Game Prices

Topbike77

Im absolutely ragen as I wasn't able to pick up GTA 5 today and the only reason why I couldn't was the price. New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness, especially when you take into account that you have paid €300 for the console and are paying a yearly subscription to use "online features" to which your paying a broadband bill for €50 a month..... I mean seriously, how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this. I have sit here and look at others tweet and facebook about how great the game is, who have parents willing to fork out mad sums of money for all of these top titles such as Battlefield, Fifa and Call of Duty, when I have to choose between them.
I really feel like these selfish industries such lower their prices.

Danonino.

I remember that feeling. Then grabbed my first proper job and finally could buy what I wanted when I wanted. It was also a game shop meaning staff discounts and early sales knowledge.... god that first year spending every pay check on GameCube games and eating nothing but cheap pizzas and beans... seriously, I would do it all exactly the same way again Ok maybe I'd buy certain games twice and now be selling them at silly inflated prices :P

Your time will come young grasshopper

nesf

I've an income and I still wince paying €60 for a game to be fair.

Varik

for current gen stuff it should be €45-50, anything higher and I usually reconsider getting it.

Retr0gamer

I'm unemployed. Just wait until it's cheap if you don't have the money. You don't have to play everything on release.

Agricola

Ronan14 wrote: »

Im absolutely ragen as I wasn't able to pick up GTA 5 today and the only why I couldn't was the price. New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness, especially when you take into account that you have paid €300 for the console and are paying a yearly subscription to use "online features" to which your paying a broadband bill for €50 a month..... I mean seriously, how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this. I have sit here and look at others tweet and facebook about how great the game is, who have parents willing to fork out mad sums of money for all of these top titles such as Battlefield, Fifa and Call of Duty, when I have to choose between them.
I really feel like these selfish industries such lower their prices.

Sell your console, games and any bits to do with it. Use monies to fund a gaming PC. Get Steam* and enjoy great games, with better visuals for way less money. Feel smug.


*Other digital distribution clients offering equally competitive pricing are available!

SmurfX

In my day we could only afford platinum games when in school and we were grateful for them as well. :pac:

Topbike77

Varik wrote: »

for current gen stuff it should be €45-50, anything higher and I usually reconsider getting it.

Completely agree I think that's a really fair price.

Lu Tze

Agricola wrote: »

Sell your console, games and any bits to do with it. Use monies to fund a gaming PC. Get Steam* and enjoy great games, with better visuals for way less money. Feel smug.


*Other digital distribution clients offering equally competitive pricing are available!

This is the best part of it

Topbike77

Agricola wrote: »

Sell your console, games and any bits to do with it. Use monies to fund a gaming PC. Get Steam* and enjoy great games, with better visuals for way less money. Feel smug.


*Other digital distribution clients offering equally competitive pricing are available!

I actually am a pc gamer aswell as console.
Prepare to be amazed..... Call of Duty black ops which was released in 2010 is selling for €59.99 http://store.steampowered.com/app/42700/ :0
But yeah I see where your coming from, it is a much more affordable platform with the summer sales etc. in saying that do launch titles are still pricey

dobman88

Bring back the Sega Mega Drive The good old days with Sonic and the lads.

Is there any way you could get a part time weekend job OP? If you worked one day at the weekend you would have enough for the game. Maybe ask your parents, a family friend or an older sibling if they know anyone? I got my sister a weekend job in the place I work and she loves having a bit of money while she is in college.

When I was in school I would ask the local farmers if they needed help at the weekend or ask the neighbours if they wanted their cars washed, grass cut, windows and gutters cleaned. They were always willing to help a young lad out and most people give you a nice bit of cash if you do a good job. Loads of options to get money that wont affect school or your social life.

martineatworld

Given inflation, game prices have come down so much over the years. Consider the amount of hours you get out of a game compared to a brand new dvd for a tenner... I don't think Gta 5 is an extortionate amount tbh.

Topbike77

dobman88 wrote: »

Bring back the Sega Mega Drive The good old days with Sonic and the lads.

Is there any way you could get a part time weekend job OP? If you worked one day at the weekend you would have enough for the game. Maybe ask your parents, a family friend or an older sibling if they know anyone? I got my sister a weekend job in the place I work and she loves having a bit of money while she is in college.

