Video game prices

[50cent1228]

i think if they put it down to 30 bucks they would sell more games

 

[InFeXiOn]

Originally posted by: 50cent1228
i think if they put it down to 30 bucks they would sell more games

no wai?!

Personally, I think game prices are fair especially for the cost of development that goes into a video game. A big budget game, something like the Halo franchise for example probably costs millions of dollars to develop, plus advertising, production and all that jazz so charging $50 for something that countless hours of time and effort went into is fine with me.

People can argue that there are many games that aren't worth the $50, well then, don't buy them. It's that simple. If you don't feel it's worth what it costs; which many games these days aren't, then just rent it and that's it. Complaining about prices isn't going to drop them, and if you were in their shoes you too would think the pricing was fine.

I would pay even more for some of the titles I absolutely love like Halo, Half Life, Project Gotham, and the list goes on and on.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: bamacre
I remember paying $40 to $50 for NES games, and that was almost 20 years ago (or am I losing it?). I think I paid $40 for Far Cry, $50 for HL2, $50 for COD2, $40 for FEAR, well, you get the picture.

Assuming high quality, I'd be happy to pay more for games. There are simply not enough games out there to keep me satisfied, I seem to always be waiting for some game to come out, with nothing really to tide me over. Looking back, I would have paid $75 to $100 for Far Cry, Vice City, and maybe a few other games, considering how many hours of enjoyment they offered me.

If higher prices for games is what it will take to get more good games on the market, so be it. I buy maybe 3 games per year because I only like shooters. That flat out sucks. I want more good games, and I am willing to pay for them.

i remember when Return of the Jedi for SNES came out for almost 80 bucks

screw that, i bought it used later for 20.

i havent played pc games in a while, though find 45 or 50 bucks reasonable. the only console i have is a gamecube, so i dont have to pay much on the occassion i want another game for it, and ill probably keep it for a while, as i dont game as much as i used to.

 

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: Canai
Too fvcking much. I miss my $40 new releases 🙁

Most games nowadays aren't worth $20, much less $50 or $60.

Agreed.

I remember paying 50 bucks for games in the past(pre 2000) and they came with something called "a manual", not a 1 - 5 page summary of the controls, a real, well thought out manual consisting of over 100 pages and the games had content to them. Not just eye candy.

Today they wanna charge you more, you get no manual to speak of because of the lack of actual content or purporse to the game.

What really ticks me off about the game industry today are places like Direct2Drive. You download the game, NO production costs what so ever, yet you are charged full price as if you went to the store and put something with a Box and some form of Disk. That's just plain sick.

 

[Acanthus]

Prices havent really gone up, but quality has plummeted in recent years.

The routine of launching beta games and getting them up to playable 10 patches later, has me jaded against the pc gaming industry.

Very few games have worked as ive wanted them to at launch.

FEAR, Doom 3, HL2, Civ 4 are the only games that come to mind, ive probably bought 40.

 

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: InFeXiOn

Originally posted by: 50cent1228
i think if they put it down to 30 bucks they would sell more games

no wai?!

Personally, I think game prices are fair especially for the cost of development that goes into a video game. A big budget game, something like the Halo franchise for example probably costs millions of dollars to develop, plus advertising, production and all that jazz so charging $50 for something that countless hours of time and effort went into is fine with me.

People can argue that there are many games that aren't worth the $50, well then, don't buy them. It's that simple. If you don't feel it's worth what it costs; which many games these days aren't, then just rent it and that's it. Complaining about prices isn't going to drop them, and if you were in their shoes you too would think the pricing was fine.

I would pay even more for some of the titles I absolutely love like Halo, Half Life, Project Gotham, and the list goes on and on.

I think 50 bucks for a well thought out, executed, and TESTED game isn't all that bad.
I paid $50 when Transport Tycoon first came out back in the 90s. That game was awsome(not Doom but it offered countles hours of play).

The problem today is, the game industry spends way too much money on hype and advertising which leads less money for development and testing and this leads to something of very very poor quality. Look at the latest Star Trek Game:Legacy. This was to be the game that redeem Star Trek as a gaming title. The game is a total flop. Everything about it sucks.

