How Much SHOULD a Game Cost?

[Juventus]

Unless you have an intricate knowledge of the various costs associated with both a)Making the actual video game, and b)distributing/marketing the video game, I don't see how anybody here can actually claim that "THIS is how much a game should cost".

Obviously, the company is going to have to charge an appropriate amount so that, for one, the costs of actually making and marketing/distributing the thing are covered, AND enough of a profit is generated so that the company and its employees can stay afloat and live comfortably. I just think that there are a myriad of motivations behind charging people "X" amount of dollars for a certain game, and I think that very few people actually take that into consideration; instead, people do what people always do - complain about how expensive everything is.

another thing is games typically sell less than say a movie, which is what some people want to compare it to. a typical anticipated movie might have say at least a 300 to 400 million people will watch it, plus another 20 to say 30 million will buy the dvd/blu ray.

where is a game must sell at least a half a million to be labeled a success, in the cases of higher budget games, which is why most games cost so much.

 

[Gudrests]

I think that a console release shouldn't be more than $45. And handheld shouldn't be more than $40.

The games industry really would benefit from a lowering of prices. I myself have had an Xbox 360 for almost a year and haven't bought a game for it. Why? Too expensive. And they definitely aren't benefitting from my borrowing games from friends. Now if games were closer to the $40 area I'd buy my own. If they were closer to $30 I'd widen my range and buy things just to try something new or just for the heck of it.

As it is, games are too high. The highest production budget on a game is $100 million, but in comparison film budgets routinely go over $100 million. Yet BluRay and DVDs go for $20 - $25 usually, movie tickets are $10 or less, and video games are still $60. There's no need for it.

And another thing; digital releases of games. I can pre-order Portal 2 right now for $45, at %10 off on Steam. That is about 15 dollars less than I'd expect in a store, but digital is . . . digital. That game could be sold much cheaper. I know that packaging, disk, printing, and distribution of a game costs more than $15 per unit. How much of that $45 would you think goes straight into GabeN's wallet?

....$15 packageing?....the cost of 1 single game to get made put into a box wrapped and shipped....in mass....cant be more than 10...they do these things in mass...and its paper and a CD you can buy 500 for cheap

 

[Veylon]

Games are a luxury good; the companies can charge whatever they want. If you don't like the price, wait for a sale or buy it used.

 

[Zakarath]

I'd like to see games selling for $30 or so; with video games once the game is finished the supply is effectively infinite (DVDs are really quite cheap to mass-produce and digital copies do have an infinite supply), so the demand curve is all that really matters when considering their price, and I for one would definitely buy 2x as many games if they were half the price they are today...

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

I'd say about $45. I don't want to make it to low, since I know that the game maker might not make its investment otherwise, but a nice $15 discount, or some other incentive, might be enough to bring in people who are on the fence about purchasing it to give it a look anyway.

Unless they all decide to pirate it anyway, but there's just no reasoning with some people...

 

[Kiju]

I say...

Professional reviewers should be hired to tell whether or not a game is "Good" or "Terrible"

You know, people who get paid to do this, and it's based on a majority vote instead of just one person.

Then the games should be lumped into specific categories, where the more terrible the game, the cheaper it is. Lets say a price range of...$5 for crappy games all the way up to $60 for really good ones like Okami, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Dead Island, and so on.

Less for hand-held games, of course.

I feel like I should be paying for the quality of the game, not it's age and/or number of previous owners.

 

[Firetaffer]

$60 is fair for a new game.

I mean $120 for MW2 when it was released? How was that fair!

 

[p3t3r]

10 less would be good with me. games are $70 in canada if they were 60 then i would like it more. but if you don't like the price wait a few months it gets lower.

 

[Stammer]

I agree with $60, but I also think the developers should get a larger chunk of that money. I also think that EB/GS should give developers money when people buy used games. Honestly I think used games are screwing up the market even more than piracy is.

 

[Penguinness]

I think there should be fairer prices for those in countries that earn less, therefore games cost more, but for US and UK markets, seems alright to me. Perhaps the cost should be 5 hours of work, no matter wh; the amount of effort required to run this system however would be crazy.

 

[captaincabbage]

Man, I'd give anything for a new console/pc game to cost $60 or under. Hand helds shouldn't be more than $30.

Last time I saw the exchange rate (A few days ago on the news) the Australian Dollar was buying 1USD, so considering americans are still complaining about brand new games being $60, we're charged upwards on $110 for the exact same game over here.
BULL-FUCKING-SHIT.

 

[Infinatex]

I'm pretty happy with how it is at the moment to be honest. A new release game RRP in Australia is around $100 (though most retailers sell them cheaper - $80 is usually then norm). Sure everyone complains that in the USA it's only $60 and that we are getting screwed, but then you got to take into consideration that US avg. min. wage is around $7.50 and that the Australian avg. min. wage is about $15.50.

I'm pretty happy with how it is at the moment to be honest. A new release game RRP in Australia is around $100 (though most retailers sell them cheaper - $80 is usually then norm). Sure everyone complains that in the USA it's only $60 and that we are getting screwed, but then you got to take into consideration that US avg. min. wage is around $7.50 and that the Australian avg. min. wage is about $15.50.

It's more then just exchange rate, cost of living versus how much wee earn comes in to play too as I stated above.

 

[WrcklessIntent]

Everyone can fight on this forever, but I think a new, console release should be about 40 dollars. A Handheld game should be about 20. Your thoughts?

They should stay about 60 and if the market changes they should go up. Out of that 60 dollars only 23 of it is profit.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Quite possibly around £500or more according to Bobby.

 

[Merkavar]

i think the games should sell for as much as they can sell it for.

but really i think games should be prices based on hours of game play. like games like fallout with 20-30 yours should cost more than games that are only single player and have like a 10 hour campaign.

 

[Callate]

Honestly, they should probably cost more. The price we pay in the U.S. for a new release would barely cover the cost of a QA tester for a single day (if the entire cost went to the company that made it, which it doesn't.)

But I'll accept the present price, and wait a month or two or for a Steam special if I can't bear the price for what's on offer.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

i think the games should sell for as much as they can sell it for.

but really i think games should be prices based on hours of game play. like games like fallout with 20-30 yours should cost more than games that are only single player and have like a 10 hour campaign.

Thats almost like an Activision thought right there /suprised face.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

I think the prices now are good.

^^This. $60 for most titles is perfectly reasonable. 25+ hours on average of entertainment for less than you'll find elsewhere.

Just to put current prices into perspective, (note: movies assume a 2-hour movie, and prices are based on my local area averages) to get 25 hours of entertainment in other places are:

Movies (theatre): $109.38
Movies (DVD): $187.5
Amusement park: $70+ (2 days, not including food, parking, etc.)
Concerts: $291.67 (assuming 3 hour show, $35 cheap seats)
Theatre: $416.67 (assuming 3 hour show, $50 seats)

Wow, does anybody else miss 25+ hour single player games? We get about 6-8 hours now. Also, $70 for a 2 day ticket at an Amusement park is an extremely good deal. Tickets for Six Flags is $60.

Many games are still that long. But even at 6-8 hours, you're still getting more than your money's worth comparatively.

And yes good amusement park price, but then Denver's amusement park is kind of small.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

A decent portion of this cost today is from the distributor's share, so it turns out the majority goes to the stores, while the devs get back only about 40% of the cost. With the advent of Steam and other digital downloads, I suggest a price decrease to $30 or $40, so to attract customers to the store that benefits the game devs better, and doesn't extort you.