games really are not that expensive...

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I don't think the argument has ever been that games are too expensive, just that the starting retail price is too expensive. It's no wonder people buy used.

exactly.

there are LOTS of AAA games out these days (not to mention all the indie/free to play games out there) so my money can only stretch so far, and with the initial retail prices, i can't afford more than one or two games on launch because of it. i definitely wait for steam sales like crazy, unless it's a game i really want or a developer i really want to support, i always wait for it to get down to at least <35 bucks.

i'd be alot more willing to buy games on launch and take that risk if they didn't cost 60-70 right off the bat, because if i don't like the game then i'm fucked, as for pc there isn't much if any for a return policy.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[TrevHead]

Lower prices don't always = more sales and cash for the developer, as there is a finite number of players with money and time to play them, thats why you see best examples of boxed copies of niche genres like oldschool arcade shmups priced higher than a normal cheap XBLA offering.

I can't afford to buy games at £40 at pop but I wouldn't be as entitled to think the RRP should be lowered so I can get the benefits of a day 1 purchase.

I have to wait and accept I have to give up something in terms of quality* However I try buy games at or near RRP that I feel are worthy of my support. It would be hypocritical to rant on about shady monetisation practices while demanding a quality product if I didn't dig my hand into my pocket and instead bought every game at £5.

*This doesn't apply to most PC games, infact the longer you wait the better the game gets (bug fixes, extra content, graphical enhancements & new GFX card)

 

[TheVioletBandit]

What is or is not expensive is really relative to how much money a person has.

 

[Treblaine]

Hmm, you're purchasing last gen games over the internet that are on sale, so of course they're cheap. No-body is arguing that OLD games are cheap, the problem is with the NEW ones, or the big Triple-A titles. For example, Modern Warfare 2, or even WaW still retails in EB Games for $60, and that's a used copy in Australia. Brand new games usually average between $90-$110, depending on how much you shop around, and this can last for months depending on the title. BF3, which has been out for almost 8 months STILL retails at the full $90 price tag that I payed for it new.

Hmmm, are you from the future?

Because that's the only way I can see you truthfully stating that Limbo, Bastion, Shogun 2 and Fall of the Samurai are "last gen" or "old" games.

Is Dead Island last gen too? $12

What about F.E.A.R 3? $15,37

Saints Row: The Third? 10,19?

Saints Row The Third: $17 on PC, $50 on console ($30 used in unknown condition)

http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Row-The-Third-Xbox-360/dp/B004QEV0MI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338803010&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Row-The-Third-Download/dp/B005OMM66A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338803025&sr=8-1

Fear 3 and Dead Island are some particularly maligned games, they were very poorly received by the gaming press and market at large though had large hype/ Better example would be Deus Ex Human revolution on Amazon.com: less than $10 dollars for the PC version, $30 for the 360 version.

This website tracks the prices of games sold on Steam:

http://www.steamprices.com/uk

You can see Saints Row The Third is at a similarly good offer right now on steam.

Games are cheap on PC, but not on console.

If you buy as many games as you want to play, you will REALLY struggle to spend more in the long run on PC than on a console.

 

[Treblaine]

Lower prices don't always = more sales and cash for the developer, as there is a finite number of players with money and time to play them...

I think the single biggest piece of evidence indicating the market is not saturated is quite how prevalent Pre-owned games are in the market. 75-80% of the shelf space in games retail stores is for pre-owned. That means a huge proportion of the market cannot afford to buy new and the few who do buy new are very likely to trade in the recoup the huge loss they made.

I'm telling you, the market for people who are interested in these games and can play them (own the console, etc) is way larger than the number of new-copies sold would suggest. This is because games are too expensive per-unit. If they sold at a lower price and REALLY pushed to the market that wants to play them then they would get more revenue.

Uncharted 2 is such a great games yet sold only 5.6 million units. If a movie of similar quality only sold 5.6 million tickets IN TOTAL it would be declared a complete flop. Hell, TV shows have been cancelled for having viewing figures that low, and those are WORLDWIDE sales over 3 years for a console that almost 60 million people own.

I really want to play Uncharted 3 but I can't justify spending £30 (US$50) on one game that came out almost a year ago.

I can't believe that a flagship title like Uncharted 2, less than 10% of the PS3 user-base actually bought a new copy of. I think it's obvious that WAY more would buy that game if it didn't cost $60. More PS3's are sold all the time, the Market is growing all the time but game sales aren't. Because the price is wrong.

