The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 169 - Priced Out of Fun

80s now it's Showtime let's show them we can rise from Ash, Jane, Lavender and Scarlet Phoenix power so can. Go where? We rise. They tried to ban us when we like a flower. They didn't know we had a phoenix's power.

Phoenix Power. Welcome back to the Phoenix Gate Podcast. It's your girl Jade Phoenix. I'm here with Lavender and Crimson, and we're talking about something that is personally offending all three of us. Why is everything fun suddenly so fucking expensive? Oh my God, tell me about it. I think the biggest realization for me on that was just the concert expense boom as soon as we're finally able to touch grass again, and it's been that way for the last six years now. Like at what point did watching a show or going to a concert or even just playing a fucking game turn into like a financial decision that requires like spreadsheets and planning and maybe a small sacrifice to the gods?

Exactly, it's now budget central. God forbid if I want to go see a tiny band playing out of Emmerstein Ballroom. Which is nuts to me. It's disgusting. I remember seeing Halsey back in her OG days for like 30 bucks at Hammerstein. Not. Even 30 bucks was overpriced at Hammerstein. Exactly, and now it's like dropping. Dropping 3 digits is the norm now, no matter what it is. So yeah, if you haven't figured it out, today we're talking about entertainment inflation. Who's to blame and whether we're all just being slowly milked for every single dollar that we have, or if this is just the new way of life and we have to conform to it?

Oh yeah, here we go. I. I honestly blame the orange asshole. They do I'd well, I'd like him for everything but he's. Definitely, I will say with the current price increases yes, but things even prior to him have been slowly going up though. Fair. I've noticed it mostly with I mean, I mean everybody, at least the two of you definitely can relate and probably those out there to the listening when it comes to like anything with price increases and I guess, you know, scalping on on anything in terms of tickets.

It could be anything in terms of, you know, sports games to concerts to honestly, I want to say like that's probably the first signs of scalping. I think the OR like the there was like one of the first things to start being scalloped. I'm looking at you. Ticketmaster. Yeah, 'cause not, not really thinking about it. I mean, for those sports fans and concert goers, we always used to see a lot of people out at the stadiums or even, well, as things started evolving, you know, going more online, you started seeing obviously like things like Ticketmaster and all that, where people would buy bulk on tickets and then sell them for more to turn a profit.

And I think obviously as the years have gone by, it's just gotten progressively worse because now we're starting to see it now Sprint other aspects of entertainment. You don't buy tickets anymore, you survive them. Yeah. Generally I survived the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster massacre. Like why? I mean I love her so like valid I can understand tons of people wanting to go. She hadn't done a concert in a while. It was pretty close post COVID but still. It wasn't even just everyone rushing to get the tickets.

It was Ticketmaster purposely which they found out it was on purpose letting bots buy up multiple tickets so that actual fans couldn't go for regular sticker price. Well, As for example, I only paid like a little over 100 bucks for my seats and I was right above the pit and I know people that spent thousands of dollars just on one ticket. Ticketmaster uses dynamic pricing, which I don't know if any of you guys have ever heard of that. That means that prices can surge depending on like the demand.

So like an airline ticket, you know how you're it's cheaper to go fly on like a Tuesday than a Thursday, you know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, like so Ticketmaster does use that style. I mean, and they are also currently under fire as it has been proven in courts and and shit like that, that they are running a monopoly, which is not OK. And that they are going above and beyond with taxes and fees and all sorts of things. And like you mentioned Lavender, the bots and resellers scoop the tickets and relist them instantly at huge markups like and then the service fees can add up to like 20 to 40% of the actual ticket.

It's ridiculous. But the same thing because how are you servicing me? I don't understand. Yeah. I don't. I'm not getting any pleasure from it, so you're definitely not servicing me.

We can even. What? That that could even, that could even be said about like even like stuff like Uber and like and all that when it comes to your food, like $20, damn near $20.00 of service and fees. I'm like, what? That's almost like a whole meal extra I'm paying for just to get my food sent to me. That's that's and it's not worse. It's not even in the realm of scalping, but it's damn near like getting there at this. Point I don't disagree with. You the most third part is don't go to the drivers.

That was crazy. If it was a built in cost for a tip, I wouldn't care because I know there are a lot of people that don't tip the drivers. So I'd be like, awesome, OK, I'm willing to pay extra if I know that tip is going to my delivery driver and then I just toss them an extra like 5 plus or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not where it's going. No, it's going right in the Uber's. Pocket. So yeah, for a little while I was doing Instacart where, you know, obviously. Yeah, I remember. People can, you know, put a request in for groceries if they can't make it to the grocery store for whatever reason or they, you know, they just don't want to and they want somebody else to do it for them.

And I'm not going to lie to you, like the amount I barely got tipped. I was using all like my my personal vehicle did not get reimbursed for gas. Not really, you know, and I wasn't really making a lot per trip. Like I think at most I made one trip was like 50 bucks, you know, and that was because I had to go all the way from Queens into Brooklyn. So like, but again, I wasn't really, I didn't really get tips or anything like that. And you know, they kept a large chunk of it. So obviously it just did not behoove me to stick around doing it.

