Steam prices! Grey key sites! and the I love/hate developers thread - Enter if you dare!

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The DLC is what annoys me.

Some games/developers release some truly great add ons that I have no problems paying for, borderlands, witcher 3 and skyrim off the top of my head.

Dice/EA/WB and those type of companies that release essentially what is half a game then try to charge you for every tiny update, splits the playerbase, milks the fans for every penny they can get. Often they overcharge for the product in the first place because enough people blindly buy it, so no incentive to change.

My friend wanted to play mortal kombat x so reluctantly agreed to purchase, he paid £39.99 on steam for this utter pile of dog**** which is barely functional, I got it for £4, later that same day. (I still feel ripped off)
 
How does manufacturing/transporting/storing 12 individual cans of coke cost more than twice as much as manufacturing/transporting/storing 12 cans of coke in a single box?

I don't know mate, I was hoping you could tell me! :D

Although to make a point I can always find a local store selling a single can of coke (not MP can) cheaper than the bigger retailers.

Kind of like the key sites in question here vs Steam/etc.

In short - regardless of what I am buying I will always shop around and get the best deal I can for my hard earned pennies.
 
A pack of 12 cans of coke costs £3.55 in Tesco, that's 30p/can (actually 29.5, but lets round it up for simplicity)
A single can of coke costs 68p

So, question:

Say Tesco started opening up the multi-packs and selling the cans inside for 35p.

The cans do say on the side "From multipack, not for individual resale" or similar, so this would be against the manufacturers conditions, however, it's not illegal. So basically the same as grey keys.

Would people be OK with this? After all you're getting a 50% discount on on your can of coke.

Do we think that there would be over twice as many cans of coke sold?

Do we think there would be no effect on the manufacturer's revenue?

Are you even thinking about this topic before making comments or are you simply bored? As already said you can't compare one to the other, They're not even examples of the same thing being done, In fact there polar opposites. One is a digital product being bought in bulk and sold cheaper than it can be bought for separately, which is basically what every shop and trader on the planet does and one is an example of the sort of scam your likely to find in your local corner shop when a shopkeepers multi-packs aren't selling like he expected or when he's trying to earn a few extra pennies per can. Stop and listen too your own argument for a minute, It's baseless.
 
Are you even thinking about this topic before making comments or are you simply bored? As already said you can't compare one to the other, They're not even examples of the same thing being done, In fact there polar opposites. One is a digital product being bought in bulk and sold cheaper than it can be bought for separately, which is basically what every shop and trader on the planet does and one is an example of the sort of scam your likely to find in your local corner shop when a shopkeepers multi-packs aren't selling like he expected or when he's trying to earn a few extra pennies per can. Stop and listen too your own argument for a minute, It's baseless.

Eh? That's what he's saying, why is it any different?
 
I'm all for the cheaper websites,Games simply cost too much these days from the main places (steam,In shops etc),and devs are getting greedy and lazy.

This seems to be the majority held view as well ("lazy" and "greedy" devs).

You guys know that the cost of making AAA games has been increasing every year, right? That many games now cost in the 100s of millions to create?

We aren't talking about a couple guys in their bedrooms any more.

As well as coders there's now a legion of artists, modellers, mo-cap people, researchers, a legal team, marketing... and loads more besides.

It seems to be a vicious circle from where I'm sitting. The perception of "greed" and people wanting to pay less and less. Certain games coming out with poor QC, tons of bugs, and other issues. This leads to gamers saying "lazy, greedy" and wanting to pay less again...

Is this inevitably a race to the bottom now?
 
A pack of 12 cans of coke costs £3.55 in Tesco, that's 30p/can (actually 29.5, but lets round it up for simplicity)
A single can of coke costs 68p

So, question:

Say Tesco started opening up the multi-packs and selling the cans inside for 35p.

The cans do say on the side "From multipack, not for individual resale" or similar, so this would be against the manufacturers conditions, however, it's not illegal. So basically the same as grey keys.

Would people be OK with this? After all you're getting a 50% discount on on your can of coke.

Do we think that there would be over twice as many cans of coke sold?

Do we think there would be no effect on the manufacturer's revenue?

That'd be in violation of Tesco's agreement with Coca Cola, and I'd expect them to get found out. Tesco don't want to not be able to sell Coca Cola, so they don't do it.

The analogous situation would be Steam refusing to sell keys to resellers in, say, Brazil that sell to the UK. As yet, they aren't doing it, so one can assume that they don't care.
 
Eh? That's what he's saying, why is it any different?

