€60 games how did that happen?

i remember people complaining about modern warfare going up to 55 now they all seem to be 60 why is this the industry cant be that badly off if this is the way its going will it be 70 this time next year to be honest 50 was a lot to be handing over several times a year at what point does it become to expensive a hobby

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

games are cheaper now than they were in the 90's

http://www.1up.com/news/90s-game-price-comparison-charticle

Lex_Diamonds

I distinctly remember that some 360 games cost 70 when the system first launched! Chancers.

Back in the day I paid 65 irish punts for Streetfighter 2: Hyper Fighting on the SNES. SNES carts were stupidly expensive.

Washington Irving

I remember some PS3 games being €80 in 2007 when it was released

Penn

Korbin Swift Trombonist wrote: »

i remember people complaining about modern warfare going up to 55 now they all seem to be 60 why is this the industry cant be that badly off if this is the way its going will it be 70 this time next year to be honest 50 was a lot to be handing over several times a year at what point does it become to expensive a hobby

Look at the prices for downloading new games from PSN. Most new games cost €70 there, and that's without packaging, distribution, retail fees etc.

folan

yep, i remember handing over 70 of my hard earned squids as a teenager for many an xbox game.

the home gaming market has changed alot since then. theres more casual gamers, the life spans of consoles have been extended while they were experimented with to develop a more all round experience, and so the cost of developing games dropped for a short while.

in short, its a bloody expensive hobby.

sumsar

I'm amazed that people are happy to pay €60 a game, I seen a game for €60 in a shop the other day and said to a friend it's crazy that they're charging that again when GTA IV was released some shops were doing it for €40, how have they gone up again!?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

why wouldn't you pay 60 euro for an open world game like gtaIV?

even for a bog standard 10 hour fps that's six euro an hour. even less if you're going to replay it or plan to play it online. that's quite good value

johnny_ultimate

Haven't paid sixty euro for a non-import / non-special edition of a game in years. Probably haven't paid much more than 50, actually.

If you're paying 60 per game, then shopping around is your friend. CoD is the only franchise that consistently goes for RRP, and that's because the general public are crazy.

I came across a PS1 game recently with something like a £49.99 or 59.99 price tag. None of this is new. In fact, the increasingly competitive world of retailing have forced companies to drive prices down if anything.

Melion

I worked in Gamestop in 2003 and I remember pricing games at 69.99. SOCOM on ps2 was 84.99 iirc. I have also spent 69.99 on some 360 games in 07/08

mcgovern

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Haven't paid sixty euro for a non-import / non-special edition of a game in years. Probably haven't paid much more than 50, actually.

If you're paying 60 per game, then shopping around is your friend. CoD is the only franchise that consistently goes for RRP, and that's because the general public are crazy.

I came across a PS1 game recently with something like a £49.99 or 59.99 price tag. None of this is new. In fact, the increasingly competitive world of retailing have forced companies to drive prices down if anything.

I seen FIFA 12 for €55 at the weekend
But I've noticed that prices have started creeping up since GAME closed, less competition now.

gizmo

Korbin Swift Trombonist wrote: »

i remember people complaining about modern warfare going up to 55 now they all seem to be 60 why is this the industry cant be that badly off if this is the way its going will it be 70 this time next year to be honest 50 was a lot to be handing over several times a year at what point does it become to expensive a hobby

Where were they charging €60 and what game was it?

rolexeagle1

because people will pay 60 euro

Grumpypants

69.99 is the rrp set by publishers. This cost is off set by trade ins. Shops can charge anything they like.

Professey Chin

Melion wrote: »

I worked in Gamestop in 2003 and I remember pricing games at 69.99. SOCOM on ps2 was 84.99 iirc. I have also spent 69.99 on some 360 games in 07/08

Socom came with a headset and broadband adapter if I remember right. Would explain the higher price.
I remember seeing that disgraceful bomberman game on the 360 for 69.99 alright.

lertsnim

srumball wrote: »

because people will pay 60 euro

That sums it up.

sumsar

Very true that they charge €60 because people will pay it, my thought when I think about how people charged €40 for GTA IV is that if they can charge €40 for a game then it's crazy that they are instead charging 60.

stevenmu

Different shops often charge different prices. HMV often charge €49.99 for a game, while Gamestop have it for €59.99. Naturally all my business then goes to HMV, but obviously others are buying in Gamestop.

