?30 is now a 'Budget Price'!

[prvledogg]

Its the younger kids I feel sorry for, I can handle only buying 1 360 game every other month, but I still feel it in my pocket. I remember back in the day I saved up a years pocket money to buy a Master System for ?50... If that were now and I saved up for a year to buy Perfect Dark Zero I would possibly have to go burn Microsoft and anyone else involved in making me waste ?50 of hard earned cash.

The other thing of course thats different these days is that the gaming market is huge, I bet if you compared console game sales from say 1995 to 2005 you'd see that millions more sell now. Which in theory means the games should be cheaper, not more expensive. If your mass producing you can afford to bring the cost down, or you can bump the price up and again increase that gap between rich and normal people.

I have no choice but to not buy 360 games so Im in with your little boycott!

[Leon Retro]

Its the younger kids I feel sorry for, I can handle only buying 1 360 game every other month, but I still feel it in my pocket. I remember back in the day I saved up a years pocket money to buy a Master System for ?50... If that were now and I saved up for a year to buy Perfect Dark Zero I would possibly have to go burn Microsoft and anyone else involved in making me waste ?50 of hard earned cash.

The other thing of course thats different these days is that the gaming market is huge, I bet if you compared console game sales from say 1995 to 2005 you'd see that millions more sell now. Which in theory means the games should be cheaper, not more expensive. If your mass producing you can afford to bring the cost down, or you can bump the price up and again increase that gap between rich and normal people.

I have no choice but to not buy 360 games so Im in with your little boycott!

Only selfish people with lots of money say current videogame pricing is o.k.

I have spoken to quite a few people regarding the subject and some say they have paid ?90 for certain import games. They also say if they want something, they don't mind the price. They would pay ?80 for games if that were the going rate. This group are a small minority, thank god, and most people think ?30 is the acceptable limit.

I personally think the high price of games is very negative. Without credit cards, overdrafts etc... most people wouldn't be able to spend ?30-50 on a game every week or month. There is no doubt the videogame retailers are taking advantage of our current ' credit nation ' situation... where people feel they can and should buy everything they desire without thinking of cost, under the illusion that credit can be forgotten about and paid another day.

All this does is create a nation of debt ridden people. Kids suffer, the parents suffer, and the videogame makers/retailers count their gold.

Obviously... when the resestion hits, people will have to wake-up, and the pricing should come down to earth too.

You could say people aren't forced to buy things, but it's far more complicated than that, and the issues could be debated for many an hour!

One things for sure, there is no point in comparing the cartridge based 16bit days to the current videogame market!

[jimmbob]

this thread reminds me of that bloke on a one man mission to bring the price of games down with his website. A huge failiure if I remember correctly, can't remember the url, anyone else remember? Twas about 4 years ago, he then went on to have a go at slot machines because they were "fixed".

[Salsa Party Animal]

Stuart Campbell's Fairplay campaign I think.

[jimmbob]

Fair play, that's it. The campaign against expensive videogames or somesuchthingy...

[JohnMcL7]

I'm not going to say current videogame pricing is ok but given the massive amount of resources needed to produce a 360 game I'm surprised the rrp of games is only 50 pounds.

John

[Brats]

Apparently the attach rate (amount of software sold per console owner) for the 360 is high (like most new consoles). If retailers and publishers reduced their prices, demand would not increase by that much.

Therefore the price won't decrease as they can make the most money at these higher prices. Once more 360s are sold, the attach rates drop off and there is more competitiion (i.e. more titles on the 360) the prices will come down, budget and all.

This is what happened with the PSone. Virgin studied the market and calculated that the market was mature enough that a ?30 price point would dramatically increase demand. Which it did, meaning more money for everyone.

[MikeRox]

Only selfish people with lots of money say current videogame pricing is o.k.

I have spoken to quite a few people regarding the subject and some say they have paid ?90 for certain import games. They also say if they want something, they don't mind the price. They would pay ?80 for games if that were the going rate. This group are a small minority, thank god, and most people think ?30 is the acceptable limit.

I personally think the high price of games is very negative. Without credit cards, overdrafts etc... most people wouldn't be able to spend ?30-50 on a game every week or month. There is no doubt the videogame retailers are taking advantage of our current ' credit nation ' situation... where people feel they can and should buy everything they desire without thinking of cost, under the illusion that credit can be forgotten about and paid another day.

All this does is create a nation of debt ridden people. Kids suffer, the parents suffer, and the videogame makers/retailers count their gold.

Obviously... when the resestion hits, people will have to wake-up, and the pricing should come down to earth too.

