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Are PC Games too cheap?
- Thread starter Rezident
- Start date
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Yeah, then Microsoft could charge a big huge whack of cash for every game that gets released, like they do with xbox games. Which is the whole point of Games for Windows in the first place.
Thats what I though. The maximum I'd pay for any game now is £35. Still can't believe Modern Warfare 2 is 45 quid on consoles! Glad I pre-ordered mine for £30 on PC
I wont pay more than £25 new for a pc game.
Hostile_18
Hostile_18
haha I did 70 quid.. don't reget it though, it was an experience!
Am I recalling correctly that Streetfighter 2 on the SNES was about £60 at launch?
I would pay more for games if they came with stuff like Frontier or the PC / ST / Amiga. You got a book of short stories with it and a star chart as well as the manual. They were decent short stories too. I still have the book somewhere.
I would pay more for games if they came with stuff like Frontier or the PC / ST / Amiga. You got a book of short stories with it and a star chart as well as the manual. They were decent short stories too. I still have the book somewhere.
Associate
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- Shropshire
pc games are reasonbly priced, console game taking into account previous post of all the extra hassle invovled plus the license fee mons for console version, i would doubt if the develpers see any more profit if any on a pc game,
Man of Honour
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Yep! I wait for most PC games to come down to about £17...which they usually do about a week or so after release.
I agree, they probably are too cheap. PC games haven't increased in price at all over the past 10-15 years really. I'd happily pay £40 or £50 for genuine top notch games like Deus Ex, KOTOR, Vampire Bloodlines, Orange Box etc.
I think we may start to see a move towards a subscription type model for multiplayer games in the long term. So for example, you'd pay say £15-20 for the new COD game, and then another £5/month to play online. This would mean that developers/publishers who create games with a lot of longevity are rewarded and crucially would make it more important for them to continue to support existing games after launch. Essentially the WoW model, but on a smaller scale.
Gaming is becoming much more integrated with the internet as time goes on and it just seems like a natural evolution to me that it will start going down that route
^^yep, SF2 Turbo was around £60 on the SNES. I think some N64 titles (Turok?) were around that mark too.
I think we may start to see a move towards a subscription type model for multiplayer games in the long term. So for example, you'd pay say £15-20 for the new COD game, and then another £5/month to play online. This would mean that developers/publishers who create games with a lot of longevity are rewarded and crucially would make it more important for them to continue to support existing games after launch. Essentially the WoW model, but on a smaller scale.
Gaming is becoming much more integrated with the internet as time goes on and it just seems like a natural evolution to me that it will start going down that route
^^yep, SF2 Turbo was around £60 on the SNES. I think some N64 titles (Turok?) were around that mark too.
Caporegime
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Well a large slice of every sale is money in MS/Sony's pocket aswell as the dev/distributors, while PC games, no money at all goes to MS/Song. You're talking about 20% up to what, maybe 40% of the total price.
Console games are often heavily advertised on tv and various media, while pc games don't really spend cash on that.
Thats why companies are willing to go exclusive on titles, they can negotiate better percentages with MS/Sony if they are willing to go exclusive.
IE game x will be released on both platforms, deals with Sony/MS mean 45% of the game price goes to them, if they agree with MS for a 260 exclusive, they might agree to 20% of the price of the game, but you hope lots of PS3 users will have a 360 and still sell a lot to those guys, less sales vs higher profit per sale.
PC gaming avoids all that, profit is profit really. The games are pretty much the right price on PC's, can still get lots/most games at £17-22 pre-order at some stage.
Pc games are reasonbly, but often you can pick up most games for a steal. console games i tend to wait till they drop in price, then maybe get them in some sorta two for one deal. i think the most ive paid in recent years for a game was about £40 for left 4 dead on the 360, but ive played it so much its been good value.
Don't spose you work for Activision do ya?
ha ha no, but I think they were the ones saying prices needed to go up to cover development costs alright. I used to complain that games here were too expensive (€50 v £30 in the UK) but they have gotten so much cheaper now that it just seems odd. Game developers are one industry I would actually like to support, that's why I have never pirated a PC game.
I've been looking forward to Black Mesa: Source for years, so I tried to make a donation to them but there doesn't even appear to be a 'donate' button on the site. It's like some developers don't even want your money!
Caporegime
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Its an incredibly profitable industry, if you're good, if you suck, you'll eventually bite the bullet.
You know, like every other industry on the planet. EA are raking it in, a lot of big companies who make mostly bad games are raking it in. There are companies going under or being bought out, that doesn't mean there isn't enough money being made, its the state of the world economy. Successful small studio's like to get a big payout when bought out, live with financial security and still have jobs after. Failing studio's often aren't producing good games, the better programmers move on and up, the worse ones, move out.
Fact is at £25 for Cod 4, the makers will see roughly the same profit in THEIR pockets, as they would selling at £45-50 on the console.
Yes prices could go up, we could all pay £30, and we could all pay 25% more for everything we ever buy, theres really no need to.
We get dozens of very good a titles a year, several trip A titles, and a shedload of pathetically bad games alongside some just average games. THe good make money hand over fist, the bad, often make money, the really bad, don't and shouldn't make money......
wheres the problem with that?
You know, like every other industry on the planet. EA are raking it in, a lot of big companies who make mostly bad games are raking it in. There are companies going under or being bought out, that doesn't mean there isn't enough money being made, its the state of the world economy. Successful small studio's like to get a big payout when bought out, live with financial security and still have jobs after. Failing studio's often aren't producing good games, the better programmers move on and up, the worse ones, move out.
Fact is at £25 for Cod 4, the makers will see roughly the same profit in THEIR pockets, as they would selling at £45-50 on the console.
Yes prices could go up, we could all pay £30, and we could all pay 25% more for everything we ever buy, theres really no need to.
We get dozens of very good a titles a year, several trip A titles, and a shedload of pathetically bad games alongside some just average games. THe good make money hand over fist, the bad, often make money, the really bad, don't and shouldn't make money......
wheres the problem with that?
Just curious really, when people are running these projects everybody is obviously working for free, nobody is paying them so they do it in their spare time etc. I'd be willing to wager that they can get hosting and webspace etc for damn cheap, if not free, and as such have no real overheads or costs.
So what difference would it make if you donated £20 to them or not? What would that actually get put to? The project leaders Chinese takeaway and few cans on a Saturday night whilst he's coding his head off?!
I jsut can't help but think that things like this don't get many (if any) donations and so anything little that does come in would get wasted! Now obvisouly if it's a massive project which is recieving hundreds upon hundreds a week then its a different matter as you could do something tangible with the money?
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