ShadowHearth

Yeah yeah, we know games were around 60-70eu before, but there is no excuse for something like cod to be 60eu. They are just taking a piss.
What really grinds my gears, that se developers decided to charge for PC titles same money as for console versions. That's just out right greedy **** thing.

I dropped in to GameStop today and I really don't like handheld pricing. 45eu for RE revalations and 45eu for most wanted for ps vita. Xcom on PC is 40eu...
I don't expect handheld games cost 1eu like iOS crap, but 25-30eu is a fair price for handheld game.

AnCapaillMor

Wasn't there something before about games being cheaper because game, gamestop etc were basically subsidising them beacuse they were making a bucketload on the trade ins and the gaming companies told cut that sh1t out.

60 i've no problem, as people said i can remember paying up to 70-80 for games. As for PC games, i know more people with dodgy copies of a game than legit copies so not surprised there.

gizmo

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Yeah yeah, we know games were around 60-70eu before, but there is no excuse for something like cod to be 60eu. They are just taking a piss.

I can understand why fans pay for it though. I'm consistently amazed by the massive number of hours racked up by fans for the multiplayer portion. The same goes for the DLC, these fans don't pay for what they think the content is worth, they're paying for the number of hours entertainment they get from the game. To them, it's a ****ing deal.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I dropped in to GameStop today and I really don't like handheld pricing. 45eu for RE revalations and 45eu for most wanted for ps vita. Xcom on PC is 40eu...
I don't expect handheld games cost 1eu like iOS crap, but 25-30eu is a fair price for handheld game.

I'm curious as to why you think it should automatically be lower just because it's on a handheld, especially now on the 3DS and Vita? From what I've read, Revelations not only looks and plays damn well but lasts about ten hours (the same as a console game) and as a result also had a fairly hefty budget and team size so it makes sense that it's more expensive. Of course, conversely, I think it should hold through that the cheaper, smaller budget games be priced accordingly but that doesn't seem to happen either.

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Wasn't there something before about games being cheaper because game, gamestop etc were basically subsidising them beacuse they were making a bucketload on the trade ins and the gaming companies told cut that sh1t out.

It's been put forward before as one of their defences of the second hand market but it's also easily refutable given the fact that games were sold below RRP long before trade-ins became in any way popular or even existed with some retailers.

Gotham

I don't pay more than €30 for games, if they are exceptional, I will make an exception (there haven't been any exceptional games in the past 7-8 years).

Console gamers are shafted too, even new games on PC don't go higher than €50 in extreme cases.
Here are some receipts I have from Steam sales:

Dead Rising 2 7.49 EUR
RAGE 9.99 EUR
Just Cause 2.49 EUR
Arma II: Operation Arrowhead 8.99 EUR
Sins Trinity 3.74 EUR
Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition 7.49 EUR
Just Cause 2 4.99 EUR
FEAR 3 4.99 EUR
X-SuperBox 9.99 EUR
Serious Sam 3 BFE 9.99 EUR
The Witcher 2 15.99 EUR
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (WR) 2.49 EUR
Payday: The Heist 4.74 EUR
Back to the Future: The Game 6.24 EUR
Trine 2 Collector's Edition 4.99 EUR
Sonic CD 2.69 EUR
Saints Row: The Third 7.49 EUR
Legend of Grimrock 5.59 EUR
Earthworm Jim Collection 7.99 EUR
L.A. Noire 7.49 EUR
Mount & Blade: Complete 8.74 EUR
Dead Island (RoW) 11.99 EUR
Thief Gold 4.99 EUR
Thief II 4.99 EUR
Painkiller Overdose 1.24 EUR
Painkiller: Ressurection (RoW) 2.49 EUR
Painkiller Recurring Evil 2.49 EUR
Painkiller: Redemption 1.24 EUR
Assassin's Creed 2.49 EUR
Assassin's Creed II: Deluxe Edition 7.49 EUR
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood 7.49 EUR
Ghost Recon Pack 7.49 EUR
Alan Wake 13.99 EUR
Sega Mega Drive Classics 5 - Complete 7.50 EUR
Batman Arkham City 13.99 EUR
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 6.79 EUR
Fallout Collection 6.79 EUR
The Guild II 2.49 EUR
Fallout: New Vegas 4.99 EUR
Puzzle Agent 2 2.49 EUR
Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Augmented Edition 20.39 EUR
Bastion 4.75 EUR
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year 7.49 EUR
Aliens vs Predator 3.99 EUR

