From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Hey all,

I just got an email from Steam today. The new Indiana Jones game is on
20% off discount! Now it's only $55.99!

First thought? Hmm. Maybe that $70 price point isn't working out.

This is the escape Valve (see what I did there?). Don't buy 0-day or prepurchase and dreams of $70 games might just go away.

It's gonna take a steeper discount than $4 off the old MSRP to get me to
bite.
--
Zag

West of House
There is a small mailbox here.

read leaflet

"WELCOME TO USENET!

USENET is a game of adventure, danger,
and low cunning. In it you will
explore some of the most amazing
territory ever seen by mortals. No
computer should be without it!"
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

It's gonna take a steeper discount than $4 off the old MSRP to get me to >bite.

Subscription services can help the price-conscious on single-player
games, for sure: Pay $10-15 for a month sub, plenty of time to finish one of these AAA games on Gamepass/EAPlus/UbiSoft etc

rms

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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:57:06 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

It's gonna take a steeper discount than $4 off the old MSRP to get me to >>bite.

Subscription services can help the price-conscious on single-player
games, for sure: Pay $10-15 for a month sub, plenty of time to finish one of >these AAA games on Gamepass/EAPlus/UbiSoft etc

Love the game, decide to replay it in three years, find out its been
removed and no longer available anywhere.

No thanks. I'd rather pay upfront. Preferably from some place like GOG
where I can then archive the installer to storage for even more
security in my investment.

The number of times I read about games being removed from subscription
services is enough to ensure I never want to use them, or encourage
their growth.



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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:57:06 -0600, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, rms
wrote:

It's gonna take a steeper discount than $4 off the old MSRP to get me to >>bite.

Subscription services can help the price-conscious on single-player
games, for sure: Pay $10-15 for a month sub, plenty of time to finish one of >these AAA games on Gamepass/EAPlus/UbiSoft etc

Yeah, I consider that a complete capitulation to "you don't own your
games," so I still buy them.

But it is the way everything is headed. I buy Microsoft Office through an Office 365 subscription rather than purchasing a boxed set like I used
to. I also pay a subscription for Photoshop. It isn't a horrible bargain
for productivity software.

Games are not the same as those products, though. I consider games to be cultural and artistic and therefore worthy of my cultural heritage.
Worthy of preservation as well. So going lowest common denominator with a subscription service is not a good bargain for my sensibilities. It's a
similar take as Spalls. Games disappear in this model.

Finally, consider that the sub price is artificially low because they are trying to achieve a specific market position, and once they have it as
the dominant way to game, they will gladly raise it to $30/mo, or they'll throttle play time. And we'll be stuck with that. I really do think that
is the end game. One of my bundled streaming services has already hit the
$30 point, up from $19.99/mo (Disney/Hulu/HBO). All these things are
bleeding red on the P&Ls in the hopes that they can sucker punch us, IMO.
--
Pope Zaghadka III

````````````````````````````````````````````````````|
Every man, woman, and child on this Earth |
is a genuine and authorized Pope. | `````````````````````````````````````````````````````

As Pope, you are entitled to the following privleges:

1. To invoke infallibility at any time, even
retroactively.

2. To completely rework the structure of the Erisian
church.

3. To baptise, bury, and marry (with the permission
of the deceased in the latter two cases)

4. To excommunicate yourself and others,
To de-excommunicate yourself and others,
To re-excommunicate yourself and others,
To de-re-excommunicate (no backsies) yourself and
others.

5. To perform all rites and functions deemed to be
improper to a Pope of Discordia.

Hail Eris!
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

On Thu, 31 Jul 2025 10:48:27 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:57:06 -0600, "rms"
<rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net> wrote:

It's gonna take a steeper discount than $4 off the old MSRP to get me to >>>bite.

Subscription services can help the price-conscious on single-player >>games, for sure: Pay $10-15 for a month sub, plenty of time to finish one of >>these AAA games on Gamepass/EAPlus/UbiSoft etc

Love the game, decide to replay it in three years, find out its been
removed and no longer available anywhere.

Not how that usually works. At. All.

When Battlefield 2042 came out, I was wary because there had been
increasing DEI and wokeism creeping into the franchise, and with the
top most edition being $120 I decided to try before I bought and just
do the EA subscription for a month to help decide.

It turned out to be the right call because I fucking hated playing it
(not even because of the political concerns but just because it wasn't
much fun). I couldn't get away from it fast enough, even as someone
who used to be able to rely on DICE -- buying their next game in
series sight unseen. It was hard to even pinpoint all the reasons why
I hated BF2042, but I wasn't alone, everyone else did.

So three years later I was able to get the top edition for $15. Done.
And, they had mostly addressed everything that was wrong with the game
by that time, turning it into a good time. Not quite the leap forward
that the old BF games from Dice in Stockholm were, but worth it
overall and I ended up getting more than my total money's worth out of
it.

BF6 will be out soon, and theme-wise it is back to the setting I
enjoyed about the old one and looks good so far. Time will tell
whether EA learned their lesson or not, but at least I have the option
of either doing the subscription thing or a refund in case it sucks.

As far as not being able to play old games, Battlefield 4 (out for 12
years now) is as playable as ever, so let's not agree not to pretend
games just disappear in 3 years never to be seen again, m-kay?
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