OT: Video Games too expensive?

[Tico0001]

if you dont have money, dont buy games.

If you play on PC then you re able to buy games. If you have a old PC, the games cant work and the old games are cheap.

Geee... thanks for those comments, they are really constructive. I don't mean to be rude but comments like these don't really contribute much.

Besides that, I'm really glad i asked this question! Now i know that games have acutally gone down in price!!! Who would have thought! No wonder my dad only got me little model cars... majorettes and such.

~Tico

[Britai 7018]

I think that one thing to notice is that for every $50 game that we see advertised on TV or in Magazines, or otherwise just know about, there are 2-3 $50 games that come out, and no one buys, and price drops in a couple weeks. There are so many games that come out that no one picks up, and independant developers/publishers are struggling just to break even.

I think that games are actually very affordable right now. Not only were games $75 in the SNES days, but you have to remember inflation. $75 back then was a whole lot more than the $75 of today.

That being said, I hope that high quality games remain at the $50 mark if possible (on the high end).

[JsARCLIGHT]

Does anyone have any data on material costs of the "days of yore" cartridge games of the '80s and '90s that cost $50+ versus the modern days of CD and DVD games that cost $50? I'd imagine that the actual production costs to make, package and produce for sale a video game title today (excluding the actual programming and design of the game mind you) cost far less than it did a while back.

These numbers may not be accurate but someone told me long ago that it used to cost a game maker like $12 or so to manufacture the game cart, package and such whereas it costs a modern maker like $2 to press the CD and make the package.

Any info on this? I know it's "fiddling small change" in the scope of the cost of the game but when it comes down to it games are like movies, volume sells. I just wonder how much of the current price of a game is "hard overhead" and how much actually is "profit" and at what sale point a game becomes profitable? After all, unlike movies where butts in seats equal profit in the game world they "pre-sell" their product to stores who in turn sell it to us... so in a sense, game makers make a fixed dollar amount in sales out of the gate and if a game is popular then they stand to make even more. I guess a lot of the "Suck" games bank on the distributors buying a certain amount automatically so they budget their overhead accordingly, thus turning a profit even if the game tanks.

[Metal_Massacre_79]

We usually wait until the price drops to $30 or less before we buy any games. There are only two games that I can remember paying $50 for (Madden 2K4, and SOCOM II), but that will be the last time I do that. It would figure that only four months after I shelled out some major money for SOCOM II (game, modem, memory card, CAT5 cable, etc.) the price dropped to $19.99 under their "greatest hits" collection. The worst part is that I have more fun playing the single player game than I do playing online, so it was almost a pointless purchase.

[Jolly Rogers]

I remember when the original PlayStation came out, its decision to go with a disc-based format instead of Nintendo's tried-and-true ROM cart was a huge deal and the impact on the industry was almost forgotten by now, except for Nintendo, whose stubbornness/unwillingness to go disc-based until the GC cost them quite a bit.

Besides cheap manufacturing costs, disc-based games are also more flexible in terms of responding to the market's demand. It's fast and easy to order a batch of copies on disc vs. ROM carts. Unsellable copies also cost the publisher less if they were discs as opposed to carts.

Back in the days when drives were costly and slow, gamers have to suffer long loading time. I salute all who bought a NeoGeo CD and put up with its horrible single-speed drive.

[Jawjaw]

For console titles, they have to pay a hefty amount to the console makers for each game sold. This is how the console makers make money. They sell the systems at a loss just to get their product out there, then make up the money on software. It's the same as printers and ink as well as a lot of mechanical products and parts.

For PC games, I think it is mainly the number of games you expect to sell and the investment into the game. However, I still wonder why blockbuster games like Doom3 and HL2 are more expensive than most other games when you know they are going to sell tons. Either way, I guess it comes down to people trying to get paid.

Piracy also hurts game makers. I heard a story about Tribes where there was more people playing the game online than copies sold. If games were cheaper, would fewer people download? I'm not sure about that.

[FlyingPika]

dont forget alot more ppl buy movies than games, and also they buy more.