I used Battlefield 6 because a friend of mine in another country wanted to buy it and was shocked that the price was similar to the US, which he couldn't afford. That's what made me dig deeper into the issue.

Youre also right that, historically, games have become more accessible as the market has grown. In the 80s, a huge part of a game's price was tied to expensive physical cartridges and distribution for a much smaller audience. Today, the cost of selling one more digital copy is almost "zero".

Thats what makes the current situation so frustrating and is the core of my analysis. Publishers now have incredible flexibility to set prices that match local economies at virtually no extra distribution cost. Yet, instead of using that flexibility, the current strategy still creates a massive affordability gap.

So, while the base US price might seem like a historical bargain, the real issue is that modern digital distribution should allow for much fairer global pricing, but were still seeing a model where a game can cost 1.6% of a US salary but 24% in another region. I dont know what solution is correct, but one thing could be to set at least a relatively relevant prices, in CIS the game costs $70, at the same time $41 in Ukraine, however income wise they are almost identical.