How recently was it that Microsoft announced multiplayer now cost $60 a year? They justified it by saying it was in line with inflation, except the way XBL works it is no significant extra effort for Microsoft to connect more console to multiplayer, and with more paying for multiplayer they make more money. If anything they should have CUT the price of XBL Gold Membership. That's how you grow a console's base, instead they milk those who have been roped in and give more reason to leave or never invest in a 360.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Oh wait, Australians don't get access to amazon sales? Ok, that's some invalid ones.

Rome total war? do me a favour and look up when that came out.


And you're seriously suggesting the portal flash game is as good as if not better than the orange box version? Right, have you actually played Portal?

 

[ResonanceSD]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.

However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).

If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.

 

[ResonanceSD]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.

However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).

If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.

And where do you live, and where did you buy them from? Retail at launch here is $99-$110. MW3 is STILL $90.

EDIT: Here's a list of all games which don't have inflated prices for us. http://www.steamprices.com/au/topsavings

Now. How old are they, and which of them do you actually want to play? Do tell.

 

[Best of the 3]

Just wait for a CoD game to be released and just watch as other game price tags drop. I remember when I wanted Deus Ex. it was around £30, I didn't know if it was worth it (it was but I didn't know that at the time). A little while later a CoD game comes out. the price was now £20.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.

However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).

If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.

And where do you live, and where did you buy them from? Retail at launch here is $99-$110. MW3 is STILL $90.

Canada, via Steam/gog.com/EBGames. You should move here. We have cookies. And cheap games.

 

[ResonanceSD]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.

However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).

If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.

And where do you live, and where did you buy them from? Retail at launch here is $99-$110. MW3 is STILL $90.

Canada, via Steam/gog.com/EBGames. You should move here. We have cookies. And cheap games.

I'll just leave this here then. http://www.steamprices.com/au

What, move to canada? Are you serious? moose, French people, and snow, that's all you guys have that you can't get anywhere else. And I'm not entirely sure about any of those.

 

[lacktheknack]

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.

Fine.

"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).

Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.

So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?

Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.

However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).

If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.

And where do you live, and where did you buy them from? Retail at launch here is $99-$110. MW3 is STILL $90.

Canada, via Steam/gog.com/EBGames. You should move here. We have cookies. And cheap games.

I'll just leave this here then. http://www.steamprices.com/au

Oh God. I hearby conclude that you live in the worst country for prices, end of.

(Although you should buy Mirror's Edge RIGHT THE HELL NOW for $10 AUD.)

What, move to canada? Are you serious? moose, French people, and snow, that's all you guys have that you can't get anywhere else. And I'm not entirely sure about any of those.

Well, there's a province up here where the current government is the Conservatives, and the opposition is the "More Conservatives". How's that?

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

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

This, especially considering you don't GET THE WHOLE GAME in the package, and have for fork up more cash to get it. THAT is what kills me.

 

[Baldr]

Lower prices don't always = more sales and cash for the developer, as there is a finite number of players with money and time to play them...

I think the single biggest piece of evidence indicating the market is not saturated is quite how prevalent Pre-owned games are in the market. 75-80% of the shelf space in games retail stores is for pre-owned. That means a huge proportion of the market cannot afford to buy new and the few who do buy new are very likely to trade in the recoup the huge loss they made.

Quite the opposite, they(retail) markets used games over new is because they can take a greater portion of the profit by reselling. Instead of taking a small percent of the new game and sending the rest back to the publishers, they only lose what they have buy the game for, which is less than half of what they sell it for depending on the title. They can essentially undercut the new games, and make a larger profit.

 

[lacktheknack]

Lower prices don't always = more sales and cash for the developer, as there is a finite number of players with money and time to play them...

I think the single biggest piece of evidence indicating the market is not saturated is quite how prevalent Pre-owned games are in the market. 75-80% of the shelf space in games retail stores is for pre-owned. That means a huge proportion of the market cannot afford to buy new and the few who do buy new are very likely to trade in the recoup the huge loss they made.

Quite the opposite, they market used games over new is because they can take a greater portion of the profit by reselling. Instead of taking a small percent of the game and sending the rest back to the publishers, they only lose what they have buy the game for, which is less than half of what they sell it for depending on the title. They can essentially undercut the new games.

"The Market" refers to the consumers, not the retailers.

 

[chadachada123]

I disagree, OP.

My analogy is as follows: New cars are too damn expensive. Yes, you can find 12-year old junkers for really cheap, or really shitty newer cars for really cheap, but when your only method of entering into the console(car) market is through used games(vehicles), it ends up sucking for anyone that wants a bit of quality.

Only way to fix that is to convince rich/stupid fucks to not buy games(cars) brand new at those insane prices to try and put pressure on publishers(car manufacturers).