"Games are a luxury item." So?

[Kerboom]

Move to Australia, then you'll have something to ***** about. We have to pay twice as much while fighting off 6 foot tall spiders on our way to the store.

Your minimum wage is also MUCH higher than EVERYWHERE ELSE.

Ireland: ?8.65/hour (11.07 AUD)
England: (Different rates corresponding to age groups. Over 21 is the one I'm using) £6.08/hour (9.77 AUD)
Australia: 15.51 AUD.


I could go on listing examples, and sure, the cost of living in Australia is a slight bit higher than over here (not much though, our minimum wage isn't sufficient to give people a standard of living any higher than those on social welfare) but you earn more money than everyone else. Why should you have to pay the same?

 

[omega 616]

snip

What really makes me laugh is you are from America, the place where you are ripped off the least for games ... go ask an Australian how much a game is, if I remember correctly it is about $100.

So next time your thinking "game prices are too damn high" your next thought should be "but not as damn high as other places".

 

[Monsterfurby]

Anything can only be too expensive for the individual. If the individual is not willing to pay for it and still wants the item, the item gets pirated. The problem, then, might be with pricing. It might be with the acceptance of piracy. It has most likely to do with both.

Believing that there is a "universally and objectively fair price" for anything is bullshit. It always depends on your market and the individual you are selling too. Hence - no offense to the OP - this whole debate is fairly pointless.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

Move to Australia, then you'll have something to ***** about. We have to pay twice as much while fighting off 6 foot tall spiders on our way to the store.

Your minimum wage is also MUCH higher than EVERYWHERE ELSE.

Ireland: ?8.65/hour (11.07 AUD)
England: (Different rates corresponding to age groups. Over 21 is the one I'm using) £6.08/hour (9.77 AUD)
Australia: 15.51 AUD.


I could go on listing examples, and sure, the cost of living in Australia is a slight bit higher than over here (not much though, our minimum wage isn't sufficient to give people a standard of living any higher than those on social welfare) but you earn more money than everyone else. Why should you have to pay the same?

You honestly believe the extra forty dollars (Very occasionally more.) that Australians have to fork out to buy the game actually mostly goes towards the costs incurred by shipping, marketing and stocking the game over here? Really??

Listen, mate.. this is your lucky day! I've got this deed to this little building down in Sydney, waterside property you understand, one of a kind architecture, nothing else like it in the entire world, you might have even heard of it, the Sydney Opera House.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

This might just be the exchange rate talking here but $60 sounds wonderful as opposed to $120-130 for all new released games.

Surely that can't be American dollars you're on about. $60 American is normal. I'm British and we pay around £30-40 for new releases.

It's more like £40-£50 these days...

 

[laggyteabag]

I just sometimes hate how games go down in price to stupid levels, I can buy Fifa 07 on the XBox 360 (Second hand) for 50p... 50p!!!

I recently got Mass Effect for £5 on Origin during a sale, £5 for that game? And its probably a lot better than most new releases that cost £40.

This is why I dont blame people for buying games a few months after they release.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

snip

What really makes me laugh is you are from America, the place where you are ripped off the least for games ... go ask an Australian how much a game is, if I remember correctly it is about $100.

So next time your thinking "game prices are too damn high" your next thought should be "but not as damn high as other places".

I'm not from the US but I hate this damn attitude. "People have it worse than you so shut the hell up"

 

[omega 616]

snip

What really makes me laugh is you are from America, the place where you are ripped off the least for games ... go ask an Australian how much a game is, if I remember correctly it is about $100.

So next time your thinking "game prices are too damn high" your next thought should be "but not as damn high as other places".

I'm not from the US but I hate this damn attitude. "People have it worse than you so shut the hell up"

Yeah, it's called perspective!

Instead of being "woe is me, I have it so fucking hard!", try putting yourself in somebody else's shoes.

Plus this shit is first world problems.

 

[iseko]

I don't really game all that much anymore. Only thing I do game is swtor. And in my opinion its worth it. I bought the game for 30 euro's. Paid another 30 for a game time card. So For 60 euro's I have 3 months of playing. In general I play 3 hours a day. If I keep that up for 3 months I have +-90 hours of game time for 60 euro's. Why is this worth it for me?

Because normally if I'm bored I go out for a drink. Even if I don't feel like it. If I'm feeling cheap this costs me 10euro's easily. So I'd spend like 20-30 euro's a week.

I've played Crysis 2 for a day when I was with a friend. I really enjoyed the game. Still not going to buy it. Why?

A) It has no replay value. B) Costs 60 euro's C) Can be completed in 8 hours. It costs me more to buy and play that game then it costs me to go out with friends. I prioritize spending my 'free-time' money in hours of fun. That is why I don't buy most AAA games. If crysis 2 was 20euro's I would buy it. Because then it would be worth it. Most of my friends think that makes me weird. They are broke .

 

[SpAc3man]

I guess they are. Even free ones need a platform. Expensive ones are even more of a luxury.

 

[Ryank1908]

To be honest we're fairly lucky. We get to pay shit-all cash for older games on Steam sales, or indie games, so a money-savvy gamer only needs to pay £5-10 per game, if he's saving money.

And if he's not; people know how much games cost to make, right? Higher end publishers market their games for so much because those games are bloody expensive, and if a few less people than they estimated get their game, they're going to have to fire people. So they have to charge high prices to give themselves some comfortable wiggle room.

 

[Toby Kitching]

What if you had no money but you looked at a picture of a Star Wars poster on a library computer hooked up to the internet? Because unless it was properly uploaded by Lucasfilm, it's the exact same crime as downloading a videogame. Copyright infringement is something very different from theft, in terms of both degree and kind, and that's another reason why I can't take the "it's a luxury item" argument seriously; sure, stealing a luxury item is bad. Getting it for free because there's a way to make infinite copies? It's not so clear cut. It reminds me of the replicator in Star Trek; if it existed in real life, its creators would get sued into oblivion for ending poverty.

What you are saying here, when it gets boiled down, is that it is absolutely wrong to steal something if it's difficult, but it's more ambiguous if it's easy. this is my main problem with software pirates: they seem to think that they are completely justified in stealing things because there is no way to get caught. the equivalent would be if you walked into a shop, took a disc off the shelf, went home and burned a copy and then put the original disk back.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I don't think we can really change the $60 price point, but all of us can stop just taking it, and queueing up to hand over the $60.

We all know the prices drop sharply, often within weeks. So unless it's those two or three games a year you truly must have at launch, why not hold on, check digital distribution for sales on older stuff, and enjoy gaming! Just because EA says COD MW BO part 7 is 'Essential', you don't have to go sit outside Gamestop at midnight with $150 for a collector's edition.

I do agree that the perceived demand for graphics is part of the problem, making games more expensive. I point everyone to WOW, Blizzard understanding that talent and art style is more important, and keeping minimum specs down opens your title to far more PC sales.

 

[Griffolion]

Move to Australia, then you'll have something to ***** about. We have to pay twice as much while fighting off 6 foot tall spiders on our way to the store.

With the best of all concessions: Australian women.