Are PC Games prices going up?

[Five.Stars]

I try the game illegally first via the bay then if it is worth my money I will buy from a CD key site, I wouldn't like to know how much I've saved due to games being utterly awful or so short you get about 6 hours single player out of them for the RRP.

I would think it would be easier to make games nowadays due to laser mapping and even better machines to work with and the prices should stay the same game-wise if they refuse to be creative instead COD 71, BF 28 and FIFA 9000.

Congrats on adding to the piracy stats that the gaming imdustry use as a stick to beat pc gamers with! It makes zero difference whether you go out and buy a game that you feel is worthy of your cash - and I doubt you do this 100% of the time - you are still adding a +1 to the piracy statistics.

 

[Shamikebab]

pretty much this.
no way I'm paying £50 for a game from EA/UBI

I've played many Ubisoft and EA games and none of them have ever cost me £50 on launch.

 

[hyperseven]

Congrats on adding to the piracy stats that the gaming imdustry use as a stick to beat pc gamers with! It makes zero difference whether you go out and buy a game that you feel is worthy of your cash - and I doubt you do this 100% of the time - you are still adding a +1 to the piracy statistics.

Well if the game developers actually released demos, yes remember those, we could try before we buy! But oh no, they are too lazy to even do that.

When was the last AAA title that had a demo? I can't remember one, and no not Beta (Battlefield(s) so we can test their net code), a full demo.

 

[Boycey0211]

Well if the game developers actually released demos, yes remember those, we could try before we buy! But oh no, they are too lazy to even do that.

When was the last AAA title that had a demo? I can't remember one, and no not Beta (Battlefield(s) so we can test their net code), a full demo.

But a demo will harm preorder figures!!!!!!!!111

Thats why, the hype doesn't work when you can make your own mind up

 

[Gimpymoo]

This isn't aimed at you gimpymoo but I don't get the term overhyped, sure hype is determined by yourself and how much you follow the game? So I can't see how a game is overhyped as you only have yourself to blame.

The game could be over marketed or falsely advertised. Most of the time it is just something taken out of context and over read in to by the fanbase.

When I say "Overhyped", I refer to e3 and all the other conventions which get mainstream coverage from Spike TV/Gamespot/Gametrailers etc.

"Interviews" with developers saying.. "Yep, we listend to you, and this one is better".. that is all part of the marketing/hype machine.

Hype/marketing, one of the same, no?

The AAA game phenomenon itself would not exist without "hype". It would not exist on the quality of its games.

 

[Sasso]

I miss demos

I remember getting the floppy disks with computer shopper magazine xD and then a bit later the cd/dvd with pcgamer. would probably install almost every demo one at a time just to give it a go

some demos made me love a game (the C&C red alert soviet mission ) and fall in love with a franchise. where as others would make you just feel...."meh" and not bother, thus saving the moniesssss. also you'd usually get a write up of some kind in the magazine too. rather than constant bombardment from main media and press and youtubers, chocking on the developers **** as they splurge out about how amazing it is and everyone should buy it. "oh yes EA, I want your game in and around my mouth....."


the other day I played the demo of car mechanic sim.... really enjoyed as was a bit skeptical at first. but after the 7 mission demo or what ever I bought the game and spent all weekend playing it xD loved it! still got missions to go and they're releasing free dlc and also adding missions to it now and then



I agree with the whole overhype thing. used to be you'd make the hype yourself because you really loved the previous game (or work studio has done before) and would get little snip bits and not much said about it until a demo. now with all the marketing everyone is screaming about features from the get go..... some of which don't even feature in the end game.... so what was that hype all about?!

 

[zola25]

I'll see your 25 years and trump it with Atari cartridges I used to buy at the same price, 36 years ago!

God I feel old

I had no idea Atari cartridges cost the same too, wow they would be expensive in real terms now!

I miss demos too.

 

[HangTime]

I was thinking about this earlier and I reckon another reason demos may be less common is that in the old days, many games had very self-contained levels. So you'd get a demo that was like, 1 level, first 3 levels, or maybe if you were really lucky a whole episode (Doom!). This made them relatively easy to produce as it was just a cut down version with fewer assets required (levels, textures, sprites, sounds, weapons etc). So the developer didn't really need to worry about continuity, or what route the player would take through the game, as it was very linear. And a single level would typically have no mid-level loading.

Nowadays many games tend to be a bit more complex in terms of being less linear, with different 'sections' within a given area that the player moves back and forth in, and in some cases not so much a bunch of distinct levels but rather many sections stitched together. This doesn't lend itself very well to splitting off bite size chunks or creating a demo, as it is harder to predict the path the player will taken and perhaps harder to identify a clear end point (level exit in traditional games), although of course it is possible.

Clearly there are many other reasons for the lack of demos but I suspect the move away from games typically being maybe 20-40 detached levels that could easily be split off may have contributed slightly.

 

[hyperseven]

I was thinking about this earlier and I reckon another reason demos may be less common is that in the old days, many games had very self-contained levels. So you'd get a demo that was like, 1 level, first 3 levels, or maybe if you were really lucky a whole episode (Doom!). This made them relatively easy to produce as it was just a cut down version with fewer assets required (levels, textures, sprites, sounds, weapons etc). So the developer didn't really need to worry about continuity, or what route the player would take through the game, as it was very linear. And a single level would typically have no mid-level loading.

Nowadays many games tend to be a bit more complex in terms of being less linear, with different 'sections' within a given area that the player moves back and forth in, and in some cases not so much a bunch of distinct levels but rather many sections stitched together. This doesn't lend itself very well to splitting off bite size chunks or creating a demo, as it is harder to predict the path the player will taken and perhaps harder to identify a clear end point (level exit in traditional games), although of course it is possible.

