2025 has been a big year for the large gaming industry. The release of the Nintendo Switch 2, XBox had massive layoffs and cancelled some upcoming releases, Silksong is finally here, and the prices of games are going up, up and away.
The recent average price of an AAA video game is about $70-$80, and this is infuriating players.
Ricky Jankowski, sophomore at MA and owner of a Nintendo Switch 2, commented about Nintendo’s prices,
“The games are outrageous. I am not buying a game until they drop those prices. $80 for a game is just like, gosh, that’s too much.” He said.
An AAA game is a game made by a large corporation, such as Nintendo or Bethesda. These large companies have invested millions into the production of just one game, which is causing prices to skyrocket. This is why players are turning to indie developers for new games. One of Jankowski’s favorite games, Risk of Rain 2, was developed by a small team called Hopoo Games.
“I bought [the Switch 2] so that I can play the games that I usually play, like Risk of Rain 2, with better quality, because on the Switch it’s abysmal, and I feel like I’m trying to play it on a refrigerator sometimes.”
Risk of Rain 2 is only $24.99 on Nintendo’s EShop, Steam, and other platforms, compared to the average $60 price tags of AAA games released in the same year, 2020.
Hollow Knight: Silksong, a small indie game by Team Cherry announced seven years ago, was released this September and crashed almost all of online gaming stores. Silksong has already broken records for most anticipated game ever.
“Indie games, there’s stuff like Friends versus Friends, Lethal Company, Repo, they’re completely new ideas that most people just completely forget about. And I think, Gameplay wise, they’re much more enjoyable.”
Avid PC Steam player and sophmore, Henry Kennett, said.
A lot of AAA games follow a kind of formula, where they repeat the same gameplay mechanics and settings, while indie developers will push the limits of what players accept.
Some gaming companies, such as Xbox, are realizing this and are starting to look into marketing PCs, which have more access to indie games.
“It sounds like a better financial situation [for console companies], but at the same time, I feel like it’s not gonna go super well at the start at least, because they’re meant to make consoles, not PCs. It’s going to be hard for them to actually figure out the right stuff that they need. [But] since they’re console companies, it’s going to be better if they would just stick to consoles.” Kennett said.
With prices as high as they are, AAA games are definitely losing popularity, but this is making room for any small developer teams to hit big with fresh new ideas.