Next gen EA games to cost £55

[Hazy992]

No this isn't a placeholder price, a recent blog post by UK retailer GAME confirmed [http://playstationnews.game.co.uk/ps4-faq/] EA games will cost £55 next gen:

At present, the only publisher to confirm costs of their next generation games are EA, attaching a price of £54.99. No other game prices have been confirmed.

Now in case you're wondering £55 is roughly $80USD!

EA, ladies and gentlemen. The company who's CEO said games were too expensive [http://www.digitmemo.com/articles/686/ea-boss-says-games-too-expensive/] and the default $59 price model needed to die are now going to be charging British gamers $80 a pop, and have recently increased prices [http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/5/4497062/indian-pc-gamers-protest-ea-price-hikes-via-twitter] on Origin in India from around $25 to around $60, despite the fact that Indian gamers have less income on average than western gamers.

I honestly don't understand EA. They make out that they're trying to turn over a new leaf and then they go and pull shit like this. It's almost as if they like bad PR.

What are your thoughts on this? Personally I think EA can shove it, there's no way in hell I'm paying that much for a game.

 

[spartandude]

my opinions on this matter

Spoiler

well i can say that i will not be buying EA games day 1 even if they fix there business practices due to the sheer fact that £45 is a bit much for me

and if this is going to be the general price for all games then i simply will not be able to purchase games at full price, luckily Steam gives me frequent sales

 

[Venom 3135]

As a 15 year old kid, I can safely say that I won't be buying any EA games. I can barely afford the £40, let alone £55. When I saw this on Amazon, my first thought was just "Surely they don't expect us to pay this much". But they do. So it looks like my gaming option will be limited even further than they already are. EA make some of the stupidest business decisions I've ever seen. It's as if they don't actually want to sell things. As it stands, EA can fuck right off. I simply can't afford games of that price, and no one I know, including working adults can either.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

and no one I know, including working adults can either.

Why couldn't a working adult afford it? I mean they shouldn't buy it, but all adults I know have at least 100 quid to spare by the end of the month. The adults you know must be fairly poor or living above their means if they spend their entire wage on rent and such o.x

 

[TrevHead]

With the next gen looming and publishers scared of releasing on a new platform with small userbase this price increase doesn't surprise me. But then again when was the last time you payed £50 for a game? With all the UK retailers duking it out most stores buy in bulk and price at around £35 - £40 tops, I think in the longterm the same will happen with nextgen.

We might see £55 games at around console launch though, until the userbase rises somewhat to allow for high volume selling at a discount.(even then I doubt EA will have the nerve to lock their games at £55 with no price degradation)

Unless it's some niche dev I would never pay £55 a game, half that is what I currently spend on new games.

 

[Soopy]

Games cost $100aud as is. The Australian dollar is worth 95c US at the moment. Riddle me that.

 

[Cabisco]

I feel this is bigger than the usual daily lets hate EA session, I doubt they'd do this if they were the only company raising prices as it could kill them financially through a massive dip in sales if they were the only ones costing £15 more. The wider picture of most companies doing this would effectively kill my gaming habit, something I'd very much like not to happen.

Perhaps it's reflecting a weaker UK economy? erm, maybe? I dunno :/

 

[Andy Shandy]

Yeah, I love some of the IPs that EA own, Mirror's Edge in particular, but they can get fucked if they think I'm paying that for a standard edition of the game.

Will be interesting to see if they are the only ones that are doing this, considering both MS and Sony have said their first-party games will cost the usual £40.

Shame too, since I was starting to kind of like EA.

 

[MammothBlade]

How about pricing games according to how much they're worth? I find it ridiculous that people will pay this much for all PS4 games. Development costs soar with each generation, yes, but not all games are equal in value (obviously), some are actually worth at least £100 a pop whilst others aren't even worth a tenner at launch.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Are you seriously upset about this? I hate to break it to people, but I've seen non-EA games for THIS gen at over £55. I think I saw The Last of Us normal edition pre-orders at £59 in places. I tend not to buy new games much anyway.

 

[Genocidicles]

Fuck 'em. I'll only be buying their games used. I can wait a couple of months.

 

[Maximum Bert]

They can try it I mean they tried to raise prices again at the start of this gen but it didnt last long this isnt the SNES era people wont pay that much for a game or at least many wont all that will happen is they sell less initially as more wait for a price drop.

The price of 40 pounds and under has become pretty standard now its what many expect to pay and wont fork out over that even 44 is to much unless your COD it seems then people seem to buy it whatever it costs.

If they actually get away with charging that much because enough buy it at that price I will be amazed and appalled.

 

[shrekfan246]

Games cost $100aud as is. The Australian dollar is worth 95c US at the moment. Riddle me that.

