Why New Game Prices Keep Climbing, and How You're Making It Worse

Over the last few years, the cost of buying a new video game has steadily risen. What used to be a standard $59.99 launch is now creeping to $69.99 and even $79.99 for certain titles, with little sign of slowing down. Most players blame inflation, corporate greed, or rising development costs. Those all play a role, but there's another factor that doesn’t get talked about enough.

You're downloading your games.

And every time you do, you're helping kill off the one thing that used to protect you: retail competition.

When you buy a physical game, retailers have to compete for your money. That means price drops, sales, bundles, and trade-in credit. It means options. But when you download a game digitally, you're locked into a single store — usually a console’s built-in marketplace. There’s no shelf space to fight for, no sales clerk offering alternatives, and no used copy for less. Just one company charging whatever they want, for as long as they want.

Digital games rarely go on sale at launch. They don’t drop in price quickly. You can’t lend them, trade them, or resell them. Publishers love this model because it cuts out the middleman and maximizes profit. But what about you?

Game pricing used to make sense. Today, we see $80 games filled with microtransactions, deluxe editions locked behind paywalls, and day-one patches that make disc-based games incomplete anyway. It’s no accident. The fewer physical games sold, the more power publishers have to set prices without pushback.

If you're tired of rising prices and dwindling value, the solution isn't complicated.

Buy physical.

Support stores that give you trade-in credit, choice, and actual customer service. Keep resale value alive. Keep game ownership in your hands. Because if we let physical die, don't expect the industry to lower prices out of kindness.

Your money speaks louder than any amount of complaining.

#BuyPhysical #SupportGameStores #GamingFreedom