Pricing of Games

[Dmatix]

Where I live new PS3 games (lets say, Infamous ) can cost up to 125$.
PC games are a more reasonable 60$, and Wii and 360 games are about in the middle, in 85$.
These are not reasonable prices!

 

[Abedeus]

PC Games are cheaper because there are less people playing them

Hahahaha no.

2 mln accounts at Steam says hi. 11 millions of WoW people says hi. 4 millions of Aion people says hi. 100 millions of copies of Sims 1, another millions from Sims 2 and 1.4 millions of people that bought Sims 3 in the first week says hi.

Also, if you add casual games... Take any console, its amount of players < amount of PC players. You can thank backward compatibility for it - you don't have to buy a new PC to run older or casual games.

Your talking about a very few things. WoW and the Sims are unusual phenomenas. We're talking about why a game for the console and one for the PC have differant prices. WoW is not on consoles (yet) for example, and also goes VERY cheaply at least for the software which is
how they get so many people to try it.

The Sims is a paticular oddity, and always has been.

Other than that I'd imagine consoles have their own exceptional mega-sales as well. Things like Madden and say Grand Theft Auto for example. Especially the Sports Titles move a huge number of copies.

However in general there are less people gaming off PCs today than are off of consoles.

Umm. No, not really. Especially since basically everyone I know has a PC. Barely anyone I know has a console. And you can't say that "with the exception of oddities, bla bla bla". Either everything or nothing.

The true reason that the PC prices are lower is because it costs LESS to make a game on PC.

 

[DraftPickle]

All this fuss over a ten dollar difference? Ten dollars. You realize that is mostly the license fees they have to pay right?

Price fixing? Making a max price is price fixing? Microsoft is not forcing publishers to adhere to specific prices, only a maximum price they can charge. Which has the same effect.

Everyone charges the max or close to it because everyone else is doing it. And if the standard big name release for the 360 is $60, and the standard big name release for the PC is $50 then you are all quibbling over a $10 difference. The rest just follows suit. The same guys that port their game over to the PC might charge $29.99 for it while charging $59.99 on the 360 simply because that is what everyone else charges so they can get away with it, while the lower PC price is in there to be competitive with current titles out for the PC - it may not be the bleeding edge and have to compete with titles 2+ years old.

See this is the problem people in USA don't see it as problem cuz they only look at what applies to them, in Britain PC games are about half the price of 360 so thats about £20-£25 off, thats like $30-$35, you see where I'm coming from now, massive price gap for non-USD countries.

 

[Mongodyr]

Console developers don't want to make their games sell on consoles.

Theres already 4 PS3 games selling at my local store for 74 Euros!!! I refuse to buy games more expensive than 50 Euros unless they bundled with other games.

Holly shit!!! How much is that in USD (I think I know but I thought u might know for sure) Games over here in the US are $60 for 360 and PS3 and $40-50 for Wii (I have a 360). Even if 360 games were just $50 I would buy at least one or two more games compared to what I do now.

74 Euros isn't THAT bad...(Still pretty damn bad though ) The standard price for a 360/PS3 game in Norway is about 599 NOK, or 67.1791288 Euros (According to Google). I have seen games on the release date for 699 (About 78 Euros) and once 749 (84 Euros)

Usually PC-games are 100 Nok cheaper then their console counterparts. I think this is due to some license stuff or something that makes the consolegames cost more for the store to buy. The PC-games also sell less, and the stores here tend to base the price off the sales.

 

[Christemo]

the price of both games and consoles are too high. an average ps3 game costs 52£. and the ps3 itself costs 280£. in denmark of course.

 

[barryween]

Console developers don't want to make their games sell on consoles.

Theres already 4 PS3 games selling at my local store for 74 Euros!!! I refuse to buy games more expensive than 50 Euros unless they bundled with other games.

Holly shit!!! How much is that in USD (I think I know but I thought u might know for sure) Games over here in the US are $60 for 360 and PS3 and $40-50 for Wii (I have a 360). Even if 360 games were just $50 I would buy at least one or two more games compared to what I do now.

Taken from an Euro to USD converter: 74.00 EUR=103.309 USD

damn thats about what I thought. and these are just plain games, not bundles or anything? That is so screwed up!

Nope not bundles.

Good thing that I live in America, I doubt when it comes time to that there will be a job for me, but at least OUR video games are cheaper

 

[barryween]

The way I see it, DVDs are usually about $15 and most movies are around 90 minutes long and CDs will usually run you about $10-$12 and you can expect those to be around 60 minutes. That's about $10 per hour of media. By those standards, a $60 game should last at least 6 hours.

Sure, the price is on the steep side but It's not that bad depending on your perspective.

