What would happen if video games were cheaper?

[HardRockSamurai]

Let us say that the price of a brand new video game is $60.00. What if that were $50.00 instead? Would it make a difference? Would more people play video games? Would game publishers still make enough money? What would happen?

I guess my main questions are: "Would anything happen if video games became cheaper?" and "How much cheaper would games have to be to make such a difference?"

Enlighten me, please.

 

[Leorex]

if they where 40.00 i would be able to buy them more often.

 

[Stevedave00]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Interactive_Multiplayer
then the market crashed.

 

[A Random Player]

People would probably continue torrenting them.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

Let us say that the price of a brand new video game is $60.00. What if that were $50.00 instead? Would it make a difference? Would more people play video games? Would game publishers still make enough money? What would happen?

I guess my main questions are: "Would anything happen if video games became cheaper?" and "How much cheaper would games have to be to make such a difference?"

Enlighten me, please.

I remember a time when the price of a new video game WAS $50.00

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

More people would buy them.

Nuff' said.

 

[Srkkl]

I would be able to afford a lot more of them and buy games like EndWar and stuff that I want, but can't bring myself to buy. But I doubt it would change the gaming market or community.

 

[The_Echo]

Gamers would be able to buy more, and considering all the releases I personally miss out due to money, yes, the devs would certainly make around the same amount of money.

 

[hopeneverdies]

If they were 50, my status wouldn't change. But if they were to drop to $30...

 

[Noone From Nowhere]

Many stores already have greatly discounted games (besides pre-owned copies) during sales. I only purchased Soul Calibur 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4: the Lost and the Damned because of sales offers, the former being around $15 at some online store(not as good as Best Buy's $10 mega-sale event price but good enough)while the latter was offered for free along with 3-months of X-Box Live Gold for a limited time on Amazon.com (okay, so the Gold subscription was free, but I used it more than the expansion which I actually purchased.). Do a bit of comparisson shopping online and you might be plesantly surprised by some of the everyday prices you may find.
To answer the question--those who offer to sell the games cheaper will profit while those who don't... will still probably recoup their losses some other way if they aren't a game specialty store.

 

[rohit9891]

More people would consider buying them...but there will still be lot of people torrenting them anyways.

 

[EnderWigginDA]

Looks like people buy games when they are cheaper: Nothing much ove $30 here. Plus this was on a big sale weekend. TF2 was $10 over the weekend.

At long last, digital distribution outlet Steam has joined NPD and Direct2Drive in providing weekly sales data, providing for a wider view of the PC gaming landscape.

Of course, there's a twist. Steam lists its weekly sales by revenue, instead of unit sales, so comparisons between NPD's retail charts and D2D's downloads aren't valid. Regardless, it's more information than we had before, which is always nice.

Steam Weekly Top Sellers (by revenue, as of 5/24 - 5/30):

1. Team Fortress 2 / Valve
2. Killing Floor / Tripwire
3. Left 4 Dead / Valve
4. Counter-Strike: Source / Valve
5. Plants vs. Zombies / PopCap
6. The Orange Box / Valve
7. Unreal Deal Pack (Unreal Gold, U2, Unreal Tournament, UT2004, UT3) / Epic
8. Unreal Tournament 3 Black / Epic
9. Assassin's Creed / Ubisoft Montreal
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare / Infinity Ward

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

According to Valve's market research lower prices lead to higher profits. Not just higher sales, higher profits.

 

[Mirroga]

I would've bought tons of console games already if it were just 30 dollars.

 

[quiet_samurai]

I'd have more money for booze.

 

[Pendragon9]

Buy more video games. Duh.

 

[Gamer137]

I'm sure developers would make a better profit. An individual game most likley costs less then $5 to get discs, copy data, print booklet, make box, assemble, and ship in bulk. I am sure that the higher sells would more then compensate for the lower prices.

 

[Rednog]

Comparing this gen to the last gen, I have much more last gen games then current gen.
My strategy this gen is keep a list of about 10-15 games that I usually pick up when they hit the $30 or lower mark.

 

[A random person]

We could buy a crapload of them at once like books. Lots of great gaming, available for a relatively cheap price.

I actually consider games to be the most similar medium to books. Don't know why, but interactivity and greater role of interpretation has something to do with it.

And it could be done without horribly hurting the industry if more people were interested. Again if people bought video games like books.

 

[Metalchair]

id have more