Why Do Games Cost So Much?

We are very lucky these days. Games are as expensive as the used to be in the 16bit days. I remember seeing some games one sale upto 60 quid in some places for SNES.

I spent 65 quid on my u.s SNES copy of Chrono Trigger brand new, and that's not too bad for an import game back then. Now however, with so many folk buying games from online this is gradually drives the prices of official games down quicker the usual. High street stores need your custom, so they have to act and quickly. Post xmas is the best time for this.

EG: Prince of Persia: SoT on Xbox/PS2 came out just before Xmas 2003 at 40 quid, by new year 2004 the price had dropped to 32 quid , if I'm correct it's still on sale at Game for that price now. This may drop again maybe this Xmas, and if not then in the new year January sales. The customer wins.

This never used to happen, in the late 80s-early 90s,
not this fast anyway. Even console price drops give us a better deal than they used to. And with development costs rising to make games, we are still playing 40 quid 98% of the time, we are doing okay surely.

If you want them even cheaper there is the second hand market, hiding some lost gaming gems.
50 and 60 quid is over priced. 40 quid is reasonable for a home console and pc, if you don't like the 40 quid price, wait a few months and get that game for 32 quid. So no I don't think games are overpriced anymore. But saying that it should be very interesting to see how much the PSP and DS game are priced at.

If I'm wrong on any of the above please correct me.

scanman wrote:

>people cant even stop buying petrol from one evil
>petrol company for one day, never mind never buy
>another priced game.

If the Evil company to which you are referring to is Bush-loving super-polluter Exxo(n), I try to never buy from them, on any day. Only problem is, the other petrol companies are almost as evil.

Joji wrote:

>We are very lucky these days. Games are as
>expensive as the used to be in the 16bit days. I
>remember seeing some games one sale upto 60 quid
>in some places for SNES.
>EG: Prince of Persia: SoT on Xbox/PS2 came out
>just before Xmas 2003 at 40 quid, by new year
>2004 the price had dropped to 32 quid , if I'm
>correct it's still on sale at Game for that price
>now.

I understand your points, but your examples are incorrect. You say that games are as expensive as they were in the 16-bit days, but then contradict your point saying they used to be £60 and are now £40.

And Prince of Persia wasn't out before Christmas on Xbox. It came out in December on PS2 for £40, and in March for Xbox and Gamecube with an RRP of £30, with the price of the PS2 game also falling.

Don't be siilly, crafty. You are probably reading a spelling mistake or something, an error on my part, happens when you type you know.

What I mean is we used to pay up to 60 quid for a SNES game in the 16 bit days.

When was the last time you paid that much for a game??

Exactly, you haven't because 40quid is as high as it really goes now, and has been for a good few years now.

So how can you say games cost a lot, when the prices have gone down and we get more for our money, on console titles anyway. PC prices haven't really moved that much.

Ofcourse you can pay them 60 if you like, I'm sure they'd take your free cash.

Do you understand me now?

Rod - try Play.com. They have a pretty good selection of new (and some older titles) - some go for up to 40% less than the SRP.

Word of warning regarding their GBA games; some are US NTSC versions, which work fine on any GBA, but you'll have a job trading them in (no one will touch imported Ninty games for fear that they'll incur the wrath of the Big N).

Joji wrote:

>Exactly, you haven't because 40quid is as high as
>it really goes now, and has been for a good few
>years now.
>
>So how can you say games cost a lot, when the
>prices have gone down and we get more for our
>money, on console titles anyway. PC prices
>haven't really moved that much.

Actually, I disagree - N64 games went as high as £75 - remember Turok?

Oh yes....I remember Turok :-)

SNES Lethal Enforcers was £70 too - but at least you got a lovely pink gun with it.....

I understand why games cost so much from my little stint in the industry. I don't feel that the console makers are wrong to get a share of the profits either, they're usually losing money on each console sold.

What I think would help is if there were a console which was as easy to develop for as the PC. Some of my favorite games were made from groups of small, dedicated staffers with great ideas. Armada for the Dreamcast is a great example, where Metro3D took advantage of the Windows CE capabilities of the console.

Just as an indie film can be more enjoyable than a Blockbuster, the industry should encourage small companies to produce lower-priced games. Not that I understand all the math behind marketing for such a huge industry, but I think it's a nice idea ;)

word.

I remember Virtua Racing on Megadrive... oof that price hurt the pocket. Even Sonic and Knuckles was £45.

I have to say that, with most consoles now having a budget range, gaming has got a lot cheaper. Ten years ago, a big seller like Halo would NEVER have gone budget- now i can walk into Gamestation and grab it for £16.

Amazing.

That's so true, like I said in an earlier post on this topic.
CDs are cheaper than carts to make so the price falls quicker on games in the same respect I guess.

The second hand market and platinum releases of games also give us a better deal. We are much better off than ever before.

I'd forgotten the CD vs cart issue. It is true that the CD is a highly versatile and quite cheap medium- the reason why they were £40 for the Saturn and PS1 was that games had simply become £40 as standard; hence the reason DVD games now cost that. However, when the next gen takes up Blu-Ray (as Nintendo have confirmed and many say Sony have), we may have a problem.

Here in Australia new games cost between $80 and $100, although I have recently found a site where I can get cube games new for about $60, and I can get them months before they even come out here.

fluffstardx wrote:

>I'd forgotten the CD vs cart issue. It is true
>that the CD is a highly versatile and quite cheap
>medium- the reason why they were £40 for the
>Saturn and PS1 was that games had simply become
>£40 as standard;

Anyone recall Sony claiming that, with the launch of PS1 and the massive drop in piracy thanks to the custom CD format (LOL), that games would be about £20?

We seem to pay more then they do in the States, but really games on console and PC are cheaper now than they've ever been. I pay around £25-£35 for new PS2 or GC games online, and even less for PC titles, and many imports cost less than that.

The question you need to ask is, how can videogames, gadgets and luxuries be going down in price, when food, housing and essentials are always going up in price. Why is society geared towards entertaining ourselves ?

Games are always going to cost more to the hold that highstreet retailers have on the market.

GAME for one threatened Nintendo to pull their console from the shops when the original price of £99 was suggested for the UK. The GC then ended up being sold for £129.

Im sure the same goes for games.