I know that my friend Ben of the Wilhim podcast, shout out to Wilhim. He does DoorDash down in PA where he lives and he does a pretty decent penny. But that man has to hustle like from morning until middle of the night sometime so that he can make that money. So that's not normal if you're providing a service, you know, like even now. So here's an example. We order take out quite often at the gate. We we had take out during our last sessions and stuff. We ordered Chinese food ordering directly from a restaurant versus ordering off of DoorDash or Uber Eats Go.

Honestly ordering directly from the place because not only do you do you end up paying First off because usually some places they actually have to up charge a little bit on their pricing. Mainly because obviously to post your food up on there. And I know this because we me and my family used to own a BBQ restaurant like years back. They charge you a certain amount to have your stuff on there. Now, whether or not if it's like per thing or per meal or whatever that they charge you, I don't quite remember.

But they still do charge restaurants and stuff for Uber for using their their app and selling on there. That's crazy. But yeah, but if you just order directly from them, I mean, they'll still nowadays having some type of service fee is normal when it comes to ordering take out at certain places when you're especially if you're ordering delivery, if you're just picking up, there isn't any, but they'll charge what maybe like 5 bucks and that's about it in comparison to like what damn near $20 that Uber Eats would usually charge you.

I've been. Telling, I mean like ordering directly from a restaurant, I don't think you get charged that service charge for delivery. I don't think there's AI, don't think there's a. Delivery fee.

Depend. You're right. You're right. Most places, if you order directly, don't. And if the day will, it'll be super minimal, like it'll be like a little. Max I've ever seen. Max I've ever seen $5. Yeah, that's probably because you're, you're compensating like they're using the delivery fees to compensate their driver for the gas. Yeah. Yeah, because they're also making like a salary like a pay quote UN quote on top of the tips that you're giving them, right. So I can imagine that it probably they need to do it in such a way that it also covers the gas because it's not like they're using a company.

Vehicle No. And that's that's the other problem with the way that the gas prices have steadily gone up thanks to the orange idiot, you know, like I'm sure that these delivery prices are about to go up as well. The cost of food has risen exponentially like you can't even afford to. Definitely have. You can't afford to eat, let alone have groceries delivered. Yeah, what the like, I'll be honest, it's nuts. Like, I'll talk about this a lot and I'll talk about it truthfully, because I. Know. And just the cost in New York alone for something like food, like I can say this, I was making like baseline when I first moved by myself in Forest Hills, right?

Not only was my rent about 400 plus dollars cheaper four years ago and I was just making ends meet with my previous paycheck because I was not making a lot and my groceries were at least 50, like because I'm one person, right? And not including cat food, that's just they were just looking at me. It was maybe like $50.00 a month because I was getting non perishables and things like that now on average, and I am a creature of habit. My partner like you know, kind of pokes fun at me a lot because I make the same meal over and over and over again.

So I know my food mask. So like a tea because I know exactly what I'm buying because I get the same thing every time. It has nearly more than doubled in cost and I'm just one person that's. Disgusting. Yeah, and you guys know, like it's not like I gorge myself or anything like, but I like to have a well-rounded meal three times a day. I have a fruits and vegetables, a protein, pasta, rice. And because it's nuts to me that every time I go to the grocery store, it's more and more expensive. And even beyond that, just the upward prices of everything else just for almost going back into entertainment, dreaming, electric Wi-Fi.

And then at the end of the day and my rent haven't gone up and I'm making on average, let's say $20,000 plus more than I was making when I originally moved here. And I feel like I'm caught in that same predicament loop no matter what because everything keeps rising. It's not getting easier. It's just staying flat line. And I tell people all the time I'm like, look, I don't need to be rich. It'd be nice if I was, but realistically I don't need to be. I just want to be comfortable and be able to have hobbies and activities and leave my house and it's crazy to me that that's become so hard when I look back when I was living in Florida.

Granted Florida has a very different bracket but I even hear from my friends there now. But it's gotten just almost as comfortable as New York City. And that used to be like I made minimum salary at a theme park job and I could afford huge apartment going out every weekend when I was off from work, my groceries and still had money to put in my savings. Like it's insane to me looking from then to now how much it's just jumped in everything. That was only like 7 years ago. Exactly. It wasn't even that long ago.

When you think about it, that's not even a full decade. No, like it's ridiculous to to circle back to the whole thing that we were talking about with like tickets and stuff like that, like VIP packages, gate keep the best seats and are now like the normal like you have to get the VIP experience to be in any way, shape or form in a good spot. That's not like in the nosebleeds. Like it is next to impossible to go to any WWE show now thanks to TKO. AEW is also another expensive one, you know, like thank God for the Indies if you're a big wrestling fan, like you could still go to the independent shows and you're only paying like 20-30 dollars at the door and you get to see a lot of it like stuff and that that's really fucking cool.

But like, lifelong WWE fan, love AEW and I can barely afford to go to any of their fucking shows without literally sitting here and budgeting. All right, well, if I go to this show and I buy this merch and I maybe get a snack at the fucking venue, then I'm not going to be able to pay my car insurance. And that should never, in my opinion, have to be a choice. And people can disagree with me out there in the airwaves, but I think as human beings, we need these entertainment and joyful outlets just to fucking survive, man.

