$60 Game Comeback?

Jonbo298 · 06-27-2003, 10:19 AM

Ever since the PlayStation came around, gamers have been used to paying $49.99 for a brand new videogame (save for us hardcore $59.99 N64 guys). Publishers felt that this was the right price point to cover all the costs to develop a game, make some money off it, and still make the consumer happy.

That was then, and this is now. Back in the 32/64-bit era, a game cost in the 1-2 millions of dollars range to develop. That's not so true with the current breed of consoles, where most games cost five times as much to make or more, and while more people are playing videogames than ever, that still doesn't justify the cost of a game being the same price, $49.99. At least, according to one analyst. Here's a snip from the article, with comments from Shiny's Dave Perry:

Several things are driving development costs up:

First, compared to the last generation of consoles, the current 128-bit generation requires at least 40 times as many lines of code to fully exploit its capabilities. And that costs money.

Shiny president Dave Perry says that the more advanced the console, the larger the development team. He should know: Shiny’s “Enter the Matrix” cost more than $20 million to develop.

“To keep pushing the limits, that not only takes more people, but better people,” Perry said. “Great development staff are therefore becoming more and more valuable, and as our industry moves to Playstation 3, Xbox 2, etc., then they will be at a new premium,” he said.

Gamers concerned about a possible games price hike would do well to read the entire artlice over at MSNBC. Be aware, though, that the entire article is speculative, and in no way indicative that publishers will increase game prices any time soon. We hope.

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.c...n=item&id=4477

If next gen games are going back to the $60 price point, they better be damn good. Maybe then companies will actually make sure a game is good. But like they said, this is all speculation. Also, will the 3 main console makers try to easen up the process to making a game on their system next gen? Imagine if the "toughness" to make a game made a difference to the price on all 3 consoles. Hell, original PS2 games might've sold for alot more then now. Maybe 'Cube games would be the cheapest or XBox depending on what companies know about the system. But who knows......

Jason1 · 06-27-2003, 11:23 AM

I really hope that dosent happen. 50 bucks is enough for games.

gekko · 06-27-2003, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jonbo298

First, compared to the last generation of consoles, the current 128-bit generation requires at least 40 times as many lines of code to fully exploit its capabilities. And that costs money.

Thank you Sony.

I don't blame them. Today's games mostly suck, but it's no surprise, because if it doesn't have good graphics, it won't sell. So you have to spend a lot of time making the game look good, less time making the gameplay good. Then people will hype the game until it's release, say it sucks, and it won't sell very well.

I'll stick to Pac-Man.

Jonbo298 · 06-27-2003, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gekko

Today's games mostly suck, but it's no surprise, because if it doesn't have good graphics, it won't sell.

The one major exception being Animal Crossing

gekko · 06-27-2003, 02:56 PM

Ya, except Animal Crossing sucked

Stonecutter · 06-27-2003, 03:25 PM

You know.

Much as I want to bitch about this, it actually doesn't bother me. I remember paying 70! for street fighter 2 turbo hyper fighting for the SNES and that was 9 or 10 years ago. 60$ now is probably less than 50$ ten years ago (I can't back that up but it's got to be close).

I've been buying less and less games and when it comes to SC2, halo 2, Fzero GX, and a handfull of others I will be picking up in the near future, I really won't mind.

CrOnO_LiNk · 06-27-2003, 03:33 PM

As price goes up, demand goes down. It will definitely sell less than before. If Sony stays at $50 per game and Xbox shifts the price at $60, PS2 games would substitute Xbox games and easily take them out the market...

That's what I think, but the demand will go down if companies increase their price.

Xantar · 06-27-2003, 04:33 PM

Just in case you were wondering, this means Canadians will be paying a little over $80 per game at current exchange rates and assuming that retail prices are simply converted.

And like Stonecutter, I'm not really too worried about this. I only end up buying maybe six games for an entire console generation anyway. At that rate, an extra $10 hardly matters anyway, especially if the console itself comes cheaper like all the consoles have been doing this generation. And besides, I spent $79.99 on Chrono Trigger.

Now if all these economic pressures would just force Acclaim to roll over and die, I'll be a happy man...

Stonecutter · 06-27-2003, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xantar

Just in case you were wondering, this means Canadians will be paying a little over $80 per game at current exchange rates and assuming that retail prices are simply converted.

