The Price of Games is TOO DAMN HIGH

[Baldr]

Well, I will say this: if the new consoles shut out used games, they HAVE to lower the price of new games. Absolutely have to. No way around it.

At <$3/hour, it is still the cheapest non-commercial media available.

Netflix runs commercials?

Netflix is still a rental system. Compared to a streaming service like OnLive where I got an email today to join their 200 game selection service for $2 this month and $10/month afterwards. I still think OnLive still a little overpriced to begin with.

Netflix rents DVD's but the streaming is a service, not a rental.

Rental/Subscription doesn't matter my point still stands, it not a to own service.

 

[StriderShinryu]

I really don't see what the issue is. If you are certain that you will get a better deal later on, and don't mind waiting, just buy it later on. If you want it at release, you're going to pay more for the opportunity. There is no such thing as games being too expensive when one can go to either a retail store or an online one and find absolutely great games for $5 or $10. You might mean that brand new games should be cheaper, but that's silly too as you're ignoring just how expensive it is to make a game these days.

It's also a bit of a fallacy when it comes to hardware pricing. Hardware is very expensive to produce and get on a store shelf, so much so that I believe Sony and MS are still actually losing money (or are breaking even) on every console they sell. Cheaper hardware really isn't something that's overly possible, especially when a system is first released.

Capcha: watch c-beams glitter
Okay, that's actually rather awesome.

 

[StormShaun]

Meanwhile in Australia.

$100 for a new GAME!!!

Isn't it cheaper in America.

We really need to make games cheaper over here in Aus.

 

[Iron Criterion]

Maybe you should have said "adjusting for inflation" in your original post. Also, you said "costed" as in past tense. No, in the past NES games costed $50.

Well, you are right. I am just a little sleepy and forgot to add that. I am actually editing the post right now!

It's cool. It's just a pet peeve of mine that people claim that they HAD to pay $80 for Chrono Trigger in 1995, it was $50 at Wal Mart. If people paid that much for Chrono Trigger, blame the retailer. Nintendo has always had the same MSRP for games, $50, it's true today as it was in the NES days.

Technology should get cheaper as it gets improved. A blu-ray player is much cheaper today than it was 5 years ago and it has better technology under the hood too.

Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 was £60 at launch...

 

[Epona]

Maybe you should have said "adjusting for inflation" in your original post. Also, you said "costed" as in past tense. No, in the past NES games costed $50.

Well, you are right. I am just a little sleepy and forgot to add that. I am actually editing the post right now!

It's cool. It's just a pet peeve of mine that people claim that they HAD to pay $80 for Chrono Trigger in 1995, it was $50 at Wal Mart. If people paid that much for Chrono Trigger, blame the retailer. Nintendo has always had the same MSRP for games, $50, it's true today as it was in the NES days.

Technology should get cheaper as it gets improved. A blu-ray player is much cheaper today than it was 5 years ago and it has better technology under the hood too.

Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 was £60 at launch...

I live in the US, I don't what your prices were but here, N64 titles were $50 just like the SNES before it and just like the Gamecube after it.

 

[Iron Criterion]

Maybe you should have said "adjusting for inflation" in your original post. Also, you said "costed" as in past tense. No, in the past NES games costed $50.

Well, you are right. I am just a little sleepy and forgot to add that. I am actually editing the post right now!

It's cool. It's just a pet peeve of mine that people claim that they HAD to pay $80 for Chrono Trigger in 1995, it was $50 at Wal Mart. If people paid that much for Chrono Trigger, blame the retailer. Nintendo has always had the same MSRP for games, $50, it's true today as it was in the NES days.

Technology should get cheaper as it gets improved. A blu-ray player is much cheaper today than it was 5 years ago and it has better technology under the hood too.

Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 was £60 at launch...

I live in the US, I don't what your prices were but here, N64 titles were $50 just like the SNES before it and just like the Gamecube after it.

