Paying more than €20 for a game is sooooo 2010

Before you disagree with the concept that paying more than 20 euros for a game in this day and age is a wild decision, answer me two questions.

What was the last game you spent more than that on?

What is the greatest game of all time?

If your answer to the second question isn’t a game that is free to play, then you are beyond my help anyway.

Save your pennies, widen your horizons

The massive development in the video games industry in the last 10 years is that now you can play nearly all of the greatest games around for either free, or for under €20 every single Steam sale.

CS:GO, LoL, Dota 2, VALORANT, Rocket League, Fortnite, Warzone, Apex Legends, even games like Teamfight Tactics are available for absolutely nothing, with thousands of hours of content to watch and learn from.

Back in my day, you had to spend a whole bunch of money to play games with half as much depth.

Even when it comes to spending money – maybe you prefer single player games because you’re a little bit insane – you can get some of the finest games ever released for a cheap price.

Hades, Slay The Spire, Binding of Isaac, Risk of Rain 2, Borderlands 2… the list is pretty much endless. My Steam library is full of clever, inventive, interesting and truly beautiful masterpieces for barely any investment.

Choosing to spend €40 on a new game is a decision that is becoming harder and harder to justify – and not just because of the inconsistent fulfillment of expectations we’ve received.

Elden Ring was excellent, while Cyberpunk was a forgettable mess.

Even then, the time I’ve put into Elden Ring was decent for the investment, but I’ve got 100s of hours in cheap games and 1000s in free ones. Why did I bother?

I understand that judging an experience by it’s sheer monetary value is both inhuman and aggressively missing the point, but then I am not human.

It seems trite; but actually, why would I spend twice as much on a game as I need to?

There are exceptions to this, but those exceptions are becoming both rare, and frustrating. Why do I need to spend so much for the newest Pokemon game?

I mean, I know why. But it’s becoming harder and harder to justify. I can play competitive Pokemon battles for free on the internet. You can play possibly the greatest Pokemon game ever made – Pokemon Insurgence – for free on the internet.

I, thankfully, am incredibly rich. Do you know how much this helmet is worth?

I can afford to spend €40 on a game here and there. But for those of you with jobs, kids, rent to pay… it makes less and less sense.

Play for free. Play better games. Be a better person.

Sort of.