games really are not that expensive...

[HarryScull]

I recently watched a lot of video's arguing over the games being expensive, most of them are jimquisition style rants about how games are "ridiculously expensive" and it getting more and more expensive, I disagree and to prove my point to buy games decided to see how much fun I could have gaming at a cost of <5£ a game, and how long I could go without spending over 5£ on a game

the results
shogun 2 total war (amazon sale)
fall of the samurai (amazon sale)
rome total war gold edition (steam sale)
amnesia (humble bundle)
limbo (humble bundle)
phyconoughts (humble bundle)
bastion (humble bundle)
super brothers sword and sorcery (humble bundle)
old version of minecraft (minecraft.com)
team fortress 2 (steam)
and a huge amount of flash games, many of which were ore fun than the full blown retail games, such as portal, pandemic 2, bloons, box head, and around 20+ more

I have lost count of how long its been going but it's been afew months and will probably go on for many more, to put it in perspective I have probably clocked over 250 hours in rome total war gold edition and haven't even played shogun 2 or fall of the samurai yet (they came Friday in the mail and I haven't got round to installing them yet) I'm pretty sure I could keep this up indefinitely if wanted to but some games are a better deal that are more expensive than £5, such as portal 2 or minecraft 1.3

this is a huge amount of games some of which I have put 100+ hours in already and some I haven't even had chance to install/download yet and this makes video gaming by far the cheapest form of entertainment I have, to put in perspective I pay around 5£ for 1 hour of kickboxing lessons..or rome total war gold edition which I have an embarrassing amount of time on

in the interest of fairness I am accessing these from a very expensive computer, that cost over £1000 (which I use for allot of things besides gaming), that money was going to be spent on my first car but as UK insurance companys rip new car driver of big time I decided to get a boss like PC instead (best decision of my life)

also I need to upgrade my hardrive to a 500gb caviar blue (44£) so I have enough memory to keep my plethora of games on.

for discussion value are games really expensive and is costly a valid excuse for pirating?

in my opinion games are an incredibly cheap source of entertainment, and pirating is just inexcusably wrong, you can access these games and pay for them and playing them without paying for them is ridiculous, you know what I cant afford? to rent as house in york but that doesn't give me permission to move into a house anyway and then complain to the tenant that they are in the wrong and act like I'm a victim




TLDR: games are very cheap, pirate's are wrong

 

[Strain42]

I started playing iOS games about a year ago and it's amazing how often games go on sale for absolutely free.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I don't think you can count Humble Bundle, steam sales, last gen games, or free to play games and then say that games aren't that expensive.

Yeah, games aren't that expensive when you wait 10 years to buy them (Rome total war), nor are they that expensive when out of the goodness of their heart a bunch of developers allow you to name your price for a game FOR CHARITY.

None of this counts.

 

[TheLizardKing]

Go to a game store and look at the price for a new release and then tell me they are not expensive.

I buy my games on Ebay anyway.
Don't judge me.

 

[tippy2k2]

Gaming is not too expensive. IF it's too expensive for YOU, just wait for a sale. It used to be that games never really went on sale but we've already seen heavy hitters drop in price with sales (and that's just brick and mortar stores I've seen, I'm sure there's plenty more online that I miss).

I'll use Amazon here (Note: 360 versions listed):
Mass Effect 3 already dropped to $43 (came out three months ago)
Prototype 2 already dropped to $40 (came out two months ago)
Max Payne 3 already dropped to $50 (shit, didn't this JUST come out)
Assassins Creed Revelation dropped to $30 (came out seven months ago and it's cut in half)

Be creative and they'll drop more. For example, I subscribe to @ Gamer Magazine (best buy's magazine). It had a coupon for Assassins Creed Revelations, $20 off. ACR then went on sale for $30. Do the math and I just got a shiny AAA game for $10. I've done the same thing to get Rage ($5), Bulletstorm ($5), and Deus Ex: HR ($15).

