Bullfrog Productions, game featured: Populous, acquired by EA in 1995
Maxis, game featured: Sim City 2000, acquired by EA in 1997
Westwood Studios, game featured: Command and Conquer - Red Alert, acquired by EA in 1998
DreamWorks Interactive LLC, game featured: Medal of Honor, acquired by EA in 2000
Honorable mention to Mythic Entertainment/Bioware, acquired by EA in 2006
Song referenced: Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
Pretty sure the “spirit” back then was just a combination of the same indie spirit as now and the moneymen selling low because they weren’t sure parents would be willing to buy that much, at the cost of the video game makers? Now, the money knows people like games and those owners exploit both the makers and the consumers.
But that doesn’t mean real craftspeople should give away their work for some vague artistic pride. Not even looking at what that same $35 dollars will get you today vs in the 80s or 90s.
This isn’t to castigate you, or anyone, waiting for price drops and sales. I do too. But saying all games are too expensive does not go.
I think part of it thats being missed is that the teams of people who came together to make these games, they were much much much much much smaller.
Realmz, the example I gave, it was three people. In total. Design, marketing, management, everything. Even “big” game development companies were tiny by today’s standards.
This has two effects that I identify. The first is increasing costs. You have far more people doing less work. More overhead, more teams not directly connected to creating the thing. Because of this approach to developing games, they do cost more.
Also, games, because they are more expensive, need more financing, and thus need a broader general appeal. We got more design by committee, and less design by people building the game they personally wanted to play, which may not have broad appeal.
However, I think that becomes a flywheel of bad design/ bad implementation. The counter examples to this point are games like dwarf fortress, the original Dota, Stardew Valley, Animal Well. These are games with a practically singular creative vision for what the game should be, and they gain huge traction and followings. And the common thread, is that the people who made these games, they built the games they themselves wanted to play.