rolexeagle1

does anyone know how much it costs to develop a game like COD or Halo these days? dev, man hours, tech, testing, publishing.

I really don't know legit question.

Personally I dont mind paying 60euro for a game like COD that I know I will play for at least the next 6-9months.

If i go out on the weekend I would spend 60 euro on booze, smokes, taxis etc. the pay even more the morning after with a god awful hangover.

Don't go out for one weekend, cut down on a few smokes = COD paid for.

Why do people pay 700e plus for an iPhone 5 when they know there is going to be an iPhone 5s/6 out in the next year.......

Because they will they just will.

Its down to the retailers here, everything cost more in this country, this is not a new point/argument its has been going on here for dogs years. We get shafted on everything.

if you arent willing to pay 60e for a new release wait 3 months and buy it for 40 squids.

ShadowHearth

AnCapaillMor wrote: »

Wasn't there something before about games being cheaper because game, gamestop etc were basically subsidising them beacuse they were making a bucketload on the trade ins and the gaming companies told cut that sh1t out.

60 i've no problem, as people said i can remember paying up to 70-80 for games. As for PC games, i know more people with dodgy copies of a game than legit copies so not surprised there.

/facepalm...

so... lets charge more those who buy legitimate versions of game.

they charge more not because of that, they charge more because they can. You do realise the PC versions were always cheaper, because developers did not needed to pay MS or Sony for the right of having the game on that particular platform. No cut for MS and Sony, so the saving was pushed to consumer. Now they just sell it for same money as Console version, but take the extra cut for themselfs.

i do realise, that this bitching wont do a thing, because we gamers are weak and we will just buy what we want to play.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

Gotham wrote: »

I don't pay more than €30 for games, if they are exceptional, I will make an exception (there havent been any exceptional games in the past 7-8 years).

wtf?

Azza

I too have difficult paying full price for a portable game. I just can't imagine the budget that goes into them is anywhere near that of a full console/pc release. Particullary when it comes to re-releases like Zelda, MGS 3 and Star Fox.

Prices around €30-35 be the most I'm willing to go on a handheld.

Azza

I find PC games still cheaper than console.

Recently I payed
€30 for Dark Souls Prepare to Die and Sleeping Dogs
€25 for Dishonored and X-Com.
€30 for Borderlands 2.

On Gamestop.ie I see Black Ops 2 at €50 5 cheaper than the consoles.

They had Hitman Absolution pre-order at €28 and Tomb Raider around €25.

I've seen Far Cry 3 at €23.99 on another website.

If you shop around online and not just from Steam or in your local retail store you will find PC games are still cheaper than console games.

Not to mention PC games drop quicker in price and regular, easily accessible sales from major digital distrubitors make it cheap to pick up missed game.

TheDoc

HMV do new releases for €45 on release day

I havnt gone anywhere for a game in over a year (bar buying from Steam or Blizzard)

deathrider

I've only ever spent over 50quid for one game (not including special/limited editions, because I've happy to pay a little extra if I'm getting a little extra) and that was for CoD: Black Ops. If cost me 55quid off the self. It's not a bad game, but I told myself I'd never pay that for a game again, epsicially not a CoD game, as I don't do the whole multiplayer thing, and if I do, it's really not very often. A game would have to be damn good for me to buy first hand and at launch. I don't have much in the way of cash, so 50quid will burn quite the large hole in my wallet. I may get one or two like this per year, but that would be all. Anything over 50 though can stay on the shelf.

noodler

Bought

Dark Souls
PES 2012
Mass Effect 3

for full price in last 18 months.

