The average has barely changed, but the median suggests a rise in cheap games
FlashMobOfOne
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05h

My rule is I’m only willing to pay a dollar for every expected hour of play, so you can imagine I buy few things at full price.

The last two games I paid full price for were Elden Ring and Mandragora. I am far more likely to pay full price for an indie title that I’m excited about than anything else, because as an artist myself, I fully understand the impact of a pre-purchase on an indie studio.

@[email protected]
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23h

It all depends on what you’re looking for. I’ve put hundreds of hours into games and gotten way less than $1/hr, and I’ve also had a great experience paying significantly more.

So I don’t see games in terms of $/hr, especially these days when I’m more limited by time than money. Instead, I look for unique experiences with cost being a much lower factor. Generally speaking, I spend much less than $1/hr since I buy a lot of older games, but I’ve spent far more ($5-10/hr) on particularly interesting games.

But yeah, generally speaking, I’m willing to pay more for indies than AAA titles because indie games are more likely to offer that unique experience.

@[email protected]
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74h

I would also generally consider £1/hour of gameplay to be pretty terrible value tbh. Truly good games are more like £0.10/hour or less

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22h

People spend like $20 to watch a 2 hour movie, $1/hr isn’t that unreasonable

Agent_Karyo
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32h

Not to mention that not all gaming hours are equally fungible.

There can be shorter narrative games where a given hour is worth more (to me), so the higher per hour cost is justified.

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22h

Agree 100%. Played Dispatch last week and had a blast. Very short, but worth the money imo

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43h

If you only look at $/hr, there are some 70 hr games which milk your time and should have been shorter, like Assassin’s Creed, and then there are short, story rich games, like Outer Wilds, which are absolutely worth it even at more than a dollar an hour.

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13h

Prefer games like Factorio or Rimworld that you can get many 100s of hours from.

FlashMobOfOne
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That’s fine. I don’t agree with you.

@[email protected]
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24h

I like some of the early access development styles used in things like Enshrouded and Satisfactory, so mostly ive been spending on games like that. I like the idea of collaborating with a player base to create a game together I think.

FlashMobOfOne
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13h

Oh definitely. I’ve enjoyed the experience of helping devs mold a title into something better in exchange for a lower price.

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I like your dollar an hour rule though, I might use that in the future. Its funny though, my most played game was free and I have 2000+ hours in it!

Edit: I forgot rocket league was 30$ originally! Still a good deal!

FlashMobOfOne
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12h

Yeah, the games I’ve spent very little on I’ve put a ton of time into, like Vampire Survivors, Noita, and Dungeon Defenders.

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