true flag stratogram, which includes

a spear, a sample scanner booster, g

dash one four two, pyrotechn grenade, new banners,

capes, titles, and lockstep emote. The community has expressed

mixed reaction to the expectation set by

Airhead CEO, James Joran, previously joked

joking comment that players would, well, crap

their pants. The last war bond prior to this one was

released on March 20, meaning players have been waiting fifty six

days for for a new one. So it's

good. I mean, Helldivers is still a great game. It's still

it's it's the closest we get to, I guess, Starship Troopers eve

I know there's a Starship Trooper one, but no one really plays that one. Helldivers

two really took it over because of how bombastic it was.

And it'd be great to see a collaboration with those two to

get help just make a Starship Trooper games out of what

Helldivers two has done. Would be fun. It'd be fun to see other

games into the into that type of, like, game mode,

but Helldivers two is is still a great game.

Alright. So Diablo four has launched collaboration with

Kento Miras Berserk. The total cost to

obtain all Berserk sets in Diablo four

is about a hundred and $50. Real money because you have to

have a certain amount of platinum. I'm gonna go through all their stupid little currencies,

but the vessel of hatred price was $70. So it's more

expensive than getting the actual expansion for

Diablo four. Now the cosmetic

comes in barbarian rogue and necromancer. Apparently, the barbarian is the

best one of those set. It's just expensive.

I mean, I don't think anybody's really gonna get the whole complete

set because it's a hundred and $50 for the whole complete one. And seriously, it's

a cosmetic. It doesn't take you guys that long to make this type of a

thing. It's all like making a game. So I understand how cosmetics

cost more than the game is ridiculous.

It's it's stupid ridiculous.

And the problem is that Blizzard has been doing this

since I mean, mostly since acquired by Activision, but

also since Overwatch too. I mean, they over overinflate their prices too. I

know gamers were mad about it too because it's a joke saying that Overwatch two

was basically they just made it just so they could have a cosmetic

shop and do overpriced cosmetics. But they still

make money because some gamers are dumb

enough to buy them anyways. Alright. Moving

on to my main thing. And so we've been hearing about the,

like, the raising of prices on games. Nintendo basically said it's

gonna be $89. Take 2 CEO has said that

you could see games up to a hundred dollars. Microsoft just basically

announced that in winter of this year, it's gonna be raising their games

to $80. EA has said no for now. I haven't

really heard anybody else saying it. Ubisoft probably could because that's all

they care about, and they're actually making good games. And

so I think there's gonna be a new, like, pricing scheme,

and they're gonna be making different types of games for the different types of

prices because the issue with

raising your prices that less and less gamers are gonna be buying your games,

they're gonna be very discernible about which game they're

going to buy. And so what really needs to happen if

they're smart is that there's gonna be new pricing scheme. So

remasters are gonna be 30 to $40. Remakes are gonna

be 50 to $60, and the new games are gonna be 80 to

$90, probably more towards the hundred because we

live in a crazy world right now. And so here's my thing,

is that the old games will be bought because it's nostalgia. And if

it's a really good game, then we wanna replay it and see what it's gonna

be like. If it's a remaster, there's it's not gonna take as much time because

you're just updating the visuals, but you're not redoing the whole

game. And then remakes are going to basically

be redoing the whole game like Oblivion into

a modern engine. And so that takes more time because you

actually have to go in and kinda redo the assets and make

it look good, look better than what it

did ten, twenty years ago.

So we're at this cross order right now where these big

publishers are not really gonna risk making new

games, like new worlds, new franchises. It's not

gonna be that way. It's gonna be basically Excel

sheets and, like, is this game going to sell? Yes? No?

Was it targeted to the the quote unquote modern

audience, which doesn't exist because it's just the old audience.

Just, hey. We're just going to alienate men.

And so what really is gonna happen is

that one one is gonna be a marketing thing to

basically nostalgia, oblivion,

and then there's gonna be new stuff. But it's gonna be new stuff from the

franchises that are already established, halo, gears of

war, battlefield, mass effect. I

would say dragon nature. That's never gonna happen. Command and conquer,

never gonna happen. But you you understand the rate and the name recognition

of these games are going to be what there is going to allow them to

green light new ones. And then

old ones may get a remaster, more likely not

get a remake unless it's sold really well in the first place. And

so it's gonna be up to double a studios who

have smaller budgets, but will take more risks because they got to

differentiate themselves from everybody else to show

off what the actual

industry and what gamers want. Because they have a

better understanding of that than the big publishers because the big

publishers have too many people working there, and all they care

about is making money, which all of them do, but all they really, really care

about is how to maximize the

profit of it. So maximizing it would be name

recognition. If it already has a name recognition, if it was already

successful, more likely it's going to make a new game. If

it was successful ten, twenty years ago, remake. It was

moderately successful, but doesn't really need a new

remake remaster. And then the pricing will be

according, and then you can decide. But the new

games are unless unless

these big publishers figure out how to not do how to not make a budget

of 300 to 500,000,000 and hope that it's gonna sell,

like, bonkers, you need to stop having

four or five developer studios making one

game. It needs to be one or two, and that's about it.

Is it gonna happen? Probably not. Because look at EA, they got four

studios making battlefield now instead of one.

And so there needs to be a cultural

shift in the developer studios and

publishers. There needs to be more accountability with more

people with less. I'm not

saying overwork. I'm just saying it needs to be more accountability,

but, like, you do this, this, and this. You do this, this, and this, and

we'll figure out how to make this work. Because that's how the double eight

studios are doing, and they're doing a really good job of being loud. So

what do you think? Do you think I'm crazy about all of this? Do

you think there's something there with their mastery? Do you think

it's just too expensive to buy games now? The game is just way too expensive,

which you're probably right. Let me know in the comments below, but

thank you for listening to Digital Coffee Gaming. We really do

appreciate it. Please subscribe to this podcast. If you're not your favorite podcast, you can

absolutely have five star review. It will just help with the rankings. And let me

know how I'm doing. And join me next week as I talk about what's

going on in the gaming industry. All right, guys. Stay safe. Get to play in

the games you wanna play. Don't blow your budget on gaming,

even if it's the new ones. And see you next week. Later.