Video Game prices to rise

[Jo]

Well for the most part i wait till games are out for some time to play them. I get them cheaper. And if prices go up, I'll definately continue to use the same practice. Me and my friends also try and let each other borrow games as needed. Being a PC only guy though at times my options get limited. I think i may end up buying the PS3 though who knows..by the time i buy one PS2 games will come WAY down in price and ill buy all those games i never have gotton to play (epIII )

[toms]

Originally Posted by toms in completely the wrong thread

http://www.gamefly.com/

 

2 games at a time as long as you want. Others do other deals where tou pay more per month depending on how many you want at the same time.

 

I'm a bit of a collector/hoarder unfortunatley... but i know in my heart that (having ended up with hundreds of worthless vhs tapes) i would be better off on one of these unlimited dvd/game rental deals than collecting a huge pile that i will never use.

 

That said, i buy almost all games, cds and dvds second hand (shop or ebay). They are one of the few commodities you can buy second hand and the quality can be as good as new.

[Prime]

If the games are worth it, I'm willing to pay more...

[lukeskywalker1]

The only game series I would be willing to pay $50 for and not regret it would be Zelda, and Metal Gear Solid. I would pay more than that for those games, actually. I have found these for cheaper prices (Master Quest $30, WindWaker $20 (NEW!), MGS Twin Snakes $20 (NEW!). $50 for the new Zelda won't bug me either, because I know I won't beat that game in a week. I know I will get quality, replay value and more. With the MGS Series I get a great storyline and amazing gameplay. Everytime I play I find something new and exciting. It just sucks that these games have no multiplayer.

[jokemaster]

Actually, the new version of MGS3 will come with online multiplayer. only for PS2 though.

[lukeskywalker1]

Yeah, I plan to buy a PS2 when the price drops, or when I get a job. Soon current gen game prices should drop. I can't wait till everyone starts trading in GCN and PS2 games, because of the new consoles. You know, kids need money for new games, and they will dump their olds ones for new ones. Hopefully Gamestop and EB will drop prices a bit to.

 

You know, I walked into GameStop a while back and saw a big basket (big.. like as big as a table) with old N64 games. The highest priced game was $15 (I think) and that was a popular title, like M64 or something. The majority were at between $5 and $10. Thats excellant, in a few years these games will be like that (I hope) The consoles backwards compatability might not make this happen, but we will see.

[Lynk Former]

I traded in all my N64 stuff for the GCN generation... how I regret doing that... hopefully Nintendo's virtual console library will be large enough to get all my games back and more for the Revolution.

[BongoBob]

It's looking more and more like I'm going to have to sell all my belongings for 360.

 

How much ya think I can get for my modded xbox : |

[Katarn07]

I dunno if I wanna get a X360 right away. I was gonna get two and sell one on eBay to make up some of the money paid. I thought better of that idea and thought better of blowing $300-$350 on this. I will probably wait until next year and see the game selection first. Godfather and Gun are the only ones I would really really be interested in atm, but those are gonna be basic XBOX titles as well.

[Mex]

I have enough trouble getting games now, how am I going to get any if the prices continue to rise? This is just going to lead to more piracy, more arrests, more unhappy customers. The games industry is going to lose cash because of this. If they raise it they're not going to get as much child-teenage customers which are their primary targets.

[Lynk Former]

Yesh, game prices are a little higher, more piracy, game prices go higher BECAUSE of piracy, MORE piracy... what a nice little circle we've found.

 

"Yes Simba, the great circle of morons."

[toms]

I guess they are figuring that kids ARENT their primary target anymore. The primary target for the 360, PS2 & PSP is twenty-thirty-somethings with lots of disposable income... (and parents who get pestered by their kids).

 

Thats part of why they are turning the consoles into home entertainment systems rather than just games consoles.

 

Frankly I think it would be reasonably daft to buy a 360 until the PS3 comes out... partly because you won't know which is best until then, and partly because the prices will drop sharply once the PS3 comes out.

 

But some people need to be on the cutting edge, not matter how much it costs. Whihc i understand entirely as I'm a bit like that myself. (just not with games)

[IG-64]

Yesh, game prices are a little higher, more piracy, game prices go higher BECAUSE of piracy, MORE piracy... what a nice little circle we've found.

 

"Yes Simba, the great circle of morons."

 

... No, things like this and this raise the prices. And if the piraters weren't going to buy the game anyways, then there is no loss in sales. And I never even pirate games.

[lukeskywalker1]

Right now I don't think that better graphics are upping the cost of games. If the current consoles could support graphics like that they would look like that. Gameplay will be better for some games, but others will be average first person shooters, or stategy games. I really don't see how improved graphics means they need to up the price.