Yeah, no, you're not wrong. So the fact that these things like even if you just want to do 1 activity, like let's say you're one thing you're going to do, is the AWWE match the one thing you're going to do in six months, right? And you still have to make that decision of is it worth half my rent? Is it worth? My mortgage payment. Being able to pay my card on it exactly. Is it worth my? Mortgage payment so insane. No to put on anyone, especially in an entertainment field. It is, and then let like let's not even get started on the conventions.

Oh my goodness, Like this is actually something that's been on my brain because I would love to try to finally go to Star Wars Celebration. I have friends that live down there now that are like, hey, we'll house you. You won't have to pay for a hotel and the starting prices for that. Insane we. Were thinking about going in 2027 as well since it's back in California and when we saw the amount of the price for those tickets on, we were just like there's no way that we can afford that. Like right now between everything that we're doing with the Phoenix gate, you know, add on to our day-to-day lives.

And then all the other things that are coming up for us, because we got a lot of stuff coming up that are going to require us spending money on hotels, gas, travel, you know, it's just not feasible to do these pleasurable things anymore. Like even comic cons, I can't. Like if we weren't going as vendors to a lot of these conventions, we would not be going. We wouldn't be there. I know for a fact then, like I don't want to say, you know, I love anime, anime and like see, don't get me wrong, but the only reason I'm going this year is because we're vendors.

As long as you don't. Have a because the way that those tickets I love God. I don't even want to speak that into the universe. She. She wasn't ready. She. Wasn't ready but I feel like Anime NYC is a great example because for me when Anime NYC started being at the Travis it was a way for me to experience Comic Con without paying New York Comic Con prices. You're only paying like $20.00 for a day pass. Yeah, before they got bought out by Reed Pop. Yeah. And now it's like crazy, like the prices that I'm sure they're going to be posting soon if they haven't already.

Tickets have been on sale for a while. Then I I must have looked at those ticket prices and went no so. Nah, I'm good. No, like they want about just under $300.00 for a four day pass.

That's insane. Comic Con charges you about four, I think. Now for the four day. Yeah, that's why I usually avoid four day at this point. But either way, you're still paying about 100 to $120.00 for a day pass. Yeah, yeah. I mean I think anime NYC is at 90 for their day passes. I don't know, don't quote me on that.

I mean, not double checking because I think it depends on which day. I know different days are different prices. Yeah, from what I remember, I know the weekends, Saturday and Sunday were a little bit more. I think they were around like 100 bucks, but and this is for for Comic Con from what I remember, because I remember when I was trying to buy the cook it's and Thursday Fridays were like 85 around there. Yeah, so still still around that same ballpark of like close to like 400 bucks. Yeah Either way, I hate for the four day, but like it's a lot like it's a lot.

It's a lot just for that. That's. Just to get in the door. Say, Oh yeah. And that, yeah, that's just to get in. And then that not even counting if you buy anything. Yeah, that's just to get in the door, folks. That's literally just us walking in the door to get in to see everything else. And then do we want to even mention how crazy it is at any of these booths? What In terms of prices, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, Yeah. I mean, this is the way I see it. If you're going there to buy a lot of stuff, you might as well just buy a day pass and that's it.

Just call it a day. But I guess if you're one of those congoers that likes going to multiple days on a convention, like as a cosplayer, for example, like me, you're definitely yes, you're definitely going to be budgeting a lot and you're just going to be buying only what you feel like you would want or, and buy once. I would, I mean, actually, let me not say that would need I guess, and some cases once as well. There you go. But it's it's both. It's both, but you most people try to stick with what they need.

Like so, Oh, it's like, oh, I could, I could really use this or oh, like this would be nice to to, you know, to to just have in terms of convenience. So she has a cosplayer. If there's like booths that have like stuff for like cosplays. I know anime NYC had that one booth that was selling like a lot of like cosplay tools. I remember I I bought one of those things that really helped people on stuff. Oh yeah. So, you know, again, it all, it all varies on that. Well, yeah, I'm still, yeah. No, the prices on things like they just been going up.

I mean, we can even say the same thing now for the gaming industry. So just to get just to even start, like dial it back a few years from when the the release of the PlayStation 5 was came out and to Xbox. Oh my God, me, me and my friends, we were lucky to get the console, but for those for those people that weren't able to get it, they would have to be forking over close to like $1000 for for it because of scalpers. Oh yeah. Same thing happened with switch too. And switch I still don't have the switch too.

And very much the same for the switch. The only reason I didn't suffer that was because they had an Animal Crossing exclusive and I just so happened to not be destroyed in that pre-order race but so I was actually able to get it for sticker price. But even now I still don't have a switch to because even the sticker price is nearly 500 to $600.00 when coming from different retailers. This coming from the fact that they just announced that they will be releasing APS 6 and they're they're also they're already saying that that alone is going to cost that system is going to cost close to $1000.

I I. Heard, I heard some people saying 800 and stuff like that, but there's prices going around everywhere. So I, I already know it's going to be it's, it's it, but still damn near damn near a grand. So pretty much what you for those people out there for pretty much any of those people that paid scalper price on the PS-5 prepared to pay for that MSRP and. What sucks the most is that like even even like with the gaming industry, they went and totally monetized in a lot of ways. They went from giving you the full game to giving you like a live service, digital downloads, DLC kind of ecosystem that has a fuck ton of microtransactions in it.