 

[destrekor]

as others have said... considering inflation, the base price is cheaper now than what everyone is used to. also, so are consoles. people complain about the PS3.. but in reality, its not much more in relative speaking than the SNES and PS1 were. i saw a chart that plotted costs and their modern cost based on inflation and everything had kind of a flat line.

either way, games now, even without speaking for inflation, are cheaper than quite a few of the N64 games 😉

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: RaiderJ

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: RaiderJ
The prices don't bother me. In truth, if you wait a year or so, it's actually pretty cheap entertainment. Just think how much fun you could have with $200 in brand-new PS2 gear right now!

depends on what you are buying, waiting is not good.

for example, an fps game with online MP. sure, people might still play it years from now but not like they did at release. while you're playing through BF2, a year from now, people will be playing BF9.

or in the case of an mmorpg, everyone is high level but you start out with no one to play with your level.

guys it's $50 ... $50. it will give you hours and HOURS of entertainment. Hell if I spend $50 on a game that I played for 10 hours single player and it has no multiplayer at all, it's worth it to me. That is $5/hour which is a lot less than I get paid per hour, so it's not that big a deal. Not to mention, if I finished it in a week, buying it on launch, chances are I can sell it used for $30 pretty easily. So scratch that ... $2/hour for 10 hours of fun.

Some of you guys are talking like these games cost $200/piece. $50 isn't even that much money in todays age.

That's what I do with DS games. Buy them used, play them, sell them. Pretty cheap!

thats one reason they have to charge 50+, they don't get squat on the used market.

Originally posted by: 50cent1228
i think if they put it down to 30 bucks they would sell more games

i'm sure they've thought of that already. if they sold it at 30 dollars they would have to sell that many more copies to make the same profit,and if that isn't possible, its not worth it. neither 30 or 50 dollars is chump change for teens. so its not a big difference.

 

[IntrinsicValue]

I don't game often anymore, but I refuse to pay more than $20 for a video game. For those rare instances I do want to buy something, I wait for the price to drop to $19.99.

(P.S. I'm SO glad I did that for the Star-Wars Empire At War game.... and it was still overpriced.)

 

[Koing]

My dad paid £65 for MKII! Thats at least $100+ depending on the exchange rate.

I don't buy loads of games and the games I do get are ones I really like.

Koing

 

[ShotgunSteven]

I buy arcade games, along with various console and computer games. You will get no pity from me. 😛

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: bamacre
I remember paying $40 to $50 for NES games, and that was almost 20 years ago (or am I losing it?). I think I paid $40 for Far Cry, $50 for HL2, $50 for COD2, $40 for FEAR, well, you get the picture.

Assuming high quality, I'd be happy to pay more for games. There are simply not enough games out there to keep me satisfied, I seem to always be waiting for some game to come out, with nothing really to tide me over. Looking back, I would have paid $75 to $100 for Far Cry, Vice City, and maybe a few other games, considering how many hours of enjoyment they offered me.

If higher prices for games is what it will take to get more good games on the market, so be it. I buy maybe 3 games per year because I only like shooters. That flat out sucks. I want more good games, and I am willing to pay for them.

i get the picture 😛

as i see it the problem is NOT that there not *enough quality games* ... it is simply that *you* have *limited* yourself to *ONE type* of game - *FPS*
:Q

the gaming universe is much bigger than FPS and i am glad to see that there is much choice at $40 or $50 ... and the bargain bin will always exist.

there are some GEMS for cheap and price will make no difference to me --except if it is more expensive, i will buy less new newly-released games.

and don't give me that Movie ticket = $10 for two hours, nonsense ... it is the most overpriced popular entertainment on earth [besides gambling]

i played Oblivion for 1,200+ hours ... and payed $80 total for the game and *all* the plugins

what is that ... about $0.06 per hour?

😀

 

[natep]

Games are a pretty easy source of entertainment to critique. I usually just check Gamespot before I give up $60 for a game, if I haven't played it.

$60 is reasonable. It isn't much more than older generations of games.

Also, the fact that DVDs are cheap doesn't matter. There is still the salary of each developer, who worked on the game for a year and a half.

 

[TheRyuu]

They should put more ads in games if it'll bring down the price 😛

I think $60 is too much.
$50 is up there
$40 is getting better
$30 is great
$20 (for a good game) is a steal
Less then $10=bargain bin. (sometimes good)

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: wizboy11
They should put more ads in games if it'll bring down the price 😛

I think $60 is too much.
$50 is up there
$40 is getting better
$30 is great
$20 (for a good game) is a steal
Less then $10=bargain bin. (sometimes good)

it won't ...

and it *depends* ... overall, i paid $80 for Oblivion which turned out to be the cheapest game ever --if you count it as my favourite and the hundreds of hours i enjoyed playing it.