What do you think he's saying exactly? His argument is that buying key codes is wrong in the same way that buying higher priced single cans from a split multipack would be.

this would be against the manufacturers conditions, however, it's not illegal. So basically the same as grey keys.

Er? No it's not, They buy key codes in bulk because they can get them cheaper and make a few quid selling them.
Multipacks are not sold to retailers so they can split them and sell the single cans. Key codes are, that's how sellers on sites like Kinguin make a profit,
 
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The analogous situation would be Steam refusing to sell keys to resellers in, say, Brazil that sell to the UK. As yet, they aren't doing it, so one can assume that they don't care.

Well, that's another thing. Perhaps Steam don't care, and perhaps Steam want the situation to remain as is.

Perhaps Steam's interests aren't the same as the studios who distribute via Steam.

In a similar way to record company's interests not being the same as the artists who use them.
 
This is really just another such & such is killing the games industry argument! we've all seen them before year in year out! guess what panic mongers the games industry is going from strength to strength & has dispite all the threats from piracy/mobile games/steam sales etc.
 
Many games now cost hundreds of millions eh foxeye? You sure about that... GTA V 1 of the most expensive games ever was around £170 mil, the only 1 above that is destiny, where most of the costs were down to absolutely stupid decisions.

Another point as well, the type of companies who spend these so called hundreds of millions, are the type to spend double to quadruple the development cost to market said game.

Should we pay a higher price because some lazy muppet can't formulate a proper marketing plan with a reasonable budget? So instead of needing to recoup 50 mil they now need 150 mil (looking at activision)
 
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Many games now cost hundreds of millions eh foxeye? You sure about that... GTA V 1 of the most expensive games ever was around £170 mil, the only 1 above that is destiny, where most of the costs were down to absolutely stupid decisions.

Once again, you are talking rubbish.

Do a Google search. It's becoming common for a AAA game to cost > $100 million.

Or don't. I couldn't care less.
 
Do a Google search. It's becoming common for a AAA game to cost > $100 million.

Or don't. I couldn't care less.

Maybe they shouldn't pay obscene amounts of money to get actors like Kevin Spacey to do some voices then (ie COD). I don't see why I should subsidise a Hollywood actor's continued life of riches by buying a game at full rrp.
 
Maybe they shouldn't pay obscene amounts of money to get actors like Kevin Spacey to do some voices then (ie COD). I don't see why I should subsidise a Hollywood actor's continued life of riches by buying a game at full rrp.

But it's not just voice actors, is it.

Gamers these days expect high res textures with all the trimmings, amazingly detailed models. Individually modelled blades of grass and hair follicles.

You genuinely need a heck of a lot of manpower to make these enormously intricate virtual worlds.

A decade or so ago, it was acceptable for a model of a human to be made from a few hundred flat polygons, with comparatively low-res textures. Should something like that be released today, it would be slaughtered.

People expect more. Costs go up. It's not /entirely/ Kevin Spacey's fault :p
 
It's not /entirely/ Kevin Spacey's fault :p

Who said it was? It was just an example of why game budgets are going silly these days. Hiring Hans Zimmer for the music is another one.

A large portion of why the GTA games likely cost a lot to make, is because of all the music licensing.

They can use all the popular music, Hollywood actors and composers in the world if they want, if they think they can then justify selling a pc game for £50. I won't be paying though, whether a grey key is available for it or not, so if they don't make enough money , it is no skin off my nose.
 
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Who said it was? It was just an example of why game budgets are going silly these days. Hiring Hans Zimmer for the music is another one.

A large portion of why the GTA games likely cost a lot to make, is because of all the music licensing.

They can use all the popular music, Hollywood actors and composers in the world if they want, if they think they can then justify selling a pc game for £50. I won't be paying though, whether a grey key is available for it or not, so if they don't make enough money , it is no skin off my nose.

That's the thing, They are making plenty of money in the big league, If not they wouldn't be releasing game after game. When it comes to money someone is clearly earning big bucks. Now if that is not trickling down and being fairly divided by those who make the games it comes as no surprise as there's no shortage of greed in the world but the industry itself is one of the biggest money making entertainment industries out there.
 
That's the thing, They are making plenty of money in the big league, If not they wouldn't be releasing game after game. When it comes to money someone is clearly earning big bucks. Now if that is not trickling down and being fairly divided by those who make the games it comes as no surprise as there's no shortage of greed in the world but the industry itself is one of the biggest money making entertainment industries out there.

Even more important for people to buy grey market keys then so they still have money left to buy a larger range of games and support more developers.

if everyone was giving EA £50 a game, then none of the smaller developers would get a look in as no one would have any money left :p
 
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