No Mutants Allowed

Dude, you would have a field day with Extra Credits. Then tell their audience that games should cost more then 60 US dollars and that Lootboxes are a must for games to survive. Gotta love corporate shills.

Or! Or! Maybe games shouldn't be so stupidly large scale all the time?

Part of the trouble is that the price of games, around $60 USD, hasn't gone up in 15 years. But, cost of making their overbloated games keeps going up. There's a lot in the news lately about how they push their people, and contract workers are treated even worse. Microtransactions and such are a short term fix for their $ troubles. Something's got to give or the gaming industry will implode.

Game price haven't been increasing, but their other costs are also gone. So in the end the price still doesn't need to rise.

What I mean for "other costs" is stuff like making hardcopies, printing manuals, shipping to stores, etc.

We can also see why indie studios can release games now, because there is none of those costs anymore.

If one guy in a basement with a full time job manages to make and release a successful game for $20 or less in 5 to 10 years. Why do big companies need to spend millions on making one game in 3 to 4 years and then want to raise the price?

And big studios can still virtually raise the price of the game by making small DLCs and then charge for those. Making a few new character skins or weapons/items/maps do not cost that much for a big studio and can bring thousands of dollars.
And of course, premium and pre order editions with bonuses, and season passes already cost more than the "normal" $60 game.

The bigger the budget the more strings come attached.

People who work for an employer like to be paid for their work. It takes a lot of people to make these games. If your pay didn't go up for 15 years, you be PO'd. The guy in his basement isn't getting paid and does it for fun.

Imagine actually believing that that Budget is going towards giving devs better salaries.

That's part of the problem. It isn't.