Games here usually cost £30 - to £45. Conker was an exceptionally expensive game, even by today's standards. I've found this generation to generally be lower in price than the average N64 game.

But I have no idea about prices outside of UK so I can't really contribute to this.

 

[Rednog]

U guys think you have it bad, in Australia we pay $90 and up for a new game and our dollar is currently worth more than yours

Damn right. That's what I want to know. Why the hell do Aussie games cost almost twice as much at launch than elsewhere in the world. Seriously, where is all this extra money going? Then again, the price of most things in Australia is going up freaking high, shit even in Perth there are places selling bottles of water for $4. FOUR DOLLARS. Just makes you want to get everything shipped in, or buy games when you go overseas (for those that are lucky enough to have the money/time to do so).

Meanwhile in Australia.

$100 for a new GAME!!!

Isn't it cheaper in America.

We really need to make games cheaper over here in Aus.

I'm still amazed Australians throws this out there every once and a while when it's reason is fairly simple and the information why is so easy to obtain. It is because prices are based on certain percentages set by the economy. The Australian economy is quite high (I believe the minimum wage is like 2x that of the US) and prices are adjusted to fit an economy's relative costs. If you try to scale things in a 1:1 fashion you would ruin the global economy. I mean look at the past when the US dollar was like 300: 1 for some countries your buying power in another country becomes ludicrous and left unchecked could cause terrible inflation in the other country.
You can't think of it as oh we're paying double the amount that Americans do how unfair, because in reality you paying the same relative amount. You don't see americans complaining how games in places like russia / some of eastern europe cost half of American prices.

 

[TorqueConverter]

The thread title states that prices for games are too high then the text states that prices are too high for early adopters. Early adopters always pay more. Early adopters pay for the exclusivity of playing the game, well, early.

Solution: Don't buy games on launch.

I think it's annoying that games launch at 60 dollars by default on consoles.

Game only 4-5 hours long with no real replayability? 60USD
Game 10-60 hours long with lots of options and replayability? 60USD

Do you purchase games for a time sink or based on the quality of the experience?

My preference is for games with loads of content (time sink) but the game still must be an enjoyable experience. I gladly take a 2 hour game for $60 that provides me with an excellent experience over some 100+ hour monster that I find boring or offensive for $60.

I'm saying that quality trumps quantity. Do you not agree?

 

[poodlenoodles]

my first indication was when Todd Howard started talking about how games are too expensive

 

[LostCrusader]

I imagine one of the main reasons that the prices drop so much quicker now is because many more games have multiplayer components now and the online communities tend to drop off significantly with each major game that comes out after it.

 

[Zetona]

This idea has been stewing in my mind for a while, but some recent visits to Amazon.com really drove the point home.

If there's any indication of how overpriced retail games are, it's how quickly their value drops off. Mass Effect 3, a AAA game launched less than two months ago, was 50% off on Amazon the other day. The sale has ended, but its price is stil $20 less than it was at launch. Many big-name titles from last fall are now in the $30-$40 range on Amazon. Only the very best, highest-rated titles are still worth $50+. Driver: San Francisco came out in September. It's now going for less than $20, as are most games a year or more old. No other medium has anywhere near this level of dramatic price depreciation. The standard price of a Blu-Ray movie on Amazon, for instance, seems to be about $25, the movie's age be damned.

Oftentimes it seems like games and game systems are priced so as to punish the early adopters, or at least make them regret their early adoption. Pay $60 within a launch, buy all the DLC, and then watch as they release a $30 Game of The Year edition with all the bonus content included at no extra charge. I got my Xbox 360 in late 2006. The price was $400 for a 20GB hard drive and a unit that has RRoD'ed on me twice. Now, for the same price, someone can buy an Xbox 360 Slim, which runs quieter, uses less energy, and is more reliable, has a 250GB hard drive, and comes with Kinect and two (admittedly mediocre) games.

