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Should Games Cost More? WARDOGS CEO vs The Numbers

McBread

6,191 views

On 24 September, WARDOGS CEO Joe Brammer posted on X that games are too cheap, said GTA 6 had a chance to raise the bar, and compared a £30 train ticket to WARDOGS at £36.99. This video covers what he actually said and what he said in the replies afterwards, what game prices have done since 2005 once you adjust for inflation, why three $39.99 shooters went three completely different ways, and the WARDOGS price model he's actually running.

Chapters
0:00 Games too cheap?
0:31 The post
1:24 The reaction
1:54 What he meant
3:00 Price history
3:47 Inflation
4:26 Take-Two agrees
4:58 Same price, different outcomes
5:41 What $80 buys
6:15 The real price
6:53 The WARDOGS model
7:50 Where I land
8:29 Layoffs
8:59 Your call

Sources
Joe Brammer on X, 24 Sep 2026: https://x.com/Brammflakes/status/2103...
Joe Brammer on X, 25 Sep 2026: https://x.com/Brammflakes/status/2103... and https://x.com/Brammflakes/status/2103...
IGN on Tim Schafer: https://x.com/IGN/status/210299043442...
James Batchelor on X: https://x.com/James_Batchelor/status/...
Kotaku, Take-Two earnings call (7 Aug 2026): https://kotaku.com/gta-6-grand-theft-...
VGC on The Outer Worlds 2 price reversal: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/n...
Xbox Support, pricing updates 1 May 2025 (archived): https://web.archive.org/web/202505030...
BULKHEAD, 10 Reasons NOT to Buy WARDOGS: WARDOGS | 10 Reasons NOT to Buy
WARDOGS Supporter Pack on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/48...
US inflation: BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0), Nov 2006 to Aug 2026
Steam revenue share tiers: Steamworks announcement, 30 Nov 2018

Gameplay footage is from official WARDOGS, ARC Raiders and Marathon releases. The posts and articles on screen are screenshots of the originals.

#WARDOGS #GTA6 #Gaming

12 Comments

@1Matezz 3 days ago

”Pricing has not kept up with inflation”.. Well neither has our salary 😊

@krzysiekj2522 3 days ago

their priority should be to release WORKING GAMES before increasing prices.
It is a rare sight these days to see a game with good performance and not many bugs- no one rly expects zero bugs, as long as devs work to fix them asap and communicate.

I want playable performance, no stutter and then we can talk money. But if the game releases in bad shape, gets abandoned quickly by devs... I do not buy from this studio again. So in a long run they've lost more money.

@injuns10 3 days ago

there is definitely a discussion to be had about gate keeping, and I say this as a dad who has to buy everything 2 or 3 times

@alpha-0874 3 days ago

Inflation may be up but wages are not. You can charge more if you want, but that doesn't mean people have to buy it. If the cost of new games reached the same level of inflation as say, housing in the US, I would just fall back on playing old games that I already own and I suspect many others would do the same. Indie studios would likely continue to release at lower cost because they're not as bogged down by their own operating costs as "AAA" and would thus end up finding more long term success (this is already happening to some extent).

@kopamees7833 3 days ago (edited)

keep up the salary and u can increase prices aswell, but instead the CEO is taking a 2mil bonus and say "our company doesnt make enough money" while board gets 8% salary increase from their 6-7 figure salary and 1-3% for workers that earn 40-70k

@bluecrayon7766 4 days ago

Millionaires are crying that the are not billionaires.

@SolidKore 4 days ago

Reminder that Wardogs in 2026 is $10 less than Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, released in 98'on the Nintendo 64 which sold for $50.

@JaySaltzpure 2 days ago

How many people buy games? I'm assuming we will get into the fact that the sales are larger in general but if we ignore that fact it is pretty disingenuous. Sales have gone down as quality clearly went down. Somehow money going into making them spiked while quality didn't do the same at all.

@MemeFoxxX 1 day ago (edited)

When you can play games for free because they profit off of in game purchases - it keep the price at market value. Is it worth more than 40 dollars? Sure. But is it better playing other games for free? often.

@freezedeve3119 3 days ago

AAA game prices can be what ever, i am not interested about their games as those are not good, wardogs was something i have wanted for a long time, and price was irrelevant for me but price was right to get all my friends to buy it too as it was not too expensive.