What justifies/determines the price value of a game to you?

[EMWISE94]

Pretty much that, I recently told a friend that I started playing Remember Me, a game I picked up back during the Steam Summer Sale and the first thing they ask me is "how much you pay for it?". I said around $10 and they said "yep, thats what its worth.", played the game a bit and while I haven't finished it yet (I have this habit of picking up and dropping games into my backlog for fear of finishing them too quickly) I can say I wouldn't have minded paying the full price for it, its an okay game.

But to return to my question, what makes you say "yep, that was worth X dollars, money well spent." when it comes to games? Length? Content? Your personal enjoyment with the title? please do tell.

As for me, well sure I spent $3 bucks on it, but with the 500+ hours I've put into Terraria, I'd have gladly paid that $10

 

[sanquin]

The amount of time in which I'm having fun in the game, and the amount of fun as well. And that's about it. I mean, isn't that what games are supposed to be about? Having fun in your free time? So a game that provides longer and more fun for me, I'm filling to pay more for it. Though there is one exception. When a game is clearly a lazy rehash of the previous instalment released as a new game. I stay away from those.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Not necessarily length, but the amount of time I can spend with a game is kinda important. I don't mind paying quite a bit for a short game that I can replay a lot, but if a game is a 4-hour narrative experience without anything worth replaying, it diminishes what I'm willing to pay for it. A 4 hour game I can play over and over, on the other hand, is something I'm willing to spend a bit on. Generally speaking, I'm actually more likely to buy a narratively-light game for more than any kind of narrative driven game.

Overall enjoyment is very important, too, but you can't really determine that until you've played it.

 

[Aesir23]

It's a little difficult to pin down. The amount of content and how fun the mechanics are is definitely a huge part of it but so is the story. It really varies from game to game. I remember picking up Medieval II: Total War (Gold) for around $10-$20 back in 2012 and it's one of my most played games that I have on Steam. On the other hand, I also picked up Resonance of Fate for the same price in 2013. I loved the battle system, the FF8 feel, the way you could make the characters look unique in a small way, but the story was so poorly put together that it might as well have never been there at all. I haven't picked it up since and it feels as if it wasn't even worth the $20 I paid for it.

 

[Lilani]

Basically three things, in no particular order:

- How much I want to play it
- How soon I want to play it
- How much of an opportunity the deal is

If I really want to play a game right now, I'll buy it for whatever price it's going for (within reason, I won't buy a $100 collector's edition unless I want all that extra shit).

If I want to play the game but I'm not dying to play it right now, I'll wait for a bargain.

If I sort of want to play the game but the price is an absolute steal, I'll probably buy it anyway (again, within reason, I don't buy EVERY $2 game during the Steam sales).

 

[Clearwaters]

Some of my favorite games are what others have called "disposable games". Ones with tight narratives, usually with logic puzzle gameplay, and no replay value at all. Games like 999 and Ghost Trick to be exact. I gladly spend full price (Like $50-$40) on these kinds of games even though they won't last as long as others.

So I guess I judge the value of games on how much I enjoyed them and if they end satisfyingly over how long they lasted. And I'd definitely rather have a 10 hour game I enjoyed all of than an 100 hour one I lose interest in halfway through.

 

[Semudara]

$30 - reasonable price
$40 - yer pushing it
$50 - the maximum (this game better be REALLY good)
$60 - unless this includes DLC, you can forget it!

This is based on the average quality I've observed in the games industry currently. That is, each game is about 10 hours of solid content, a few more hours of slightly tedious extra content, a reasonably enjoyable story and challenge, but never fully living up to its potential.

What do I want from a game? I want it to live up to and exemplify its own marketing. For example, I expected Super Mario 3D Land to be three-dimensional and have a lot of jumping and colors and to be whimsical and fun. And it was, so: job well done.

When I buy something like Paper Mario: Sticker Star, I expect an RPG on par with its predecessors: a good narrative, weird new characters, interesting places to explore, inventive and exciting situations, a daring princess, and that hilarious dialogue that Luigi and Bowser always provide! Seeing as the game had NONE OF THAT, whether it's challenging or long (it is both) is irrelevant. Whether the gameplay is well-designed is also irrelevant, since it's a "walk around and collect crap and sort it and use it and then collect more and sort it some more and keep walking around a lot" - sim. Which is not EXACTLY the sort of game I was hoping for with the fourth main installment of a series of fantastic RPGs. Its length and difficulty are actually the opposite of a selling point, since the story and character is too weak to provide any motivation, and the difficulty is arbitrary and based mostly in tedium and blind luck instead of skill or strategy.

In other words, every type of game-- in fact, every individual game-- has its own merits to live up to. And the more it does, the more it's worth, and the more it justifies a higher price.