While not currently on sale, you could name ANY game that was released last year and it will have been on sale at some point. Hell, it looks like you could name any game that was released two weeks or later and find it at a "cheaper than $60" price. These are all AAA games; games that would have not gone on sale for years if you went back to an earlier gaming era.

It's all about the market; they will charge what the market will bear and if there are people who will pay $60, then why would they not charge $60? The market then bottoms out (AKA people who will pay $60 are gone) and they drop the price. Rinse and repeat.

If you are a gamer on a budget, this is the best time you could be into gaming. Price drops constantly and we have so much information on games (previews, reviews, those things where people play and you watch it on Youtube) that it's nearly impossible for you to get a turd if you just look into it.

EDIT: Holy Shit, it's like Best Buy saw the argument we were having and decided to jump in.

Skyrim: $35
Call of Duty: MW3: $35
Saints Row 3: $35
Mass Effect 3: $35
Assassins Creed Revelations: $20
Zelda: Skyward Sword: $35
Battlefield 3: $35

 

[burningdragoon]

There being ways to play video games for cheap does not negate the fact that $60+ is a lot of money to throw down for a game.

 

[Dryk]

Whenever people say anything is too expensive, they're talking about RRP, which is pretty much the only price you are guaranteed to find an item for.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I agree with the OP. If you buy a game on release day and don't get enough value out of it, that's really on you. Most titles cost a ton of money to make these days, hence the high initial price tag. However, almost every game goes down in price quickly enpugh if you just wait a little while. And it's not waiting 10 years, it's usually just waiting a few months.

There are far far more excellent games out there than anyone could conceivably play but if you limit your playing to new releases only and thus insist on paying the early adopter tax, that's not the fault of the game companies.

 

[Lilani]

I tend to agree with this. Most people I know aren't comfortable paying more than $30-40 for a pair of jeans. But, if you go to retail outlets, they tend to start at $49 and easily go up to $80 for a decent pair of jeans (depending on the brand and style, of course). But, if you go to the clearance areas, there are markdowns everywhere and you'll get a pair of pants that started at $55 for about $30.

It's all about shopping smart. EVERYTHING in EVERY MARKET starts out expensive and beyond what most people want to pay when it's first released. But if you just give it time (or make sure you're in with a good rewards program) you'll get the same stuff for much less. The problem is gamers feel entitled to get games on launch for the 6-8 months after release price, as though they are in desperate need of a fix, or there is some sort of shame in not being "in the loop" when a game first comes out.

 

[TheCommanders]

Yeah, it kind of sounds like you missed the point. The argument that games are expensive refers to the $60 asking price. The fact that it drops so quickly after launch (in most cases) shows the industry acknowledging that a large portion of their consumers are either not willing or able to drop $60 on a new title. Part of the problem is games that can keep you occupied for 8 hours and 80 hours are priced the same at launch, and then the industry analysts scratch their head at why some titles don't seem to sell as well at launch. Some games are worth $60, some aren't.

 

[fozzy360]

Well, of course gaming is gonna be cheap if you do nothing but wait for sales. Besides, the "gaming is expensive" argument isn't really about the cost of the game themselves. It's more of an argument on how much you pay for a game and how much content you get for it in return. Syndicate is a perfect example of this. I like the campaign well enough, but it only lasted about 5-6 hours, and the co-op added only a few hours more. For $60, there isn't really enough content to justify that large of a price tag. That's the beef that people have.

 

[Soopy]

How do video games compare cost wise to other mediums like Movies?

I know some movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars yet retail for about $25AUD.
How is the price so different?

 

[HarryScull]

There being ways to play video games for cheap does not negate the fact that $60+ is a lot of money to throw down for a game.

in my opinion it does, I don't need to buy games on release date and when they are brand new, so by waiting I save money, fall of the samuri came out march 15TH for £30 and I bought it on the 3rd of june only 4 months later and saved £25 on it.

the point is that if you are a smart consumer games are a very cheap source of entertainment, if you are a sheep who mindlessly buys max payne on release date then you are allowing yourself to be ripped of and the solution ins't piracy and it isn't complaining to game company's/publishers, it is wising up and spending you're money better

 

[fozzy360]

How do video games compare cost wise to other mediums like Movies?

