Are games too expensive?

[Arisato-kun]

Yes. No matter how fantastic it is I still can't believe I paid $40 for Dragon Quest V.

They just keep getting more expensive too. I'm not looking forward to paying $70 per game in the next console generation....

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Games are only as expensive as need be. A lot of time, effort, and work goes into *most* games. Thusly, they cost a lot more. We could pay less, but then they wouldn't have the quality they do now.

 

[mikecoulter]

I barely ever buy games new any more. I have the money, it's just the principle. I don't want to spend that much on a damn game.

I won WipEout Pulse for the PSP on eBay for £4.91 and almost danced. Got to love second hand bargains

 

[soren7550]

I think it's a bit ridiculous that games for the 360 & PS3 go for $60 and Wii titles for $50. (I especially think the Wii prices are ridiculous, seeing as 98% of Wii games are unheard of, look like they were made in five minutes and are pure shit.)
The price of games is pretty much the main reason why I almost never get games.

 

[Jark212]

Depends where you live, is the US prices suck.
But in Europe and epically Australia they get reap'd by imports.

 

[IglooKid]

What annoys me is how little playtime you get out of single player on games nowadays, its like something that cost the same price however many years ago gets you much more bang for your buck, so to speak. Im not a fan of online multiplayer, so I dont get much extra playtime from that, and it feels like im being ripped off spending £35 for the short amount of time spent playing.

 

[matnatz]

Well, for me it's too expensive. I tend to buy games that are quite old for under £5. The last game I spent full price on was SoulCalibur IV.

 

[Valiance]

I never buy anything more than 20 bucks.

Or 10.

Ish.

The last thing I bought was an unreal anthology for 5 dollars that had 2K4, UT, Unreal 1 and 2...in 1 pack.

 

[Xyphon]

Eh, not that expensive. In the days of the PS2, games were $50. Now, they're $64. Just a $14 increase, not that big of a deal.

 

[Azraellod]

well, i cant actually afford a 3rd generation console, so i have no idea how much the games on those cost.

i tend to go with free games though. chess online, aq worlds, erepublic, dme... those about cover it.

...i wish i could get a job. stupid living in isolation...

 

[animallikeit]

I think it's a bit ridiculous that games for the 360 & PS3 go for $60 and Wii titles for $50. (I especially think the Wii prices are ridiculous, seeing as 98% of Wii games are unheard of, look like they were made in five minutes and are pure shit.)
The price of games is pretty much the main reason why I almost never get games.

Nicely put.

I think the $60 price tag sucks. And if it's more expensive in your country, well, that sucks too. Gamefly is a good solution for me. I've gone through Infamous, playing Call of Juarez 2 & Ghostbusters now.

I've been in school so long that I've learned how to be very frugal with game purchases.

* If it's not on the PC, get it through GameFly [http://www.gamefly.com] or like service. $25/mo for all the games you can play (2 games out at a time that are mailed back and forth) is affordable enough. Even if you decide you want to own games, you can usually get them half-off (give or take a quarter) if you rent them through GameTap and opt to keep them.

* If it's a PC game that's a few years old, it might be on GameTap [http://www.gametap.com], another good subscription service. Though I think they're losing it lately - they lost lots of good old licenses and don't get many new ones. (If it's really old, sufficient Google-Fu might locate it as Abandonware, but don't fool yourself - it's just another kind of piracy that's less likely to be enforced.)

* If it's a newer PC game, don't buy it right away, wait for the price to drop. It's really not worth spending $50-$60 on something now you can play for $20 a year (or sometimes even months) later.

* Then, of course, there's the new price for PC games: free. I'm not talking about piracy, but rather the ton of Free2Play MMORPGs and web or indie games [http://jayisgames.com/] you can find these days. Like World of Warcraft? Give Runes of Magic [http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html] a try some time - it's a some-ways-better-some-ways-worse alternative with a much more managable price tag. Even Dungeons and Dragons Online [http://www.ddo.com/] is going free to play. Basically, there's so much competition out there that there's a ton of developers that will give you something for free just to get your attention.

These are interesting times we live in.

 

[electric_warrior]

well, judging by the number of game makers going out of business, i'd say they're expensive for a reason
what does annoy me is that modern warfare 2 will cost extra just because they know most people will be so desperate for it they'll buy it anyway, that's just unethical

 

[TheFacelessOne]

I usually just wait, unless it's something I have been banging my head on the wall in hopes of going into a coma and waking up when it comes out because the waiting is killing me.

Basically all Halo titles.

 

[MCDERF]

In a world where man can obtain most anything on the internet...

 

[JohnSmith]

Oh you think its bad where you live, Yahtzee isn't joking about that having the best beaches tax. In Australia the standard copy of a new game will retail from $99-$120 and the collectors edition is much, much worse. Furthermore there isn't nearly enough competition in the pre-owned games market so pre-owned games initially only drop by maybe 5-10%. In some cases there is no price drop at all for months and in one case (Condemned) the pre-owned was more expensive then the new because it was store policy.

 

[Go Fighting In The War Room]

In Canada games go from 40 to (very rarely) 70 dollars. That's mostly because our dollars is worth less than America. But mostly the prices for games are fair, even the 70 dollars plus tax I paid for Fallout 3.

 

[Salem_Wolf]

Nope, while I'll complain that games are expensive because I'm constantly broke, the price is just fine and if it pays for the sequels, who am I to complain?

 

[Terramax]

Some places are still asking for £20+ for a copy of Portal on the PC. I recently started a topic about Mirror's Edge which, by the sounds of it, isn't worth any more than £10 seeing as you won't be playing if for more than 2 days maximum.

IMHO games are only worth their full RRP if they're the kinds of games to last ages to come. I don't care if it costs Sony/ Microsoft, etc $100 million to make a game. I never asked for games to sacrific gameplay and replayability for top notch graphics. If I had it my way, we'd still all be playing the Dreamcast when games like Soul Calibur and Phantasy Star Online could last you months.

 

[Sipo]

the good ones have always been that price. buy em used if the price is too much.

 

[VaioStreams]

they are with out a doubt going up in price. I remember back in the day when we got the orginal Zelda game, brand new (yes, i'm that old) it cost 30 bucks. back then that was a lot for a game.

so whoever said "they are if you're a cheap bastard" No. they are expensive. gaming has always been an expensive hobby and always will be. but considering the fact some of these games are working off 200+ teams. that's a lot of people to pay. and for the smaller studios. they worked to hard with little outside revenue coming in so they have to make up for cost. it's the way of the world. You'll just have to cough up the 60 bucks if you want to play a game this generation....or wait to get it used and you'll wait a long time for some games to come down in price