You know there's speculation that certain developers are getting sweetheart deals to support this or that platform as they jockey for market share with the new consoles.
So you wonder if their costs are even as high as it is now. Sure the development costs would be higher but those are fixed costs. Makes a lot more difference how much more or how much less you pay per unit.
Software enjoys high margins because the marginal cost is so low. That is why they can cut the price from $50 to 20 and still make good money, long after their fixed costs are recovered.
From everything I've read, the video game industry has considered their product to be underpriced for the last few years.There is no doubt that changes with Next-Gen systems.59.99 price points are a given,and there will be alot of emphasis on Collecters' Edition type releases,too.
The cost of living is approx. 3% per year. This is a 20% increase over the next year.
Ok, but how many years now has the gaming industry set 49.99 as the standard price for games. It's be SEVERAL years with no increase. If anything, over the past few years the cost of games has decreased with Take Two's 19.99 price tag and Sony first part usually going for 39.99.
while I don't like the news of 59.99 I do realize that it has been speculated to be even higher AND will pay it for the games I really want.
It'll defintely help me cut back on impulse purchases, but for the sports games that I've always had to have, I'll continue to have that same need.
I was going to say that higher prices mean that I won't be getting all of the football or baseball games made by all the developers when they are released, but with the new licensing for baseball and football that isn't even an option.
But my days of getting both, for example, March Madness and College Hoops on release day are over. And like PK, games that I might like will wait until I can get them on the cheap on ebay after they have been out a few months.
It is not even so much the $10 price point increase. It is the fact that ESPN games were $19 for the past year and MVP was even down to $29. Over the last 18 months I have only bought a handful of games at even the $49 price point.
The game companies can do whatever they want, god bless 'em, and I wish them the best. If a game is good enough then I will pay what they sell it for, but if it isn't then i won't. It will ultimately come down to quality, as usual.
I have only paid $49.99 or more for 3 games in the last year, Half-Life 2 for the PC, Forza for Xbox, and GTR for the PC which I imported from Germany back in November and it cost me around $80 total. The majority of the games I have purchased in the last year have been $29.99 or less, many of them new at $19.99 (ESPN games and a couple of the Codemasters games).
If the game is something I really want and feel fairly confident that I will enjoy it and spend a lot of time with it, then I will pay that amount, otherwise I will pass.
There are a bunch of games in the last year that I did not buy mainly because of their $49.99 price tag. Doom III, World of Warcraft, Madden 2005, NCAA 2005, Ghost Recon 2, just to name a few. These were games that I probably would have liked but were just not worth the extra cash for me personally. At $29.99 or less, I would have probably picked them up.
No big deal either way. If all games on the next generation systems are $49.99 or more, I will probably just wait until prices start to come down, unless there is a significant improvement in gameplay and features. Fortunately I have broken myself of my "got to have it on release day" addiction.
matthewk wrote:
The bottom line is, I really don't care what the developers make or how hard it is to make the games. I am NOT paying $60 for a freaking video game, even though it is something I can afford. They are just not worth that much to me. I COULD do it, but I WON'T do it.
That is totally fair Matt. Don't pay it if you don't want to. But for alot of people (not necessarily you) the logic above leads to some strange justification of theft of the intellectual property/copyright via piracy.
Another bit of perspective: Say you buy a game per month on average. That's 12 games per year. If the price of next-gen games is $10 more, that's an extra $120 per year.
If you're into gaming enough to buy a game per month or more and own multiple consoles, is b*tching about another $120 per year really valid? It's about an extra 33 cents per day for a hobby you really enjoy, and a lot of the people who own multiple systems and buy lots of games do play damn near every day, so the 33-cent equation is valid.
Those who are hardcore into gaming are going to buy the games, even with the increased prices. Those who aren't hardcore or who have cut back significantly, like me, will buy only a handful of games on release day, instead waiting for brick-and-mortar sales or buying them on eBay. Or we won't buy the game at all.
But those who run out and buy every system at launch and buy nearly every major sports release and/or release in their other favorite genres on release day really have little to complain about with the increase in prices. It's sort of like a Ferrari owner b*tching that the price of that new Enzo just increased from $450,000 to $475,000.
Matt pretty much nailed it: If the increased prices are worth it to you, you'll pay. If not, then you won't.
These price increases really won't affect my gaming spending habits much at all as I've already done an internal audit on my gaming expenditures and have cut back. I now have just five games in my videogame library, and I purchased only one of them at $49.99 -- Forza. That game is worth $100 to me, let alone $50.
As Leebo and I think Brando say, it comes down to entertainment per dollar per hour. If a movie rental is $3 for two hours, that comes down to $1.50 per hour. I've already gotten probably 25 hours of superb entertainment from Forza, and I only had the damn game for a week before I had to leave for Indy.
I'll probably end up paying about a penny to a nickel per hour for the amount of enjoyable hours I'll get out of Forza. Well worth it.
Take care,
PK
"You know why I love boxers? I love them because they face fear. And they face it alone." - Nick Charles
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Dunno what you lot are whining about - over here £30 is the price that the chain stores will charge for a game that is in the charts...start looking for wargames and stuff and you are looking at £35.
