Price of video games

[Canada]

My dad is always commenting on how expesive video games are, although I admit there pricey. I bought the LE of Metal Gear 4 it was $ 90, Blu Ray movies are $ 30 dollars a piece on average.

Movies are about 2hrs long
I have played MGS4 for about 15 hrs so even buying LE
so by that logic I have got about $ 450 on MGS4

[Giyomu]

yeah yeah tell me when you'll pay 100EUR for the LE of MGS4 or GTA4 or when you'll pay 30EUR - 35EUR for a movie...

[silversnake]

A lot of work goes into making a game. When you think of all the hours you get playing a game , you definitely get your money's worth

[Giyomu]

silversnake I love your avatar

[statikcat]

60$ is too steep. Meanwhile PC games are 50$, piratable, and often drop to 40$ quickly. Since console market is locked in I really think most games should be 50$ and smaller releases like Iron Man, Lego Jones, and Hulk should be 40$.

[alphapyro]

Originally Posted by statikcat

60$ is too steep. Meanwhile PC games are 50$, piratable, and often drop to 40$ quickly. Since console market is locked in I really think most games should be 50$ and smaller releases like Iron Man, Lego Jones, and Hulk should be 40$.

I don't want to be TOO captain obvious here, but if $60 is killing you comparable to the $50 and then $40 you'll pay for a PC game.... Why are you bothering with a console?


If you want to, you can wait until they drop to the $39.99 and eventual $29.99 they'll go to in a year or so when they hit the bargain bins.


BTW, your avatar is freakin peach! Do you have the glow?

[Thegide]

Originally Posted by statikcat

60$ is too steep. Meanwhile PC games are 50$, piratable, and often drop to 40$ quickly. Since console market is locked in I really think most games should be 50$ and smaller releases like Iron Man, Lego Jones, and Hulk should be 40$.

I don't think those titles were intended to be "small" releases. They may not have had GTA4's budget to produce, but they did what they could to be competetive.

Bad games still cost a lot of money because it still takes a lot of work to make them.

This is why we now have all of those casual-gamer titles on PSN for $10. Cheap to make, don't require a lot of time to play/beat, can be made with very small development teams.

[silversnake]

Originally Posted by Giyomu

silversnake I love your avatar

Merci ! We suck right now though

I don't mind the 60 $ price tag if it's justified. I still saw heavenly sword here for 69.99 which is steep. I REALLY feel bad for our european friends though. Same price in EUROS, that's just.... insane. The Euro is a great idea but if your currency is worth more , you should make sure your prices are adjusted as well or at least change the income. Most of my friends had their money changed and prices were the same but their income wasn't increased, that's just worth. I could never see myself spending 60 EUROS for a video game.

[ThePhantomOak]

What bothers me is the lack of any change in price for games...

What I mean by that is a GTA/MGS is CLEARLY worth a LOT more than a Iron Man.

The market clrears this by keeping games like Resistance at $59.99 for about 18 months, and Iron Man drops to them paying you to take it after a month... SO, why are companies willing to do this?

IMO, Game makers could see much larger profits (for all games) if they priced their games from launch with this in mind. The ONLY thing they do is have S.E. games as tier pricing.

I wonder if Sony sets the price and wont allow games to launch higher than $60?



Anyway, for me, $60 for a game like GTA et al is a great deal. Any game that ends up being .40 cents or less an hour is a good deal IMO.

Also, I buy BD for an avg of less than $14 ea. So they give me around $1-1.40 an hour (given that I watch each 5 times, or enjoy the extras)






Oh man, Armored Core 4 cost me $8 an hour. What a shit game.

[JR8300]

You know not to bring this back....as the thread is pretty much dead. But if people can remember back 2K games attempted to change the price curve with bringing out their sports games at $20 in 2005. It worked a little too well and we all know how that story ended...

[Proteus]

Here's why crappy games are still $60 at launch:

A) Continuity. It keeps all pricepoints simple and makes retailer lives easy (Lego games being the only exception at a $49.99 release price... a steal).

B) Crappy games like Iron Man do not make money at retail really anyway. Even if they were $20 they wouldn't sell much better, believe it or not. Where they make their money is the lucrative rental market. ANY game can basically bank on the rental market purchasing a certain huge amount of copies to put into the rental stream. Frankly, that pays for development and a pretty darn good profit on games like Iron Man and Prince Caspian, etc. It's actually considered VERY lucrative to be a 'low end' developer who has a three to six month development cycle on a title that can still roll in millions just from rental chains.

C) The price at $60 to start also means that the 'die hard' fans of a franchises, again we'll say Iron Man, for example, will pay it. Video games make their money in the first couple weeks... After that development houses are usually too far along in the next product to even care or notice. If it's a bigger release you can trail out some advertising spots for a month to help clear another 'wave' off shelves over time, but ultimately, the first two weeks is it. Why not capitalize on those initial impulse buys and fanboy purchases?

There's a little more to it but those are the basic things that should help put it all in perspective... Particularly, the rental chain income. That is SO huge. When I worked with the team on Amped for the Xbox we always joked about how even if the game bombed it would make a million or two just off of rental sales. Talk about a no stress distribution system!

[dereksworl]

Originally Posted by MacDaddyOJack

Not to rain on the OP's parade, but the Lego games started at $50 and when Disgaea 3 comes out next month, it is also supposed to be $50.

WTH is this? what does it stand for. i see everyone using it and im like "am i not hip on the lingo?"

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by dereksworl

WTH is this? what does it stand for. i see everyone using it and im like "am i not hip on the lingo?"

OP = Optimus Prime, we talk about Optimus Prime lots here.

Naw, for real OP stands for Original Poster.

[MacDaddyOJack]

Originally Posted by ThePhantomOak

What bothers me is the lack of any change in price for games...

IMO, Game makers could see much larger profits (for all games) if they priced their games from launch with this in mind. The ONLY thing they do is have S.E. games as tier pricing.

Not to rain on your parade, but the Lego games started at $50 and when Disgaea 3 comes out next month, it is also supposed to be $50. Plus there are online games (I dont mean the small ones like pain) that cad be had on launch day for less than $60.

[Nerdkiller likes BD]

Y'know one annoying thing is that here in Europe as I've read in my magazine is that games here cost more than they do in Japan and the US of A because of import costs. I'd probably say that thats a different story for EU publishers like Ubisoft or Codemasters and probably the role reversal for the other regions.

[hayzink]

Originally Posted by Nerdkiller likes BD

Y'know one annoying thing is that here in Europe as I've read in my magazine is that games here cost more than they do in Japan and the US of A because of import costs. I'd probably say that thats a different story for EU publishers like Ubisoft or Codemasters and probably the role reversal for the other regions.

i would have thought the games for eu would have been pressed somewhere in the eu thats just stupid if they import them its like they want to inflate the eu price.

i think $60 is great for a game as thats not much over £30 and rrp here in uk is £40-£50.

everything is so much less in the us than the uk and the rest of europe but everyone still complains about price.

the usa gets most of the best movies/games first and for less than most of us so if it was me id be happy