Game Prices Whinge!

[StevieL]

Is it just me or are the price of games a complete joke!?!?

I was looking on Amazon there and its about £55 for COD MW2! (altho its on offer for £45 at the mo)

I find it shocking! The games companies must be raking it in when you think on the amount of games that are sold!

[Ekona]

Not really. Think about how much a game costs to make these days compared with what they used to, and the price is perfectly reasonable. Besides, I'd pay whatever IF want for MW2 as it's simply going to made of incredible win. £65, £165, it'd be worth it.

It's all the other dross that isn't worth £40+ that's the problem. The AAA games are worth paying the money for.

[H3RB]

see now this is one reason i have my xbox modded.... i can get the games for free and see if they are worth buying or not, if they aint worth buying i dont bother with them and never play again, if they are worth buying i buy them and usually the special edition versions so its not like the companies are losing any money on my part

[JohnnyC]

Not really. Think about how much a game costs to make these days compared with what they used to, and the price is perfectly reasonable. Besides, I'd pay whatever IF want for MW2 as it's simply going to made of incredible win. £65, £165, it'd be worth it.

It's all the other dross that isn't worth £40+ that's the problem. The AAA games are worth paying the money for.

Agreed, it's not 6 months work for a couple of geezers.
It's hundreds of people taking years.

Having said that, how many millions do movies cost to make? And they're well under £20 when released (okay, they have the cinema revenue too, but...)

[Martin F]

Not really. Think about how much a game costs to make these days compared with what they used to, and the price is perfectly reasonable. Besides, I'd pay whatever IF want for MW2 as it's simply going to made of incredible win. £65, £165, it'd be worth it.

It's all the other dross that isn't worth £40+ that's the problem. The AAA games are worth paying the money for.

Agreed, it's not 6 months work for a couple of geezers.
It's hundreds of people taking years.

Having said that, how many millions do movies cost to make? And they're well under £20 when released (okay, they have the cinema revenue too, but...)

totally agree with what your saying, quick question to add to the mix though, how come they can release a game as soon as the movie hits the cinemas....

[JohnnyC]

totally agree with what your saying, quick question to add to the mix though, how come they can release a game as soon as the movie hits the cinemas....

In those cases they'd been given an early version of the storyline or script.
And the movie probably took a year or so to make too.

[Andy Jones]

totally agree with what your saying, quick question to add to the mix though, how come they can release a game as soon as the movie hits the cinemas....

In those cases they'd been given an early version of the storyline or script.
And the movie probably took a year or so to make too.

IIRC RoboCop 3 in the 16 bit era was released "before" the film

[^Trickster^]

I played copy games and the likes for 10 years on the pc before i bought an xbox and then a ps3, which I do buy games for and havent had either chipped, I feel like im giving back what i took for all those years lol

I have a R4 on the nintendo ds for the reason that id never even buy a game for it, it was a gift which i was not bothered about so it makes no difference anyway as id never buy them.

I still have a bbc computer with cracked games from the 80s never owned an original for that either, onl the megadrive and my latest consoles, but games are expensive to produce and really high quality now so i dont mind paying for them at all.

Graeme

[Andy Jones]

They recon a lot of companies will follow suite closer to crimbo with higher RRP's on games, But we as the consumer have to all stick together and say no (this won't happen of course and everyone will carry on as normal)

If no one pre-orders COD: MW2 to have it on the day of release and all the retailers contact Activision saying "we have no orders for this game" how long before a price drop??? This title is huge, They know there's a high chance it's gonna be the biggest game of 2009 so seems a bit fishy to me. If they're worried about piracy on the 360 hindering the chances of it making a profit why don't they make it an XBLA title only? Not difficult.

There were reports that Rockstar were up stream without a paddle because of the delays and setbacks caused by GTA IV. Rumours of money trouble and take overs to get them out of the poo because of spiralling development costs but they stayed afloat and publicly said the pre-orders on GTA IV we're enough to get them back in the black and all was well.

[Andy Jones]

I feel like im giving back what i took for all those years lol

I guess that's why i'm so against piracy now and enjoy spending my hard earned buying the stuff i know i'll enjoy.