You can't just buy a fucking game anymore. You got to buy the battle passes. You got us by DLC that you know helps your characters. If you're in certain competitive style of games, they put a ton of skins, things that you can only acquire. And there are certain games that where if you're a completionist like me, you cannot complete unless you buy the fucking DLC or the skins. Or key cards. Or key. Yeah, Thank you. Like Fortnite, Call of Duty, I'm. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. Your best.

They're the worst for battle passes, for sure. Yeah. But now the new thing is, especially with Nintendo right now, is key cards. Key cards, they're, they're starting to shift now. So key cards are essentially A cartridge that doesn't necessarily in have the game on it, it just has a key that allows you to download the game. Oh, right, right, right, right, right. They were doing that with the. Switch too, like when you get a like card. They did that with Pokopia or Pokopia, and they're doing it now with or if they haven't done it already, I think they yeah, they did it already for the Monster Hunter Stories game, the recent one that came out.

Yeah, I know, but I got the. Cartridge for it. Yeah, that one. They they, they they're doing that their Nintendo is starting to gravitate towards key cards now. Yeah. And it's it's a really BS reason. It is. You know what it is. It's just so that when the console reaches at the end of its life expectancy, at that point, they lose their game. If you if you're not able to redownload it, you're shit out of luck. Hold the lever crunk. It's true. It's true, yeah. Like, yeah, And also at the same time, you also got to remember that a lot of these systems now require you to get external memory on top of everything else, because the internal memory system is not enough to stack our games anymore.

Well, that you can always there are there are ways to upgrade that. Again, it is kind of stupid. I do agree with you on that, because it's just like if you're already but but you know what that you can't you honestly, that's not that I think about it. You can't even necessarily blame the console companies. In this case, it would be Sony. You can, but you, the people that you should really be complaining to, is the people who are making the games. Yeah, good luck with. That because there are a large amount of files like, Oh my God, how I'm going to throw Call of Duty under the bus because fuck them.

Please do the the fact that a game is over 100 gigabytes and not even like 100 gigabytes of like, oh, you know, it's it's extremely high graphics, it's a huge open world or what? No, no, it's the fact that that game alone with all the online features, all this, all that, and then and just all the extra add-ons that they're, they keep stacking on on top of it. I remember that game started off at like start off at 60 gigs, yeah. Then it started progressive getting at 80 gigs. Then afterwards it broke 90 gigs and we were just like, OK, is this this is getting bad now?

And then we broke the triple digits and it was just like, OK, now the updates are just taking way too long now. Yeah, it, it, it, it's ridiculous now. So it, it, it, it does it. I would say, you know what? We can blame both in this instance. Well, like. Yeah, no, you, you know, we're throwing Call of Duty under the bus. Call of Duty alone charges for the base game. You have to get a battle pass. There are expansions that come out for the base game and then skins that you can use to customize your character.

Especially with Call of Duty, a lot of people play that competitively. You know, Fortnite is technically a free game, but it generates billions through cosmetics because you get those exclusive skins and you need the special things to do all the fucking crap. And again, that is a game that is played competitively, so you need to have it. It's not like you can get away with it. You know the average. And they also have the. Fortnite. With Fortnite you can. It's just it's just boring important that you can definitely play without them.

It is it's just more just like, oh, if you keep using generic skins and you know, things just look kind of mad, you know, but that's the thing that that's kind of under users discretion like you, you obviously there's going to be a lot of in in game, you know in store purchases for you to make. You don't really have to buy them. It's not like you get an edge, even though there are some people out there's like, oh, there's skin. The hit box is slightly different. It's they and even and even if it's true, it gets patched almost damn near immediately.

Yeah, and then if you have a live service game that's going to keep you spending over time, you don't just buy it once, you have to buy it like. Yeah. And then the game prices have jumped from average like 60 bucks, which is still a lot of money, to 70 with rumors of $80 now becoming the standard for any fucking physical and digital copy of the game. Now this brings me to another point that I want you to to to to talk with me about and that is. Absolutely. Why the hell am I paying the same fucking price for a digital download that I am for a physical copy of my fucking game?

That is my biggest pet peeve in the whole fucking world because at that point, I'm like, why am I going to pay for all the extra bells and whistles? Because look, and I know we've talked about this on previous cast, I love me a physical copy. I do, whether it be like, for example, I'm so excited for all the new stuff that's coming out for Life is Strange. I really want to get it in physical. But then when I saw that it's essentially just a digital download with extra bells and whistles, I was like, then what's the point?

Exactly. So when it, when it comes to that and, and I know a little bit on that, when it comes to the physical production of that, it's, it's a load of horse of horse crap. I can tell you right now, because the fact that they stay, you know, oh, you know, we had to increase the prices because of tariffs and this and that and yadda, yadda, yadda. And then they end up charging the same price that they do on their online, their digital stores. Then obviously it becomes very much apparent that it's not like, oh, it's not because of the production.