When I was in school I would ask the local farmers if they needed help at the weekend or ask the neighbours if they wanted their cars washed, grass cut, windows and gutters cleaned. They were always willing to help a young lad out and most people give you a nice bit of cash if you do a good job. Loads of options to get money that wont affect school or your social life.

Ive handed my cv around so fingers crossed.... but even if I did have a handy little job ide still cringe forking out that kinda money

lkionm

I used to think the same. Then you grow up and realise a secondary school student is in no ones consumer base and then you are the consumer base if you have income.

It's a vicious circle man.

Agricola

Ronan14 wrote: »

I actually am a pc gamer aswell as console.
Prepare to be amazed..... Call of Duty black ops which was released in 2010 is selling for €59.99 http://store.steampowered.com/app/42700/ :0
But yeah I see where your coming from, it is a much more affordable platform with the summer sales etc. in saying that do launch titles are still pricey

Call of Duty is a law onto itself though. I havent played one of those games since the original Modern Warfare, simply because they do not drop in price. Lucky for me I dont really give a **** about military shooters or online MP in general.

I never buy new releases on Steam. But there are loads of Steamworks games sold on Amazon for £25 from release. The same games are usually £50 on Steam. So yeah lots of saving.

dobman88

Ronan14 wrote: »

Ive handed my cv around so fingers crossed.... but even if I did have a handy little job ide still cringe forking out that kinda money

Fair play to ya, hope you get one. I agree with the bit in bold, it is ridiculous money and I have a full time steady income. But unfortunately, about 60 euro is standard for everything new these days, trainers, jerseys, clothes, games so GTA V is right in line with everything else. Obviously sucks for a student.

Topbike77

Another thing to add to the argument is the dlc that industries release after the launch, where they are include maps from previous games you have already paid for. I mean if you think about it you just have to laugh.

dobman88

Yeah its like a singer/band releasing singles and albums. Even releasing singles after the album. But people still buy these things, I cant understand it but who am I to judge. A lot to be said for advertising too, if people are constantly told they need something, even if they don't, they will buy it.

gerrybbadd

Haven't games for the current generation always been at the 50 - 60 euro mark? I remember when this generation of consoles launched, games were 70 and over. Now, most are 45 to 50 quid, which isn't bad.

And I'm sure PS4 games will launch at the 70 mark and start the cycle all over again.

PS1 and PS2 games were all around the same price (if not more) than current titles.

What is ridiculous however is the price to download games from the PS Store or Xbox Live. They are often 10 euro more than buying a physical copy in store, which doesn't make sense at all.

Lyrical

I remember those days though if you're like me when you do get a job,you wont want spending €60 on a new release after you worked so hard to earn it :P.

You're in a catch 22 situation as now you have the free time to play games but when you start working and are able to afford the games, you mightn't have enough time to dedicate to completing games or you'll be too tired to play them.

If you have a decent spec pc I recommend buying the humble bundles to keep you ticking over I enjoyed Trine 2 a lot more than I did Saints Row IV which I paid full price for .

ussjtrunks

I either buy my console games in either argos or amazon argos usually have great prices on the high street usually the best if I have to have the game on the friday otherwise I'll order from Amazon which is usually €45-50 for new ps3/xbox games would never even consider giving gamestop €60.

Plus If you have a pc games are dirt cheap usually new titles wont go above €40 if you shop around and the prive plummits way faster than the console games do most big games in the last few months can be picked up for €15 or less sometimes even in bundles which are even less.

Then if you have a ps3/vita playstation plus is the cheap mans godsend was going to buy dragons dogma and far cry recently for €20 each but now I get them for free

calex71

Cost me under €40 on Amazon for GTA 5 i ordered will it was at it lowest price, mind you I still don't have it but any day now!!!!

Prices of €65 can be justified by the queues of people outside gamestop last night and today screaming shut up and take my money really, I often buy games day one in store if I have nothing on the go at the time but if i can wait i will always buy online.

Problem is B+M stores have overheads rates and whatnot but if you took those shops out of the equation and they were all gone would amazon etc. still be cheap ???