In my school years when i should have been doing homework i was cracking games on the Amiga, Myself and a mate who i'm still in regular contact with to this day used to be part of a group and released the odd game or two /or patch every now and again for something that hadn't been cracked properly first time round. But i did spend all my paper round money on originals and had an insane collection taking up many book cases

A couple of friends (also still in contact with) used to run a couple of 0 day BBS's that were part of our group that were very active and getting hold of everything was easy peasy.

I translated a couple of foreign titles back then too, One Polish game that would have never seen the light of day in the UK. It was a rather cool puzzle platformer that was playable without knowing any Polish but i thought it would be nice to see the game in English so i managed to find out what data packing program (cruncher) had been used for all the data files, Unpacked the whole game, Re-drew some of the graphics in Deluxe Paint and hex edited the main exe into english and repacked all the files using the same "cruncher" and bob on. Unofficial english version released on the BBS's. One German game i translated using the same method i released before the official UK version hit the shops

It wasn't clever (well it was actually) and a few years ago when i got the Amiga emulator for my laptop i managed to track most of the stuff our group had released via numerous sources on the www and booting it up again and seeing the crack intro's just brought a cheeky smug grin to my face and a "i did that"

But as said above, Years on the guilt took over so now i buy my games and support the guys and girls doing the hard work and keeping us entertained. Piracy completely destroyed the Amiga back then because all the devs and publishers pulled out because they wern't making money anymore.

If the cost of games do start to climb soon, Next time your buying a spindle of blank DVD 9's for your 360 stop and ...





End of lesson for today

[H3RB]

that dont really make sense tho, just think.... when cod 4 first came out in the first week numbers reached as high as 115,000 players online at anyone time....
infinity ward did a survey the other week said that 7million people had logged onto cod4 multi player on xbox 360 alone and almost that on the ps3. now your telling me that even if HALF of those people had a pirated copy of the game that they wouldnt be making any money? i some how doubt it even if the game cost £1 to buy thats still £3.5 million on just the xbox alone now x that by the retail amount and your well into the millions.... i some how doubt that companies are losing as much money as they suggest....

[JohnnyC]

i some how doubt that companies are losing as much money as they suggest....

Well, I believe they are.

Don't think just because Activision have made a mint with the COD games that all publishers are reaping similar piles of cash.

How many games sell as many units as COD4 ?

[SamUK]

Not really. Think about how much a game costs to make these days compared with what they used to, and the price is perfectly reasonable. Besides, I'd pay whatever IF want for MW2 as it's simply going to made of incredible win. £65, £165, it'd be worth it.

It's all the other dross that isn't worth £40+ that's the problem. The AAA games are worth paying the money for.

Having said that, how many millions do movies cost to make? And they're well under £20 when released (okay, they have the cinema revenue too, but...)

A hell of alot more people go see movies than play games so they can charge less.

I think its cheaky of activision to put the price up on COD. Its a real "we know we are better than everything else" kinda move.

not needed.

[Andy Jones]

that dont really make sense tho, just think.... when cod 4 first came out in the first week numbers reached as high as 115,000 players online at anyone time....
infinity ward did a survey the other week said that 7million people had logged onto cod4 multi player on xbox 360 alone and almost that on the ps3. now your telling me that even if HALF of those people had a pirated copy of the game that they wouldnt be making any money? i some how doubt it even if the game cost £1 to buy thats still £3.5 million on just the xbox alone now x that by the retail amount and your well into the millions.... i some how doubt that companies are losing as much money as they suggest....

But out of the "x" million who have logged in how many have copied it, how many have borrowed it off a friend and how many have bought it 2nd hand or rented/hired it all of which means Activision probably don't get a penny (and another reason why the (devs/pubs) have started talking about some form of exclusive DLC that is only accessible to the person who boots up each copy of a game first) I have no idea what percentage of the RRP goes to the publisher but i guess it's very little and as usual it's the retailers in the UK especially ripping us off like with everything else.

