?30 is now a 'Budget Price'!

[mackemansj1]

Pc software= no one to pay, console games = console maker cough up money. Thats why console games will allways be of higher prices. Not to mention that there is a much bigger market open to pc games makers, you can see how they can still make money on a release at a lower prices on the pc format. Table tennis at ?24.99 on most online retailers is a bargin price in the console land for a new release, dont think i have paid so low for a new release on a new platform ever, lol people find ways to moan about owt these days.

[Leon Retro]

Pc software= no one to pay, console games = console maker cough up money. Thats why console games will allways be of higher prices. Not to mention that there is a much bigger market open to pc games makers, you can see how they can still make money on a release at a lower prices on the pc format. Table tennis at ?24.99 on most online retailers is a bargin price in the console land for a new release, dont think i have paid so low for a new release on a new platform ever, lol people find ways to moan about owt these days.

Sony don't have to pay anyone fees, but they still charge the same amount for their games, such as GT4 etc... The same with MS and Nintendo!

PC games don't sell very well, only the big releases make money. Making a good or licensed game for consoles is a much safer bet.

There are many reasons why console games are so expensive. The main one being that console titles have a superior image, and that most peoples perception is that PC games should be cheap, and that console games are expensive.

I guess console game publishers are still taking advantage of the 16bit situation where games were on cartridges and cost a lot of money to make, resulting in high priced games. That era of cartridge based games created a public perception that console games had to be expensive, and therefore luxury items.

The sad thing is that publishers are still playing on this old percpetion, even though cartridges haven't been used for years. CD/DVD's are dirt cheap to produce, but the consumer hasn't felt the financial benefit.

Publishers use the age old hype that ' new ' means better, and therefore more expensive. They justify the high prices with hype, and combined with other preconceptions, the gaming public mainly except the high pricing.

Any rational, or mature gamer knows that ' new ' .. doesn't mean anything really. It certainly doesn't mean ' better ' and it in no way justifies high pricing. Games are just on discs as usual, and the good ones will still offer the same amount of gaming time they always have. When these exciting new releases fade away into the bargain bins and peoples cupboards, the owners will come down to earth and realise all the hype really wasn't worth an extra ?10-20, however good the game.

Buying a game, however good, is still a fun experience, but anyone with common sense and a moderate income will know that whatever new console game they buy, the price really is too high!

I personally pay as little as possible for current console titles, but despite my liking for whatever game it happens to be, and the respect I have for the creators, I still think of the money men and say... " Greedy Bastards! "

[Jaxon]

It has always seemed to me that UK gamers have been very tolerant of this kind of abuse. Not only do you have poor and thin release schedules, but you pay more than any other territory when a game finally does drip out of the tap and you keep supporting it regardless. Should you decide to move to the States, you would enjoy an instant 30-50% discount on your game purchases. Some of you have made the very wise decision to import all of your games, but I don't know why the rest of you put up with it. =/

[ste]

When the ps3 comes out will we be considering ?50 budget, I wonder...

[NekoFever]

Sony don't have to pay anyone fees, but they still charge the same amount for their games, such as GT4 etc... The same with MS and Nintendo!

They're the ones who are taking the loss on the hardware, so I'd assume that they're taking the opportunity to make some extra cash that way. Sometimes they charge less though - Microsoft's 360 games are ?45 as opposed to the ?50 RRP for third-party games.

[MikeRox]

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.

A big chunk of the remaining ?20 is Microsofts licensing fees? Thats why console games cost more than PC games. The developer themselves receive about the same amount of money per sale regardless of format.

And Microsoft do charge less for 360 games (the RRP is ?44.99 rather than ?49.99), a whole whopping ?5 :P lol Just like Nintendo used to charge ?30 for GBA games while 3rd party software was ?35.

[MikeRox]

They're the ones who are taking the loss on the hardware, so I'd assume that they're taking the opportunity to make some extra cash that way. Sometimes they charge less though - Microsoft's 360 games are ?45 as opposed to the ?50 RRP for third-party games.

They ain't taking a loss on hardware on the PS2 now, the PSTwos cost so little to manufactuer they could half the RRP and still make a decent profit, but early in the consoles lifespan I believe it was a fairly large loss they made.

[IanE]

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.

Of course there's justification, the testing procedures for 360 games are much higher, despite the bugs that shipped with the 360 version. But they also have to implement Live functionality and awareness, and pay a fee to Microsoft for every copy made.

[Oblivion_is_here]

Of course there's justification, the testing procedures for 360 games are much higher, despite the bugs that shipped with the 360 version. But they also have to implement Live functionality and awareness, and pay a fee to Microsoft for every copy made.

What is the live functionality?

[IanE]

Implementing the guide, enabling the download of new content and implimentation of it, making sure it's just all rounded off etc.

[the_dude]

Considering you'd spend ?50/60 at the weekend on a night out, ?30 for some games (not them all) seems almost justified.

[Matt]

Of course there's justification, the testing procedures for 360 games are much higher, despite the bugs that shipped with the 360 version. But they also have to implement Live functionality and awareness, and pay a fee to Microsoft for every copy made.

Sorry mate but have to totally disagree. Sure MS want games released as bug-free as possible, but I'm sure the testing procedure is pretty much the same as on the PC. I'd have thought, and could be totally wrong here, that the devs would write the engine for the PC and 360, and then the game code would be the same on each - so if the engine is stable on both, then the game should be the same with both. In other words, once testing of the engine is done, the game code that we interact with should be identical on both systems [probably totally wrong!].

Live functionality is a joke - it says "Online" that's it! A fee for MS is fair enough, and I'd really like to know how much it is. I'd bet good money it's not ?20, probably nearer ?5. They charge more for the console versions because the market lets them.

Implementing the guide, enabling the download of new content and implimentation of it, making sure it's just all rounded off etc.

Implementing the Guide will just be a bloody system call to the OS! Likewise, all the downloading of new content will be handled by the OS, that's the basic concept of Live - everything is integrated into the console and works the same across all games. If that took longer than 5 mins I'd be surprised

[hell10n]

Right well come on everyone. Lets ALL stop buying games at stupidly high prices.
Youve all got some games that are compat with the 360, or u can still buy a few that u wanted in the past & are now dirt cheap. So buy them instead & wait & see if MS/games Co's do something to slash the price of 360 games.

IT'S IN YOUR HANDS SO COME ON PEOPLE!!

[Sony Fanboy]

In previous threads, a few people complained that budget ?15 prices for 2D titles were detrimental to the developers...

[Jimmyzilla]

Right well come on everyone. Lets ALL stop buying games at stupidly high prices.
Youve all got some games that are compat with the 360, or u can still buy a few that u wanted in the past & are now dirt cheap. So buy them instead & wait & see if MS/games Co's do something to slash the price of 360 games.

IT'S IN YOUR HANDS SO COME ON PEOPLE!!

Considering this is an import forum and you only have to affect the local market i'm sure a lot of the members wouldn't have a problem....but it won't make much difference...