All the rest I bought after they'd been out longer.

Definitely feels like the cheapest generation yet when it comes to buying game, particularly if you can hold off on a new release for a month or so.

johnny_ultimate

Plenty of smaller publishers releasing cheaper titles - Rising Star are particularly great at offering their niche titles for budget prices (their upcoming Virtue's Last Reward release is currently at £24.99 on Amazon).

Digital distribution has allowed smaller budgeted games to emerge and enjoy financial success - several of this generations most 'exceptional' titles have cost a tenner or less, from Braid to Hotline Miami.

Not to mention the fact that it's usually barely a month before games are discounted massively at retail. Pop into HMV a couple of weeks after release and you'll likely find the same title for 34.99 or less. On consoles.

People who want blockbuster titles with huge production values will have to expect to pay a couple of euro more. But TBH there's no reason why you couldn't play the vast majority of a year's titles spending less that thirty euro on each title if you're willing to wait or shop around. CoD or FIFA - the games that will sell no matter what the price, and retailers would be foolish to cut their profit margins on such titles - are very much exceptions.

Rael

TheDoc wrote: »

HMV do new releases for €45 on release day

Not anymore, Assassin's Creed 3, Fifa 12, Battlefield 3 and Arkham City were all €49.99 on release.

Rael

Rael wrote: »

Not anymore, Assassin's Creed 3, Fifa 12, Battlefield 3 and Arkham City were all €49.99 on release.

Still cheaper than Gamestop it's my local shop and I get on really well with the staff there but there kind of a rip off looks like il have to trek into town for my games pity

Ri_Nollaig

Gotham wrote: »

I don't pay more than €30 for games, if they are exceptional, I will make an exception (there havent been any exceptional games in the past 7-8 years).

...out of interest, what was the last exceptional game you bought?

I believe the RRP for console games is like 69.99 and 49.99 for PC. But most retailers will sell far below that due to competition, they must be losing a lot of sales due to online retailers too, which can seriously undercut them.

Just look at the standard price for a new release on steam/origin!

If anything its probably a golden time now due to the amount of choices on offer. But we have already lost Game/Virgin, HMV are also in trouble so its only a matter of time before they go too, even if its just from Ireland...
So who will be left then? Gamespot and the token selection places like Tesco have?
Digital Distribution only is the future and will mean we could see a lot more "RRP" prices staying very static

snausages

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

why wouldn't you pay 60 euro for an open world game like gtaIV?

even for a bog standard 10 hour fps that's six euro an hour. even less if you're going to replay it or plan to play it online. that's quite good value

Why do people equate value for money in terms of the amount of time spent playing it? GTAIV might well have been 20 or 30 hours long but only around 3 of those hours were enjoyable.

krudler

snausages wrote: »

Why do people equate value for money in terms of the amount of time spent playing it? GTAIV might well have been 20 or 30 hours long but only around 3 of those hours were enjoyable.

Indeed, 30 hours of padding does not a good game make, I'm not a player who goes after all 100 of something or collects every bit of random stuff thrown into the game to pad it out, I'd rather a solid 8-10 hour game with great moments than a sparse longer campaign with unecessary house decoarting or samey side quests.

Kiith

ShadowHearth wrote: »

that se developers decided to charge for PC titles same money as for console versions. That's just out right greedy **** thing.

Why should we get them any cheaper then consoles though? I also used to think this too, but not for any proper reasons. I just liked cheaper games. It's not like it's easier to design the game on the pc, or to port it over. It's still a lot of work, so i can't really see why we should just expect to play less.