I used to get some of my games for the PS3 when i first bought it from sellers in Japan for £20 delivered (UK versions too) £12 of that was delivery charge so if they can sell the game for £8 and still make a profit it makes you think what the retailers over here are playing at and one reason i refuse to pay full RRP for any game.

[matt_mr2t]

I dont think I've ever spent more than £35 on a game and never will.
I just wait for them to either drop in price in the shops or get them 2nd hand from ebay.

I'm not that impatient that I have to have things, no matter the cost, the day they come out.

[JohnnyC]

I used to get some of my games for the PS3 when i first bought it from sellers in Japan for £20 delivered (UK versions too) £12 of that was delivery charge so if they can sell the game for £8 and still make a profit it makes you think what the retailers over here are playing at and one reason i refuse to pay full RRP for any game.

I'm surprised at that price.
Not sure about the PS3, but IIRC Sony would charge about £5 per disc to the publisher on the PS1.

[Bender Unit]

Have any of you looked at game swap companies?

Seems like a good deal, pay something like £10 a month, make a list of games you want to play (you can get any title for any platform), they send it to you, you play it, you send it back they then send you the next one on your list – rinse an repeat unlimited times.

Bearing in mind now the average game is around £40 – buy 3 and that’s your year’s membership. Also if you like the game you can buy it at half price ... so still quite a bit cheaper than all of the pre owned deals I see in places like game etc. It also means you can play games you wouldn’t buy but do want to play; there isn’t anything worse than spending £40 notes on a game to find out its pap.

I am going to sign up to one of these services next month.

[matt_mr2t]

Have any of you looked at game swap companies?

Seems like a good deal, pay something like £10 a month, make a list of games you want to play (you can get any title for any platform), they send it to you, you play it, you send it back they then send you the next one on your list – rinse an repeat unlimited times.

Bearing in mind now the average game is around £40 – buy 3 and that’s your year’s membership. Also if you like the game you can buy it at half price ... so still quite a bit cheaper than all of the pre owned deals I see in places like game etc. It also means you can play games you wouldn’t buy but do want to play; there isn’t anything worse than spending £40 notes on a game to find out its pap.

I am going to sign up to one of these services next month.

I've just changed my Love Film membership to include games

[mr2daz]

That's a ridiculous price to pay for any game and they can't blame piracy for it as the game isn't out yet and hasn't been pirated.

If they are worried about piracy then they need to spend more time preventing piracy not making those that do pay for games foot the bill for their lack of security. Anyone that thinks higher prices are justifiable because of piracy is also saying that paying higher car insurance because of car theft is justifiable too. Whilst there's no easy alternative and we generally accept it, that doesn't make it right. Don't they ever stop to think that the high prices might be driving more people to piracy? Thankfully we don't have to buy computer games every year to avoid having our consoles confiscated. I won't be paying that much, I shall buy a used copy a few weeks after it's released and they won't make a single penny from me, it's their loss in the end and the people that are happy to pay ever increasing prices can feel even happier as the prices will keep increasing as the number of people who aren'y happy to pay also increase until one day, nobody is buying new games anymore and they won't have the money to make them at all.

If only you could buy used insurance.

[matt_mr2t]

That's a ridiculous price to pay for any game and they can't blame piracy for it as the game isn't out yet and hasn't been pirated.

If they are worried about piracy then they need to spend more time preventing piracy not making those that do pay for games foot the bill for their lack of security. Anyone that thinks higher prices are justifiable because of piracy is also saying that paying higher car insurance because of car theft is justifiable too. Whilst there's no easy alternative and we generally accept it, that doesn't make it right. Don't they ever stop to think that the high prices might be driving more people to piracy? Thankfully we don't have to buy computer games every year to avoid having our consoles confiscated. I won't be paying that much, I shall buy a used copy a few weeks after it's released and they won't make a single penny from me, it's their loss in the end and the people that are happy to pay ever increasing prices can feel even happier as the prices will keep increasing as the number of people who aren'y happy to pay also increase until one day, nobody is buying new games anymore and they won't have the money to make them at all.

If only you could buy used insurance.

Here here

People who queue up in 24 hour stores and pay top prices on launch days for these games keep prices up, not piracy. If they can, they will charge a lot.