In the gaming industry, games can be separated into different classifications based on things like the size of the team working on it, the budget for the game, and the publisher tied to the game. Triple-A (AAA) games have long been considered the highest tier, though quadruple-A games have been emerging very recently.
What defines AAA titles is their massive teams making them, the millions of dollars poured into them and huge publisher backing. Tripel-A-titles are considered to be the highest quality of game for their time.
If you’ve played or bought video games at any point from 2005-2020, or around when flagship consoles like Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox, you’ve known the standard price for AAA titles to be $60. But in recent years, a noticeable change has started. The prices of AAA titles have begun to inflate to $70, and even starting to reach $80.
The issue though, isn’t just the price, but the content for the price. Many AAA games these days come incomplete, extremely glitchy, or just without enough content to justify the price.
A recent example is in the new Marvel’s Wolverine (2026), which came at the new price point of $69.99 for the standard edition, and $79.99 for the digital deluxe version. The game only had around 15 hours of gameplay to complete the main story, and slightly over 20 hours of gameplay for 100% completion, it was riddled with bugs and glitches among other criticisms.
This release highlights many issues that are plaguing the video game industry. Companies are content with releasing glitchy incomplete games, and are constantly releasing 2 or 3 different versions of a game. They are calling these versions the “deluxe,” or “complete,” simply as a way to get more money from consumers for things that should have been in the standard game to begin with. This is in stark contrast to how special editions used to be.
Also, although nothing new has been announced for Marvel’s Wolverine (2026), as of yet, video game companies have become comfortable with releasing games with minimal amount of gameplay hours, and then announcing DLC, as a way to get more money out of the player.
DLC, or downloadable content, is extra content for a game after its release. Consumers can buy DLC once the base game was already bought. This can be cosmetics, extra characters, gear in game, and even expansion on the story. DLC’s aren’t always a bad thing when done well and with care, and in games that already have plenty of content.
Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree is a strong example of this, coming from a game that already has plenty of gameplay hours and lots of replay value. The DLC itself didn’t just add plenty of hours of play time to the base game, but also received massive critical acclaim. It even went on to be nominated for game of the year in 2024, the first time a DLC or expansion got a nomination.
Elden Ring was a great example for how to do a DLC right. Yet, for other games, it almost seems as though they are using DLC as a way to make up for releasing an incomplete game, or just as a way to get more money from consumers.
Going back to another problem with video game prices is the release of multiple editions labeled as the “gold,” or “deluxe,” or “ultimate,” edition as a way to charge more for a game in exchange for extra content or collectable memorabilia.
This practice isn’t something new. It goes back to 1986 with the Legend of Zelda releasing a special golden cartridge edition. Soon it would evolve to companies releasing special editions of games coming with physical booklets and other collectables for a greater price.
Up to that point the price in relation to content and other physical memorabilia seemed to be fair enough. It became a problem when companies like EA, Ubisoft, Activision, 2k, etc., got a hold of this practice. These companies are known to be predatory when it comes to pricing and monetization.
These companies would release high priced special editions of games pushing well past $100 in many cases, and for the publishers like EA and 2k, the actual product would be repetitive annual releases of essentially the same game with AAA game standard pricing, and plenty of tiers of special edition upcharge.
What this can be easily boiled down to is corporate greed from these publishing companies. But maybe equally at fault is complacency from the players themselves.
EA and 2k always get criticized for releasing essentially the same sports game every year, but the games still sell.
Written by: Raven Gonzalez, staff writer