It doesn't cost that much to produce the games physically. And if they say they do, it's a lot of shit. Like it goes what, buy a few pennies? Oh my goodness, that that hurts so much on your, your guys's wallets when you just make so much off of the game already Like it, it, it's ridiculous. And you know what? I'm even going to throw some of the more recent games out there that have been released that are not even, they didn't even charge 80 to $70.00 for the game, thank goodness. Oh, exhibition 33, I think that's what it was called right?

They didn't charge full price. They didn't even charge full price for that game. You want to know what they charge? If I'm not mistaken they charge somewhere around like $40. Mind you also another bonus add on to their that is a single player game. Yes. So the fact that also this is also to throw some shade at corporate, big corporate gaming companies where their CE OS state that single player games are out of date and they can make no money at all. There are have been so many single player games and you know what, we'll even throw Capcom in there because Capcom has been thrown in the air a lot in terms of their single player games and they have been doing astonishingly well.

Astonishingly well. So the fact that the Resident Evil game that they released, amazing release. Then they released their recent game too, which is Prag Pragmata. I think that's that might be yeah, Pragmata, yeah, again, single player game, fantastic. All right, especially since a lot of people will have been loving the little AI robot girl. That's just adorable. Yeah, she is absolutely adorable

there. There was even some on running joke with their social media being hacked by her. But yeah, but yeah, that game fantastic did an amazing job. And dude, we're, we're just getting into the second quarter of the year and Capcom is just killing it with the single player games. And I just find it, it's, it's just a nice little cherry on top to just insult those corporate companies that think live service is the way to go. And if you're not doing it, how are you even making money? It it it, it just really is a great way to shit on them.

Hell yeah. So yeah, it's it's, it's definitely. And on top of that, what I want to say, some of them, they did charge, I think the Resident Evil 1, they did charge, I think it was like 70 bucks or something like that. But I mean, heck, for the the game that you played, you get what you paid for. I'm a be listen, I'm you know what I know something and we can state this here and now. If you're going to be charging more for a game, you better be getting what you pay for, not what the companies say you should pay.

Take that depression. We could use even GTA as an example the new 1 coming out. When it ever comes out, it's never going to come out. When they decide to. Never coming out. They they were always, they were going around already mentioning that that game, they're going to be charging $100 for that game. Now if they do do that, I better be getting $100 worth of what I'm paying for. DLCI better be getting fucking like all sorts of freaking shit. I I better get an exclusive skin. I I better get an exclusive car.

Like fuck you, Absolutely. Not like not not even just that, just in game content is in general, Not even add-ons, not even like those are just small bonuses. In. Game content. If I'm paying $100 I should get days worth of content for game for for just playing. Agreed at this. Point minimum. I feel like with these prices, at a minimum you should be getting. And by the way, yeah. And by the way, when I say days worth, I mean that in a literal sense, like hours to days like worth of like, if I were to play this game straight from beginning to end, I better get all those days worth of that game.

Yeah, because we're not buying a game, we're entering into a subscription with boss fights. Yeah, it's one of the best things I've ever heard. Am I wrong? You're not wrong. And like, look, I'm going to shout out and I know they're definitely not an independent company, but I will shout out like they can sometimes be hard if you're a big RPG online game fan, because that's what it becomes. And I've got to say Avatar Frontiers of Pandora has done a really good job of still having game story while also, and I will say this is a caveat, like I waited until all the new DL CS they announced came out and then I got it all together.

So I was able to get every single patch and every single update that I knew they were doing within that year. But then since then I could still play the Fire and Ash DLC without paying tooth and nail for it. But we'll give them that. They've done a really good job of building an actual story and like game set within the RPG on top of including all the DDLCS, including all the patches. And then when you do get to a point where you need a new DLC, it's at a very minimal price point. Right. Yeah. That's how they need to structure it, like we can't be dropping like $80.00 and every time a new DLC gets gets added.

Agreed. It's kind of also like why the theater industry is dying, because tell me how the average United States movie ticket is now around 10 to $15.00, but the premium formats for like IMAX, Dolby push more than 20. And that's not counting. It's crazy. That's literally not counting if you have more than one or if you're going to a place that has like special seating and stuff like that. And let's not count like say you want to go to, you know, get food while you're out, you know, Or if you want to get popcorn and drinks, those alone are like $1525 more.

Expensive. Why am I paying so much and then you're complaining that you cannot get asses in seats in a theater? Like at the same time, if I want to, I can eat all the food that I have at home that I spend a fuck ton of money on my groceries for and pay the same amount of a ticket to Swatch it on a streaming service that I already pay out the ass for. It's so crazy. And I mean, we've also talked about this on previous casts. We have. Just the theater etiquette also going down where? OK, I need to pay $30.00 for a ticket, but nobody's ensuring that you don't have somebody screaming in your ear while you're trying to watch the movie.

Shut up to that bitch that got her karma when I went to go see Wuthering Heights. But for real it's like it's become such a problem. Like I just got tickets for a friend of mine got me tickets for Mandalorian and Grogu at on like opening night as like my birthday present. OK. And it was $30.30 plus dollars and he's getting me the popcorn and everything with it too. And I was like why is it $30.00 for one seat? It's. Ridiculous. I think we're seeing it in Dolby. I don't even think it's IMAX like 3D.