AlanS181824

My Ma being the trooper that she is came home from being in hospital today and on the way back she went into GameStop and got me GTA5. Delighted when I got it. Great game... 3 characters!! Make sure to get it on PS3, only 1 disc
Yeah.. if I did have her to buy it for me I'd go without... €60 for a game is extortion IMO..

krudler

Ronan14 wrote: »

Im absolutely ragen as I wasn't able to pick up GTA 5 today and the only reason why I couldn't was the price. New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness, especially when you take into account that you have paid €300 for the console and are paying a yearly subscription to use "online features" to which your paying a broadband bill for €50 a month..... I mean seriously, how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this. I have sit here and look at others tweet and facebook about how great the game is, who have parents willing to fork out mad sums of money for all of these top titles such as Battlefield, Fifa and Call of Duty, when I have to choose between them.
I really feel like these selfish industries such lower their prices.

Jesus what a self entitled whingebag. try living in the 90's when a SNES cart cost 60 pounds, that's about 80 euro, if not more in todays money. and some of those games you could finish in a couple of hours. GTAV is 55-65 quid, steep? yeah, but it's something that you'll probably get months and months of playability out of. Games companies don't owe you anything, they're a luxury not an essential.

dobman88

krudler wrote: »

Jesus what a self entitled whingebag. try living in the 90's when a SNES cart cost 60 pounds, that's about 80 euro, if not more in todays money. and some of those games you could finish in a couple of hours. GTAV is 55-65 quid, steep? yeah, but it's something that you'll probably get months and months of playability out of. Games companies don't owe you anything, they're a luxury not an essential.

Lol, a whingebag calling someone a whingebag, how original. Oh, things were harder in my day, I lived in the 90's with loads of money wha wha wha. Sounds like you might have missed out on that SNES cart there krudler, still feeling bitter.

Ronan14

Ronan14 wrote: »

Im absolutely ragen as I wasn't able to pick up GTA 5 today and the only reason why I couldn't was the price. New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness, especially when you take into account that you have paid €300 for the console and are paying a yearly subscription to use "online features" to which your paying a broadband bill for €50 a month..... I mean seriously, how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this. I have sit here and look at others tweet and facebook about how great the game is, who have parents willing to fork out mad sums of money for all of these top titles such as Battlefield, Fifa and Call of Duty, when I have to choose between them.
I really feel like these selfish industries such lower their prices.

If price is such an issue why did you not preorder on amazon when it was just over €40 delivered. Granted it can be hard to save up that much but it's a far more enticing price than the €60 or so charged in stores.

Gaming is a luxury and like all luxuries if you can't afford it then that's your problem and no one else. Gaming prices are co side tablet cheaper now than they've ever been. You can routinely pick up titles on the main consoles for €40 on release day and if you've a PC then you're well set as its not uncommon to pick up a brand new title for €20-25 euro on release day.

Your post also misses that fact that gaming companies aren't exactly looking at you as their prime demographic. The average age of gamers is on the late 20s and upward and it's these people who have money to spare on such luxuries as games.

You sound awful bitter due to your patents not buying you all the main releases and instead making you choose between them. If that's your biggest trouble on life you best count yourself lucky as there's plenty of teenagers whose parents can't affor to buy them any games let one a console.

Arawn

Ronan14 wrote: »

Im absolutely ragen as I wasn't able to pick up GTA 5 today and the only reason why I couldn't was the price. New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness, especially when you take into account that you have paid €300 for the console and are paying a yearly subscription to use "online features" to which your paying a broadband bill for €50 a month..... I mean seriously, how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this. I have sit here and look at others tweet and facebook about how great the game is, who have parents willing to fork out mad sums of money for all of these top titles such as Battlefield, Fifa and Call of Duty, when I have to choose between them.
I really feel like these selfish industries such lower their prices.

try paying rent, bills, for food, fuel, tax and insurance and come complain to us.

Cookie_Monster

€50-70 for soemthing that gives 100s of hours of playtime is good value in my opinion, some games can easily justify it some can't. What I can't stand is DLC, expansions and online subs, barely ever worth the money and should be part of the initial game.

dobman88

dobman88 wrote: »

Lol, a whingebag calling someone a whingebag, how original. Oh, things were harder in my day, I lived in the 90's with loads of money wha wha wha. Sounds like you might have missed out on that SNES cart there krudler, still feeling bitter.

To be fair he does have a point. Gamers are spoilt these days when it comes to both selection and pricing of games. Walk into Xtravision or any other store selling games and you'll find games from as little as €3 and it's common to find 9 month old games selling for €7-10. Go back 10 or 15 years and the selection was generally crap and prices were considerably higher.

