Gaming doesn't have to be expensive if you're willing to wait, but not everybody can do this, as the success of a game is measured by the copies it sells at launch and a short time after.
games really are not that expensive...
- Thread starter HarryScull
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Gamers mostly behave and act like entitled children online (and in real life?) and thus expect, neigh, demand the latest and most fantastically over budget blockbusters be less than a tenth of their weekly income.
Basically: "Every new AAA release costs more than my pocket money. Games are expensive."
Logics.
Basically: "Every new AAA release costs more than my pocket money. Games are expensive."
Logics.
those prices that you stated depend on where you are, location and region can be factors in the price of a game, as regions have to be taken into account for consoles (without modding, consoles are region locked, like some DVD players, thus preventing some gamers from buying the games cheaper from overseas), if i want to import a game, i have to get it from the UK as they are the only ones who share the AU region, but you are right, purchasing online can be much cheaper than going to a game shop.tippy2k2 said:
I myself wait for most games to come down in price, unless it is one i've had on preorder
I'm not sure if you are referring to purely PC prices, but I think you are. I went into EB games just today to check the prices on those games. First of all, Limbo and Bastion are Indie releases, and thus are not going to be extremely expensive. However, Shogun 2 is still retailing in the store for $50-$60, Dead Island is still $50 on Xbox for a pre-owned copy, and SR3 is still $60. Yes, purchasing retail is obviously going to be more expensive, but unlike PC, console gamers rarely have the luxury of downloading their games, and all games are priced ridiculously high.Elcarsh said:
The only games that drop rapidly in price are either the real bad ones, or single-player games that get beaten and returned within a month. I walked in to EB, and they had probably 20 copies of pre-owned Skyrim, and it is still going to $70! I am not saying it's impossible to find cheap games, as you're right, Steam sales and Indie titles are all very cheap, but that doesn't change the fact that console gamers still get ripped off for new releases every time. And while you might argue that one could just wait a few months for the price to drop, the price may barely drop at all, and for huge multiplayer titles, those few months puts you at a huge disadvantage compared to the rest of players.
Sure, games can be worth it in time you sink into them. I have played 300 hours in Battlefield 3, which cost me $90 on release. Yes, that is a high price, but you are paying for a worthy amount of entertainment, right? WRONG, but more on this in a minute. The problem with this is that publishers are beginning to nikel-&-dime their customers with rather cheap tactics. Now, I play Battlefield on the Xbox, so in addition to the game I also pay a Live subscription to have the priviledge of online play. Since Battlefield uses dedicated servers, new game owners get an online pass to allow them access to these servers, but people that wait for a few months for the price to drop still get wammied with the price of the online pass that they have to purchase online. However, DICE/EA has since scrapped the officially supported servers, and now players have to rent their own at a rather high price (4000 MP for 3 months). What I cannot understand is why a game based around the multiplayer requires you to purchase the game, purchase the online pass and then purchase your own server so that you are able to play the game YOU PAID FOR. In addition, publishers are getting creative with their DLC rip-offs in an attempt to drag every possible cent from you as they can.
DLC, regardless of age, is all usually the same price within a set of brackets. Map packs and weapons are usually 800MP, Big Map Packs are usually 1200MP and then you get themes and avatar items at low prices, usually 80-240MP. The problem is that these prices NEVER DROP. Regardless of the age of the game, the price will remain the same for the DLC. In addition to that, publishers are now trying to get your money from you up front with season passes, or premium memberships to give you early access to all the DLC's. Using BF3 again as an example, they will soon be releasing a premium membership similar to CoD ELITE, that gives you access to all 5 DLC's at a price of 4000MP, even if you already have the first of the DLC packs. This premium membership will give people 2 weeks early access to the maps and weapon unlocks, give them access to exlcusive content and events and priority access to the servers that OTHER PEOPLE HAVE PAID FOR. This is what really irks me, as the people that don't buy this package will be at a disadvantage to those that have, and it splits the playing community into those that have paid and those that haven't. And people will buy this, thinking it is a deal, forgetting the fact that they might not be playing the game when the last DLC pack is released, but EA doesn't care, because they already have your money. So let's do some quick math. $80 for 1 year of Live, $90 for BF3 (including online pass), $150 to rent your own server for a year and then $50 to get premium access to DLC and servers. So are you tell me that $370 to play a SINGLE game for ONE YEAR is cheap, a game that you have been forced to pay for over and over again? People can keep saying "blah blah mindless sheep blah blah" but that does not change the fact that the pricing system in the games industry is inherently broken.
In this sense, EA is probably the worst with this money spinning. Even in Mass Effect 3, they have implemented a system that would be more common in a F2P game, as people have the option to grind for gear, or pay real money for a CHANCE to get the gear that they want. And this system is inherently broken as people can fork out hundreds of dollars in a gamble and STILL not get the items or gear that they want.
