$59.99 PC Games, will it last?

[Telperion]

First they bumped the prices of XBox 360 games to 70? (or so) and now PC games are getting bumped to 60? (or so)? I'm shocked! Not that it really matters: there are discounts a plenty to be had from Digital Vendors like STEAM and Impulse, and not all of the games even start with a AAA game price. Look at Worms Reloaded: 19,99? on release day! Sold!

 

[camazotz]

$60 only hurts if you're an early adopter. The vast majority of PC games end up discounted big time after only a few months anyway...except for MW2, pretty much.

 

[Callate]

I think it's likely to stay, but I'd much rather PC games go up to $60 than that they stop being released altogether.

If $60 is too much, wait a month. A good half of what's released is marked down by then.

they wont stop. a look at minecraft can prove you wrong.

If your point is that independent games with no overhead can afford to charge less, well, duh. That has very little relationship to the games Ubisoft, Activision, EA or the like offer at retail. Minecraft doesn't even have much reflection on how most independent games fare, certainly not enough to describe an overall trend- which I believe was the point of the post.

 

[rapidoud]

I'm surprised Yahtzee doesn't mention this more often.

Steam charges Australians $30+ more for the same game. In USD.

Even when our AUD is .99USD and the USD has been at its worst ever (and we may even pass it). Completely ridiculous.

Would be nice if we stopped having $89/$119 games ($119 collector's).

 

[binvjoh]

Take a look at Steam.

Now back at yourself.

Now back at Steam.

Now back at yourself!

...now try to ***** about PC gaming becoming expensive.

 

[Retardinator]

They are bumping up their prices. Because they should. More work, time, and money goes into making games these days.

....It will probably last, but PC gamers will ***** and moan and complain about how its SOOOoo expensive and it's just wrong to charge more for things.

Kinda like every other consumer in the world.

But! It's more time, work and money with less result in game time. I've spent 12 hours on Doom and about 10 on Quake 2 for one campaign, and I didn't even finish them 100%. FPS games today have 5-8 hours at best and only feature a linear singleplayer campaign, and maybe additional multiplayer. And Doom was originally $19.99.

And I will not ***** about anyone's prices being too high, mind you. I think that if a game for an Xbox 360 costs $59.99 the PC version should cost the goddamn same. It's the same game, you poured the same amount of work into it, charge it the same, you cash milking asshole.

 

[Delusibeta]

Take a look at Steam.

Now back at yourself.

Now back at Steam.

Now back at yourself!

...now try to ***** about PC gaming becoming expensive.

You are on a (high) horse.

(No, seriously, I've bought Fallout 3 GotY, Fallout New Vegas and Just Cause 2 on PC for just under £40 for the lot, I'm not in the position to argue that PC games are expensive)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Things will cost whatever people will pay for them.

The public wants what the public gets.

 

[EittilDratsab]

I've always thought that games were a cost-effective way of spending your money.

 

[Legendsmith]

]Lately, I've noticed some games on PC, such as the new Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare 2, cost $59.99, like their console counterparts. PC games have been at a standard ($49.99) for so long, do you see them bumping up their prices like some games have?

Paying under $70 for a new game for anything (Most are far more)? Not in Australia. What I want to know is when our prices will match the rest of the world.
Also, I'm pretty sure that there isn't a different in price for multiplat games here.

 

[Delusibeta]

Paying under $70 for a new game for anything (Most are far more)? Not in Australia. What I want to know is when our prices will match the rest of the world.

Not until you're 100% digital distribution, if ever.

 

[Callate]

I think it's likely to stay, but I'd much rather PC games go up to $60 than that they stop being released altogether.

If $60 is too much, wait a month. A good half of what's released is marked down by then.

they wont stop. a look at minecraft can prove you wrong.

If your point is that independent games with no overhead can afford to charge less, well, duh. That has very little relationship to the games Ubisoft, Activision, EA or the like offer at retail. Minecraft doesn't even have much reflection on how most independent games fare, certainly not enough to describe an overall trend- which I believe was the point of the post.

no, PC games WILL NEVER stop being released. refusing to release PC games will only leave money for indie devs that will gain ungodly amount of cash due to low competition and make the devs look real stupid.

Yes, it's true that the relatively low entry requirements to creating a PC game make it likely that there will never be a complete lack of PC games. But it is entirely possible that the major game producers will slow or stop the conversion of games that they're releasing on other platforms to the PC if they can't justify the costs. This is already in the process of happening to a degree; even many series that have some games released on the PC didn't release others- Fable and Halo both come to mind, and those were from Microsoft. EA finally deciding to release Dead Space 2 on PC was actually newsworthy.

So, again- I'd rather that they charge $60 because they have a reasonable expectation of return at that price point than choose to forgo releasing games on PC altogether, because as good as games like Minecraft (or, for that matter, Defcon, Zeno Clash, Plants vs. Zombies...) may be, I'm not going to see Fallout 3 or Grand Theft Auto 4 or Resident Evil 5 from an independent team for $20.

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

here in ireland we only pay 30 euros or 40 euros for a game

 

[Michael Logan]

Is it only in sweden that we have trade in game deals, like if I preorder Fable 3 and give them 2 of my games I get Fable 3 free? Or if I trade in one game I can change it for a new game for free(of a few pre-selected games)?

 

[icyneesan]

If the game is good, I'll pay almost any price for it