Gamers are shocked by the rising price of gaming merchandise

GAMING has always been an expensive hobby, and with prices for games and consoles rising every year, it's hard to keep up.

Not only has the average price of games risen to £70/$70, but many companies are also charging £100/$100 to play the game a few days before release, while also adding in-game purchases.

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This can cause prices to skyrocket, and that doesn't even include some of the flashy collector's editions.

Yet we know that the majority of gaming money does not come from the games themselves.

Microtransactions and in-game purchases certainly make up a big part of the bottom line, but you only have to look at Pokémon to see the power of merchandising.

People can become fanatical about their favorite games, which means they end up looking for everything they can read on the subject.

This has led to the popularity of gaming books, especially the artistry of gaming coffee table books.

There are plenty of players in the game right now, all selling high-quality books on gaming with beautiful covers and interesting reading inside.

Following a long history of gaming magazines and travel guides, these luxury gaming books connect what is consistently seen as a low-brow hobby with a high-brow one.

Bitmap Books was one of the early players in the game, with others like A Profound Waste of Time and Lost in Cult's Lock-On bridging the gap between magazine and book.

Lost in Cult is the current big player in the scene and has since expanded to include books that the fandoms really want.

The Design Works series takes a deep dive into popular indies like Sable, Citizen Sleeper, and most recently the 90-rated film-based game Immortality.

Creator Sam Barlow has been busy with some big announcements lately.

Immortality released yesterday (January 24) for PS5 and brought with it some new fans, while also teasing two new games on Steam.

Then, in a triple whammy, Lost in Cult announced Immortality Design Works with a Deluxe Edition priced at £150.

This isn't even the most expensive item on the shopping list, as the next Lock-On featuring art and signed by legendary Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano costs a whopping £400.

However, this should come as no surprise in a world where people pay £300 for a Starfield watch in a plastic case or £449 for a Dark Souls 3 figurine.

Perhaps these high-quality books are the way forward for collectors, because they give people the beautiful things they love while also making them useful and durable.

If you want to read more about how to play Immortality, check out the best free games on Netflix.

Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.

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