You can all throw around your insults about the stupidity of buying day 1 or waiting for the price to drop, but my point still remains that games are over-priced on their release, and publishers are getting more and more underhanded in their tactics to bleed you of every cent. And can everyone please stop using Indie games as an example? Yes, Indie games are cheap because they are simple. You cannot compare Angry Birds with Skyrim, because they are two completely different types of games in terms of their complexity and scope. And yes, Steam sales do provide incredible deals, but just remember that not all gaming avenues have the same kind of service.
Go to Astralia, mate.
There, they are. Some games are like 93 USD there.
But yeah, a majority of my games come from steam's bi yearly sales.
There, they are. Some games are like 93 USD there.
But yeah, a majority of my games come from steam's bi yearly sales.
Like it or not $60 is still a substantial investment for a lot of people. For me $60 isnt all that much, I could buy a new AAA game every month and still be ok but I have a successful career and no major bills to pay. For someone less fortunate then me $60 can be the difference between eating or going hungry. You can add in older games and even free to play games but the problem is you either have to wait several years for such games to become cheap or in the case of many free to play games the experience is infinitely inferior to the pay to play experience (i.e City of heros). Then in the provided examples you lacked the cost of a console, PC, tablet, etc
To be fair, there are many games that are much cheaper and still amazing fun but most of these are indie games that have little to no marketing presence outside of word of mouth so its unlikely that the average person will hear about it. They tend to lack high production values of the AAA industry and that can turn a lot of people off but there are some real gems out there. Dungeon defenders was, for me, an amazing purchase for only $15 and Ive put hundreds of hours into it. The same can be said for legend of grimmrock although my time with that game was more in the dozens of hours
On the flip side you have some AAA games that offer hundreds of hours of play like Fallout 3/new vegas and skyrim. However theyre full price at $60 and then theres the DLC to tack on (Costing $5-20 each) assuming you dont wait a year or more for the full package at $60.
I just have to disagree. Even though I have a career and can afford to buy games pretty regularily I still think theyre to expensive for the average person. I, most certainly, do not fall in the realm of "average consumer"
To be fair, there are many games that are much cheaper and still amazing fun but most of these are indie games that have little to no marketing presence outside of word of mouth so its unlikely that the average person will hear about it. They tend to lack high production values of the AAA industry and that can turn a lot of people off but there are some real gems out there. Dungeon defenders was, for me, an amazing purchase for only $15 and Ive put hundreds of hours into it. The same can be said for legend of grimmrock although my time with that game was more in the dozens of hours
On the flip side you have some AAA games that offer hundreds of hours of play like Fallout 3/new vegas and skyrim. However theyre full price at $60 and then theres the DLC to tack on (Costing $5-20 each) assuming you dont wait a year or more for the full package at $60.
I just have to disagree. Even though I have a career and can afford to buy games pretty regularily I still think theyre to expensive for the average person. I, most certainly, do not fall in the realm of "average consumer"
exactly.Chairman Miaow said:
there are LOTS of AAA games out these days (not to mention all the indie/free to play games out there) so my money can only stretch so far, and with the initial retail prices, i can't afford more than one or two games on launch because of it. i definitely wait for steam sales like crazy, unless it's a game i really want or a developer i really want to support, i always wait for it to get down to at least <35 bucks.
i'd be alot more willing to buy games on launch and take that risk if they didn't cost 60-70 right off the bat, because if i don't like the game then i'm fucked, as for pc there isn't much if any for a return policy.
Lower prices don't always = more sales and cash for the developer, as there is a finite number of players with money and time to play them, thats why you see best examples of boxed copies of niche genres like oldschool arcade shmups priced higher than a normal cheap XBLA offering.
I can't afford to buy games at £40 at pop but I wouldn't be as entitled to think the RRP should be lowered so I can get the benefits of a day 1 purchase.
I have to wait and accept I have to give up something in terms of quality* However I try buy games at or near RRP that I feel are worthy of my support. It would be hypocritical to rant on about shady monetisation practices while demanding a quality product if I didn't dig my hand into my pocket and instead bought every game at £5.
*This doesn't apply to most PC games, infact the longer you wait the better the game gets (bug fixes, extra content, graphical enhancements & new GFX card)
I can't afford to buy games at £40 at pop but I wouldn't be as entitled to think the RRP should be lowered so I can get the benefits of a day 1 purchase.
I have to wait and accept I have to give up something in terms of quality* However I try buy games at or near RRP that I feel are worthy of my support. It would be hypocritical to rant on about shady monetisation practices while demanding a quality product if I didn't dig my hand into my pocket and instead bought every game at £5.
