This topic has been touched upon many times in different threads, but I think it is such an important one that it deserves it's own thread. Especially in these days as game prices differ more than ever. You have iPhone games for less than a pound, and Call of Duty: Shoot the Terrorists - Useless Swag Edition" at 150?.
Pricing a game is a tricky thing. You must price it high enough to generate enough income to make a profit on the project, and low enough to sell the largest amount of units. That's the basics. But there are more factors to consider. Today we have a higher percentage of reselling games than ever before, not to mention the DLC craze going on at the moment. Users should feel satisfied at the amount of content they get for their buck, but should not get content enough to decrease their buying habits.
A popular criticism is that games are basically to expensive, at their usual 40-60?. They have been compared to movies and cd's - which are other forms of digital entertainment also delivered in the form of a disc - retailing for under half the price. A usual - and logical - respond is that a game usually gives many hours more entertainment than what a movie or cd does, thus redeeming the difference in price. Another argument is the rising costs of game development. A normal high profile game easily costs several millions to make, a lot more than the production of a cd, and around or exceeding most popular movies. But all of this vary greatly from product to product.
Which brings me to the next scenario. Just Dance 2 could not have cost more than a fraction of Mass Effect 2 to make, yet retails for about the same price. Should the prices of games be determined by their production cost? Or by their value in terms of hours of entertainment provided?
Games on the iPhone are priced from less than a pound an upwards. Many low priced games have been smashing successes much thank to their low price. But is it healthy for developers to offer their games at such low prices? I'm gonna quote myself for a second here, as I wrote something related in a different thread:
I have a pretty clear stance on the subject that I hope didn't shine through in this opening post, as I want all of you to chime in with your thoughts about this very important topic.
Pricing a game is a tricky thing. You must price it high enough to generate enough income to make a profit on the project, and low enough to sell the largest amount of units. That's the basics. But there are more factors to consider. Today we have a higher percentage of reselling games than ever before, not to mention the DLC craze going on at the moment. Users should feel satisfied at the amount of content they get for their buck, but should not get content enough to decrease their buying habits.
A popular criticism is that games are basically to expensive, at their usual 40-60?. They have been compared to movies and cd's - which are other forms of digital entertainment also delivered in the form of a disc - retailing for under half the price. A usual - and logical - respond is that a game usually gives many hours more entertainment than what a movie or cd does, thus redeeming the difference in price. Another argument is the rising costs of game development. A normal high profile game easily costs several millions to make, a lot more than the production of a cd, and around or exceeding most popular movies. But all of this vary greatly from product to product.
Which brings me to the next scenario. Just Dance 2 could not have cost more than a fraction of Mass Effect 2 to make, yet retails for about the same price. Should the prices of games be determined by their production cost? Or by their value in terms of hours of entertainment provided?
Games on the iPhone are priced from less than a pound an upwards. Many low priced games have been smashing successes much thank to their low price. But is it healthy for developers to offer their games at such low prices? I'm gonna quote myself for a second here, as I wrote something related in a different thread:
In the short term; sure. But that's only due to how new the platform still is. In two to three years iOS will be flooded with cheap games. We see much of this effect already. The games that make it we all hear about (Angry Birds, Doodle Jump), but they represent an extremely small amount of the total available games. For every success story, there are thousands that don't get popular.
I think this price point creates a very dangerous situation for the industry. People will start expecting games to cost less than 10?, and the sales of higher priced games will dwindle. For developers to make a profit of a sub 10? game, costs must be cut. The result is simpler, shorter games. Microtransactions will be even more important for the developers, so we will be faced by entry games, or the first of many parts of that particular game. Not a good direction I think.
Another side effect of such low prices, is that people will get too impulsive in their game purchases. Their reasoning will be that it is such a small amount of money, that it wont really matter if it's any good or not. This will create a mentality that views games as disposable. People will get less invested in games, play them for shorter periods of time before moving, buying more games, but ultimately for less money than they used to. Their patience will get smaller as they experience so many more games than before, and will in lesser degree want deep experiences, as it often has a learning curves. Simpler games will be demanded. I think we have enough of them.
Bonus section:
I actually experienced this effect myself when I was around 13. Had gotten my PSX chipped, and had access to pretty much any game I wanted. Ended up playing them less than a couple of hours each, before moving on to the next. In the end, none of them felt appealing. I stopped pirating games a year or two later.
I think this price point creates a very dangerous situation for the industry. People will start expecting games to cost less than 10?, and the sales of higher priced games will dwindle. For developers to make a profit of a sub 10? game, costs must be cut. The result is simpler, shorter games. Microtransactions will be even more important for the developers, so we will be faced by entry games, or the first of many parts of that particular game. Not a good direction I think.
Another side effect of such low prices, is that people will get too impulsive in their game purchases. Their reasoning will be that it is such a small amount of money, that it wont really matter if it's any good or not. This will create a mentality that views games as disposable. People will get less invested in games, play them for shorter periods of time before moving, buying more games, but ultimately for less money than they used to. Their patience will get smaller as they experience so many more games than before, and will in lesser degree want deep experiences, as it often has a learning curves. Simpler games will be demanded. I think we have enough of them.
Bonus section:
I actually experienced this effect myself when I was around 13. Had gotten my PSX chipped, and had access to pretty much any game I wanted. Ended up playing them less than a couple of hours each, before moving on to the next. In the end, none of them felt appealing. I stopped pirating games a year or two later.
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