What Price Threesixty-dom?

I remember when ultimate play the game made their spectrum games £9.99 and the fuss that caused.
Games have actually been pretty good price wise this generation. I've spent a lot less on games and got a lot more for my money
Although I also spent far less time playing them as most of them had ZERO replay value.

I wouldn't say I'd never pay £60 for a game (I snaffled up MD Virtua Racing), but it'd have to be amazing; something like RE4. If all games were £60, I'd probably only buy 2-4 a year, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

EDIT: I was a complete tight-arse with my pocket money, so I never bought full-price games; just budget (Codemasters, Richocet re-releases) or compilations.

Shouldn't the games be £50 over here?

In the US the current RRP is $50 and UK its £40. So if the price goes up to $60 in the US then they should go to £50 here?

Still a lot tho, if they want to become mass market and become a less hit/franchise driven market then this is just to expensive.

Are you ever gonna take a risk on buying a game if it's £50-£60?

I don't now on £40 games. If its a game that I'm not sure I'll really enjoy playing then I'll wait to pickup a pre-owned game, wait for the price to come down or get it cheep from the internet.

I see what Nintendo are on about, now.

No way am I paying £50/60 for a game, however good it is.

If worst comes to worst, I'll stick with the cheap portable console games.

Good lord. If these games are gonna go for £50-60 I and many others will have to think carefully about what I buy. I'd also be buying less games too unless pre owned, discounted or from ebay and such.

Back in the SNES days I was a teen and had little money for games. I'd only buy a game full price if I had the means saved if not I'd go without. By the end of my SNES official days I had about 14 games in total. By the end of my N64 days I had again 12-14 games.

Do you see what has happened now. Games only started to get cheaper thanks to Saturn and more importantly PSone. True, many might just play cheaper games instead. I don't think many would like such a nasty increase.

Back in the days of the Super NES / Genesis (Mega Drive)/ Turbo Grafx-16 I found myself paying anywhere from $60 to $80 USD for SNES games, $45 to $60 USD for Genesis games, and $40 to $50 USD for TG-16 games. Plus I owned a Nintendo 64, so the thought of $60 USD games at l;aunch isn't a big deal. Sure, it is annoying, especially from being used to paying $30 to $50 USD for a game on the likes of the PS1, Dreamcast, PS2, XBOX, and GCN. But $60 USD isn't set in stone. There will always be games that cost less and still deliver a killer punch in replay. Look at what CodeMasters have been bringing out recently; ToCA 2 and the Colin McRae games have all been $30 USD in an age of new release games being $50 USD, and they are not the only devloper/publisher with games below the normal cost. Compainies like Majesco and 2K Games (formerly SEGA's Visual Concepts, now a Take-Two company) with the phenominal ESPN NFL 2K5, ESPN NBA 2K5, ESPN NHL 2K5, and World Series Baseball 2K5 all for $20 USD each in a time when EA was charging $50 to $60 USD for their offerings..

Anyway, what I'm saying is that just because the rumor of $60 USD games may come true, that doesn't mean all games will be $60 USD.

Games are too expensive. They say they want to stop piracy but they never lower the price of games. They should charge a Max. of 30 per game no matter what the console. The exception being PS3 due to Blu-Ray. Look at EA, they have not had a good game for a long time and still they charge 50.00 for there CRAP! Case in point, I have not seen a EA game on the PS2 for cheaper then 50.00 yet. A Portable game should cost no more then 25.00! The problem is these big companies are screwing us. They know they are screwing us and they don't give a S*$%!

If you're talking in USD, then I think your prices are on the low side.

30 per game, isn't that much at all considering all the development costs assosiated, and the need to fund future development.

I'd imagine PSP development is as expensive as PS2, therefore Sony are unlikely to recommend $25 per game.

The DS is the only console, that may match those prices, as the GBA is doing now.

In my opinion, most games are not too expensive.

In the 'States, going to the movies (in the nashville area) with my woman costs us about 15 bucks, no pop corn, candy, or drinks. The movie lasts about an hour and a half, or two hours, and is usually not that entertaining. Playing, for example, Baldur's Gate (when released, 50 bucks) takes us...about 10 hours, maybe (I don't remember how long it was, it may have been longer). That's 2.50 an hour, per person. (she likes the hack-n-slash co-op games) compared to the roughly 5 dollars an hour for a movie, games are a better form of entertainment. That's only for one play-through of a game, mind you.

Granted, there are disappointing games (Fable), and some developers (EA) churn out games that are uninspired and otherwise frustrating to endure (especially with their awful sound tracks, which are so annoying I would love to be rid of them for the remainder of time) but it's our fault for buying crap (not us as individuals, but us collectively as society) in the first place.

Buy good games, skip the crap ones, and wait on the mediocre games until they price drop. That can help, but only if you encourage others to do the same.

I think the only real Question that I have is this. If games are not too expensive then why in gods name am I paying $50.00 for games on the console and only $40.00 for games on the P.C.? I mean i would assume that dev costs for the P.C. are more expensive due to the variables in system components. TwoADay, I know what you mean about the heading to the movies. Aherm, But then again I think the cost of Movies has gotten out of hand also. The Fable comment is a true statement. I mean have you ever tried to return a game after you have broken the plastic seal?! Dear God, you are hosed. Not everyone that brings a game back is a pirate! <----Not to mention that whole you cannot take software back to the store thing really p's me off. Perhaps I was a bit harsh on everyone (minus EA that is). The only thing I do know is that I take the cost of games into account when I purchase a new console, and if we let these companies keep jacking up the price we are going to end up having games that cost $100.00 a wack and play like Kabuki Warriors!

If they're going to be 100 bucks, then the system will likely die -- Neo Geo, I believe, was the only system to try pricing games at that point.

There have been expensive games in the past though -- I seem to remember that Phantasy Star 3 was somewhere around $70 or $80 when it was released for the Genesis.

I cannot comment on Kabuki Warriors though, because I follow my advice: I don't buy games that are considered crappy.