Do Games In General Cost Too Much?

[BaDToaD]

I'm talking PC and console games here rather than GP32.

Games these days seem to cost a fortune. £30, £40 or even £50.

That's why I tend to wait for games to be re released and buy them for a tenner or so a year or two after they are first released. There are exceptions but not many.

When I started buying games years ago they cost between £2 and £10 quid or so.

OK These days games take a lot more effort to produce but on the other hand there are tens of millions of PCs and Consoles out there whereas home computers were quite a minority thing in the early to mid eighties.

I heard recently that the Video Game industry is worth more than the film industry and music industry combined.



So is it just me or are games too expensive?

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

The reason for the game price increases is simple, we have more technolgy to make bigger and better games, so we have to higher more people to make them. Games used to be made by an artist, a programmer, and an audio developer, sometimes all three were the same person, now, with the newer games coming out, they have teams of 50 people working on the games. So they cost much more.

Also Games on CARTS will always cost more than games on CD for the simple reason that carts are much more expensive to reproduce then $0.10 cds.

Some games, however, do go a bit overboard, but in general it reflects the cost to produce these new high end games.

 

[PinkSpider]

Erm games do cost too much, imo opinion they should be as much as DVDs, as the games industry is apparently as big as the movie/ music industry.

Will add more tommorow when im sober :/

 

[Axeman]

Yeah - it's a bit of both, but when you consider the work that goes into many games, it's not suprising. A good way to look at it is the number of play-hours you get out of it. Divide the cost by this, and you have a better comparison between games. IF you only play a game for 10 hours, it could be costing you £4 an hour - more expensive than many activities.

 

[declaration]

Games are definitely too expensive, and obviously Games publishers are partly to blame.

But also our attitudes are to blame aswell. Many people would be reluctant to buy a new game if its cheaper than others on the market, because they would question its quality, which is an awful and dissappointing attitude to have. It stems from the whole outlook of our society, but I won't go into that.

Fair enough, lots of work goes into making these games, but mass-producing the DVDs etc is very cheap compared to the sell on price. if ALL games were cheaper as a rule, they would sell more and more people would be able to sample good games. It may also stem the tide of piracy.

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

Yeah I agree about the "low cost" seeming to be "low quality", which isnt always the case. Also a low cost over the entire board would eventually lead to more people buying the games, giving the same, if not more income, but that will never happen. All of the companies, together would have to agree to this, knowing it will cause a drastic drop in income for the first half year maybe longer, they are not really willing to do this because it wont result in much, if any, increase, and its too risky.

 

[Huxley]

Yeah, they cost too damn much!

I have a hard time paying anything over £20 for a game (excluding second hand 'rare' games).

The reason for the game price increases is simple, we have more technolgy to make bigger and better games, so we have to higher more people to make them. Games used to be made by an artist, a programmer, and an audio developer, sometimes all three were the same person, now, with the newer games coming out, they have teams of 50 people working on the games. So they cost much more.

This is true, but it's a little more complex than that. Publishers could easily lower the price of the average game if they sold many more units at the cheaper price to recoup the money lost on each unit sold...some recent releases have actually done this (to what effect I don't know). Development costs are rising all the time, but that's no reason to sell it for £45 a pop! Some movie's budgets are way in excesss of the average videogame's, yet they still sell for around £15-£20 because that's what people expect to pay, and that's a price the publisher knows will make them a nice profit.

But like you said...it's all percieved value.

 

[Daz_Genetic]

With a game developed for the Playstation, Sony take approxiamatly 33% of the revenue before it even gets back to the developer. If Sony publish your title, they take an additional 50%. I think you can see where all the money is going .

In general, less people make a game than make a movie. But they are working on it for about twice as long. This evens out in my opinion. Games should be similarly priced to DVDs (a little bit more but not much), but if you look at the above information, you will see that the developer wouldn't be able to stay afloat unless they sell for more.