Both games I mentioned have an MSRP of $40. One of them has earned it, though for such a short and simple game, $30 would be an even better fit. The other... should not be on store shelves. At all. Certainly not for more than, say, a dollar and fifty cents.

So I guess I judge the value of games on how much I enjoyed them and if they end satisfyingly over how long they lasted. And I'd definitely rather have a 10 hour game I enjoyed all of than an 100 hour one I lose interest in halfway through.

Pretty much this, yeah!

On a side note, the pricing system is really messed up in some countries, and it's saddening. $60 is already bordering on excessive; the average price of a video game shouldn't be more than that for anyone, anywhere.

 

[renegade7]

It's going to be the amount of gameplay I can get out of it. I'm a student on a budget, so a $25 game I can play for 100 hours over several months is going to take a massive priority to a $25 game that's just a single-player story that can be finished in one or two afternoons.

$30 and under is typically what I'll spend on a video game. Between $30 and $50, only if it's a really big-name title I've been waiting for (the next Zelda, Metroid, etc). Anything above $50, and it better be the sort of game I'll still be playing in 5 years (On the scale of Morrowind or similar, or a true classic like Ocarina of Time).

 

[Maximum Bert]

Just the quality of experience I personally get out of it. I obviously have subconscious factors that determine whether I think game X is worth the Y paid for it but I dont think its anything specific. If a game I am looking forward to exceeds my expectations I am going to in all likelihood rate as worth the money I paid for it but there have been other instances with free to play games where I wouldnt even rate the time needed to download and play it as good value i.e Soul Calibur Lost Swords.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

Length to completion...less than 10 hours is worth around £5. Less than 20 hours is worth £10. Less than 30 hours is £15 and i refuse to pay more than £20 for any game

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

How much I enjoy it and how long its been out for are the two big ones for me. I bought Heavy Rain about 3 years after it came out for $8, it was about the right price considering the quality and age of the game

 

[Verlander]

Pricing is an incredibly complicated thing. I don't question the costs of new games, but I don't buy on launch. I'd prefer to buy new, but after a couple of months when the price has significantly dropped.

 

[Dannox]

For steam games, I used the time played statistic. I want to get at least an hour of playtime for every 5 dollars I spend. If I get bored and stop before then, then the game was not worth the money.

 

[Nazulu]

Length and Quality, what else?

And by quality, I mean a lot of things, like it's detail, if it functions well, if it's too repetitive, good voice acting or not, options, if it can be broken easily, etc. You name it, it's on the list.

$80 is highest I would pay for my favourite games. Oddly enough, I bought them all very cheap.

 

[nevarran]

Fun. If I have fun with a game, the price is irrelevant.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I won't pay over $15-$20 for anything.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

Typically the length of time I can play it, but if I find out that it's length is padded out then forget it.
Fallout? Well worth it. It's a game that's pacing is more or less decided by me, and I choose what to do. The length is there, it's my choice to make use of it.

The Witcher? (the first one) It all felt like padding to me. I got so bored so fast it was unreal. I really tried to like it, but the second was much better in my opinion.

Multiplayer games get a free pass. I've put 90 hours into Titanfall, and I didn't need to, but I continue to enjoy it because I can always continue to get better at it, while always facing someone who is probably better than me.

 

[duwenbasden]

If I pay $40 or more, I expected to get at least 100 of enjoyable hours from it, otherwise, less than $30.

 

[FPLOON]

[ (How much the game is) x (How long the game is) ] / (How much fun I can get out of the game)

Yeah... That's basically sums it up for me... Granted, this equation's mainly used for games that are more linear in concept, but I digress... Besides, I rarely go over 60 bones unless it came with some extra goodies and/or it was a Collector's Edition, which at that point I was already going to enjoy the game in a semi-bias way, regardless...

 

[DeimosMasque]

Pretty much that, I recently told a friend that I started playing Remember Me, a game I picked up back during the Steam Summer Sale and the first thing they ask me is "how much you pay for it?". I said around $10 and they said "yep, thats what its worth.", played the game a bit and while I haven't finished it yet (I have this habit of picking up and dropping games into my backlog for fear of finishing them too quickly) I can say I wouldn't have minded paying the full price for it, its an okay game.

But to return to my question, what makes you say "yep, that was worth X dollars, money well spent." when it comes to games? Length? Content? Your personal enjoyment with the title? please do tell.

As for me, well sure I spent $3 bucks on it, but with the 500+ hours I've put into Terraria, I'd have gladly paid that $10

Heh, that's Funny I just got a used copy of Remember Me for the 360 for $5 ($10 - $5 coupon) from Gamefly. I haven't played it yet but my lady's put about 10 hours into it.

I mention hours because that's how I judge it usually (some exceptions apply) if I spent $60 and I got at least 20 hours of enjoyable time out of the experience than I feel I got my money's worth.

By enjoyable I mean the game was legit fun and not a frustrating experience.