It's just the Dolby like enhanced screen. 30 freaking dollars a seat. And then people want like literally, I remember as a teenager, as a teenager, date night would have been going to the movies and to go with you and your partner, it was like you spent $50.00 for the both of you because your movie ticket was only about maybe 10-15 dollars. And then you're fucking snackies were about the same. So like like you're spending, you spent $50 there. Now it's $100 for the two of you because your ticket is about 30 bucks.

Then you're spending another 30-40 dollars just to get a popcorn and a drink. Like get the fuck out of here. The fuck Crazy. And I go pretty frequently because me and my partner love the movies and we all we haven't. This is probably the longest we've gone without going. Because at this point it's also like you, I feel like when we were younger, you would have no problem trying a movie where you weren't sure if you were going to like it or not because you weren't spending a crazy fucked ton of money.

And now it's kind of like me and my partner are like, Oh well, we both like this movie. Is this a movie we're going to enjoy? Do we think we're going to enjoy this movie? And we also like take turns. Like for example, I'm not too crazy about the Odyssey, but not really wants to see it. We'll go see the Odyssey, but we are like going so to like the the T because I will say it does pay off to do these these free memberships. They do with Regal because we go often enough that we get free popcorn all the time and free drinks all the time.

Right. But that's only if you go often enough. We're. Spending so much money on the individual tickets. Yeah, exactly. Like I have to literally pick and choose what movies I'm going to see in a theater because like, it's just so expensive. And I'm, I'm, I'm not going to lie to you, like I went to see Wuthering Heights, fucking hated it. You know, I wish that I didn't spend the money, you know, but whatever. I, I actually went to an independent theatre. So actually, I didn't mind spending the money because I was at an independent theatre, you know, not one of the big ones.

So I wasn't about it. You know, I got food while I was there. It was a whole experience. It was great. Movie sucked, but the experience was amazing and reminds me why I actually do enjoy going to the movies. The last time, I think the last movie that I saw, not counting Wuthering Heights was With You Lav. And we went and it was like, and it was like, really, we paid for this. What movie did we go see? I don't remember. I'm trying to remember. Well actually we saw iron lung and I feel like iron long was definitely worth.

Iron Lung was worth everything. That was worth it. Iron Lung was worth everything. All of us were there. All of us were there. No, it was when you and I went together to the Regal and I think we saw, Oh my God, the Frankenstein movie. We went to see the Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein movie. Did we see that one 'cause I saw that one with Ralph at. You saw. You saw it with me too. You saw it twice, 'cause you like, 'cause you like. You liked it that much. You went and you saw it with me too. That's right.

I really wanted to see it again. So Cedars. Now. That more good films. That was worth the money. More than once. That was worth the money, OK, Otherwise I would have. Otherwise I could stay at home and with streaming services. And we're going to talk about this now, streaming services now because of COVID and everything, because let's talk like Spade, Spade. COVID changed the entire landscape of everything. It really did, especially price wise. Yes. So here's the thing, you can most of the time like they did because theaters were getting so hamstring by streaming, you have to wait a month after the movie comes out in theaters depending on what kind of deal they have for the movie before it's on a streaming platform.

But even when it goes on to the streaming platform, you're still paying full price like 25 bucks depending on the movie. I think you pay like 2499 to stream the movie and you don't get to keep the movie. For 24 hours. Yeah, exactly. Now, anybody knows that paying an extra $25 to stream a movie from home where you don't have to worry about like, you know, dealing with people or getting crappy food or anything like that, that's pretty good. But also at the same time, the cost of these streaming services have doubled and tripled in some cases since.

You're telling me? Like, so prime example, I've had Netflix, Netflix when they first came out, when they still sent you DVDs, OK, And you had to choose, you had to choose your DVD and you could not get new ones until you sent those DVDs back and they started. That was how it started. And it was a subscription service. Think you paid 799 for it? OK, now Netflix, the standard plan. This was standard. Then they switched to their streaming service when the Amazon Fire Stick became a thing and Amazon Prime and all that fucking shit, right?

That's when they raise prices a little bit, I think to 1099. And they stopped giving you DVDs After a while. They were like, Nah, we're not going to be doing that anymore because they phased it out and it was only streaming and for a while it was good. 1099 and I got all these things on Netflix and whatever, whatever. But then Amazon Prime started to get smart and they decided, oh, you guys like our Fire sticks? OK, well we're going to charge you a membership fee so that you have to to to have that, to be able to even use our Fire Sticks, you have to now buy Amazon Prime, which is started off I think it was $69.00 a month or a year, give or take guys.

Yeah, I think it was 69 a year. Yeah, it was 69 a year when they first introduced Amazon Prime for streaming and all that shit, and now you're paying like 120 a year or more. OK, Netflix went up to 1899 and I think they're raising prices again. Yes, they are, because I just got an e-mail not too long ago. Me too, you know, And this is not counting. This is not counting like all the other streaming services that are now popping up. You have Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO, Maps, Apple TV, fucking stars. All those other channels that used to be on fucking cable that you had to pay extra when you had cable now have the same fucking shit for streaming services.

And it really is crazy. It is. The average US household now subscribes to about four to six streaming services that like alone four to six. OK, I know in my household. Sorry, I know in my household. Alone. I have Amazon Prime, Netflix, we have Disney Plus. We but that is it now includes Hulu. So we cancelled our Hulu subscription. We have HBO, we have Peacock, we have, I think we have a couple of others that we pay for off the top of my Oh yeah, ESPN network. I know for a fact that we pay for that.

