Higher Game Prices Coming to the U.K.

[Pimppeter2]

I'd call foul, but I've been expecting this. Even here in the states. I think the thing that stoped it, for the states that is, is paid DLC, so don't ***** about it

 

[RobCoxxy]

Year old second hand games that barely work are all I can afford, and they only have a few quid knocked off. Fuck stores, I just got GTA4 and Dead Space off Amazon (both for under £20)

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Once again another company fails at math and economics.

Their logic goes like this: sales fall by x%, so we'll raise prices by x% to maintain our income. Sounds reasonable, right?

But those sales were from people willing to pay $y or less. When they raise the prices, there are now fewer people who are willing to pay the cost. This results in addditional lost sales.

A wise man once said, "Everything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it." There aren't many people willing to pay $90 for a remake of a game they already have in a genre filled with copycats.

Then again, people paid hundreds of dollars for Tickle-Me Elmos and Furbies at Christmas time. So long as rich pussies will buy their child whatever they scream for, Activision will be there to take them for everything they have.

For the rest of us, pirate the shitty games and pay for the good ones.

 

[FloodOne]

Anyone else think Activision is in Sony's pocket? Seriously, Activision "tells" Sony to lower their prices, then raises their own?

This will destroy the 360 in the UK, and will increase sales for the PS3, since the 360 is PAL in the UK, so people have to buy PAL games, but the PS3 is region-free so even if the price of games goes up in the UK then PS3-ers can still import games at cheaper rates from America.

Both the 360 and PS3 will suffer for this increase in the UK, but Sony will eventually drop the hint that games can be bought from overseas cheaper and they'll get their revenue back, while Microsoft doesn't have that option unless they drop the regional barriers from their machines.

That made me laugh.

There's no way Acti is in Sony's pocket. Acti has gotten a God Complex and are acting like they run the industry now. Because of Call of Duty.

So all you UK citizens, don't buy the game. Wallets are the only thing corporations listen too.

 

[Firenz]

Yay! Let's drive a nation to piracy so we can then take away their internet (sure I heard something about ISPs pulling pirate's internet)and more of their cash!!

 

[Doug]

The pity is I was looking forward to MW2, but if this is the price everywhere, no way in hell I'm buying it.

 

[Rezfon]

I don't know why, but this makes me look at EA in a nicer way

 

[Doug]

Wow. Activision truly have taken EA's place, huh?

Exactly. Its a strange world were EA actually become the good guys, not trying to shaft over consumers so much. I feel dirty even typing that sentence, but its true.

 

[Terramax]

edit:
Oh and.. I sense that Piracy is about see alot more interest.

Yep, it's looking pretty good from where I'm standing.

In any case, smart people just wait a few months time for the price to go right down. This is the age of Amazon.co.uk and Ebay, where prices for most games go down pretty quickly.

EDIT: why are people hailing EA as 'goodguys'? Fair enough, they're not putting prices up, but they're not putting them down either. I don't see it as them 'taking on Activision' or looking out for the UK, it's just they don't feel the need for the extra cash at this moment in time.

 

[Irridium]

Thank god EA is watching out for the brits... and I can't believe I just said something nice about EA.


And isn't the Dollar in the same rut as the Pound? Last I heard, both currencies were in the toilet.

 

[Akihiko]

Well, if Activision wanted to lose customers, they're definitely going about it the right way. People can barely afford £40 in the current recession, raising that to £55 is just going to make even less people buy the game, as quite frankly they can't afford it.

To be frank, the best fitting word for this is bullshit. They state the pound is weak? Yeah, fair play that this year it has dropped a fair bit in terms of value, however it's still strong comparing to the majority of the currencies in the world. Hell it's still way stronger than the USD, if the currency being weak was the cause of this, then why in the world aren't games costing $90 in America too... Plus, if it was the increasing price of development costs, then again, why doesn't the game cost $90 in America, and other countries too to account for that price rise? Or even, just don't spend as much money on development... I've known brilliant games to be released from developers who have spent very little money on it's development.

Fortunately, I wasn't intending on buying MW2 anyway, however, they've got my word, I ain't paying £55 for ANY of their games. It's daylight robbery.

America buys more games than the rest of the world combined. Game prices went up to $60-$70 from $40-$50 when the 360 and PS3 came out. That's about $11billion from first release. At the current £40, only $5billion was made.

I don't agree with the price increase at all, I just wanted to explain why greedy companies like Activision do what they do. They see everyone as a statistic. Dare I call it price fixing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing]?

That's not true. America is on par with Europe in terms of sales. Which is understandable really, as the population of Europe's countries combined can easily stand against the population of America. Uk's sales on their own aren't doing that bad either, infact, last I checked, we were on par with the Japanese sales, if not beating them. Which brings me to the point of, Although japanese game prices are pretty high to begin with, they aren't as high as $90.

 

[ProjectJAY]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY.

 

[-AC80-]

WAIT, so Activision told Sony to lower it's prices... yet they raise theirs? Hypocrites.

so true activision why, why have you turned into such a ****

 

[Jabbawocky]

I can see it now.
Next
January or February, Escapist Headline:

UK games sales slump, industry blames piracy

You sir, have predicted the future perfectly! It's an obvious factor that more people will pirate these games in stead of folk out and extra £15. I fail to see the logic in this move. I rarely bought games new today, this pretty much kicks me out of the new market completly. With the time I complete games now, £55 for around 10 hours of game is not worth it considering I can buy five top notch films for £15 and get the same amount of entertainment from them.