The Australian minimum wage is also practically double what it is in fairly high-paying areas of America. So, you know, it's kinda balanced out when you're making $16 per hour instead of $7-8.

OT: I hope this is just EA being stupid and greedy, because if the conversion rate is going to hit the US and every game is going to be $80, I'm pretty much going to stop buying video games. I rarely buy games new at $60 as it is.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

$80 for a new release just means I won't be buying any new releases.

Hell, as it is, I rarely buy new releases since the price drops so incredibly fast.

I picked up both FarCry 3 and Tomb Raider for ~$20 each, brand new, within a month or two of each of their releases.

 

[Dragonbums]

Heh, yeah right I'm paying that much.
I'm a cheap *****.
Least expensive games I ever paid for came from Steam sales.
Least expensive game I got full price are 3DS games.

Ride on EA.
Ride on.

Oh, and I can't wait to see the shit fest that will be Mass Effect 4.
I really can't fucking wait.

 

[TrevHead]

I notice alot of ppl mentioning £40 as the RRP of UK games, I'm quite sure it's $45 or £50 atm, it's just that UK retailer sell them at £35 to £40 that we think otherwise.

How about pricing games according to how much they're worth? I find it ridiculous that people will pay this much for all PS4 games. Development costs soar with each generation, yes, but not all games are equal in value (obviously), some are actually worth at least £100 a pop whilst others aren't even worth a tenner at launch.

That would be nice, but instead it's what they can get away with charging the public, so your FIFA that fans will buy yearly because that's all they play will get the price rise. While on the otherhand that niche game that's full of content, or has lots of HiDef 2D hand animated spritework that costs a bomb to produce, or has many man hours put into playtesting and balancing will continue be viewed as XBLA $10 fodder by the general public, even though they slammed down £50 for a roster update.

I picked up both FarCry 3 and Tomb Raider for ~$20 each, brand new, within a month or two of each of their releases.

Yeah current price degridation for most 360 / PS4 games is absolutely CRAZY. While great for gamers I don't think Binary Domain & Child of Eden priced at £10 a month after launch is an healthy way for any industry to operate. All it does is curse any game with a whiff of niche about it as gamers 100% know that game will be in the bargain bucket in a couple of months.
About 70% of my 360 collection ended up as bargain bin fodder which is crazy.

I guess that's why preorders are so important to publishers nowadays.

 

[BrotherRool]

No this isn't a placeholder price, a recent blog post by UK retailer GAME confirmed [http://playstationnews.game.co.uk/ps4-faq/] EA games will cost £55 next gen:

At present, the only publisher to confirm costs of their next generation games are EA, attaching a price of £54.99. No other game prices have been confirmed.

Now in case you're wondering £55 is roughly $80USD!

I'm pretty sure that it's the same situation with consoles, that US prices don't list tax whereas UK prices do. In which case a 55 pound game is equal to roughly $64 US listed price.

Historically, games are cheaper now than they've been pretty much ever before (before this price hike) and inflation will always happen so publishers have to raise prices eventually. But since you can only raise in values of 5 it's pretty clunky and games start of too expensive and end up to cheap. I think the RRP in Britain is actually 45 or 50 for this gen but it's customary for retailers to knock 5-10 pounds off that. So this might be a little steep or it might be appropriate, I can't really gauge it.

 

[wintercoat]

No this isn't a placeholder price, a recent blog post by UK retailer GAME confirmed [http://playstationnews.game.co.uk/ps4-faq/] EA games will cost £55 next gen:

At present, the only publisher to confirm costs of their next generation games are EA, attaching a price of £54.99. No other game prices have been confirmed.

Now in case you're wondering £55 is roughly $80USD!

I'm pretty sure that it's the same situation with consoles, that US prices don't list tax whereas UK prices do. In which case a 55 pound game is equal to roughly $64 US listed price.

Historically, games are cheaper now than they've been pretty much ever before (before this price hike) and inflation will always happen so publishers have to raise prices eventually. But since you can only raise in values of 5 it's pretty clunky and games start of too expensive and end up to cheap. I think the RRP in Britain is actually 45 or 50 for this gen but it's customary for retailers to knock 5-10 pounds off that. So this might be a little steep or it might be appropriate, I can't really gauge it.

The highest sales tax in the U.S. is 7.5% in California(15.5% counting local surtaxes). The average sales tax, including local surtaxes, is ~7.6. That would bring it closer to about $70 at the lowest, ~%74 on average, with some states/cities/counties/municipalities/what-have-you having no sales taxes at all.

Sure, games are technically cheaper, but then again, the average wage hasn't kept up with inflation, at least not in the U.S. The cost of living is much higher than it used to be, and people have less money left over for luxuries like video games. The fact that video games are, adjusted for inflation, cheaper than they used to be is meaningless if people can't afford them anyways.