£80 per game ?

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£80 is just a ridiculous sum of money for a computer game (a luxury, non-necessary good). Some individuals only take home £100 or thereabouts per week. I just really can't believe the financial naivety of this thread.

I mean you can rent a room in the outer zones of London for the same price as one game a week at that price.

Absolutely barmy.
 
MeMeMeMe said:
You're assuming a very simplistic model of economics, and one where game companies have perfect knowledge of the market, when in fact, they don't.

They know that reducing the price will result in increased sales, but don't know if it will be enough, so don't take the risk.

They also set the price at a prestige level - a level that other people also set prices at. They follow the market. They think, if everyone else is releasing their AAA titles at £40, and I release mine at £20, everyone will think I don't value my game, I see it as bargain fodder, not a true AAA title - so people won't buy it.

Once the market has settled on a price (for whatever reason - as the above paragraph illustrates, maximising profit is not always the reason), it's hard for corporations to make big adjustments to that price without risk.
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Fair enough, but they probably know more than the people here who 'know' that lowering game prices would increase profit.
 
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So its clear that more or less no one would pay £80 for a pc game, only me perhaps, so that’s o.k. I didn't ask you to. Although many pay far more via subscriptions etc. Only asked if you would or would not, and to if pos please give a reason why, either way. Which many have done, so thanks for that.

Just in reply to some other posts and only imo:
1/ Prices cannot be based on criminality i.e. theft (Piracy).
2/ Innovation happens in businesses of every size, throwing money at businesses/companies (as someone put it), or paying higher prices does not stop them being innovative, simply because their business/company gets larger, that’s just a flawed outlook on life.
3/ To all those that are really annoyed and angry about games that are out now and how much we pay for them.. Sorry but the thread is not about that, if you had read the OP, you would see that.

.
 
Dave**** said:
I paid 80 quid for Goldeneye64. The sheer amount of enjoyment I got out of that game made it well worth it.
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I did the same :) I also paid £80 for Street Fighter 2 and £75 for Secret of Mana, both on the snes. For the time me and my mates sunk into these games I never felt cheated.

Admittedly there's very little released these days that I could justify that kind of cost on!
 
Depends on the game really, I'd happily pay it for starcraft, dota, something I will plunge 100s of hours into.

Your standard run of the mill game I barely like paying what we do at the moment, yet i still do it sadly.
 
For something like Skyrim I definitely wouldn't mind paying over the odds, especially if they got rid of all this DLC rubbish and released it as part of the deal.

This EA/Dice "buy all our map packs for £40 up front" is BS - most people already had paid for the first one with their original purchase. No wonder everyone took a trip to India. The days of free updates/maps seem to have long gone.
 
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Minstadave said:
For something like Skyrim I definitely wouldn't mind paying over the odds, especially if they got rid of all this DLC rubbish and released it as part of the deal.

This EA/Dice "buy all our map packs for £40 up front" is BS - most people already had paid for the first one with their original purchase. No wonder everyone took a trip to India. The days of free updates/maps seem to have long gone.
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Arma 2, Over 400 free mods of which 150 odd are free islands/maps..

Does still exist, with some games, not many, your right there.

.
 
No way. I see games charging a fortune for content eg SWTOR when there are games giving people the tools to make their own content for free eg DayZ and SWGEmu. I certainly know which ones are more fun at the end of the day for me. Maybe just maybe if developers stopped playing it safe and making Generic Corridor Shooter No96 and made a decent engine with support for players to do some stuff in that environment then they wouldn't even need to charge 40 quid let alone 80. That's the way I see it anyway.
 
InKursion said:
£80 is just a ridiculous sum of money for a computer game (a luxury, non-necessary good). Some individuals only take home £100 or thereabouts per week. I just really can't believe the financial naivety of this thread.

I mean you can rent a room in the outer zones of London for the same price as one game a week at that price.

Absolutely barmy.
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The vast majority of people I know have spent £80 on "luxury non-necessary" goods (including people earning below minimum wage or on benefits), to use your accommodation analogy another way of looking at it would be that £80 is about the price of 1 night in a hotel.
 
Holy thread necromancy Batman!

Console games are expensive because of licensing. PC games have no licencing so this is purely down to publisher greed. They've looked at PC pricing and someone said 'why do we charge less for PC games? The average PC gamer is ****ING loaded, they can afford to pay the same as console game prices. Many won't be any the wiser and just pay it!
 
MissChief said:
Holy thread necromancy Batman!

Console games are expensive because of licensing. PC games have no licencing so this is purely down to publisher greed. They've looked at PC pricing and someone said 'why do we charge less for PC games? The average PC gamer is ****ING loaded, they can afford to pay the same as console game prices. Many won't be any the wiser and just pay it!
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There's steam licensing instead what does valve take 30%???

Valve glorious, benefit of all gamers, makers of HL3
 
MissChief said:
Why do you think so many publishers have started their own delivery systems? Because of Steams cut.
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Steam is the reason PC gaming is such a state right now, 1million rubbish indie titles & early access games going on 5 years that are still early access or totally abandoned.

+ the people who did away with pc users owning their games and basically making it a library you can get kicked out or banned from at any time.

whats steam support ticket response these days about a month? is this a joke with how much money they must be making.

I bet 99% of the tickets are people wanting refunds for indie and early access games
 
I think the question is ultimately whether or not it's too late for Developers to up the wholesale price entirely because they've went down the "games as a service" tactic. All those whales out there make up a huge amount revenue in comparison to DLC, especially considering the effort put into making a bunch of outfits is miniscule versus having to storyboard a big expansion, get voice actors in (pay them a huge fortune of your profits) or hire Nolan North for the 1000th time, write out sidequests and easter eggs, etc...

So unless the industry sorta goes through a paradigm shift and takes a risk on not having such easy access to revenue... we're probably stuck with this **** enterprise.
 
PS1 games were £40 on release when minimum wage was £2.50 an hour. Glad the the prices haven't inflated accordingly!
 
I paid £80 last year for Forza Horizon 3 and have paid the same again for Forza Horizon 4 this year. (Ultimate edition)

I enjoy it, I ‘invest’ a lot of hours into it, I can afford it. It IS a lot, ideally it would be cheaper but for the enjoyment it gives me, I’m willing to pay that price.

It is what it is.
 
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