The Current State Of Gaming: Inflation, Greed, And Underwhelming

Back when people were booting up their PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Wii to play with their friends, nobody expected the industry to reach the monumental status it has today. From earning more money than the music and film industry combined to some projects, namely GTA 6, projected to be the most expensive pieces of media in human history, the sheer growth we’ve seen so far is astounding.

Unfortunately, the larger the community, the more chances we have of attracting the attention of bad actors with horrifically greedy or malicious intent. Since the peaceful days of the 2000s and 2010s, a majority of gamers agree that the gaming industry is in the most controversial spot it’s ever been, from deceptive practices to random price hikes and laughably out-of-touch releases.

We Wake Up Everyday Fearing Games Will Cost $10 More

For the past few decades, almost every game under the sun has kept the standard pricetag of $60, at least for its base edition. Given the market fluctuations, companies then abandoned this old approach and started normalizing $70 for their games since the early 2020s. This specific price hike was a long time coming, and given how expensive it is to make triple-A games today, you could give the developers a pass.

What we didn’t expect, however, were two more bumps — from Nintendo, not only for their games but also for the console. At the time of writing this article, Nintendo recently announced the Switch 2 handheld, the successor of the wildly successful Nintendo Switch, at $450. This is a whopping 50% uptick from the Switch’s original price, but you can still justify it since the feature set with 1080p gaming at 120 Hz and 4k at 60 Hz when docked.

Of course, we’re talking about Nintendo here, and if there’s any way to siphon more money out of customers, they know how to do it. The Switch 2’s launch title, Mario Kart World, is going to cost you $80, with the physical version costing an absurd $90. With one announcement, Nintendo set a new bar of game pricing that, frankly, a lot of people seem to agree isn’t warranted.

The Numbers On These Price Tags Might Get Worse

If anything, I expected GTA 6 to cost this much — I mean, with the rumors speculating a budget of $2 billion, Rockstar can make a case for itself. But Nintendo? Sure, Mario Kart 8 and its Deluxe version were fantastic titles, but do they warrant a $80 price tag? Absolutely not.

Lightning rod – Mario Kart World is not worth $80!
byu/razorbeamz innintendo

What’s worse is that Nintendo is setting a precedent for other companies to follow suit with their mediocre titles, claiming that “If Nintendo can do it, so should we”. This also means that extraordinary games, like Rockstar’s GTA 6, will cost even more — anything below $100 feels like a pipe dream. 

Companies Have Found New Ways To Extract Money From Gamers

In modern gaming, there’s a clear distinction between online and online-only. Online means you can enjoy a game with your friends at your own leisure, and online-only means you can’t access a property without a working internet connection. You can probably decipher which category is more restrictive, and it’s also where you’ll find the abhorrent practices that give the gaming industry a bad rap nowadays.

Lootboxes, Battle Passes, unnecessary game launchers — online-only games have it all, but the worst part is… it’s working. The bulk of revenue generated from the industry is from these games, because they’ve found a consistent money-making machine to keep players coming back. Whether it’s encouraging a FOMO feeling or preying on crippling addiction, what matters is that the money is coming in.

A lot of gamers are young minds that don’t understand the true long-term consequences. For them, lootboxes are just gambling, a system built to nudge spending, often faster than wallets can keep up.

Litigation Left And Right Is Creating Even More Concern

As gaming’s influence balloons, so does scrutiny over its impact on young minds. Lawsuits are emerging, questioning how games hook players with relentless rewards.

The ongoing video game addiction lawsuit, for instance, targets aforementioned mechanics like loot boxes, alleging they exploit developing brains.

TorHoerman Law notes that these suits often focus on mental health risks for kids, claiming predatory designs fuel compulsive habits. These moves signal a broader push for accountability, urging developers to rethink features that prioritize playtime over player health.

Another recent lawsuit is related to Ubisoft, where they’ve shamelessly claimed that “we shouldn’t own games.” For context, Ubisoft started delisting The Crew, a racing game they launched in 2014, from the libraries of every user who purchased a copy.

Ubisoft holds firm in The Crew lawsuit: You don’t own your video games
byu/Hachiman-Hikigaya ingaming

When confronted by these users, the company’s lawyers clarified that purchasing The Crew meant you were getting a temporary license, not owning the game. This allowed Ubisoft to revoke a license (i.e., remove the game from your library) whenever they wished. Unsurprisingly, this has since caused massive uproar and backlash, with the community even retaliating with the phrase “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.”

Questionable Optimization And A Growing Lack Of Creativity

You can argue that creativity was the main reason games thrived back in the day. There was a shockingly high amount of talent circulating in the industry, and the developers aimed to make their work memorable and accessible. 

Now, when you cross the step of buying a game, the next major hurdle is getting it to run properly. Most new titles, especially triple-A, are horribly optimized, riddled with bugs, crashes, FPS issues, and glitches. Unless you have a top-of-the-line PC to brute-force your way through the optimization, or lack thereof, you’re in a world of pain and headaches. You shouldn’t have to disable features or download ten different updates to play a game.

But there’s a much deeper problem than just the technical problems — games feel uninspiring. For every gem like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Elden Ring, there are at least ten slop-infested games that use the same, generic formulae. Series like Call of Duty and FIFA have been the same for practically a decade or two, representing a crucial lack of innovation.

Takeaway

Gaming is a kind of lens shaping how Gen Z and Alpha learn, connect, and dream. From Minecraft builds to Overwatch strategies, young players are picking up skills like problem-solving and collaboration that ripple offline.

But with that influence comes a duty to design responsibly, ensuring games inspire rather than ensnare. Studios, gamers, and families can team up to make gaming a force for good.

The next generation deserves a gaming world that fuels their potential, not their screen time. Gaming has always been a luxury, and due to that fact, we’re seeing more barriers to getting to that enjoyment factor. Regardless, it’s a tough time to be a gamer, and chugging along with the trends is perhaps the only move, albeit a disappointing one.