Recent monetization of Video Games

[segara82]

Not to mention that with digital distribution and sales games could keep their price of 50 $/€ for a long time.
I have on the top of my entertainment center a few old game boxes (including Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis from 1992) and the newer games come in simple DVD-cases. Distribution definitly got cheaper.
If i want a manual or something ... maybe there's a pdf? Or a command-list for controllers like with my PS games on a small piece of paper.

[Tech614]

I wish base price was higher (like 80$) but no microtransaction bullshit in order to have quality games.

Base price doesn't need to be higher. When games became $60 they where selling significantly less units then they are in current age, development costs have increased but so has raw amount of units you're able to sell. Marketing costs should also be lower then ever in the age of Twitch and Youtube but try telling idiots that run these companies that.

If you wonder why these AAA companies are complaining they need more money then look at what they're paying their heads of company. The new CFO at Activision got $15 million. Literally 2 of his salaries is making AAA games for Sony, 3 of his salaries makes Witcher 3, 1 of his salaries or even less then that makes games like Persona 5 and Nier Automata.

Stop paying dumb fucks this amount of money for them to try to find ways to squeeze more money out of your customers and maybe it wouldn't be so expensive anymore.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

WOW-

• Implements $60 character boost
• Nerfs leveling to max level significantly

Conclusion: Blizzard is trying to monetize further on expensive character boosts. Leveling was too easy before, but now since it's much harder people are more likely to buy the boost. ?

ya this didn't happen, they didn't even nerf leveling in the same expan that they put boost in and they have done nothing but buff leveling speed since the changes to xp.

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Blizzard conditioning. They'll nerf heavily by 50%, then buff by 10%, and people will remember the 10% more as it's recent. Overall, it's still a 40% nerf.

blizzard conditioning. make up random stuff to try and bash them even though it has no correlation to reality. the xp changes have nothing to do with selling boost and never have that argument never even made sense.

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With all the new gold sinks being put into the game too, you can tell they're trying to move WoW tokens.

"why cant we earn mounts in game putting shop in the store is money grubbing!"

they put mounts earn able in game.

"why do theses mounts cost so much your just trying to sell tokens!"

so you pretty much just want them for free.

[Baconeggcheese]

I'd rather pay more for a game and have it be high quality and devoid of Micro Transactions/Pay2Win elements.

They could just raise the price according to inflation, it's not rocket science. Nobody says it has to stay at 60 bucks for the whole thing, forever.

Wages aren't keeping up with inflation, you'd alienate a huge part of your market share doing that. Wages have stayed mostly flat for decades while inflation keeps on trucking.

Hence why the price of the initial box peaked at 60$, because realistically if they make it much more than that in the current climate they stand to lose a lot of customers. You need that lower entry point, and then the option for people to spend more down the line.

Its also just better for the consumer to have the option to say, drop 60$ and see if they want to invest the extra 40$ into the game vs being forced to front load the full 100+$ or what have you.

[Tech614]

Hence why the price of the initial box peaked at 60$

False it peaked at $90 in the N64 days, and that's not taking into account inflation either. There was ass loads of n64 games priced in the $70-90 range back when Nintendo still had the wild west of game pricing with no standards. SNES also had some games peak as high as $80.

The late PS1 life was when the universal price was first adopted at $39.99, carried over to all 3 consoles and most PC games at $49.99 afterwards and $59.99 after that.

[Baconeggcheese]

False it peaked at $90 in the N64 days, and that's not taking into account inflation either. There was ass loads of n64 games priced in the $70-90 range back when Nintendo still had the wild west of game pricing with no standards. SNES also had some games peak as high as $80.

The late PS1 life was when the universal price was first adopted at $39.99, carried over to all 3 consoles and most PC games at $49.99 afterwards and $59.99 after that.

The 90 you're quoting was in no way typical, but I'm betting you know that so I have 0 idea why you're bringing it up.

Nothing you're saying is speaking to the point I was making, so I'm kind of at a loss here. Did you just feel the need to point out that there were edge cases as if no one knew that?

[Tech614]

The 90 you're quoting was in no way typical

And yet $70+ was so what is your point again? Almost every N64 games unless it was really low budget launched at $69.99 or higher.

You claimed they peaked at $60 entry points, that is false we still haven't reached the peak after we came back down the mountain in 2000.

[shadowmatrix]

I really miss the days where you would just buy a game and it was COMPLETE. You didn't have them trying to get you to pay for "additional content" that wasn't included in the price of the full game. I remember buying Diablo 2 (and the expansion a year later), and after buying each box that was all the money I had to spend.

It never existed in the way people these days think it did. The Reality went like this:
Street Fighter 2
Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition- Need to play as the bosses right
Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Cause gotta go faster
Street Fighter 2 The New Challengers - Cammy and thats is all you need to know

All were full price games and many of the changes are now cover by patches and cheaper DLC downloads.

[Katsutomai]

If you have an issue with Blizzard, that's fine, but at least be factual with your complaints. It's never been faster to level than it is in the current build of the game.

Ye.. No. This is wrong. While, yes, they did change XP needed to level - They still nerfed Dungeon XP. They still nerfed Heirlooms. They still nerfed Refer-a-Friend. The 3x Health or whatever it was thing is still there.

[Tech614]

It never existed in the way people these days think it did. The Reality went like this:
Street Fighter 2
Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition- Need to play as the bosses right
Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Cause gotta go faster
Street Fighter 2 The New Challengers - Cammy and thats is all you need to know

All were full price games and many of the changes are now cover by patches and cheaper DLC downloads.

You're comparing an arcade game, that got regular updates to other games of the 90s? Pretty disingenuous. SF2 was developed and expanded for the billions in earned in the arcade coins, not the pittance it made off the bad console ports.

[Dakhath]

Ye.. No. This is wrong. While, yes, they did change XP needed to level - They still nerfed Dungeon XP. They still nerfed Heirlooms. They still nerfed Refer-a-Friend. The 3x Health or whatever it was thing is still there.

Dungeon XP was always slower unless you had a full group. As Alliance in war mode, I level faster than at any point in the games history, and I have almost a full account.

[Tekkommo]

Recent?

You'd think these games are made by companies that want to make money. It's shocking I tell you.

Besides games, what has remained the same cost it was in the 90s?

[Katsutomai]

Dungeon XP was always slower unless you had a full group. As Alliance in war mode, I level faster than at any point in the games history, and I have almost a full account.

Mm.. Sorry, but, Fact Based Evidence > Anecdotal Evidence.

[Dakhath]

You can be flippant all you want, but dealing with dungeons and random people that could throw a fit, kick you, whatever else you want is too random to be counted on. The xp gained at this point is greater than ever before, but if you're happy with your leveling speed, I guess you're doing the best you can.

[Baconeggcheese]

And yet $70+ was so what is your point again? Almost every N64 games unless it was really low budget launched at $69.99 or higher.

You claimed they peaked at $60 entry points, that is false we still haven't reached the peak after we came back down the mountain in 2000.

Yeah I figured you were just looking to try and start that argument instead of talking about the actual point of the post.

GL with that.