COYVB

Ronan14 wrote: »

how these companies expect an unemployed secondary school student like me to afford this

They don't. That hasn't been the target market for a long, long time

nesf

Deleted User wrote: »

To be fair he does have a point. Gamers are spoilt these days when it comes to both selection and pricing of games. Walk into Xtravision or any other store selling games and you'll find games from as little as €3 and it's common to find 9 month old games selling for €7-10. Go back 10 or 15 years and the selection was generally crap and prices were considerably higher.

I remember nearly 20 years ago picking up cut price bargain packs of older games. I got some of my most cherished childhood games this way (the SSI bundles were particular favourites).

nesf

COYVB wrote: »

They don't. That hasn't been the target market for a long, long time

Yeah, it's been 12 year old's mothers for quite some time now, and the occasional 30 something. :P

Feathers

Ronan14 wrote: »

New titles these days are €60 and up, which is madness.

Donkey Kong Country was IRL£100 when it came out 10-15 years ago.

(But, it did have an FX chip to give 3D graphics, cutting edge technology )

nesf

Feathers wrote: »

Donkey Kong Country was IRL£100 when it came out 10-15 years ago.

(But, it did have an FX chip to give 3D graphics, cutting edge technology )

Cartridges were also a hell of a lot more expensive than DVDs for games to be fair.

penev10

dobman88 wrote: »

Bring back the Sega Mega Drive The good old days with Sonic and the lads.

I paid IR£60 for Hellfire back int' day. Allowing for inflation that's at least €80.

RobertFoster

penev10 wrote: »

I paid IR£60 for Hellfire back int' day. Allowing for inflation that's at least €80.

According to this calculator it'd be closer to €120.

IR£60 inflates to IR£96.32 between 02/07/1991 (mid-point of the year) and today. IR£96.32 is €122.30. It was the collectors edition of Hellfire, yeah?

Retr0gamer

Feathers wrote: »

Donkey Kong Country was IRL£100 when it came out 10-15 years ago.

(But, it did have an FX chip to give 3D graphics, cutting edge technology )

It had no extra chips and had no 3D graphics either.

Also it never sold for £100.

penev10

RobertFoster wrote: »

According to this calculator it'd be closer to €120.

Ouch!

The highest (non-import) price I remember was for Virtua Racing for MD. Now it did have an extra chip and was in 3D but that was only IR£70. Don't remember anything being £100. Starfox had the FX chip but it was 50-55.

farna_boy

Ronan14 wrote: »

I actually am a pc gamer aswell as console.
Prepare to be amazed..... Call of Duty black ops which was released in 2010 is selling for €59.99 http://store.steampowered.com/app/42700/ :0
But yeah I see where your coming from, it is a much more affordable platform with the summer sales etc. in saying that do launch titles are still pricey

Agricola wrote: »

Call of Duty is a law onto itself though. I havent played one of those games since the original Modern Warfare, simply because they do not drop in price. Lucky for me I dont really give a **** about military shooters or online MP in general.

I never buy new releases on Steam. But there are loads of Steamworks games sold on Amazon for £25 from release. The same games are usually £50 on Steam. So yeah lots of saving.

A simple look around and Black Ops 2 €23 on Amazon.com

I haven't bought a new release in years, I really don't see the point anymore. All you have to do is wait 2-3 months and you can usually get the game for less than half of what it cost when it was released (if you are a PC gamer). The newest game I bought recently was Hitman Absolution, which I bought 6 months after release for €3.75.

I'm not saying you should wait 6 months to buy GTA 5 but give it one or two months and you will save a fortune (which you can then spend on the DLC).

Sierra Oscar

I usually get a good bank for the buck when it comes to buying games considering I usually put in a lot of hours into the titles that I buy. All the same, unless it is a game that I really really want, then I will just wait for a few weeks until the price falls somewhat.

Feathers

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It had no extra chips and had no 3D graphics either.

Also it never sold for £100.

Never, eh?

Though we did pay £90 at least for it. Remember getting it around Christmas between myself & the brother.

Yeah, was thinking of Starfox with the FX chip. But it was "an incredible 3D adventure" :pac:

animaal

Deleted User wrote: »

Go back 10 or 15 years and the selection was generally crap and prices were considerably higher.