You could say people aren't forced to buy things, but it's far more complicated than that, and the issues could be debated for many an hour!

One things for sure, there is no point in comparing the cartridge based 16bit days to the current videogame market!

I'm sorry but there are enough "budget" and incredibly cheap older releases to allow people without the sort of money required fom Xbox 360 new releases to be active in gaming as well. It's like anything else, If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

I want a ?1300 32" HDTV, I can't afford it, so I have to wait til I can afford it, or just not bother getting it.

Out of interest though, why is there no point comparing 16bit days to now? I used to pay ?50 a game 10 years ago for N64 software and I remember some SNES software being around the same price, technically that makes Xbox 360 games cheaper due to inflation and the value of a pound decreasing over time etc.

[Sony Fanboy]

Average price (?s) 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
PS1 22.30 16.13 13.29 10.92 9.08 7.84
PS2 45.00 36.30 31.55 26.35 24.86 22.64
Xbox - - 36.91 28.11 26.51 23.84
GameCube - - 36.48 27.87 24.98 24.00
Game Boy 22.56 23.59 21.05 16.39 12.00 -
Game Boy Advance - 31.25 25.93 23.06 21.95 19.65
DS - - - - - 24.92
PSP - - - - - 31.10
Xbox 360 - - - - - 44.68
PC Games 19.69 17.66 15.78 14.75 14.72 14.48

[IanE]

Average PS2 game price in 2000...?45? Erm, yeaaahh.

At the moment, 360 games are dropping in price all over the shop, ?35 for a new Footie Manager in GS, same with DOA4 in Gamestop and GS. ?25 for Outfit on Amazon (?30 in GS), ?30 for FarCry, ?30/?35 (can't remember which) for Kameo in GS. Game prices come down after time, as they always do.

[Sony Fanboy]

Average PS2 game price in 2000...?45? Erm, yeaaahh.

TAX not included

[Leon Retro]

I'm sorry but there are enough "budget" and incredibly cheap older releases to allow people without the sort of money required fom Xbox 360 new releases to be active in gaming as well. It's like anything else, If you can't afford it, don't buy it.

I want a ?1300 32" HDTV, I can't afford it, so I have to wait til I can afford it, or just not bother getting it.

Out of interest though, why is there no point comparing 16bit days to now? I used to pay ?50 a game 10 years ago for N64 software and I remember some SNES software being around the same price, technically that makes Xbox 360 games cheaper due to inflation and the value of a pound decreasing over time etc.

I don't feel ?40-50 games is a fair price. Some people do, I don't!

With regards to the 16bit days. Well.. you had the cartridge format which added ?10 costs on to each game. The market was smaller, and you had all the spin from publishers that created the impression games were a luxury item, so people just bought the hype. Another factor could be that things were more hardcore back then, and most gamers were too eager and desperate for games to make price an issue.

With games media now costing mere pennies, and the market bigger than ever, with millions of people eager to buy games, and the status of videogames being much more positive than it has been in the past, the market is flourishing in so many ways, but publishers and retailers are still being far too greedy.

Now we can accept the greed, because that is what drives corporate business, but what we shouldn't except is the explanations why the public should expect to pay ?40-50 for a game.

At the end of the day, when we buy games, we are being taken advantage of. It's either give-up gaming or swallow the price, and I personally choose to only buy games that I am certain will offer me many months of satisfaction.

People can disregard price, believe the business hype, or just except that gaming is very expensive, and a bit of a rip-off!

[Sony Fanboy]

I'd agree somewhat if the majority of games were ?40-?50, but there's less than 1% that are in that range.

If a publisher decided to release rare japanese games in europe at premium prices, would people still complain?...

[Leon Retro]

I'd agree somewhat if the majority of games were ?40-?50, but there's less than 1% that are in that range.

If a publisher decided to release rare japanese games in europe at premium prices, would people still complain?...

Gears of War, Halo3, and the big name PS3 games are going to cost ?40-50. What and where are the big name current gen console titles for less than ?40? That is the price games for the 360 are on release, if you buy online. I have no doubt Sony PS3 titles will maybe cost even more upon release!

The people with an interest in rare japanese games, only pay high prices because they are rare, and import only.

When a unique or rare japanese game gets released in Europe, it becomes a mainstream title, and one that doesn't command an inflated price!

If anyone finds ?40-50 o.k, that's their choice. I'm just expressing my personal opinion that the high price of console titles isn't justified if you look at things in detail.

[Kongster]

It's great when you can get new releases for ?29.99 - that's a fair price imo. Whereas Paying ?40-?50 on the other hand...that's a bit much imo. Reminds me of the 16-bit days...