I feel like this merits more resentment than I generally see, and it's obviously a factor in used game sales. What do you all think? Should this change? Is it something we'll just have to live with?

They aren't too expensive... at all.

Seriously, where did you get this math?

If they're not overpriced, then why does their retail price drop so quickly? In a sense, the system would almost be better if year-old games still cost $40 or $50 new, instead of $20. There would be less disincentive to buy it at launch.

 

[Kuroneko97]

...Okay. I read the thread. I know this isn't contributing much, but it is vital that I post this.

Spoiler: You made me do this...

You know what? You asked for it when you made the title.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

U guys think you have it bad, in Australia we pay $90 and up for a new game and our dollar is currently worth more than yours

Damn right. That's what I want to know. Why the hell do Aussie games cost almost twice as much at launch than elsewhere in the world. Seriously, where is all this extra money going? Then again, the price of most things in Australia is going up freaking high, shit even in Perth there are places selling bottles of water for $4. FOUR DOLLARS. Just makes you want to get everything shipped in, or buy games when you go overseas (for those that are lucky enough to have the money/time to do so).

Meanwhile in Australia.

$100 for a new GAME!!!

Isn't it cheaper in America.

We really need to make games cheaper over here in Aus.

I'm still amazed Australians throws this out there every once and a while when it's reason is fairly simple and the information why is so easy to obtain. It is because prices are based on certain percentages set by the economy. The Australian economy is quite high (I believe the minimum wage is like 2x that of the US) and prices are adjusted to fit an economy's relative costs. If you try to scale things in a 1:1 fashion you would ruin the global economy. I mean look at the past when the US dollar was like 300: 1 for some countries your buying power in another country becomes ludicrous and left unchecked could cause terrible inflation in the other country.
You can't think of it as oh we're paying double the amount that Americans do how unfair, because in reality you paying the same relative amount. You don't see americans complaining how games in places like russia / some of eastern europe cost half of American prices.

Yeah I had a feeling it was pretty much to do with the economy. Just like how everything else in Aus is so much more expensive, including basic living needs, houses and cars. And you are right, the minimum wage is pretty much double the average in the 'states, despite the Aussie dollar being significantly higher nowadays.

Only thing this doesn't take into is tax, which Australians get hit with so hard it probably doesn't get too far off. Well, there are a lot of other things to take into account with that I guess but that's getting into territory I obviously know little about.

I'm also wondering if this affects the local market at all, with people's spending power kinda going into the territory of spending over AUD 100.00 on something that is just for fun. But it really doesn't, whether people complain about prices or not, somehow gamers go out with their addiction money and get all of them at launch, despite anything, so I guess my point has been rendered invalid already anyhow =P

 

[Darknacht]

If they're not overpriced, then why does their retail price drop so quickly? In a sense, the system would almost be better if year-old games still cost $40 or $50 new, instead of $20. There would be less disincentive to buy it at launch.

Because most people buy the game in the first months after release so once they sell a bunch of games at full price they can afford to drop the price.
If the price started at $40 they would have to sell 50% more games to make back the same amount as selling it for $60, but if they sell it for a full $60 to begin with and then drop the price over time they can make most of their money back and then drop the price for those who don't want to pay full price. Also remember that not ever game a company makes is a smash hit or even gets released so not only do they have to cover the cost of the game they are selling but also of any that fail and they still have to have money to continue developing more games. Some game companies are good at making money and probably could afford to drop their prices but are more likely to put it into R&D like Nintendo, but others are not good at making money even at $60 a game like EA.
Also this system allows you to buy the game at basically any price you want to so you can decide what a game is worth to you and buy it when it reaches that price. How can you not like a pricing system that allows you to buy a $60 game for $5-20 just by being patient for 6 months?

 

[Vegosiux]

How can you not like a pricing system that allows you to buy a $60 game for $5-20 just by being patient for 6 months?