Why young man, back in my day we could buy the shiniest new releases (like Treasure Island Dizzy) for the princely sum of £2.99.

You had to travel by automobile to a "shop" to make the purchase. It was like Steam, but without DRM. Loading was a great laugh. You got to pray to the azimuth gods for five minutes while holding in a dodgy play button on a tape deck.

Ah, but the graphics were fantastic - sometimes with sound at the same time!

COYVB

animaal wrote: »

Why young man, back in my day we could buy the shiniest new releases (like Treasure Island Dizzy) for the princely sum of £2.99.

Common misconception actually. £2.99 games were rarely new releases, but new budget releases of previously £9.99/£19.99 games

[/pedant]

BeerWolf

I paid €130, I think, for StarWars: The Old Republic MMO when it was released ... What a BLOODY waste of money THAT was...!!

animaal

COYVB wrote: »

Common misconception actually. £2.99 games were rarely new releases, but new budget releases of previously £9.99/£19.99 games

[/pedant]

That was certainly the case later on, but to begin with the 1.99/2.99 games were often games that talented kids wrote in their bedrooms, and then sold to the likes of Mastertronic for a pittance. I don't think Mastertronic ever had developers employed. And Codemasters somehow managed to make a living at that price range for a long time, selling "Professional *** simulator" variations...

Twilightning

I bought Dawn of War II Retribution during a Steam sale for a tenner nearly 2 years ago and I have 1,300+ hours clocked in it, talk about value for money. PC gaming as a whole has had me spoilt when it comes to price. I'd be lucky to even go so far as fork out €30 for a game. The last time I did that was during a promotion GreenManGaming was doing for Bioshock Infinite, and even then I got 3 other brilliant games free with it.

Clover

Ronan14 , try to pick up new releases or pre-order games that you want by trading in your unwanted old games (if you have any) to get a new title for very little €€€.

I tend to use this method more nowadays to get my console games, as I can't justify to myself or afford to spend €50 - €65 on games anymore.

An example of this would be me pre-ordering GTA5 and trading in two old games and getting it for €9.99 not €50 - €65 , have done the same for Ghosts and BF4.

Best of luck.

COYVB

Clover wrote: »

Ronan14 , try to pick up new releases or pre-order games that you want by trading in your unwanted old games (if you have any) to get a new title for very little €€€.

Or, rather than lining GameStop's pockets, sell your old games on the second hand market to a fellow gamer directly. You'll get more, and they'll pay less, than would be the case at somewhere like GameStop.

Yes, the developers and publishers still aren't seeing any money, but you're not contributing to the billions made by those stores globally every year, or doing your filling shelves with second hand games costing a fiver less than new ones

murphyebass

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

€50-70 for soemthing that gives 100s of hours of playtime is good value in my opinion, some games can easily justify it some can't. What I can't stand is DLC, expansions and online subs, barely ever worth the money and should be part of the initial game.

+1 for the first part of this quote.

€50 - €70 for a game that gives you 100's of hours of gameplay is absolutely great value for money.

Think about the amount of hard work that goes into making a game that will give you that level of enjoyment. Progamming, design, etc, etc..

DLC's and online subs are really an optional extra lets be honest. Nobodys forcing you to buy either.

Personally I rarely buy DLC. I use online though for indie titles and online play of the likes of Halo 4. That said my online sub ran out last month and I have to clear some backlog so wont be resigning up I've played a few games through.

Speaking of backlog mine came from buying games when they were on sale or cheap. Definately not release buys!

Bought Alan Wake for example yesterday for a tenner in gamestop. I remember thinking of buying it at launch and didnt bother in the end. Then completely forgot about it until yesterday.

Grumpypants

Paying €60 is crazy for that price you would expect around a thousand people to be working for 5 or 6 years on it...............

Guyanachronism

Xkcd Cutting Edge

Being a lagging gamer saves a fortune and a boyfriend who is a dedicated gamer with a good job helps too

I know the OP is a slave to trends, but not bothering with being cutting edge is great. I just got an Xbox 360 a few months ago, games are cheap, there is a good selection, I have even got to borrow indefinitely games from friends who have emigrated and left their xbox games after them (silver lining I guess). You also avoid the majority of bugs.

The newest game I bought was Skyrim a couple months ago, second hand for €20.