And like Stonecutter, I'm not really too worried about this. I only end up buying maybe six games for an entire console generation anyway. At that rate, an extra $10 hardly matters anyway, especially if the console itself comes cheaper like all the consoles have been doing this generation. And besides, I spent $79.99 on Chrono Trigger.

Now if all these economic pressures would just force Acclaim to roll over and die, I'll be a happy man...

Yeah! I forgot about CT. I think that was 74.99 when I got it.

Professor S · 06-27-2003, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stonecutter

Yeah! I forgot about CT. I think that was 74.99 when I got it.

I have no problem paying upwards of $70 for a game if it is an excellent game. I would have paid $100 for Halo. Great games will sell no matter what (ok, Steel Battalion didn't sell great, but $200 is above and beyond even Chrono Trigger) Thats why I think it would be a good idea to have higher or lower prices on a game by game basis. If you need to make more profit to make monetary sense for investing many millions of $ into game to make it great, then do it. If not, then sell it for $50 buck or even $20 like in the case of Serious Sam.

I think this could lead to even more great games coming out, because developers would feel they would be able to both maintain their profit ratios while investing the time and effort if making a work of art.

Joeiss · 06-27-2003, 05:47 PM

Yeah, us Canadians pay 92 bucks for a 79.99 priced game. So if the prices go up 10 bucks... Well, I think that is a little too rich for my blood. I will definitely be picking and chosing games more selevtively than before.

Stonecutter · 06-27-2003, 05:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Strangler

I have no problem paying upwards of $70 for a game if it is an excellent game. I would have paid $100 for Halo. Great games will sell no matter what (ok, Steel Battalion didn't sell great, but $200 is above and beyond even Chrono Trigger) Thats why I think it would be a good idea to have higher or lower prices on a game by game basis. If you need to make more profit to make monetary sense for investing many millions of $ into game to make it great, then do it. If not, then sell it for $50 buck or even $20 like in the case of Serious Sam.

I think this could lead to even more great games coming out, because developers would feel they would be able to both maintain their profit ratios while investing the time and effort if making a work of art.

Yeah, but if you do that....

Would anyone buy a game that sold for less than the maximium? Lets say games went up to 80$ Would you want to buy a game that sold for 50$ Isn't a developer who slapps a 50$ price tag on their game basicly saying that "we made an inferior product"?

Professor S · 06-27-2003, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stonecutter

Yeah, but if you do that....

Would anyone buy a game that sold for less than the maximium? Lets say games went up to 80$ Would you want to buy a game that sold for 50$ Isn't a developer who slapps a 50$ price tag on their game basicly saying that "we made an inferior product"?

You have a point, but aren't developers already doing that now? $20 games are becoming more and more common, and I wouldn't call Serious Sam an inferior product. Its just not deep enough to warrant $50. I also don't think the $80 games would be that common, but instead be more like the $20 games are now. I think the added price we be more of an indication of a superior product, than giving the impression that the $50 games are inferior.

Its like going out to eat. Most of the time you go out to eat once you're older its to a sit down place, like Appleby's or Bennigans. But every once in a while you want to go to a really nice place like Le Bec Fin (Philly high class Frenchy). Now Le Bec Fin is a superior restaurant, but you don't really think of an Appleby's or Bennigans as inferior. Its still good, but doesn't have all the trimmings that Le Bec Fin has that ou are willing to spend that extra money on every once in a while.

Just because a select few things are special, it doesn't make everything else bad.

Seven7 · 06-27-2003, 10:42 PM

Alot of games here are what, $69.99-79.99 to as much as $89. plus even, while some new games are sometimes as low as $59.99 or so, such as the new Tomb Raider game.

If games were to go up a fair bit like 10-15 dollars Cdn then I may only buy very few new games now and good used games will be more sought after.

manasecret · 06-28-2003, 09:14 PM

I still don't understand Candanians bitching about game prices over there; I mean, isn't everything over there a higher number price than it is in Amrica?

How much is a value burger there? Or a movie ticket? 24-packs of Bud Light?

Anyway, Ikaruga is only $40 and it's a fantastic game! ...it's just all 2D and not exactly an 80-hour RPG.