 

[Huxley]

In general, less people make a game than make a movie. But they are working on it for about twice as long. This evens out in my opinion. Games should be similarly priced to DVDs (a little bit more but not much), but if you look at the above information, you will see that the developer wouldn't be able to stay afloat unless they sell for more.

There's no reason why a lower price point should impact on the money a publisher/developer makes from a game. It's a simple equation...

lower price = sell more

Reducing the price in to the 'impule buy zone' as you suggested could, and should, generate more sales. It all depends on the marketing strategy rather than how much the game cost to make, the amount of people/time involved etc. The real difficulty of selling at a lower price point is the whole percieved quality thing, which is a real tricky one to get round.

Nintendo can be held responsible for that one :angry:

 

[*Dc*hardcoregamez]

i think console/pc games should be $30 USD at most and handheld $20USD at most.

 

[Tempus]

Not meaning any offence but I have no problem parting with my money when buying a game. I know that I am helping lots of people live and stay in jobs. I don't know what I'd do if all the customers decided they didn't want to eat Subway anymore, I'd be out of a job. I do it to support the developers, coders, designers, publishers, retail outlets and the staff on the shop floor advising people and selling games. I work full time and I don't have many outgoings, not many bills etc. Maybe if I were a student or only worked part time then I'd want cheaper kit.

 

[diablo2]

don't think that a lot of time goes into the making of a movie
movies are very hard to make
movie prives are going up too
movies with a bunch of special features can cost over 40 usd

 

[VirtuaLeech]

When I started buying games years ago they cost between £2 and £10 quid or so.

I think the comparison here is wrong. You are comparing old day computer games with current console games. Back in the day console games (Colecovision, Intellivision) already wear very expensive. Most coleco games where in the 40-50 euro range. I think console game have not risen much in price over time. Escpecially when compared against inflation rates.

 

[Steve-O]

Yup, I only Buy games that Wont work online if I dont hehe Eg HL etc.. Games Cost WAY to much same as CD's and DVD's In My Opinion... If they reduce the price down to £10 / £5 a Game and CD's to £3 and DVD's to £3 then that will DEFINATLY Reduce PIRACY which would give them the money back that they loose because of piracy... Like if you could get a Copy of the Net for Free OR Go out to the shop and buy it new and original for £5 then everyone will goto the shop to get them and forget about copying them.. Heck CDR's only cost £10 for 100 (£0.10 Each)!!!! , DVD-R's only cost £12 for 25 so why do they have to have such high prices ????

I know this person in Poland that Pre Ordered "Painkiller" for $5 NEW !!!! (Thats about £3 I think) !!!!!!!!!

 

[divadsci]

All of the companies, together would have to agree to this,

its illegal for companies to converse with other companies over the price of their games :rolleyes:

<edit> well any product really

 

[Axeman]

All of the companies, together would have to agree to this,

its illegal for companies to converse with other companies over the price of their games :rolleyes:

<edit> well any product really

Thats not true. It's illegal to artificially inflate prices, but not to lower them. It's only a problem if companies are agreeing to fix prices artificially high.

 

[PinkSpider]

Games are too expensive IMO games should be between 20 - 25 pounds at the most, and handheld games even lower. I remember when I bought mario 2 for a fiver back in the day .

Also I never every buy a game new, second hand all the way

 

[Steve-O]

Games are too expensive IMO games should be between 20 - 25 pounds at the most, and handheld games even lower. I remember when I bought mario 2 for a fiver back in the day .

Also I never every buy a game new, second hand all the way

Even £20 - 25 is too much....

I remember buying Donkey Kong country when it was just released for £40!!!!!!!!

 

[PinkSpider]

It all depends; for a Final Fantasy title I would gladly spend 20-25 pounds on as it would last more then 5 hours (usually around 50-60 hours). But for something I would only play for a few hours I would pay alot less.

 

[lizard808uk]

I paid £80 quid for a copy of SF2 Turbo on SNES and a joypad. I'm now much wiser than back then and play all the recent SF for next to bugger all. Helps if you buy in America with the outstanding exchange rate