Game development cost and content?

I'm going to look at this through the lens of percentages here. (all prices are in USD)

Alright, so the base game costs about $40 now. An Expansion Pack also costs $40, that's 100% of the cost of the base game. Does the average expansion pack deliver the equivalent of a base game worth of additional content to the game? No. It adds one to three new traits, an additional skill or two, a handful of hair and clothing options, one world, 2-3 new careers, and one or two major features. Comparing the current base game to your average EP, an EP only delivers about 30%-40% (generous estimate) of a base game's worth of content on average. Better to buy EP's when they're half-off at $20.

If we look at all the external factors, the price of everything in general is rising with inflation, meanwhile, the wages of the average American have been stagnating for decades, and companies across the board have been trying to get away with giving customers less for more for at least the last 20 years. The only remedy for this is to be as smart a shopper as possible and buy everything on sale or with a coupon whenever you can, video games included, because just about everyone out there trying to sell you something is trying to fleece you to some extent.

EA is a billion dollar company, why they can't have more content for packs while keeping the prices the same is boggling.

At least the Sims 4 Store isn't a thing.

I already only buy EPs and GPs when there’s a sale; I wouldn’t pay more. I’m just a casual Simmer though. It’s an escape when life gets tough for me. I’d stop with what I have if they increased the price or stopped doing sales. I would be reluctant if the game would actually improve even if they increased costs. Does your food improve when grocery stores increase costs?

@CheesySimsLover the grocery thing is not a good comparison. Technology is a completely different outlier on production/costs/necessity/desirability. It would make more sense to compare to other game companies or technology. But I understand that it's not something your willing to pay more. Fair enough. :)

I voted yes I’ll pay more thinking it was paying more for sims 5 (when we get there)... Not sims 4 (I felt like I spent enough on the game already.)

I bought most of my games in bundles and I think a brief time stuff packs were on sale... Heck I got used to reviewers saying stuff packs are half the time worth five dollars so when I was going to buy nifty knitting I was surprised it was ten dollars... I’m not sure if it was worth it (eco lifestyle was the pack that got me really into wanting to play sims 4, but it and the update to get my game prepared made it to where I had to restart everything...

For my game ALWAYS I age down Dina, Don, Nina, to match Cassandra’s age. I also age Siobhan Fyres and her boyfriend into teens so their group is both all teens and a bit more like the plastics... I also update and make over every sim. I made Johnny Zest look like a cool 18 year old (some of the YAs look over 30 in this game so that wasn’t easy.)

It takes weeks to make my sims look good and give the game my touches so I can have fun (but first I have to play that dumb strangerville story so those sims can live normal lives again. Then I decide to play and explore things on my terms. (AKA start to have fun) But I can’t now the game is so broken I’m afraid to play with it.

Where is the expansion that fixes eco lifestyle’s issues, yes we will need an expansion pact to fix it, (and yes I know modders do it for free but then sims 4 has another dumb update which makes us unable to use their fixes.

I’m actually afraid of playing my game, right now.

No. They are already far too expensive as it is, which is why I always wait for sales. In Sims 2, I used to buy expansions at launch for £14.99 - £17.99 and they had far more content than the expansions for Sims 4 at £34.99.