"The players come from all over the world, the money from deep underneath the Persian Gulf, but, as another, older City poster campaign put it, this is their city. They may now exist in the global spotlight, but they intend to keep it that way."
pk500 wrote:If you want to talk about outrageous price hikes: Gas was $1.45 per gallon a year ago. Now it's $2.15 per gallon.
A bit of perspective.
Take care,
PK
Whoever is paying $2.15 for a gallon of gas is one lucky bastard. I just paid $2.39 a gallon today. I saw that and thought it was cheap because two weeks ago i paid $2.59. Anyway, $60 for a game is pretty darn expensive if you ask me. I'm a poor student so i just can't afford to buy most games at that price. Then again i've cut back on buying games on release for $50 over the past few years. I only buy about 3 or 4 games at full price each year, and a lot of the time i'm trading in older games to get credit towards those purchases. Other than those few titles i'm always looking at the used and budget bins. I'm usually able to hold off on the hot titles until a price drop.
"Be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium." -Nick Hornby
matthewk wrote:More sales per game brings overall cost down.
This isn't true as more sales could do nothing but increase overall costs, but hopefully more sales would bring the average cost down.
C'mon, you know what I meant. I cannot believe you had to be so anal with that. I mean really, a chart? IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME MESSAGE BOARD, not a test run for the space shuttle.
laurenskye wrote:Why are people ok with the price going up on this new gen suddenly?
I can only speak for myself, but I realize that companies have the ability and right (some stakeholders would even say obligation) to set the price at a point where they can maximize profits. I do not feel like they have to justify anything to me. I don't care what the game prices have been and I don't care if the games have a greater markup than movie theatre popcorn. It's pretty much out of my control.
What is in my control are my purchasing habits and I will make those decisions when I have to. If Madden, NBA Live, and NHL 2K6 cost me an extra $30-50 dollars this year, then I probably won't take a chance on multiple baseball games and I won't impulse buy games like Burnout 3. Plus, as I mentioned before I think the resale values will increase. I think I bought Madden this year for $50 and sold it for a net rturn of $35. I'm assuming that next year I can buy it for $60 and sell it for a net of $40-45. If the net resale values don't start rising relative to the price increase, then I would just start buying the games on Ebay. I've been buying a lot of games on the release date because they are cheap. I can go back to waiting if they get too pricey.
Last edited by Leebo33 on Wed May 18, 2005 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
matthewk wrote:C'mon, you know what I meant. I cannot believe you had to be so anal with that. I mean really, a chart? IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME MESSAGE BOARD, not a test run for the space shuttle.
I was only being silly with the chart, but I forgot you take things so seriously even though it is IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME MESSAGE BOARD.
matthewk wrote:C'mon, you know what I meant. I cannot believe you had to be so anal with that. I mean really, a chart? IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME MESSAGE BOARD, not a test run for the space shuttle.
I was only being silly with the chart, but I forgot you take things so seriously even though it is IT'S A FREAKING VIDEO GAME MESSAGE BOARD.
Then put a smiley on it somewhere. I can't tell who's being "silly" and who's just being a prick on this board lately. We've had so many serious arguments over pettey crap lately it's hard to tell what's joking from what's real.
laurenskye wrote:Why are people ok with the price going up on this new gen suddenly?
I can only speak for myself, but I realize that companies have the ability and right (some stakeholders would even say obligation) to set the price at a point where they can maximize profits. I do not feel like they have to justify anything to me. I don't care what the game prices have been and I don't care if the games have a greater markup than movie theatre popcorn. It's pretty much out of my control.
What is in my control is my purchasing habits and I will make those decisions when I have to. If Madden, NBA Live, and NHL 2K6 cost me an extra $30-50 dollars this year, then I probably won't take a chance on multiple baseball games and I won't impulse buy games like Burnout 3. Plus, as I mentioned before I think the resale values will increase. I think I bought Madden this year for $50 and sold it for a net rturn of $35. I'm assuming that next year I can buy it for $60 and sell it for a net of $40-45. If the net resale values don't start rising relative to the price increase, then I would just start buying the games on Ebay. I've been buying a lot of games on the release date because they are cheap. I can go back to waiting if they get too pricey.
Leebo, I've been monitoring you for awhile on behalf of the Legue of People Who Don't Believe In Or Understand Capitalism. This thread is just the latest example of your flagrant espousal of captialist, free market principles. Consider yourself warned.
Seriously, people seem to have no problem with free markets except when it impacts their hobby LOL
XBL Gamertag: RobVarak
"Ok I'm an elitist, but I have a healthy respect for people who don't measure up." --Aaron Sorkin
More power to them. I'm interested to see how it works, especially after seeing so many people respond like I would--we're very spoiled by the Sega pricing this year and EA's subsequent slashing. I'd probably have sacked up and bought Forza at $60 and maybe MVP after seeing the great reviews. I can't really justify paying $50 for a PSP game, either.
If I was a kid, a $60 game would require me mowing the lawn an extra 2 times!
PK, I think I'm already under $1 per hour of entertainment on Forza. I'd be ready to plunk down another $10 for a few more tracks.
All, it does cost more to produce a game now than it used too. We demand much more from our games. The amount of content we want in a top of the line game takes a lot of time to put the amount of detail that is needed to make a HD quality game.
My only hope is with a price increase that we'll see room for some more niche games come in. Whatever happened to the space opera/sim category? Wing Commander was king...
