$59.99 PC Games, will it last?

[UberMore]

Well, sound like y'all got screwed in America. Still the same for PC games here in lil' Ol' England.

 

[TheLefty]

I never understood why PC games were lower in the first place. Can someone explain?

 

[Arawn.Chernobog]

I use Steam, I never bought anything over 40$

So... doesn't affect me

Then there's the daily specials, which can drop pretty good games down to something like $20 when they are still 40 or 50 in stores, (most of the games I got were on sale)

TF2 at 2.5$

I'm a total mooch

Also: Civilization 5 at 49$ was the highest I ever payed for a game, and it was on PRE-LAUNCH DATE with 24h early access, so yeah... never paying 59$ for ANY GAME unless it gives me blowjobs and pudding.

 

[LitleWaffle]

The prices will go up. The cost to make a game now is enormous. PC games are not special, their price will go up, it's a matter of time.

That extra $10 on console games is supposed to cover the licensing fees, something the PC doesn't have.

I think that depends on how the game was made. Someone mentioned MoH costs $60 on PC, probably because it was expensive to make, and it was built on the PS3, not on the PC.

Okay, basic rundown:

The game company that makes the games sells the games to the retailers such as GameStop or something or other. The game company sells it for a lot less than what we pay, and the retailers sell it at a higher price so the retailers stay in business.

For Example: Let's Say Modern Warfare 2 cost $60 at release. The creators sold their copies at maybe say... $25 per copy. GameStop or whatever will buy however many copies they think they can sell, and have to make a profit for expenses by jacking up the price to $60, otherwise they would go out of business.

That being said... Yes I believe it will last, which is most likely a good thing. I don't know why they jacked up the price, but I can only hope its to prevent people from losing their jobs, and keeping the whole industry alive.

It still sucks though.

 

[LitleWaffle]

I never understood why PC games were lower in the first place. Can someone explain?

As said above somewhere. Somebody said that PC Games don't have licensing cost or something like that, which meant that they didn't have to jack up the price to compensate.

But now they are. =(

Edit: *Facepalm*
I quoted him 2 posts above. Silly me.

 

[Naeo]

PC gamers who pirate things anyways will ***** and gripe about "oh this is extortion so I refuse to support it and will pirate it", just like they would have anyways. The non-bitchy portion of the gaming populace will either suck it up and A) save up the extra $10 per game, B) wait for prices to come down before buying, or C) play more non-AAA titles/more flash games/etc.

 

[Delusibeta]

I never understood why PC games were lower in the first place. Can someone explain?

Basically, in order to get their games on consoles, publishers have to license their games to the console maker to get the Seal of Quality (or *insert Microsoft and Sony alternative here*) stamped on the box. There is a fee to this process, to help raise the profits who broadly speaking (Wii excepted) sells consoles at a loss (at least for a good few years). Hence, an extra $10 is added to the price to cover this cost. Since PCs don't have a similar company lording over the format, there's no need for this extra cost. However, the double whammy of Modern Warfare 2 and Starcraft 2 has made some publishers in some countries (Medal of Honor is $30 from Steam in the UK, so it's a poor example for us) include that £10 extra on the RRP.

 

[nono195]

actually its not. the prices for games have gone up 10$ because it costs more to make them.

 

[nono195]

games prices are going up because they require more work. Its not inflation

 

[Moromillas]

That's awesome. Surely you're talking about second hand games or something aren't you? I don't think CoD or MoH would end up in the bargain bin.

 

[Nifty]

games prices are going up because they require more work. Its not inflation

Games nowadays don't require more work to produce than they did 20 years ago. A developer doesn't HAVE to spend £20million producing a game, they do it because they feel they can't make a good game without dynamic lighting, a hyper realistic physics engine or 7 billion polygons per square millimetre. Course, they're wrong and that's their fault.

 

[Megacherv]

The prices will go up. The cost to make a game now is enormous. PC games are not special, their price will go up, it's a matter of time.

PC games are special, in that you don't have to pay to have them licensed to release them on PC.