That's $30 a fucking month, bro. Just that streaming service alone $30.00 a month. OK and get this shit literally now you have to pay extra for 4K and extra so that you don't have ads. Yeah, I was going to say that's the biggest thing is it's so difficult because so many people, including myself, got rid of cable. Because we didn't want to watch commercials. Not even that, but it was so much. Cheaper. Yeah, like that was the whole reason people moved to streaming. We left cable. Cheaper to have all these streaming services and get rid of cable and now it's more expensive than cable.

Dude we left cable to save money and literally rebuilt it like a cursed Lego set. Yeah, it's not. And I can say especially with these sports, things like the only reason, like I love watching soccer, right? I have to pay an extra $150.00 a year just to watch all the soccer games. And I split that thankfully because Paramount has not caught on just quite yet with my brothers. But once they start cracking down the same way a Netflix does, I can't afford to watch soccer. Like, Oh my gosh. I can watch the baseball games, it's because my partner's brother lets us use his MLB because I can't afford to be paying $300 to only watch like 3 games a week because I'm only watching one team.

It's. Ridiculous. And like, you have to now because password sharing has gotten such a crackdown, you obviously have to pay you. You got to turn households into multiple paid accounts. Like I used to share my Netflix with my parents. You know, I allowed them to use my Netflix. And I also allowed my, my, my, my sister-in-law and my sister to use my Netflix and also my Disney Plus. I can't do that anymore. It's like they don't crack down so hard. Like even if you live down the block, like for example, we me and Ralph have been watching Lost, right?

And we live not even 2 blocks away from each other. And Hulu caught us. Oh. No. Oh. You're. Totally different as it works for maybe a couple of weeks because we live so close and we were like, what the hell? So now Ralph is paying for Hulu just so we can watch Lost on the occasion that we're over that his apartment instead of my apartment. I was joking about dude, so you're both of an age. Do you remember the black boxes or the Gray boxes that we were able to get to bypass cable? Yeah. I remember that you mean the ones still used now.

Yes, the ones that are still used now, but did you know, and I have this on good authority and I'm not going to say how I know, just know that I know they have the same thing now for streaming, yes. I do know that. Someone created. Some people. That some people. Advantage of that. Yeah, some people have been able to create and bypass certain things to be able to give you access to everything that you could want, and you just got to know where to go. It's like, again, we did this back in the fucking 90s and 80s and early 2000s with cable, and we did this to get away from cable and now we're right back at cable.

It's like the fuck? And I will say this, the thing that drives me crazy is then these companies are like, Boo Hoo, you're stealing money from us. We're not going to give you the right service. I'm like, you know what? This is a prime example. If you gave me a valid reason, I even say this about the New York subway system, you give me a valid reason why you need to raise this price. I won't. Boo Hoo, right? I think a great example was my Verizon bill. I already pay a lot for Verizon because it is great service and I'd rather pay Verizon because I know I my phone always works in the deadest of dead zones.

God forbid if I'm lost in the woods or something. OK, now as a woman, I think about these things quite frequently, especially. If the. Woman used to be inside but they sent me an e-mail and I will never get over it. Maybe like two years ago or they said, oh, just so you know, we are increasing the price, but we're not changing anything. Yeah, I was like, what? What do you mean you're not changing anything? And because first the cop out, I'm going to call it a cop out because it made me really angry that a lot of these big companies that have all this money use this excuse, the excuse with COVID.

Well, real life people, normal people were suffering and these companies were laying people off, pulling all their money together like storing little acorns. Oh, we need to raise your streaming bill by $6 to account for COVID. Like what? And then Verizon and these other companies are still doing it, but instead of saying COVID, they're just like, oh, just because. So and what am. I told to say. So yeah, production costs for all the things have increased. We acknowledge this. But so many of these fucking companies are still posting record profits.

Exactly. You know why I'm like this. Give me a reason why you need to increase it. Shareholders. A valid. Reason shareholders, OK, because the shareholders. Shareholder in a valid reason. No to to the layman, no to the normal man, No. Shareholder expectations push companies towards constant revenue growth and now that because of that it forces them to do price increasing, which often now outspaces inflation in certain sectors. Because now it's not just inflation anymore. It's inflation wearing a designer suit.

Agreed, You know, and it's. Like a great time. I love that. Thank you. You know, I I'm full of them today. I love it. But at the same time, yeah, you're. Just dropping in. Hey yo, what can I say that you know when I'm passionate about a a topic, it just comes out of me. It flows for free because I'm not charging you. I should I should charge Phoenix gate should start charging for our wonderful the subscription service to the Phoenix Gate where you get exclusive content. Still not going to be an only fans though, but maybe anyway.

But listen to this. Most people will pay for multiple streaming services and still say there's absolutely nothing to watch. Yeah, OK. Ticket fees can cost almost as much as the ticket itself. Gaming makes more money than movies and music combined, so how is that? How is that normal? Why do we accept this as the norm? Because we have no fucking choice. That's what I was going to say is like, I know it sounds crazy. Like my brother like teases me and he's like, you know, why don't you just like get rid of Netflix?