*This doesn't apply to most PC games, infact the longer you wait the better the game gets (bug fixes, extra content, graphical enhancements & new GFX card)
Saints Row The Third: $17 on PC, $50 on console ($30 used in unknown condition)Elcarsh said:
http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Row-The-Third-Xbox-360/dp/B004QEV0MI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338803010&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Row-The-Third-Download/dp/B005OMM66A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338803025&sr=8-1
Fear 3 and Dead Island are some particularly maligned games, they were very poorly received by the gaming press and market at large though had large hype/ Better example would be Deus Ex Human revolution on Amazon.com: less than $10 dollars for the PC version, $30 for the 360 version.
This website tracks the prices of games sold on Steam:
http://www.steamprices.com/uk
You can see Saints Row The Third is at a similarly good offer right now on steam.
Games are cheap on PC, but not on console.
If you buy as many games as you want to play, you will REALLY struggle to spend more in the long run on PC than on a console.
I think the single biggest piece of evidence indicating the market is not saturated is quite how prevalent Pre-owned games are in the market. 75-80% of the shelf space in games retail stores is for pre-owned. That means a huge proportion of the market cannot afford to buy new and the few who do buy new are very likely to trade in the recoup the huge loss they made.TrevHead said:
I'm telling you, the market for people who are interested in these games and can play them (own the console, etc) is way larger than the number of new-copies sold would suggest. This is because games are too expensive per-unit. If they sold at a lower price and REALLY pushed to the market that wants to play them then they would get more revenue.
Uncharted 2 is such a great games yet sold only 5.6 million units. If a movie of similar quality only sold 5.6 million tickets IN TOTAL it would be declared a complete flop. Hell, TV shows have been cancelled for having viewing figures that low, and those are WORLDWIDE sales over 3 years for a console that almost 60 million people own.
I really want to play Uncharted 3 but I can't justify spending £30 (US$50) on one game that came out almost a year ago.
I can't believe that a flagship title like Uncharted 2, less than 10% of the PS3 user-base actually bought a new copy of. I think it's obvious that WAY more would buy that game if it didn't cost $60. More PS3's are sold all the time, the Market is growing all the time but game sales aren't. Because the price is wrong.
How recently was it that Microsoft announced multiplayer now cost $60 a year? They justified it by saying it was in line with inflation, except the way XBL works it is no significant extra effort for Microsoft to connect more console to multiplayer, and with more paying for multiplayer they make more money. If anything they should have CUT the price of XBL Gold Membership. That's how you grow a console's base, instead they milk those who have been roped in and give more reason to leave or never invest in a 360.
Fine.Dirty Hipsters said:
"Newly released AAA games are too expensive" (seeing as we're not allowed to count anything else).
Uh... cry me a river. I've not purchased a full-price new AAA release in YEARS, and if game prices are a problem, you shouldn't either.
Oh wait, Australians don't get access to amazon sales? Ok, that's some invalid ones.
Rome total war? do me a favour and look up when that came out.
And you're seriously suggesting the portal flash game is as good as if not better than the orange box version? Right, have you actually played Portal?
Rome total war? do me a favour and look up when that came out.
And you're seriously suggesting the portal flash game is as good as if not better than the orange box version? Right, have you actually played Portal?
lacktheknack said:
So you'd cheerfully count the fact that I can pay $1 for the humble bundle into a defence as to why games aren't expensive, and as cheerfully quote 10 year old games into the same argument?
Seeing how I'm a PC gamer, yes.ResonanceSD said:
However, I just got Tropico 4 with ALL DLC recently for $35 bucks. I got Rayman Origins for $20. I got Legend of Grimrock for fifteen. Portal 2 double-pack for $35 (I think).
If you're willing to sit down and wait for a few months (like I am), then you can have all the AAA games your greedy little heart desires for 50% off or more.
And where do you live, and where did you buy them from? Retail at launch here is $99-$110. MW3 is STILL $90.lacktheknack said:
EDIT: Here's a list of all games which don't have inflated prices for us. http://www.steamprices.com/au/topsavings
Now. How old are they, and which of them do you actually want to play? Do tell.
Just wait for a CoD game to be released and just watch as other game price tags drop. I remember when I wanted Deus Ex. it was around £30, I didn't know if it was worth it (it was but I didn't know that at the time). A little while later a CoD game comes out. the price was now £20.
Canada, via Steam/gog.com/EBGames. You should move here. We have cookies. And cheap games.ResonanceSD said:
lacktheknack said:
I'll just leave this here then. http://www.steamprices.com/au
What, move to canada? Are you serious? moose, French people, and snow, that's all you guys have that you can't get anywhere else. And I'm not entirely sure about any of those.