Tisaac wrote: ↑09 June 2023, 07:25
And what are your sources to back your claims ?
As far as i can see, bga hired more and more people, and also increased the number of paid developpement for games, so i wouldnt be surprised that this represent a significant total increase.
I have personally increased the money i received from them as a developper because there are more and more paid opportunities
First, I'm happy to hear that you are getting more money, and that they are hiring more developers! Yay for y'all, and by extension us.
Of course I don't know anything about the internals of BGA Financials, but my general sense is that they are raising prices just because they can. Not because we are getting any more value, or because they are paying employees more, but because they feel like they can join every other company out there raising prices without increasing customer value or employee pay.
Just because they can.
My landlord wanted to raise my rent 30%, when their real cost of my tenancy hadn't gone up at all. Of course, when I directly asked, the employees weren't getting paid 30% more, and I wasn't getting any more for my money. Their only real cost increase was a slight increase in property taxes. I talked them down to a more reasonable price increase.
My internet provider wanted to raise my prices 35%. Their customer support has gotten worse, and when directly asked, they were not paying their employees more, and were in fact laying off employees. I talked them down to no price increase.
Amazon just wanted to raise my Prime subscription price by 27%. When directly asked, their employees, vendors, contractors, etc did not receive 27% pay increases, and they are in fact laying off employees. I cancelled my Prime membership.
Katie Porter, a US House Representative, has done piles of charts and tables demonstrating that much of the inflation we are feeling across the planet is directly attributable to companies already making record levels of profits simply raising their prices, simply because they can, without a real increase in their cost of doing business, increase in the quality of service to their customers, or increasing the compensation for any but their highest level of executives. Just because they can, not because of any real increase in their costs.
I could go on, but again, I'm happy to hear that BGA is treating you (and I'll assume by extension) your co-developers well. In my mind, companies have a few groups they have to take good care of, including their customers, their employees, the communities in which they function, their vendors, and then the shareholders. If raising prices doesn't help customers, but does help employees, that is at least a bit more palatable.
If their cost of doing business hasn't increased, but they are raising prices, customers always have a choice to shop elsewhere. If a business ignores their customers (bring back Friends Only, Turn-Based, No Time Limit, NORMAL games), the customers may choose to no longer support that business.
At the end of the day, the only entities that really matter to any company making money from customers are those customers themselves. And if the customers aren't happy, for instance because of an unwarranted price increase, but business suffers.
Hope that helps!