Saying that, i've not paid more than €50 (bar SE) for a game in a long time.

tuxy

Kiith wrote: »

Why should we get them any cheaper then consoles though? I also used to think this too, but not for any proper reasons. I just liked cheaper games. It's not like it's easier to design the game on the pc, or to port it over. It's still a lot of work, so i can't really see why we should just expect to play less.

Saying that, i've not paid more than €50 (bar SE) for a game in a long time.

Because MS or Sony don't get a cut, that's why PC game should always be cheaper.

Gotham

Ri_Nollaig wrote: »

...out of interest, what was the last exceptional game you bought?

Maybe the number I stated is a bit high, but I think a lot of stuff out today is total trash.

Examples of some "exceptional" games (IMO):
Games like Baldurs Gate 2, FF7/FF9/FF10, XCOM, Deus Ex, VTMB, Okami, Eve online, WoW, HL1/HL2.
I'm not saying I like all of those games but they are good examples.
I don't think Halo is exceptional, there's nothing special about it. The last good Call of Duty was CoD 2. Skyrim is not really comparable to Morrowind, and I personally favor Tes4. EA/Bioware games are badly written and buggy, albeit DA:O was good.

Recent exceptional games might be Journey (a budget game anyway), Dota 2 (Which is essentially free) and the Orange Box which is just inside the time range I estimated. Maybe Starcraft 2 aswell.

Im obviously forgetting some, but you get the idea.

Tefral

Law of supply and demand.. if there are people out there willing to pay €60 then thats what its worth to the market..

Gotham

Kiith wrote: »

It's not like it's easier to design the game on the pc, or to port it over.

PC games ARE easier to make, you don't have difficult architecture and hardware restrictions. Additionally there is no TRC to be checked and no additional fees for releasing it on the platform.

lukesmom

paid almost €112 for Halo4 limited edition. Missed the deadline for pre order and had to get from seller in UK

Gummy Panda

TheDoc wrote: »

HMV do new releases for €45 on release day

I havnt gone anywhere for a game in over a year (bar buying from Steam or Blizzard)

HMV on henry st got rid of its pc section. I don't know if Grafton st still have one. I guess it will be steam, amazon or key sellers for me.

tuxy

lukesmom wrote: »

paid almost €112 for Halo4 limited edition. Missed the deadline for pre order and had to get from seller in UK

And this is why games are so expensive. €112 for a game and some cheap junk from China. It still sells out.

tuxy

Gummy Panda wrote: »

HMV on henry st got rid of its pc section. I don't know if Grafton st still have one. I guess it will be steam, amazon or key sellers for me.

I don't really like gamestop but gamestop.ie can be really cheap for pre ordered pc games.

Gotham

Gummy Panda wrote: »

HMV on henry st got rid of its pc section. I don't know if Grafton st still have one. I guess it will be steam, amazon or key sellers for me.

Retailers like that don't deserve my money. It's the exact reason GAME crashed so hard. The "too much piracy" angle is total bull**** and it's obvious to anyone paying attention to the industry.

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

My 2 cents worth:

4 main reasons are:

1) This one may sound laughable - it's not a price increase as such - more of a decrease in discount being offered here in Ireland. For the most part the RRP's haven't changed that much at all. Fifa 13, Halo 4, Black OPs 2 are looking at €69.99 and the distribution chain / retailer cost prices are distributed accordingly. Halo 3, Halo Reach, Fifa 12, Modern Warfare 3 etc all had the same RRP. What has changed is the level of discounting by retailers. There does seem to be a shift away from loss leading / heavy discounting seen in recent years by most retailers (HMV are an exception but even they are raising prices due to the following ..)

2) The value of the pre owned market has changed. Previously retailers were cutting pricing on the new games to encourage trade ins with the logic being you could lose on the new games but profit more on pre owned. The likes of online passes etc have made the pre owned market less attractive for the customer - maybe attractive isn't the word to use but it does mean for the most part that people are unwilling to pay as much for a pre owned title they can't play online without making an additional purchase. So retailer margins are coming down on pre owned which has lead to less of a price cut on new games. (And for that matter a drop in trade in values offered which is a double whammy for the customer)

3) VAT increase - it's only a small % but it does increase pressure on the price to jump up that extra €5.00 when setting a retail price point -especially if you are operating on a 3 or 4% margin in the first place.