 

[Bigsmith]

I only buy games that I already have intrest in, Expansion packs and sequls for example. The only games I have bought recentaly are Neverwinter nights 1 and Bioshock 1 cuase they were in the 2 games for £10 on Game.co.uk.

I can't see the game companies logic about this move anywhere... its like moving ur king right into check mate (nerd chess reference i no i no), as i said earlyer...

"Oh and.. I sense that Piracy is about see alot more interest."

Ah... At least I can stay faithful to the MMo. I havent heard anything about there monthely fees going up.

Edit:

Ea don't need to put there prices up, They are making enough money on the new sims 3 website and will make even more when they bring out expansion packs for sims 3... I realy want pets to come out :3!

Edit: Edit:

Even when the Economy evens out again... I bet u £200 I still won't be able to by more the 4 games with that same £200

 

[Timbydude]

WAIT, so Activision told Sony to lower it's prices... yet they raise theirs? Hypocrites.

You hit the nail on the head. Activision is becoming way too greedy.

There's just going to be a point where people won't buy the games if they're priced that high. I live in America, but if a game were priced at $90 (right now, they're at $60), I would refuse to buy it.

$90 buys 4 months of GameFly, with 2 games out at a time, and one of them could even include Modern Warfare 2. It's just not practical to buy it at that point.

 

[Low Key]

Well, if Activision wanted to lose customers, they're definitely going about it the right way. People can barely afford £40 in the current recession, raising that to £55 is just going to make even less people buy the game, as quite frankly they can't afford it.

To be frank, the best fitting word for this is bullshit. They state the pound is weak? Yeah, fair play that this year it has dropped a fair bit in terms of value, however it's still strong comparing to the majority of the currencies in the world. Hell it's still way stronger than the USD, if the currency being weak was the cause of this, then why in the world aren't games costing $90 in America too... Plus, if it was the increasing price of development costs, then again, why doesn't the game cost $90 in America, and other countries too to account for that price rise? Or even, just don't spend as much money on development... I've known brilliant games to be released from developers who have spent very little money on it's development.

Fortunately, I wasn't intending on buying MW2 anyway, however, they've got my word, I ain't paying £55 for ANY of their games. It's daylight robbery.

America buys more games than the rest of the world combined. Game prices went up to $60-$70 from $40-$50 when the 360 and PS3 came out. That's about $11billion from first release. At the current £40, only $5billion was made.

I don't agree with the price increase at all, I just wanted to explain why greedy companies like Activision do what they do. They see everyone as a statistic. Dare I call it price fixing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing]?

That's not true. America is on par with Europe in terms of sales. Which is understandable really, as the population of Europe's countries combined can easily stand against the population of America. Uk's sales on their own aren't doing that bad either, infact, last I checked, we were on par with the Japanese sales, if not beating them. Which brings me to the point of, Although japanese game prices are pretty high to begin with, they aren't as high as $90.

I was actually mistaken in my post the $11billion was from the Xbox 360 alone. All 3 systems added together would be $25billion in America alone. The rest of the world only made $13billion.

Total Xbox 360 Game Sales
-Source [http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=X360&publisher=&genre=&minSales=0&results=500&sort=Total]

Total PS3 Game Sales
-Source [http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=PS3&publisher=&genre=&minSales=0&results=500&sort=Total]

Total Wii Game Sales
-Source [http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=&console=Wii&publisher=&genre=&minSales=0&results=500&sort=Total]

Handheld game sales are pretty even across the board.

 

[neoontime]

Thats just... Thats just bollocks. I can barely afford any games as it is!

That's fine but please don't use the term bollocks it offends me on how dumb that word is

 

[Simriel]

Thats just... Thats just bollocks. I can barely afford any games as it is!

That's fine but please don't use the term bollocks it offends me on how dumb that word is

To be perfectly honest I will use any term I please. Kindly go be a self obsessed tool somewhere else.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Silly Brits... if Australia can handle those prices, so can you!

Everyone in Australia will know what I'm talking about when I say: CRY MOAR.
Honestly, I calculated what 55 quid would be here, and it's only $110!
That's the same as what we would pay for a normal game! Heck, even Steam's cheaper than going to a local store.
We've been putting up with these ridiculous prices for years, and we've hardly complained about it.

Uh, where did you get that math?

I used to live in Australia, and have had dealings with England for so long that I have been able to observe the currency exchange over a rather long period of time.
Basically, the Australian dollar mostly hovers between the £1 = $2.2 AUD to £1 = $2.5 AUD.

So... That puts £55 pounds at between $121 and $137.50 - I'm sorry, but I used to live in Australia, but the most expensive game I ever saw was $120, and that was considered very unusual.
$100 was not, but the last few times I bought new games there, they could be had for $60 - Although $100 was still rather common.

The standard existing price for a game in the UK is £39.95 or £44.95 depending on the system.
The cheaper of those amounts to between $87.89 to 99.85 , the more expensive, 98.97 to 112.47

...
Meh. You're lucky the UK economy is in the dumps. Turns out the exchange rate has hit what I would consider a record low. (£1 = $2)
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi


Believe me guys, I thought the UK was cheaper too, until I actually lived here.
DVD's were a nightmare especially.
The average new release film is £20 (even at the current low, thats $40 - at the high rate that's $50. Last time I checked, the Australian price was about $35; And it's not like UK wages are comparable to Australian ones if you don't count the currency conversion. - I mean, I was working a 50 hour week at some point, and my after tax income was £180 a week... (I live in a dump, and need to pay £300 a month in rent too. - I could get a house in Australia for less.))