Games are too expensive

[Gindil]

Even given to accounting for inflation, I believe that the reason the games industry isn't making more money is not only the recession, but the very fact that games are just too damn expensive.

Don't believe me? Linkage [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/39087/Comte-Games-pricing-must-change]

In the US, we have a little more disposable income compared to other parts of the world. What I would love to see is how you can effectively drive prices down on commercial games when there are plenty of alternatives.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

Yeah, even five or ten bucks less would be nice.

Part of the whole "Evil used games, Oooh!!" thing is because their so cheap, people buy them instead.

 

[Pielikey]

$50 seems reasonable for a game. If you can't afford that then buy indie games or wait for it to go on sale.

or pirate it

 

[Continuity]

Um, I don't see it. You can pick up a world of cheap games on steam. 475 games under £7 apparently. And you can pickup big titles on special offer.

 

[DividedUnity]

Well everyone knows games are really expensive but if you confront a dev or publisher about it they will more than likely throw the used games or piracy arguement in your face. You want to get the same game cheaper. Buy used games. Sure the devs may not make enough money and go belly up but that'll teach em to charge too much for a game.

On a serious side notethough the price of games is going down quite a bit here. The usual price for a game used to be 50-60 pounds but I saw the retail price for lost planet 2 was 30 pounds on day of release. Hopefully a step in the right direction.

 

[Dogstile]

The triple AAA games are to expensive for you perhaps, so buy games that don't have that sort of quality. Everyone acts like games have one clearcut price.

May I remind you that while you guys pay $50 for a new AAA game I have to pay £50 here in Britain, which is technically more considering the cash conversion rate and I don't complain because I settle for indie games instead.

 

[Vaccine]

Being in Australia, game prices are the last thing I spend money simply because they're just too damn expensive for the amount you get out of them anymore unless they have long lasting multiplayer appeal. That's all that will keep a game going and going once the hype of the title has died down and you've finished the single player.

 

[DrunkWithPower]

Well, at least there is still used games.... until they start going full on digital. I'll have my shank in perfect condition by then.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

They are expensive, but take a look at how much it costs to make each individual game. I'm not talking flash based indie games, I mean cutting edge Triple-A titles. Games aren't cheap because it's super expensive to make them. But even Braid, a much vaunted indie game was reported to cost the developer $170,000 to produce by himself. That's nothing to scoff at.

For reference: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 cost somewhere between $40 and $50 million. Gran Tourismo 5 has already spent over $60 million, and still hasn't been released yet. God of War 3 spent $44 million.

The average game has a budget between $18 million and $28 million. Why are games so expensive? They cost so much to develop.

EDIT: All budget data was accumulated from Kotaku.com

 

[Megalodon]

I don't mind paying £30/40 for a game. It makes me actually think about what i am going to buy. The system proposed by Namco in that link would annoy me, seems like it would be used as an excuse to make games even shorter, when most games, especially "big" ones, are alrady insultingly short imo.
Plus DLC is a pain in the ass even now, release stuff as part of the game instead of DLC codes in the box. Then start making new games, instead of dripping out DLC.

 

[Sikachu]

The triple AAA games are to expensive for you perhaps, so buy games that don't have that sort of quality. Everyone acts like games have one clearcut price.

May I remind you that while you guys pay $50 for a new AAA game I have to pay £50 here in Britain, which is technically more considering the cash conversion rate and I don't complain because I settle for indie games instead.

Since when has a game cost £50?! That's outrageous! I'm glad I don't game on consoles any more, and that I don't buy games on release on the PC anyway, if that is indeed the case.

 

[ethaninja]

I don't get it. If game devs were getting on so well back in the day with low(ish) prices, why can't they now?

 

[Continuity]

Hence why I buy used games but OH NO I'M KILLING THE INDUSTRY.

Though it's better than not buying games at all, yes? I really can't justify spending $120 on a video game.

$120 !?

I can buy literally dozens of PC games for that.

 

[Zhukov]

You think you have something to complain about? Ha! Try living in Australia. The land of $100 games and censorship.

Oh well, that's what Steam is for.

 

[Gigano]

I just paid the equivalent of 83 US$ for Red Dead Redemption yesterday, standard store price for new (console) games where I live, so I find it hard to pity American gamers...

It seems to be worth it, though.

 

[Sampler]

It's not a bad price - £40-£50 for a new title is not unreasonable, especially when you compare the entertainment value to say movies: new blu-ray titles cost up to £25 but even if we say you buy them off the internet for £15 they're only 1.5-2hrs long whereas most games are around the eight hour mark, factor in multiplayer and replay value for the titles that support it and they're much better on the £/h of entertainment - similarly watching a new movie at the cinema can cost almost as much as a DVD price.

The only downside is if the games shit and you spent alot of money on something that doesn't offer that value - but then that's your own stupid fault for not researching a purchase and following advertising.

 

[Aura Guardian]

I'm fine paying $49.99. And the rarely $59.99. It's rare to see a Wii title at the $59.99 price.

 

[Chancie]

I dunno, they are expensive and while I think the price could come down, I don't think it will. I buy a lot of used games and all of my PS1 games are used, about 80% of my PS2 games are used, and only about 1/4 of my PS3 are used (when I can get it new for $50 or used for $45, I might as well fork over the extra $5 to get it new). If I want the game bad enough, I'll pay the (sometimes painful) $50, but otherwise, I can wait until the price is lower. Self control. ^_~

 

[SextusMaximus]

A ten pound reduction would be nice... but it's not gonna happen.