Valve - "Games are too expensive"
Fri, 03/13/2009 - 16:47
www.edge-online.com/features/valve-are-games-too-expensive
An interesting article that may lead to some mutually beneficial results. Wouldn't it be awesome if Take-Two gave retailers the OK to sell the game for 39.99/49.99 USD (PC/Console, 10$ cheaper than normal prices)? Granted, the new I.P. might not be worth the risk...
Sat, 03/14/2009 - 10:22
#2
What somebody in the industry told me
I went for drinks last night with a friend in the video game industry. He said game publishers are really starting to show signs of the recession. People aren't necessarily buying games in established franchises less, but they're certainly saving money by avoiding new IPs.
Since Borderlands is in the second category maybe an early discount could help the game break out. If a gamer had to choose between Borderlands and Rage and Alan Wake at the same price, it could be a toss up. But if Borderlands was 10 bucks cheaper, I bet a lot more people would pick it up.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 14:38
#3
Well, if you really ask for
Well, if you really ask for this, then you may get what you want - and don't want. In order for developers to pay for packaging and distribution (yes they pay distributors) and offer a cheaper price, they would have to adopt a business structure similar to what Blizzard is doing with Starcraft2. Starcraft2 will be sold in 3 parts, so it may seem cheaper at first, but in 3 parts it'll actually cost more. So if you want really cheap games, expect even less features and content initially and you count on DLC offered right away asking you to shell out more.
Instead, what I'd like to see from developers, are games that actually have time spent fixing all the bugs before release and challenging content that doesn't feel overly scripted and cheezy. Because as many players will say, no matter how cheap a game is, if it sucks or doesn't appeal to them, they won't buy it.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 14:50
#4
I know this is old news by
I know this is old news by now, but the issue is still hot...I just find it intetesting because a month or so ago the CEO of Activision stated blatently that gamers are getting a bargain at $60 and that AAA titles should retail at $100+ As for me, I can bairly afford 3-4 AAA titles a year...I totally agree that most games should sell at $40.00
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 14:56
#5
All it would really take is
All it would really take is for publishers to be less greedy...do they really need a 70% profit? Why not let the dev teams have more of what they deserve, and forget about fancy pants packageing. Ship everything in a stripped cardboard box with just the game name and rating printed on it. You can find plenty of pics and reviews online, don't need all the fancy stuff on the box. There are a lot of ways to cut the sale cost instead of giving people a worse product. Come'on, does 2K's CEO really need a $150 million bonus for signing paperwork?
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 15:21
#6
Good games are worth every
Good games are worth every penny, bad games aren't.
Little Big Planet has great storymode, great online, and great map editor plus awesome music to accompany the experience. I don't want to buy 3 different packages, in fact cheapos out there would only buy one of the 3. So I see this problem as two-fold, bad developers and cheapo gamers. Bad developers make bad decisions on IP's that don't sell and cost their company revenue. Cheapo Gamers buy the bare minimum and don't support a product to the fullest.
Like if a game company were to announce tomorrow, hey okay we'll see the core of the game for $20 with 4 additional parts as DLC for $9.99 each I guarentee you everyone would say yes do it we'll buy the DLC over time don't worry. Then it'll hit shelves and maybe ppl will buy 1 DLC but they won't buy all, in fact most won't buy any, even if the game is fantastic, because they're cheap.
Do you know how many ppl keep downloading free trials to play WoW even though it has a level 20 cap on it? Because they cheap mofo's. Same goes for all those people who download demo's for console games and never buy the acual game just keep replaying the demo, fkn defeats the purpose.
Game developers employ lots of people, they all get paid a wage regardless of whether or not they have a game on the shelves or not, and even when they do, they still get paid even when the game does poorly. Asheron's Call is the dream story of every aspiring developer team, 10 ppl shared a house and coded 16 hours a day and created an MMO in 2 years time, that game sold for $50 new, eventually lowered to $20 after a few years, I mean what a huge risk those 10 ppl took, and what is 2 years of a persons life worth?
Games were worth $60 2 years ago, back when the usd was worth nearly twice of what it is now, you need to understand that also. There are real world situations you perhaps aren't grasping, like this being a world market economy now and the usd being worth alot less now. Costs for companies go up etc, unless you want games you just download, but then - how many hard drives are you willing to buy?
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 19:26
#7
Look, I completely agree that
Look, I completely agree that there are several games on the market worth the $60. I also have considered the idea about the value of the USD. However, if the decreasing value of the USD means that prices go up, how come my company pays me (roughly) the same as they did 2 years ago (my wage has gone up according to my time given at the company, every year I get a little more, regardless of what the value of the USD is.) The price of food goes up, the price of gas goes up, the price of entertainement goes up, but my wage doesn't? ???
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 20:05
#8
Ghinao, you are now beginning
Ghinao, you are now beginning to understand inflation, recession and depression.
Thu, 09/03/2009 - 21:21
#9
Oh I understand that this is
Oh I understand that this is the way things are, I just don't understand why
Mon, 09/07/2009 - 00:03
#10
let's just all /cry
lol
let's just all /cry
lol
I couldn't agree too much more. The majority of my purchases in gaming right now are steam weekend sales. But if the title sucks or isn't interesting I still won't buy it.
Borderlands should hit the market at 40.00 in my opinion. It's an experimental title and at that price they will establish a solid initial userbase on which word of mouth can grow the platform if the product is solid. Most of these AAA titles are basically just picking up the idiot and obstensively rich market. I can barely scrape together $50 per a month after paying for food, my car, and a place to live (of course I suppose I do dabble in other luxuries... but FFS, 10 AAA games is a vacation to Hawaii for a week or two, and they want to charge $60 for some of them now)