I know some movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars yet retail for about $25AUD.
How is the price so different?

Are you responding to me, because I really don't understand your point.

 

[HarryScull]

I don't think you can count Humble Bundle, steam sales, last gen games, or free to play games and then say that games aren't that expensive.

Yeah, games aren't that expensive when you wait 10 years to buy them (Rome total war), nor are they that expensive when out of the goodness of their heart a bunch of developers allow you to name your price for a game FOR CHARITY.

None of this counts.

It all does because
1. I set the rules not you
2. The point of the challenge was to show how being a smart consumer saves money and being a smart consumer means taking advantage of sales and price drops even if it is charity driven and regardless of the age of a game, the only thing I measured a game on was how fun it was and how long I enjoyed playing it for
3. fall of the samurai came out 4 months ago and by waiting for a sale I save £25 of it, does that fit your criteria of acceptable?

 

[HarryScull]

Some games are worth $60, some aren't.

the simple solution is not to buy games that you don't think are worth it.

for example I have friends who bought MW3 full price and have spent 150+ hours loving it but wasted 25£ buying minecraft and didnt enjoy it, I spent full price on MW3 and snapped the disk within 1 hour but have over 200 hours in minecraft.

Its all personal preference

 

[Soopy]

How do video games compare cost wise to other mediums like Movies?

I know some movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars yet retail for about $25AUD.
How is the price so different?

Are you responding to me, because I really don't understand your point.

No, I'd have quoted you if I was.

I'm just genuinely interested as to why video games sell for $100AUD but movies about 1/4 of that. Yet movies cost at least as much to produce as a video game.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

They're talking about RRP when they say that. In australia a game over 10 months old can still be ~100$

 

[Lilani]

Well, of course gaming is gonna be cheap if you do nothing but wait for sales. Besides, the "gaming is expensive" argument isn't really about the cost of the game themselves. It's more of an argument on how much you pay for a game and how much content you get for it in return. Syndicate is a perfect example of this. I like the campaign well enough, but it only lasted about 5-6 hours, and the co-op added only a few hours more. For $60, there isn't really enough content to justify that large of a price tag. That's the beef that people have.

I'm pretty sure a LOT of people complain about 40-60 hour single player plus unlimited online multiplayer games being $60 at launch. I rarely see anybody around here specifying certain hours of gameplay they are willing to pay $60 for. Syndicate may have been a bit overpriced based on the single player campaign, but most people aren't complaining about games like Syndicate. It's not the number of hours they have an issue with, it's the price itself, regardless of whether it provides 5 hours of fun or infinite in multiplayer.

Again, here's the way I see it. Name brand jeans are always way beyond what reasonable people want to pay when they first hit the racks. After a few months, they get marked down a few times, and eventually end up on clearance. And then there are lots of retail sales and special deals and discounts inbetween you can use to tick off even more dollars. So you end up getting a $80 pair of jeans for $20 or $30, and all you had to do was wait and clip coupons.

Complaining about launch prices is like complaining about ANY sort of price when something first hits the market. Everything is more expensive when it first comes out. We all know that. Yet for some reason, a lot of gamers seem to think the video games market shouldn't be subject to the same phenomenon. While I would agree that games should have more of a trial period for consumers and better return policies for products we aren't satisfied with (or at least some sort of return policy for digitally purchased games), to expect games to be cheap on launch day is just silly.

Of course they cost more than they're worth on launch day, because they know the people who want it regardless of price will pay that ridiculous price. Every other market does it, it's called supply and demand. But as far as I know, every other market isn't filled with people who pay those inflated prices and then fucking whine about how it's breaking their bank and that they deserve better.