"Serious Games" -- usually niche simulation type games -- can easily retail for $80+ for the base game, and then you pay for DLC expansions at around $20-40 a pop.
Examples: Gary Grigsby, Command: Modern Operations, Steel Beasts, etc...
Of course you're basically paying for an interactive encyclopedia in many cases and they don't typically have the repetitive addictive nature of f2p games that include in game purchases.
Then you have stuff like the paradox games with dlcs spanning years and totalling in the hundreds of dollars to buy the 'entire' game up front...
However I would much much rather pay $100 up front for a big, generally complete game than get a game that either centers around pointless cosmetic additions or requires me to spend money (loot boxes containing required items, paywalled features, pay-to-skip progression) and get me addicted to the gameplay.
Examples: Gary Grigsby, Command: Modern Operations, Steel Beasts, etc...
Of course you're basically paying for an interactive encyclopedia in many cases and they don't typically have the repetitive addictive nature of f2p games that include in game purchases.
Then you have stuff like the paradox games with dlcs spanning years and totalling in the hundreds of dollars to buy the 'entire' game up front...
However I would much much rather pay $100 up front for a big, generally complete game than get a game that either centers around pointless cosmetic additions or requires me to spend money (loot boxes containing required items, paywalled features, pay-to-skip progression) and get me addicted to the gameplay.
I guess that's not a novel sentiment though...