I kinda get where you are coming from, but you have to remember that Cd's and Music don't take as much money to make as games. So it is an uneven ratio. It's like putting a ratio between a 12 oz. Crap steak and a 24 oz. Fillet Minion.

So what you're saying is that games should actually cost more? Since they last you longer and take more money to make, they should be worth much much more.

Also, is there any real reason behind this complaint except that you don't want to pay as much? I'm sorry, but in this case, the only way to vote is with your feet. It's not like the gaming industry is government regulated, the only way you can really influence it is to choose not to buy the game. If you're still buying the games, or they're still getting more money by selling them at inflated prices, then that's what they'll continue to do.

Yes I LOVE to pay extra for games. Naw, I was just making a counter point for the sake of conversation... I'm sorry

 

[oliveira8]

Console developers don't want to make their games sell on consoles.

Theres already 4 PS3 games selling at my local store for 74 Euros!!! I refuse to buy games more expensive than 50 Euros unless they bundled with other games.

Holly shit!!! How much is that in USD (I think I know but I thought u might know for sure) Games over here in the US are $60 for 360 and PS3 and $40-50 for Wii (I have a 360). Even if 360 games were just $50 I would buy at least one or two more games compared to what I do now.

Taken from an Euro to USD converter: 74.00 EUR=103.309 USD

damn thats about what I thought. and these are just plain games, not bundles or anything? That is so screwed up!

Nope not bundles.

Good thing that I live in America, I doubt when it comes time to that there will be a job for me, but at least OUR video games are cheaper

: (. Think this is only in Portugal. Theres probably cheaper places in Europe to buy. BUT! I found out this awesome PS3 + Killzone 2 + Cool HD(whatever)TV for something around of 500 euros. In USD is 698 USD.

 

[barryween]

Console developers don't want to make their games sell on consoles.

Theres already 4 PS3 games selling at my local store for 74 Euros!!! I refuse to buy games more expensive than 50 Euros unless they bundled with other games.

Holly shit!!! How much is that in USD (I think I know but I thought u might know for sure) Games over here in the US are $60 for 360 and PS3 and $40-50 for Wii (I have a 360). Even if 360 games were just $50 I would buy at least one or two more games compared to what I do now.

74 Euros isn't THAT bad...(Still pretty damn bad though ) The standard price for a 360/PS3 game in Norway is about 599 NOK, or 67.1791288 Euros (According to Google). I have seen games on the release date for 699 (About 78 Euros) and once 749 (84 Euros)

Usually PC-games are 100 Nok cheaper then their console counterparts. I think this is due to some license stuff or something that makes the consolegames cost more for the store to buy. The PC-games also sell less, and the stores here tend to base the price off the sales.

It sounds like most places have more expensive games then the US. Only unlike with gas prices, I can't just say "Well you guys live closer to EVERYTHING!" or something like that. So for that one, I feel sorry for you guys. Ya know, you don't always hear about it over here, how is Europe's (Let's say the UK) financial situation?

 

[barryween]

Console developers don't want to make their games sell on consoles.

Theres already 4 PS3 games selling at my local store for 74 Euros!!! I refuse to buy games more expensive than 50 Euros unless they bundled with other games.

Holly shit!!! How much is that in USD (I think I know but I thought u might know for sure) Games over here in the US are $60 for 360 and PS3 and $40-50 for Wii (I have a 360). Even if 360 games were just $50 I would buy at least one or two more games compared to what I do now.

Taken from an Euro to USD converter: 74.00 EUR=103.309 USD

damn thats about what I thought. and these are just plain games, not bundles or anything? That is so screwed up!

Nope not bundles.

Good thing that I live in America, I doubt when it comes time to that there will be a job for me, but at least OUR video games are cheaper

: (. Think this is only in Portugal. Theres probably cheaper places in Europe to buy. BUT! I found out this awesome PS3 + Killzone 2 + Cool HD(whatever)TV for something around of 500 euros. In USD is 698 USD.

Well that's good, because people over here HATE bundling. I've seen places where you can buy the bundle for, let's say, $100, and if u buy it all seperate, IT'S LESS!! It doesn't make snese! But yeah, for a bundle like that it would probably be $1,460 (and I went REALLY cheap on the T.V.)

 

[hagaya]

Aye, but question is why are PC so much cheaper?

Because we're amazing.

We also shovel down the hundreds of <insert your country's currency here> to make the games work.

 

[veloper]

A number of reasons have been mentioned in this thread sofar:

1. console hardware is sold at a loss and licence fees on the games have to make up for it

2. more competition on the PC market

3. expensive SDKs a game dev needs to purchase first to make console games

4. PC gamers are the master race

 

[DraftPickle]

I love that even in the politcally correct world we live theres still room for console racism :L