"Just being patient for 6 months" is a bit of a condescending way to put it. It's not about patience, it's about people being dumb enough to burn their money "BECUZ OHEMGEE -INSERT AAA TITLE HERE-" and a more rational consumer gets screwed over by the less rational ones.

And this is another reason for why we can't have nice things.

 

[Darknacht]

How can you not like a pricing system that allows you to buy a $60 game for $5-20 just by being patient for 6 months?

"Just being patient for 6 months" is a bit of a condescending way to put it. It's not about patience, it's about people being dumb enough to burn their money "BECUZ OHEMGEE -INSERT AAA TITLE HERE-" and a more rational consumer gets screwed over by the less rational ones.

And this is another reason for why we can't have nice things.

I don't see the down side to rational people getting more for their money then dumb short sighed people. Also I don't think buying a game on day one is necessarily dumb, I have bought some games on day one because I wanted to support those who are making the game. And while I understand that this means that AAA games are going to be designed more for the kind of people who lack the impulse control to wait a few months, that does not mean that there are no good games that have come out recently. I still think that having a high price to begin with for those who want it day 1 or who want to give more support to the makers and then have the price drop for those who can afford or are unwilling to pay the full new price is good.

 

[Tanakh]

I feel like this merits more resentment than I generally see, and it's obviously a factor in used game sales. What do you all think? Should this change? Is it something we'll just have to live with?

It might be too high for you, I think it's reasonable.

On the other hand videogames have never been cheaper, especially if you play on the PC, just as an example super mario 3 was sold at the equivalent of 80 USD. If anything, if you play with a mouse and keyboard and buy on GoG, Amazon and Steam having some self control you will end up with more very good games that you can play at amazingly low prices.

I still think that having a high price to begin with for those who want it day 1 or who want to give more support to the makers and then have the price drop for those who can afford or are unwilling to pay the full new price is good.

This, honestly with my old console library and the pace at which good games are released nowdays, I only buy videogames who's devs i want to support. That's the reason i bought Botanicula or GW 2, while skipping Batman or (a new copy of) ME 3.

Our new game price? $99.95 AUD. Go to a currency converter, compare, then get back to me.

If you like EA and play on the PC, find a way to buy it in Mexican Pesos. For some random reason they sell the $59 USD games for $30 bucks.

 

[VoidWanderer]

This idea has been stewing in my mind for a while, but some recent visits to Amazon.com really drove the point home.

If there's any indication of how overpriced retail games are, it's how quickly their value drops off. Mass Effect 3, a AAA game launched less than two months ago, was 50% off on Amazon the other day. The sale has ended, but its price is stil $20 less than it was at launch. Many big-name titles from last fall are now in the $30-$40 range on Amazon. Only the very best, highest-rated titles are still worth $50+. Driver: San Francisco came out in September. It's now going for less than $20, as are most games a year or more old. No other medium has anywhere near this level of dramatic price depreciation. The standard price of a Blu-Ray movie on Amazon, for instance, seems to be about $25, the movie's age be damned.

Oftentimes it seems like games and game systems are priced so as to punish the early adopters, or at least make them regret their early adoption. Pay $60 within a launch, buy all the DLC, and then watch as they release a $30 Game of The Year edition with all the bonus content included at no extra charge. I got my Xbox 360 in late 2006. The price was $400 for a 20GB hard drive and a unit that has RRoD'ed on me twice. Now, for the same price, someone can buy an Xbox 360 Slim, which runs quieter, uses less energy, and is more reliable, has a 250GB hard drive, and comes with Kinect and two (admittedly mediocre) games.

I feel like this merits more resentment than I generally see, and it's obviously a factor in used game sales. What do you all think? Should this change? Is it something we'll just have to live with?

In what currency?

I live in Australia, you only get any sympathy from me if your price is in GBP.

If not, please quit complaining!

Our new game price? $99.95 AUD. Go to a currency converter, compare, then get back to me.