And I'm like, it's going to sound so stupid, but like, it's my little comfort thing. What am I good? Like I watch Seinfeld. It sounds silly, but I play those reruns all day so I don't get stir crazy when I'm working from home. And I'm like, what if I didn't have Seinfeld, which is such AI guess like a first world problem. But you know, it's one of those things where like when you're used to a certain thing. Yeah. Maybe the cell phone bill is the better example. Like I need my cell phone. I need it for work, I need it for my personal life.

In this day and age, you can't survive without a cell phone. It's true. You need to have good coverage because God forbid something happened to you. Also true. What are you supposed to do? You're just backed into a corner. Better example than the Seinfeld example because that's more of something that my your spicy brain needs. That's a neat thing. Everybody needs. Like. You know. Crimson, you can you can come with me on this one and then we're going to wrap it up. I pay and you are a gamer like me.

We pay for our game subscriptions because you have to pay for PlayStation Network. You got to pay Nintendo Switch subscription. You got like if you have an Xbox, you got to pay for that. You know, your subscription to that. They're not cheap. They're not cheap, you know, but we use them a lot, so that's justifiable for me to pay that. There's not a like, if I go more than a two days without playing my Switch, I feel off and awkward. Like I haven't had time to really sit down and actually enjoy my PlayStation in a hot minute.

So, you know, it's kind of making me uncomfortable. Not being able to play, but what do you what? I don't have the time, so right now that's not really justifiable. But either way, Crimson back me up here like I know you play quite often.

At least as of recent. Not really, mainly just because of work related things, but yeah, see it.

OK, so two things I want to throw in here. OK, one prices are are are are are are increasing for the gaming industry. Yes, but there is a positive note. Is there? Xbox Game Cat Game Pass is actually getting a reduction in their subscription, which means if I'm not mistaken it's like a $5 reduction. OK. Somewhere around that ballpark range.

Originally the the price increase for that was also due to the the purchase of the company that created Call of Duty. Yes, because they would also release the game essentially, you know, the day that it was released on Game Pass pretty much.

But now they will be they will be doing it so that it releases I think like a year or something after which honestly it should have been like that or six months after something like that. So that honestly that that was the the best call to, but not only that, the new CEO that got hired for Xbox, actually it is, is trying to help turn things around for Xbox in this way to kind of, I guess cater to the gamers, try to turn this trying to turn things into less of a oh, this is all just a, a, a money profiting thing.

And that's it. Like profits, profits, profits, profits. But that's the thing. If they keep thinking making things more expensive, expensive, expensive and expensive, they're going to see less sales. There's going to be less people buying it. Like for instance, prime example, they didn't discontinue technically the online services for PS4 to like mid of the life cycle on the PS-5 South. People were still on PS4 for a hot minute still. And that I mean, Oh my goodness, that wasn't even like heard of.

I guess in this case, because most people you know, and and it's honestly because of well, for a few factors. One prices and demand prices. For some people it it was a bit too high. OK, cool. Scalpers made it worse, obviously. Right. But availability also didn't help either because there wasn't there was a chip shortage and all that around that time too as well.

Now, I wouldn't be surprised it with the new console for PlayStation five that we get that same sort of issue or PlayStation 6. But at least on the Xbox side of things, it looks like they're trying to gravitate towards their community, which I think is the most important thing, which you know, they're they're they're the only the gamers are the only reason why they're even surviving.

So if they just end up killing off their community, there's no point. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, but just not to get into too much of a rant on the whole thing. Yeah, subscriptions, they they are. You know, as long as you get what you're paying for and, you know, you're not just paying more just for just because, yeah, I, I think that's what's important. And I think hopefully with the whole change with Xbox, other companies just as big as them will see that and also take on that same sort of practice.

But yeah. Let's hope, let's hope on that. On that note, we're going to end our rant session and just say if you guys want to justify inflation then you need to also start giving the normal layperson who is paying you for all of these things raises, OK? Breach it. You can't freaking sit there and keep demanding so much of us and not give us the ability to actually comply. We cannot afford groceries, we cannot afford gas, we cannot afford the basic necessities of life. And yes, talking this entire time about these extracurricular things may seem frivolous, but you need these in the literal hellscape that America has become right now.

I need my escapism. I need my little treats on TV or in my video games. I need those so that I don't go out there and become an insane person and do terrible things like some other people might do. And I'm sure that everyone else can relate. Everybody needs their little treats. Yes, we live in a country where things like this are considered privilege. I acknowledge very, very privileged to be able to have a PlayStation Five and a Switch too, and be able to play on both. Very privileged. But that doesn't mean I didn't fucking work my ass off to get it and keep it.

So agreed. Major companies out there, please understand that you are literally bleeding us dry and not giving us anything profitable for us in return. You are not giving us quality content. You are not giving us quality games. You're not giving us quality movies. So justify what you want us to pay for by giving us the shit that we would want to pay for. And that's where I'm going to add my rant and get off my soap box and say bye bye bye bye. We're born in fire ice from. Vain which? Is blood in my face darkness?

Can you hold me, change Phoenix, or never change?

The Feinics Gate Podcast - Issue 169 - Priced Out of Fun

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