Video games are not a cheap hobby. While some titles cost less than a dollar, the games you and I are mostly interested in can range anywhere from $30 to $60. I don't know about you, but that's a pretty penny coming out of my wallet! Could pricing end up being the downfall of the game industry?
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I agree. I think big console games should be around 40 bucks and portable games less than 30
this is what I've been on about. flex pricing will set them free from AAA or bust.
It'd be nice if the crappy $1 smartphone games caused developers and publishers to average things out, make the good games less expensive for roughly the same amount of basic-content, and maybe have the cheaper games raise their prices while including more content to make it worth while.
Instead, some people are trained to get upset if certain games cost over a dollar, yet the expensive games are making you pay for 'extra' content you already "own" on the disc, as well as actual DLC. There's way too much pull in either direction, and it'd be nice if the gap was filled with decent games in the 20 to 35 dollar range. But aside from eShop and a few other budget titles, I don't see that happening all that often, unfortunately..
It'd be nice for us, the consumer if they were only $30-40, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.
But when you have companies with 700 guys working on a single how can the prices be expected to be lower?
I know times are different know than the times when you finished a game and there were about 10 people mentioned on the credits, but development houses should try to keep the number of guys working on a game to a minimum.
if they would sell smaller titles for less than 60, they could make more money. they would still have the huge titles, but they wouldn't rely on only AAA games. there used be mid-tier games. stuff like, space station silicon valley, and blast corps.
700 people? Uh, I'm sure a good portion of the 700 barely even worked on the game.
The price factor that makes me upset is that some developers rip-off consumers. Some DS games are on the app store for a couple dollars. DSiware store? 15 dollars.
Or about console games vs PC? The same experience on the PC is nearly HALF OFF.
It would be nice if the price was lower, but I've been just fine with the way Wii, DS, 3DS games have been priced. I'm willing to pay whatever to play the franchises I love. ^_^
I really dont understand why people complain about game prices. A movie offers me 2 hours of entertainment. Xenoblade offers me 100. I full tank of gas is like $45 for me and thats Kid Icarus right there. So many thing in life are soooo expensive and when I look at games it makes me feel good for the price I pay. Especially when you add deals and sales....
It might cost a bit, but £30 for something which could last you 20 hours is the equivalent of a DVD that lasts two hours costing £3, and watching it 10 times (which it likely won't be).
So in perspective, video games are (mostly) worth the money for the amount of pleasure you get out of it. And then there's the re-runs...
I liked the pricepoint of Wii and DS games: $50 for top-quality Wii games and $30 for budget, and $35 for top-quality DS games and $20 for budget.
Not all games are worth the full price, I completely agree with this. I usually strive to get new games but many times, they're new off of Amazon or when I see them at good prices elsewhere. There are very VERY few games that I get day 1 and gladly pay full price and even less I get at collectors edition status. If I don't get the same value for my money as I get in, lets say, Xenoblade, Kid Icarus Uprising, or Star Wars The Old Republic, I'm not going to get it day 1.
what nonsense are you talking about ? obviously there is a large portion of people who loves paying one hundred buck for their games , they just prefer doing that by buying "limited" edition , preorder "bonus" , but most importantly through dlc , disc dlc , unlock key dlc , preorder now as dlc , and more important they also loooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeee to reach that magical 100$ through the magic of paying for xbox live gold ! because obviously if online is free on pc, ios , android, ps3 , wii , ds classic and 3ds it's because it's not worth it !!
so yeah the price are too high , better now , especially in europe with nintendo release between 35-45 euro while they were 10 euro higher during the gamecube years and a bit more with n64 . None of stupid inflation magic bs because otherwise hmm yeah you would have to bring up the prices of something all people aspire to buy.
Everything costs, get over it. Going to movies or concerts costs, having internet access costs, hell going to a bar or a strip joint costs! It all depends on how you want to spend your time, and whether it's worth the admission. Gamers like playing games enough to shell out the dough, and game companies know that. Personally I only buy games that I feel offer me enough value (length or replay/multiplayer value) for my money, often I also buy games online (new or used) where it's a lot cheaper, especially for "old" (which nowadays means out for a few months) titles.
To be honest I have no clue why the whining about game prices is still going on, as far as I remember games cost assloads of money back in the early 90's as well, when they were still on cartridges and mostly crappy, and somehow we still bought em. The prices were about the same. Nowadays it's way costlier to develop games than it was back then, as games are more complex with better production values, so what's the problem exactly? Don't feel the games are worth the price, don't buy them, you can always get the Angry Birds for a buck. All I know is I can get 2-3 quite recently released games for cheaper than one regular night at the bar costs, and they'll usually give me more enjoyment and less headache as well. Besides, everything including games cost more in Europe anyway, so from my perspective I find the whining about prices rather insulting.
There are some games that are worth full price.
But there ae many titles pretending to be great which offer just a few hours of enjoyment for full price.
If you read Kohler's piece, the problems are associated with the explosion of development budgets in the mid 2000s and the recent world financial crisis. Used game sales have existed for decades.
Mike from Morgantown
I would like to see huge full fledged games still be retail for full price. Have them be evergreen titles (like how most Mario games are 5 years after launch, still at full price) and keep 10 hour or less titles in the budget bin from launch.
Have you beat a Call of Duty or Guitar Hero game? The credits take about a half hour and either fly by so fast you cant read most of them or move slowly and so tiny you cannot see.
People only want cutting edge technology with the best graphics, which makes games much more complicated to develop, meaning it takes more people and more resources to make. Then they complain that the games cost too much? They are either going to have to give up on only having the best graphics or be willing to pay what it costs. I suspect they aren't willing to accept either, and will still complain.
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