Clearly there are many other reasons for the lack of demos but I suspect the move away from games typically being maybe 20-40 detached levels that could easily be split off may have contributed slightly.

Yet the game companies can produce demos quite easily for shows like E3.

 

[Gimpymoo]

Yet the game companies can produce demos quite easily for shows like E3.

The resources needed for such demos can be high, then again, they are not just used for e3, same demos can be recycled for other events and press releases.

 

[hyperseven]

The resources needed for such demos can be high, then again, they are not just used for e3, same demos can be recycled for other events and press releases.

I did say 'like E3' I wasn't going to name them all because there are so many now.

But if they can cobble something together for the patrons/press in these events why not for the people who are going to buy the product.

 

[Arthur Hucksake]

£40 is a fair chunk of change under the current climate.

I do the developers a solid by not pirating their game, but not buying it neither.

Is there any potential benefit to them in that stance? Because isnt that the right thing to do? Isnt that what they want?

I would say go on the reviews, but all they seem to do lately is whine about lack of a female character, sexism, third world oppression... and that is for Pacman HD. SJW movement needs to hurry up and die.

 

[spoffle]

Sorry but I am among the pirate try buy croud I want demos. I'm not spending money on something that I may not like.

The problem is that it's very one sided in favour of the developers/publishers. If you buy a game and it's crap, there's often little you can do about it, and even when there's an option to do something, it's a big fight.

People moan and claim that piracy is people with entitlement complexes, and that you aren't allowed to do so, that the only choices are buy and play, or don't buy and don't play.

The reality is, legally or not, we do have an option to try games before purchase, it's there, it's available, it's easy. It's not developer or publisher sanctioned, but realistically, it's never the publisher/developer that loses out.

It's been shown many many times that when a dev makes a good game, it will sell, piracy has to be accepted as a norm of society and that it's futile to keep moaning about it, because the vast majority of people who are pirating things wouldn't have bought it in the first place, so it's irrelevant and disingenuous to even consider it reasonable to try and equate it to lost sales.

Sure, I've pirated games, but I've bought every one I've liked, hence my Steam library consisting of nearly 500 games, and my PSN library of a similar amount.

 

[malachi]

Well if the game developers actually released demos, yes remember those, we could try before we buy! But oh no, they are too lazy to even do that.

When was the last AAA title that had a demo? I can't remember one, and no not Beta (Battlefield(s) so we can test their net code), a full demo.

Yep, Call of Duty 4 but that was before it became a AAA title. So not sure if that would count

 

[MatsyLR]

The problem is that it's very one sided in favour of the developers/publishers. If you buy a game and it's crap, there's often little you can do about it, and even when there's an option to do something, it's a big fight.

People moan and claim that piracy is people with entitlement complexes, and that you aren't allowed to do so, that the only choices are buy and play, or don't buy and don't play.

The reality is, legally or not, we do have an option to try games before purchase, it's there, it's available, it's easy. It's not developer or publisher sanctioned, but realistically, it's never the publisher/developer that loses out.

It's been shown many many times that when a dev makes a good game, it will sell, piracy has to be accepted as a norm of society and that it's futile to keep moaning about it, because the vast majority of people who are pirating things wouldn't have bought it in the first place, so it's irrelevant and disingenuous to even consider it reasonable to try and equate it to lost sales.

Sure, I've pirated games, but I've bought every one I've liked, hence my Steam library consisting of nearly 500 games, and my PSN library of a similar amount.

Same I've bought hundreds of £ worth of games due to trying them first. It's not unreasonable to want/expect a demo, it's just lazy also they would probably loose sales as hype is what drives purchases now.

 

[Fr0dders]

Dead Rising 3 £44.84

GTA 5 £39.99-£44.84

Rise Of The Tomb Raider £39.99

Lara Croft & The Temple Of Osiris £39.99 (eye opening price as it uses the Temple Of Light game engine not exactly a full price title!)

Just wondering if the major publishers are using the excuse that XB1/PS4 ports on pc should be a similar price to reflect the amount of work that went into it as all of these will also no doubt come with DLC inflating the price further unless you want to wait for digital sales etc etc

These are PC Retail RRP I shudder to think what the Steam price would be once you add Valve tax

Likely due to the fact that most PC games are now cross platform releases.

Its commonplace to charge £45 as RRP for a console game. Given in most cases (such as Battlefield Hardline, GTA 5, Tomb Raider, Thief etc..) the console game is developed at the same time as the PC one, often by the same dev team at the same time, why should the PC version be £30 while the same game costs £45 on another platform ?

It doesn't help either that the next gen consoles have dual distribution methods like PC does - you can buy it digitally or a physical DVD, but the publishers are getting away with making the downloadable digital versions of games £55 or more on console, when the physical retail copy is £45.

Publishers get away with that, so think, why not push the RRP for the PC game up to £45 or so to match the console version ?

Sign of the times and greedy publishers I reckon. As plenty of others have said, vote with your feet and buy from CD key websites who source them for much cheaper.

 

[spoffle]

Same I've bought hundreds of £ worth of games due to trying them first. It's not unreasonable to want/expect a demo, it's just lazy also they would probably loose sales as hype is what drives purchases now.

Probably so. There are some games I will happily buy before playing, or even pre-order though.

 

[Jumantj]

Just compare them all to console prices the answer is no.

 

[spoffle]

Not even that, it's very easy to find games below RRP on the PC even before they're released. I don't think I've paid more than £20 for a new release PC game in the last 10 years.

 

[Fr0dders]

Just compare them all to console prices the answer is no.

thing is PC RRP was always £30 when the console version was £45

The OP is right, the overall trend has been for the RRP of PC games to start matching consoles recently.

This is a separate issue as to whether you pay the full RRP or not however.