Video Game Economics

We are talking about the economic state of video games and what it all means for us the gamers. http://www.joystickandmouse.com http://shop.joystickandmouse.com Show Notes: Mention the t-shirts and Patreon - shop.joystickandmouse.com In another sign of the hard times in the video game industry EA Lays off hundreds of employees and cancels a game in development. https://www.reuters.com/technology/electronic-arts-lays-off-hundreds-cancels-titanfall-game-bloomberg-news-reports-2025-04-29/ It has been over six years since Epic started undercutting Steam's 30 percent revenue share for developers, asking for just 12 percent of sales on its then-new Epic Games Store. Now, Epic is going even further by reducing those fees to zero for a game's first $1 million in annual sales. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/05/epic-games-store-completely-eliminates-revenue-fees-for-smaller-developers/ Yay, we have a release date for Grand Theft Auto IV but it is later than expected.  https://www.ign.com/articles/grand-theft-auto-6s-delay-just-affected-the-entire-video-game-industry?_gl=1*phkmq0*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTgwMzY2NzUyMi4xNzQ2NDg1NjIw*_ga_736S6FVMCL*MTc0NjQ4NTYxOS4xLjAuMTc0NjQ4NTYxOS4wLjAuMA.. Following Sony's lead from earlier this year, Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/xbox-price-increase-bing-vs-google-windows-11 https://apnews.com/article/xbox-raises-prices-tariffs-microsoft-cd746a5aed59f3f5403ab262d6e149f0 So what do the tarrifs mean to video game prices? https://www.theouterhaven.net/the-rising-cost-of-gaming-and-why-tariffs-are-just-the-beginning/