Hello readers, thank you for joining me this week. My continued recovery from my broken collarbone is progressing nicely. I have been trying to make an effort to be more positive in my columns because we all need a little more positivity in the world. It had the additional benefit of keeping the chief editor from trying to beam a hole through my skull. However, while trying to find a game to play for my column, I ran into a situation that I want to talk about.

I am given pretty free reign on what titles I can play for my column. Generally, as long as it’s not one that needs a review or that I have already done, I can grab it, play with it, and then tell you all about it. With that in mind, I scrolled the PlayStation Store looking for something fun and interesting while my dog demanded I throw her the ball instead. Finally, I realized I was behind on the Horizon series and never finished Zero Dawn. I wanted to purchase it and have an old-fashioned adventure party. However, even though this is an older title, the only version available was the remaster, which was on sale for the price of a brand new game, specifically, $69.99 plus tax.

First off, why was Horizon Zero Dawn remastered? It launched in 2017 for the PlayStation 4. The visual improvements from there are so minute that the average gamer probably would not even notice them. Also, why is an eight-year-old title (I know the remaster came out last year but see the previous sentence) being sold at the price of a full game?

Now, for those shouting at their computers for me to go buy the physical media, sure that would be an option if I had the PlayStation 5 model that had a disk drive. The physical media version of the game is currently going for just $29.99. Unfortunately, my PS5 does not have a disk slot. This was also the case for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth where the physical media is $45, and Madden 25 where the physical media is around $14.99.

Secondly, someone needs to sit down with publishers and remind them that just because I can’t buy a title on another platform, it doesn’t mean I will overpay for an older game. The price of Final Fantasy VII sort of makes sense as those games tend to hold their value. Madden on the other hand should not still be at full price now because once the new version comes out in a couple months, its value will fall through the ground and burrow into the Earth’s core.

Years ago, when the game industry was afraid of the secondhand market, they mused about going fully digital to prevent having to compete with GameStop or local game stores. I guess they don’t worry as much about that now because if I had a disk drive, I would certainly avoid the pricier digital versions. And I think that many people just close their wallets rather than pay for a title that doesn’t meet their valuation.

Another thing to consider is that the quality of AA games is improving every year. Why would I spend upwards of $70 on an eight-year-old Horizon Zero Dawn when I could get even more value and fun out of something like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which just recently earned a 5 GiN Gem review for a fraction of that cost? Or why would anyone spend $70 on a Madden Football game that in a matter of weeks will drop to less than $10 once the newest title is released? I understand that publishers have to make money, but there has to be a middle ground.

I made a statement back in 2020 that it was time for games to raise their prices by about $10 since they had not done so in quite a few years at that point. At that time, I suggested that publishers and developers could use the extra money raised by that to invest in more artistic titles or maybe “risky” ones that were not just sequels with guaranteed audiences looking for the next chapter. And I would be okay if that was the case. Sadly, it’s not as the real innovation seems to come from smaller studios with less expensive titles right now.

In any case, I don’t want to get too far into predictions territory again. It rarely ends with the predictor being vindicated and celebrated versus being burned at the stake. Trust me on that. And anyway, I don’t even have a great answer about how to fix this pricy divide between gamers and game companies. I can tell you, however, that I don’t feel like trying to get blood from a stone (trust me, my wallet might as well be filled with stones) is the answer.

So, I am sorry that my positive streak of feel-good columns was broken this week. It happens, but I should be back on the happy train next time.

Edit: After writing this article, Madden 25 went on a two-week sale on the PlayStation store owing to the fact that Madden 26 was revealed. I was able to grab it for just $13.99. Happier days indeed.