Stop worrying about $80 games when all the best ones cost less than $50
Video games are expensive. More expensive than ever since, after the standard price for a top tier game jumped to $70 along with the launch of the PS5, Nintendo has now opened the door for studios to charge $80 via Mario Kart World.
Not only are game prices on the up, but the consoles you need to play them are more expensive than ever, too. A 2TB Xbox Series X costs $730, a PS5 Pro is even more, and Nintendo just rolled out a price hike for the Switch. Not it’s brand new Switch 2, but the original Switch, the one some of us have been playing since 2017.
Like I said, video games are expensive. Except they’re not, or at least they don’t have to be. Every time it’s even hinted at that another game might follow in Mario Kart’s $80 footsteps, those of us who will inevitably pay the price anyway act like the sky is falling because, in a way, it is. My advice to you, to everyone who plays video games, is to simply not buy $80 games.
I’m not advising you to wait until they go on sale because, in some cases, you’ll be waiting years. I’m also not recommending you stick to $70 games. Forget those too. You really don’t need to be paying more than $50 for your games. There are always great games available for under $50, but that statement has never been more true than it is in 2025.
Almost all of the best games released this year can not only be bought for less than $50 right now, but they launched at that singinficantly-less-than $80 price. I’ll start with the obvious one - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Expedition 33 is universally loved by pretty much everyone who has played it. A debut game from a studio made up of a small team of experienced devs, there’s a very real chance it’s named Game of the Year. Honestly, I’d be more surprised if it isn't. All of that, and you can buy it right now for $49.99. Yeah, I know that’s only a penny less than $50, but it still counts.
My personal pick for Game of the Year as it stands, Blue Prince, costs even less, Blue Prince. Only $30 for one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played. It’s not a short game either. Im closing in on 40 hours and, while the game’s primary mystery has long since been solved, there’s still so much more left for me to discover.
At this point, you might be thinking ‘Well, sure, debuts, no matter how impressive, and puzzle games are never going to cost more than $50’. To those people I say Split Fiction. Hazelight’s hugely anticipated follow up to It Takes Two, 2021’s Game of the Year. Everything about Split Fiction screams $70 game. It could have cost the industry standard for a high end blockbuster, because it is a high end blockbuster, and no one would have batted an eye. Instead, Hazelight sold it for $49.99, and from what I’ve heard, it’s sales have confirmed that was the right call.
There are so many more fantastic games that have launched for less than $50 this year that you should seek out if the rising cost of mainstream games is getting you down. Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, The Alters, and The Knightling, a game I didn’t even know about a month ago but has since shot up my personal Game of the Year list. None of those games will cost you a penny more than $50, and some of them are available for as little as $20.
That brings me neatly onto what might end up being the main headliner of 2025's more affordable games list. It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it seems very likely Hollow Knight: Silksong, one of the most anticipated games of the last decade will cost $20. Even if that’s not true, there’s almost zero chance Silksong costs more than $50. That’s for a game that it feels like the world has been waiting for, and one that will comfortably keep you locked in for more than 30 hours.
All of this to say, whether you’re a long time gamer who feels like rising prices are shutting you out, or an interested outsider looking in only to see games are $70/$80 each now, don’t despair. You can still buy a lot of great games and have change left over from a $50 bill. Sure, there are exceptions. Donkey Kong Bananza and Death Stranding 2 will contend with Clair for Game of the Year and they’re both fantastic $70 games.
My point is you have options. You can comfortably fill your whole year with amazing games and not spend more than $50 for any of them. Hey, you never know. Maybe if more of us stick to $50 games and pass up on anything that costs more, studios that think they can charge more because, as much as we complain, we’ll pay it anyway, might get the hint. Voting with your wallet doesn’t always work, but in this case, if we keep getting great games for less, it just might.
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