Owyn_Merrilin said:
Never heard of direct to DVD films? Or major movies that only made a profit after the home video release? The analogy is actually pretty damn near perfect, because it's an entertainment product made in a similar way (although games cost less to make than Hollywood movies, sensationalist "news" stories to the contrary), sold in a similar way, and consumed in a similar way. The theatrical release is a red herring -- the point is that the studios are pricing their customers out of the market by charging $60 a pop. There's something like 100 million consoles in the US alone, yet 6 million copies sold /worldwide/ is just about unheard of. Because consumers can't afford it, unlike the way they can films.
Studios generally take a loss on direct to DVD and they do it when they realise theyve pumped money into something thats crap. The major difference being the film industry can soak a few terrible films, not least because its very rare to have a big budget release flop like that. It tends to be the moderate or cheap ones like 3 stooges.
While you may think they are analogous due to the similar nature the way we consume them is fundamentally different. It is incredibly rare once a sequel is released in the games industry to sell any of the previous title unless its a landmark game. While the release of a sequel film can actually BOOST the sales of a previous film. When LOTR:ROTK came out at my cinema, they spent the whole month prior screening TFOTR and TTT.
Similarly, we rarely go back and revisit games series of the past unless again its an icon, even if its up in the bargin bin for $2 due to the lack of availability to play it and the depreciation of the visuals. It takes a truly masterful game to overcome even 5 years of graphical ageing. Yet if you see an old film in a bargain big we dont really think anything of picking it up. If you saw Grease or Diehard, maybe The Last Starfighter, or just some random film that you liked the box art of, or has an actor you recognise, if you were in the mood youd pick it up for a chill viewing with some popcorn and a quietly suffering significant other.
This NEVER happens with games. We consume them in very different ways.
That being said I DO agree with you that console games are WAY over priced. Here in the UK you can expect to pay £45 ($68.27), while PC games rarely set you back more than £35 ($53.10) and usually can be had new for £30 ($45.51). It is criminal but half of that is the 1st parties fault for licencing costs. Small studios dont pay paramount to make a big budget film, paramount backs the studio for a share. Yet this is effectively the relationship between the 1st party and publishers, especially if you want your release to be cross platform.
The whole industry is broken and it starts with the 1st parties inability to make money on their consoles through sales.