 

The distributers of pirated software mostly don't care about the game, just the profit they can make (im talking about illegal CD copies, in Mexico they sell bootlegs for like $5). The gamers who grab the pirated software for free, or at a reduced price would buy the real one if the bootleg wasn't available (well, some of them, some would go without)

 

Basically the devs are saying that they should have made a profit for every copy of the game distributed. If I have a bootleg, they didn't get the money. They consider it a loss. :-\

 

If anything, this generation made a bigger leap in graphics, than the next generation will. I would even say the previous generation was better than this one (with the 3D transition) Look at the difference:

 

 

Doom 3 still costed $50, and had amazing graphics. HL2 was around $55. But the difference is HL2 had 5 + years of development right? I doubt most $60 next gen games will have 5 or more development years, 2 or 3 at the most. Crap companies like EA pop out sequals every year, and will gladly add the $60+ price tag.

[Lynk Former]

... No, things like this and this raise the prices. And if the piraters weren't going to buy the game anyways, then there is no loss in sales. And I never even pirate games.

Yes, I am fully aware of that, but anyone who thinks piracy does nothing to impact prices is an idiot, no offense. And piracy has grown massivly over time, it's a case of demand, more and more people have discovered how easy it is to get games for free or for a lower price through some sort of illegal form.

[TiE23]

Should I get this? Or is it too late? Or something?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/CRYSTAL-Clear-XBOX-System-Case-Limited-Edition-Cover_W0QQitemZ8210835754QQcategoryZ20385QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

[toms]

So you are saying the jump from this

(blurry intersecting boxes that your brain can just about rationalise into human forms)

 

to this

(fully skinned, recognisable not just as human, but as specific humans, bump mapped, specularly lighted forms)

 

is smaller than the jump from this

(detailed humans, shaded, lighted, shadowed)

 

to this

(slightly more detailed humans, more whizzy effects, slightly better lighting & bump mapping)

???

The graphical leap might not be as big in real observable terms between generations as it has been in the past, but the amount of extra resources, staff, detail, polish and budget that needs to go into games these days is huge compared to what it was in the past. This is part of the cost. I suspect the major part of the cost increase 9if one happens ) will be down to the fact that MS and Sony will be making such huge losses on the expensive hardware needed to power modern games that they will need to increase licensing fees to get any money back.

I suspect this is why Nintendo have said that this generation's power vs graphical results ratio isn't really worth it, and to a certain extend MS and Sony have admitted the same.

 

---

 

As for piracy. If people were selling pirated games in mainstream shops so profits were being diverted from the publishers then it might put prices up. But as it is very few pirated games are SOLD. Most age just downloaded free (and even then only a small percentage of the retail numbers).

 

But comparing what people collect when it is given away for free with phat people would actually pay for to determine an amount of money lost is just stupid.

If a guy was standing in the street handing out free boy band cds I might well take one... but i wouldn't have ever paid for it. So the shop further down the road could hardly claim it had lost £12 for every person who took one.

Not only that, the odds are I'd never even listen to it. It would just get stuck in a corner, forgotten and then thrown out. The only reason I'd take it is because its people's natural tendancy to grab free stuff "just incase" it might be good, or it might not be free for much longer.

 

I suspect a lot of people who download games, music, movies, tv etc.. do so because its there and free, not because they will actually watch/play it. The ammount most people download means most wouldn't have TIME in their life to keep up. Its just the hoarding instinct.

 

Add to that the fact that most people only have a limited amount of time and money for games/dvds/cds etc.. and that also limits the max amount of money that industry could loose. I'd never buy more than 2 cds a month. It doesn't matter if I'm downloading nothing, 10 songs a month or 2,000 albums a month. I'd still only be costing them a max of 2 albums profit.

 

Add to THAT the fact that most downloaders still buy products, infact most downloaders are hardcore fans/collectors/horders and so on average downloaders BUY MORE dvds/games/cds than the average non-downloader.

 

I know loads of people who have professional software like Photoshop on their pcs. The software industry would claim that is thousands of pounds in lost revenue. In actual fact most of those people don't use it regularly. Most don't use even 10% of its features. NONE of them would have paid even £50 for it, let alone £300 or whatever they are charging for it. So they claim they have lost thousands, in actual fact they have lost nothing.

 

Pirate downloads might have at most a 5% impact in terms of lost sales... but then the GCN is the only console that doesn't have pirated games, and its games are more expensive than PS2 or XBOX ones... so how does that work?

