They no longer have to make and ship cartridges to distribute them. They just let you download said game. The margins are insanely large. Add in they not longer subsidize consoles and release a new one every few years... yea. also the technology isn't improving that much as we have reached a pretty big limit on screen size etc. No more big innovation to make graphics look perfect- it is just art style now and most of the games reuse what works.
I really want to see what "margin" you are specifically thinking of.
AAA game dev is one of the highest risk industries in the world. Games generate losses constantly. 2023 and 24 saw about 50'000 layoffs across the industry. With 1500 more in 2025.
One of the biggest game publishers in the world is on the brink of shuttering.
So please, be specific. What margins?
Edit: Go figure, the person I responded to mentioned nothing about "margins" and instead claimed "We have better tools, AI and Unreal Engine so games are easy and cheap to make now". What a fucking moron.
No. Because it sounds like he's only ever been an employee.
That said, the person he's replying to is also completely wrong. It's a very high risk industry. But it's also a huge spread and can easily have wide margins. So much dev cost gets flushed away with incompetent management and budgeting, and trying to tie that to margins and risk is silly.
It depends, as it always does, with the studio, its circumstances, and its funding methods. But to apply that to Nintendo here is nonsense. Nintendo isn't upping the price to the mean due to inflation. It's leading the mean simply because it can.
This inflation argument is interesting. If they donāt raise prices they are effectively lowering prices. Seems very strange to not consider inflation.
Yeah but it's a misunderstanding of the economic dynamics involved with game development.
Yes prices are going up and salaries are too. But costs are also coming down. Digital delivery means dramatically lower distribution/manufacturing/storage costs. Audiences are broader and the market might be more competitive but it's also a lot deeper, meaning there's more people playing games now than ever before. And you're also looking at reduced costs in engine licences as more and more devs build in-house (especially Nintendo).
Not to mention building online services and subscription models and alternate revenue streams through micro-transactions and in-game markets.
And, sad as it is to say, without unionization you're looking at an unregulated workforce where there are more devs/artists than jobs and so the pay fluctuates based on need as opposed to experience - which a capable team can price in their own experience and contract out at their own rates. So it's all very manageable if you know what you're doing and have good connections.
All that to say that while I can understand the price bump to $70 (somewhat; again - it's studio/game/project dependent), $80 from Nintendo is just because they can, not cause their hands are tied.
Nintendo is just acting like Apple here, plain and simple.
I don't really think anything Nintendo puts out is going to be a High Risk. They're able to coast on their name recognition at this point.
Look at Pokemon (not MADE by Nintendo, but made FOR Nintendo), they ship absolute trash and people freak out and buy all 7 editions to get every pokemon
Giving short confident answers without backing it up at all while the person youāre arguing with brought in actual points is not going to get you taken seriously.
Points aren't evidence. Give sources. I just looked up top 10 riskiest industries. Didn't see video game production in there. Source your "points" with facts. Not opinions or data that is not provided in context.
The burden of proof is on the person who made the "point". FYI.
And any time you drop a discerning opinion the burden of proof goes to you. If the OP made an incorrect point, actually disprove it instead of just saying āno youā and walking away as if you added absolutely anything to the conversation.
Liabilities to asset ratios is not a great metric for this. Plenty of very stable industries are run based on debt financing. It's very normal for businesses.
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u/Loud_Interview4681 1d ago edited 1d ago
They no longer have to make and ship cartridges to distribute them. They just let you download said game. The margins are insanely large. Add in they not longer subsidize consoles and release a new one every few years... yea. also the technology isn't improving that much as we have reached a pretty big limit on screen size etc. No more big innovation to make graphics look perfect- it is just art style now and most of the games reuse what works.