While players are aware of how much the price of games have increased in recent years, it’s not always clear how this is translating into impact for the games industry.
However, a gaming news report by analyst firm Circana has revealed numbers that highlight just how much the rising costs of games and hardware is impacting US players.
Circana’s research on game purchasing frequency was split into six categories in response to the question “how often do you purchase a new game?”
- More often than once a week – 4%
- About once a month – 10%
- About once every three months – 22%
- About once every six months – 18%
- About once a year – 12%
- Less often than once a year – 33%
The final response is by far the is the most prominent, and examining some of the current talking points in the gaming news industry can help to illuminate why.
Are Gaming Subscriptions Killing One-Time Purchases?
While these numbers might appear low, it’s important to remember that buying games isn’t a player’s only choice in the current landscape.
Both Xbox and PlayStation offer subscription services – Game Pass and PlayStation Plus – that allow players to pay a monthly fee in order to access an extensive library of games.
In many ways, this can mitigate the need to buy new games at all, especially when new titles come to Game Pass and Plus regularly. However, the rising costs of these services can threaten to dislodge their status as a more cost-effective route, particularly with many now questioning whether Xbox Game Pass is worth the new price hike.
Free to Play Games
There is also a semantic consideration here. The research doesn’t include games that are free to download like Apex Legends or Fortnite, because players don’t have to buy them to play them, despite games like this often being among the most played.
These games can generate a lot of income from in-game transactions, with Fortnite set to allow players to sell content in-game from December.
With game purchases themselves being so low, titles that are capable of appealing to as large an audience as possible, such as GTA 6, are going to have a clear advantage over less known titles, especially if a consumer is forced to choose between one or the other.
However, the success of games like Golden Joystick favourite Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 shows that it’s certainly possible.