[lukeskywalker1]

The games for GCN aren't more expensive, are they? I always thought the GCN prices dropped faster than other consoles. It might depend on the game.

 

Im saying the transition from 2D sprites to 3D models was huge. From the SNES we have the N64 and the PlayStation. After that there was a huge jump in graphic/sound quality with the PS2, Xbox, and GCN. And now, we are upping the standard only a little bit. Maybe my post wasn't clear. I am saying that next gen consoles aren't doing anything but making games look a little better. The current consoles would have had games like that years ago, if they had the specs to support them.

 

I know I won't buy a $60 game. I normally wait and buy a lot of $20 games. If I have a PS2 when subsistence comes out, I will probably pay $50 for that, because I know its worth it (3 games in one, plus MGS online? thats too good to be true) but as for most games, I wait a while.

[jokemaster]

Yeah, I mean this gen I found myself buying a lot less games. In fact most of the games I've bought are PC games, I mostly rent console games like I stated above. Thing is, even though they look better and all that, they're not that long anymore (or maybe I wasn't as good at them), and most of the multiplayer games I'd buy, I only need one in each genre I'm interested in, especially FPSs, since about 90% of them have the same basic multiplayer.

[acdcfanbill]

As for piracy. If people were selling pirated games in mainstream shops so profits were being diverted from the publishers then it might put prices up. But as it is very few pirated games are SOLD. Most age just downloaded free (and even then only a small percentage of the retail numbers).

 

But comparing what people collect when it is given away for free with phat people would actually pay for to determine an amount of money lost is just stupid.

If a guy was standing in the street handing out free boy band cds I might well take one... but i wouldn't have ever paid for it. So the shop further down the road could hardly claim it had lost £12 for every person who took one.

Not only that, the odds are I'd never even listen to it. It would just get stuck in a corner, forgotten and then thrown out. The only reason I'd take it is because its people's natural tendancy to grab free stuff "just incase" it might be good, or it might not be free for much longer.

 

I suspect a lot of people who download games, music, movies, tv etc.. do so because its there and free, not because they will actually watch/play it. The ammount most people download means most wouldn't have TIME in their life to keep up. Its just the hoarding instinct.

 

Add to that the fact that most people only have a limited amount of time and money for games/dvds/cds etc.. and that also limits the max amount of money that industry could loose. I'd never buy more than 2 cds a month. It doesn't matter if I'm downloading nothing, 10 songs a month or 2,000 albums a month. I'd still only be costing them a max of 2 albums profit.

 

Add to THAT the fact that most downloaders still buy products, infact most downloaders are hardcore fans/collectors/horders and so on average downloaders BUY MORE dvds/games/cds than the average non-downloader.

 

I know loads of people who have professional software like Photoshop on their pcs. The software industry would claim that is thousands of pounds in lost revenue. In actual fact most of those people don't use it regularly. Most don't use even 10% of its features. NONE of them would have paid even £50 for it, let alone £300 or whatever they are charging for it. So they claim they have lost thousands, in actual fact they have lost nothing.

 

Pirate downloads might have at most a 5% impact in terms of lost sales... but then the GCN is the only console that doesn't have pirated games, and its games are more expensive than PS2 or XBOX ones... so how does that work?

 

all i can say is, why are you in charge of the entertainment industry? Everyone in the industry thinks their profit margins should be higher, but ffs, there is only so much money in the american economy to spend, and its pretty much being spent, credit card debt is higher than ever, many people are swamped by debt, and corperations think we are ripping them off?

[Astrotoy7]

....many people are swamped by debt, and corperations think we are ripping them off?

 

good ole capitalism

 

I would like to now the actual markup in a game... eg. how much it costs per unit to actually develop, test, distribute and market a game - and compare this to the recommended retail....

 

mtfbwya

[Lynk Former]

GCN games are more expensive because they're not on standard DVD discs.

[TiE23]

GCN games are more expensive because they're not on standard DVD discs.

Yah, they're on half size, custom made DVD discs. >__>

Devs have to compress some things to avoid using two discs.

They aren't more expensive.....

[jon_hill987]

Think yourself lucky in the UK you already have to pay £45 (81.6541 USD) for a new release console game and some PC games are around that aswell.

 

Hence I just bought black and white on the $old out lable for £5, if the games get expencive don't buy them untill they drop the price, if everyone does that the will have to reduce the release price.

[Bastila]

When i new game come s out i want i wait for a while or go on ebay, as £40 £35 to me is to much, but when KOTOR II came out i brough it full price first day and the same with ROTS game other wise it is to much to spend on a game.