OTOH, i have *free* games that i haven't played .. and some barely-touched bargain bin games gathering dust ... very expensive ...

e.g. : Gun was $20 bargain bin and i found it simply *awful* and uninstalled it after probably 1/2 way thru ... that's twenty bucks in the *trash*

 

[Malak]

I will agree that a game like Oblivion is worth every penny, I'd almost say it had more content than some MMO's even(and we know the expansions will be great).

But compare that to a game like... Dungeon Siege. Hardly any character development, takes a couple days to beat. Worth the same price? Hardly. That's why I didn't buy it until a couple weeks ago when it was cheap and bundled with an expansion. That's how I do it now, I buy games that are worth the premium, or wait and wait and wait until they are so cheap I might actually consider buying them.

 

[Bateluer]

Originally posted by: Canai
Too fvcking much. I miss my $40 new releases 🙁

Most games nowadays aren't worth $20, much less $50 or $60.

Agreed. Years ago, new $40 releases would offer weeks worth of steady gameplay, with months, potentially years, of replay value. Many games today offer less than 6 hours of gameplay, with little to no replay value.

I've paid up to 50 before, as well as MMOs with a monthly fee, but thats about my limit. And that monthly fee better bring worthwhile to the game.

 

[PingSpike]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: bamacre

Originally posted by: pontifex
i would never pay $75-100 for ANY game. that is fvcking ridiculous and you'd have to be a fvcking moron to want to pay that much.

hell, i think $50 is too much sometimes. $40 is about right for me

But what if the game was totally revolutionary? The developer went through leaps and bounds and created a game that was so fun, so intense, so kick-ass? The reviews were 10/10 across the board?

$50

why should i have to pay extra for something they should be doing already?

Why should I make a better game if the current crappy ones are selling for $50 just fine?

 

[DeathReborn]

Being in the UK i'd set my limit at £50 (all formats).

What really gets my goat is how they force you to pay twice for most MMO's (pay to own & then pay to play). It's about time they start releasing MMO's for free but charge you to play instead or at least give you the £30/50 you pay to own it in playtime.

In short, game companies stick it to the customers but they know that we'll keep paying.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Malak
I will agree that a game like Oblivion is worth every penny, I'd almost say it had more content than some MMO's even(and we know the expansions will be great).

But compare that to a game like... Dungeon Siege. Hardly any character development, takes a couple days to beat. Worth the same price? Hardly. That's why I didn't buy it until a couple weeks ago when it was cheap and bundled with an expansion. That's how I do it now, I buy games that are worth the premium, or wait and wait and wait until they are so cheap I might actually consider buying them.

exactly ... that's why you only buy DS siege when it is bargain bin

otoh, Oblivion has been out for months and it is barely discounted ...

look at that Buggy PoS NWN2 ... it went bargain bin within 35 days [so i couldn't get a Price match] and STILL made the top 20 PC games for Dec [barely] and after 3 months is still a *mess* ... that is Atari's fault and i won't support ANY of their *new* games [period]

we need to send a message to the Sh!**y publishers ... i won't be buying *beta* games and testing them for free ... no more ...

they lose

 

[AgentJean]

Originally posted by: Bateluer

Originally posted by: Canai
Too fvcking much. I miss my $40 new releases 🙁

Most games nowadays aren't worth $20, much less $50 or $60.

Agreed. Years ago, new $40 releases would offer weeks worth of steady gameplay, with months, potentially years, of replay value. Many games today offer less than 6 hours of gameplay, with little to no replay value.

I've paid up to 50 before, as well as MMOs with a monthly fee, but thats about my limit. And that monthly fee better bring worthwhile to the game.

Yeah, unlike SOE and their making people pay to test Alpha software. :|

 

[sonoma1993]

I remember when I bought Fable for the pc. I think I payed like $50 for it. The game only had like 12hrs of playtime, I don't think it really had much replay value. No were near worth the price for $50, more like $30 I think $30-$40 is good price range for games. Sports games are overprice now. EA NHL series, they are like $30 on the pc when they are release. I think really should be only $20. Not much changes each year in a hockey game. Just roster updates and some new play style function. But other than it the same game.