4) Euro falling against sterling. Most games here in Ireland are supplied via the UK in sterling. The sterling price remains constant but the cost price has steadily risen.

ShadowHearth

gizmo wrote: »

I'm curious as to why you think it should automatically be lower just because it's on a handheld, especially now on the 3DS and Vita? From what I've read, Revelations not only looks and plays damn well but lasts about ten hours (the same as a console game) and as a result also had a fairly hefty budget and team size so it makes sense that it's more expensive. Of course, conversely, I think it should hold through that the cheaper, smaller budget games be priced accordingly but that doesn't seem to happen either.

This argument getting very old. In the end of the day it is a HANDHELD GAME. Handheld consoles are part time gaming devices. if a person gets a set amount of money, so will he buy a full time console release or part time?
PS vita started to make pretty damn good versions of handheld games, which are closer then ever to console games, in fairness prices on a lot of games on PSN were very damn reasonable lately.
I dont care how much money developers spent on game, if they spend so much money on development and then charge as much as full console game and then cant even cover the development costs, then they are **** developers and **** at selling their product. Its a cruel world, economy war. make a good product, price it right and you will be rolling in money. I am really starting to get sick of hearing how hard developers work and how unfair world is to them.
I havent bough a single handheld game in ages. i walked in to the shop today and 2 handheld games costed 45eu each. so it would be 90eu for games on a console i play a little bit, not a full time like PC ( or xbox, ps3 in other people case ). If they would have been prices 25-30eu each i would have bought them today and developer would have gotten money for it. Now they wont see a sale from me, no money. they will moan and bitch that handheld market is dead and that evil iOS stole their money.
Reasonably placed price tag will bring you more money, then stupid price tag and excuse: i jaysus i worked 8hours per day 5 days per week to make this game!

johnny_ultimate

ShadowHearth wrote: »

This argument getting very old. In the end of the day it is a HANDHELD GAME. Handheld consoles are part time gaming devices. if a person gets a set amount of money, so will he buy a full time console release or part time?

I know plenty of people who use their handhelds much more than their home consoles or PC - a few regular users of these forums, in fact.

Is Persona 4: The Golden not worth 40 euro? Easily offers 100 hours of gameplay, with tonnes of worthy refinements. Same goes for any number of handheld releases. Or the beautifully crafted puzzle games that offer almost limitless play. Or a game like Kid Icarus that offers dozens of hours of play with stunningly high production values.

Yeah, handheld gaming requires a different type of design, but I've played many, many great handheld games that can easily compete with their 'full-time' peers, and in fact oftentimes surpass them (Resi 6 vs. Resi Revelations?). Yep, it's a shame first party 3DS games and the like don't tend to decrease in value, but TBH the quality often completely justifies them. And, again, plenty of smaller companies price their products competitively on PSN and the like, not to mention the fact you can get most 3rd party 3DS releases at reduced prices before too long.

A game's worth has to be valued individually. Some PC games aren't worth full price. Some handheld games aren't worth full price. Some console games aren't worth full price. But with great games oftentimes it's entirely justified.

ShadowHearth

I know some males who pee sitting down, but that does not mean that majority males do that.

I will admit that quality of some handheld games is quite amazing lately. I payed 39.99eu for MK on vita and I was very happy with my purchase. 29.99eu for mgs 2 and snake eater? Very fair.
I was told most wanted is very very close to ps3 version on vita too. So in a way price tag is fair.
Though I'm the end of the day, I won't pay 40-50eu for a handheld game, which I spend very little time. I am pretty sure I am not alone.
Yes there are some gamers who spend majority of time playing handheld, but that is not a big part of gamers.

Duggy747

Growing up and seeing the adverts in game mags I used to think that only the richest of kings or spoilt little shìts could afford the insane €150+ prices for Neo Geo carts :pac:

If anything, games are relatively cheap compared to only a few years ago.