?30 is now a 'Budget Price'!

[jim g]

I have read a few reviews of Rockstars Tennis and nothwithstanding its potential greatness, why are these bloody reviewers saying that 'at the budget price of ?30' it's great value!

When did ?30 for a game become cheap?

The current 360 SRP of ?50 is way too high anyway. Yes you can find them for ?40, but compared to the historic benchmark of ?30 on release, and then much lower soon after, it annoys me when suddenly the media decree ?30 to be budget, it is not! Goodness knows what the PS3 games will cost, and who knows when someone will decide ?50 to be a budget price!

Oh and before anyone starts citing development costs for 360 games, it's bollocks. It they were (as some are) realeased on PC's they are ?30 (max).

So journos, ?30 is not budget, stop PR'ing that it is.

[jimmbob]

I agree, bloody disgrace, but then I'm a tight fisted bast. Budget is about ?9.99 in my book.

[nightstalker100]

?14.99-19.99 on release i consider "budge". Anything below - bonus!

[Bleeders]

Budget Price? Wasn't that the term used in the hey-day of the Spectrum games, where they were ?1.99 and ?2.99 a pop, with "full-price" games starting at ?8.99 upwards.

?30 is not a budget price.

[Matt]

Totally agree. Annoying that, say, the PC version of Oblivion is ?30 while the 360 costs ?50. No justification for that; in terms of production costs, I'd imagine the PC has higher res textures.

[Lyris]

?30-?35 is the highest I would ever spend on a standard (non-rare) new release game. So ?30 is definitely not budget.

Also I don't understand all this "HD gaming needs a ?50 RRP!" stuff. PC games have been capable of higher than 720p resolution for years. Sure there's no licensing fees attached, but I don't buy it all the same.

[jimmbob]

As long as no one buys games at a ?50 price point then they will stop selling them at that much. Just look at the orginal XBox, everyone avoided it like a pervy uncle when it was ?300, an hour or two later they dropped the price significantly. t3h w1n.

[Daragon]

Something that I don't get is that the RRP of new release PC games has seen a decline. Take Hitman: Blood Money for example - GAME have the 360 version listed at ?39.99 whereas the price for the "Exclusive to GAME" PC collector's edition is a bargainous ?19.99.

Now the last time some collector's edition was exclusive to GAME, they charged the earth for it, whats going on here?

[EJG1980]

Problem is, as long as people keep on buying games at these prices, then the prices will stay. They'll only lower if a very big chunk of the buying public stop buying the games.

Edit re above: jimmie2k got there first

It's a crazy situation when I can buy an Asian copy of an Xbox 360 game, including postage from Hong Kong, for just under ?25, when the same game in the high street here would cost ?40-50!

[tom-nook]

Jim this review'll please you (esp the last paragraph):

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=64906

Not a single mention of budget in there

Seriously though I agree with the point you are making. Unfortunately nowadays a budget price seems to mean that a game costs approx. ?5-10 less than the norm because it's,erm, well......a bit ****.

[danholo]

Hmm... Interesting. I don't know how the value of the pound has changed but when I bought Command & Conquer brand new at an HMV in London in 1995 (first and only time I visited Britain sans stop-overs at Heathrow) it cost ?29.99. AFAIK, the value of the pound hasn't decreased at least by much.

[Sony Fanboy]

?30 was budget back during the 16bit cart days when most new releases were ?49.99.

[jim g]

Without part exchange and used games the ?50 game would struggle to sell. Even though they have their faults, Game etc., by accepting a part exchange, actually fuel higher prices on console games. PC games are almost worthless quite soon after release and how many people buy them used?

?30 is not budget, period.

[Bassman]

For a ?49.99 release I suppose that ?24.99 would be the most to be considered budget.

I have yet to buy a 360 game at full price. Other than the games in the package (Premium Pack + games) I got from HMV (?25 off three games plus ?20 worth of points on their Reward Card) I have bought all my other games at reduced prices (?15 off at the least) pre-owned. I am surprised if GAME sell many pre-owned titles at the prices they charge. The forums or Amazon sellers have much more sensible prices.

[MattyD]

This is bull****. I'd say ?10-15 is the sort of price you might expect to pay for a budget game, possibly ?20 if it's something more appealing like a decent retro collection. Any higher than that and you lose that impulsive, curiosity-driven purchase potential.

Reminds me of all that stuff Iwata and Miyamoto were saying about how DS games would be about ?20-?25 a throw because they'd be simple and cheap to produce. Try telling that to Gamestation et all.

I'd also like to know why GBA games still retail for ?30 or more. They cost next to nothing to develop compared to mainstream home titles so what gives?