End of $60 Price tag

[Yalingo]

Wow you guys only pay $60 for new games?

Here in australia the price for new games has long been $89 or $99 since the NES days..... and the AUD is 1:1 with the USD.

I think we're getting screwed =/

[PizzaSHARK]

my thoughts exactly

especially with games like ACIII which has been indevelopment for 3 or 4 years,
or stracraft 2, which was like 10

It's easy to say "oh we've been working on this for 10 years," but that doesn't imply they've had people programming and drawing and playtesting the product that entire time - it could just mean "hey guys I had this cool idea for this game, but let's finish working on these other two games before we get into that!"

But, yeah, $60 for a new game is pretty excessive.

[tuesday the paladin]

For one, 60 now is less than 50 15 years ago.

Over-reliance on online multiplayer, when newer games come out considerable amount of players may move on and stop playing; In some cases this can kill the online play.

Lack of demos, or if there are often they are not representative of the real game. More time based demos were you can play the first hour or two of the game would be nice.

Rise of digital download purchase directly impacts the brick and mortar sells. Small corollary, digital purchases often go on sale which can lead to more people putting purchases off.

Increasing DLC. Many people want to play a game all the way through. So people will wait for all the dlc to come out and buy in a package, which by then the cost of the game will probably be considerably cheaper.

People have less disposable income now than they did 20 years ago.

To some extend overly restrictive DRM can turn people off from purchases. Try to find someone who loves any GFWL games. Always on internet connection for a single player games, limited installs, bloatware/almost virus drm and other terrible DRM measures lead people to not purchasing or pirating.

Rise of very poorly done console ports to the PC could also be attributed to lack of spending.

[Semihage]

Depends.. if you think about it.. Video game is still one of the cheapest entertainment out there.. My monthly cable TV bill comes to about 30 bucks per month.. and the only shit I watch on my cable TV is sports anyway.

Compared to travel and stuff.. video game is still cheap.. The real question is if people will abandon all the high end graphic game/console and start moving towards FB/Ipad/Iphone games.. I honestly don't know.


Also, digital distribution cost WAY less than selling games through Gamestop/Target/Walmart. Those retailers get a pretty significant share (the cashier you see at Gamestop is getting paid from somewhere!). Digital distribution on the other hand is way less. Those box/manual stuff? They are just peanuts..

[Djuntas]

I will gladly continue paying 60 dollars for some games. Developers know this, and I know it I dont play many games since wow trough!

[ralphie]

60 is fine. I just want less cut scenes and more play time.

[Haros]

I'd LOVE to pay $60 for console games. Over here (In NZ) I've paid up to $130-$140 for new releases of the general versions of games (Not collectors or anything). Only reason for this is the major game retailers in the USA charge so much to ship a game out here.

Here's the NZ version of Gamestop (It's run by the same people) http://www.ebgames.co.nz. Check the Prototype 2 release price.

Because of this artificial inflation of game prices I'am buying more from steam or just not buying at all.

[Deleted]

I think what is the most surprising is that they are still selling the game at the same price they used too (including inflation).

In the past game costed roughly the same price, but they sold so much fewer units (10 000, 100 000 for really high sales). Nowday they are selling millions and still charging the same price, even if production cost is independant of how many they'll sell and they could sell them cheaper.

[Achaman]

since PC games are usually cheaper than the console version i dont get why they keep the console prices so damn high like the usual console game is 60 - 70 while PC are 40 - 50 but i guess thats mainly coz pc games require better and better graphics cards and such so you have to keep upgrading it to stay up to date with the latest games i personally havnt bought a game in ages and dont even bother keeping up to date with the latest game news as i got fedup of every overhyped game being a dissapointing piece of crap yes i still check steam ocasionally for the summer/winter super sales when everything is super cheap

[Snarebusta]

When I was a kid new games cost 39.99$, as a teen they cost 49.99$, as an adult they cost 59.99$.

Sounds like you grew up with a PS1 as your first system. Dvaldin's claim is probably true. There were numerous $60-$70 SNES games though back in 1993. Not all of them were that price. I didn't see understand and see the price of new NES and atari games when they were brand new so I don't know for sure. Once CDs were adopted and the playstation went mainstream the prices dropped for a bit.

[Halabash]

The article has merit OP, printed media comes with a host of issues embedded with the logistics of distribution that will ulitmate price it out of popularity and circulation. The distributor gets a cut, the shipper gets a cut, the same goes with all the promotional material surrounding an upcoming release. Those titles for download only have much higher margins for the publisher to work with, so really, spending $60 makes sense for printed media but not so much for downloadable titles.

Used games are a consequence of the current model for gaming consoles. The developer has to build the app to the specs of the machine, when the machine maker pushes to the next generation, the developer is back to zero and in many cases those old titles do not translate to the new hardware (which is silly). The other problem is when the newer games hit the used market sooner than the developer intended, whose fault is that? There is still a ton of interest in the title but if players are completing the games in 24-72 hours and there is 0 viable replayability then the developer will go out of business b/c they are not producing compelling titles that buyers want to hold onto.