why is it so expensive?

[Throwback to depression]

Title, in comparison with other final fantasies

[Hinnyuu]

Price is,a t its basic level, a function of supply and demand. Popular things don't need to be cheap, because people will buy them regardless.

[CyberHaggis]

And also a function of how many wages the company has to pay, how much keeping the licence for that particular brand costs, the cost of the licences for the development software, eventual renting costs for the office spaces (that are not cheap, no siree), and so on. And don't forget the profit ;)

[Throwback to depression]

i understand those points, but a game from 2006 feels overpriced at 50 euro, that's some triple A games cost in 2020. I mean, shouldn't it be at 30?

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by Throwback to depression:

i understand those points, but a game from 2006 feels overpriced at 50 euro, that's some triple A games cost in 2020. I mean, shouldn't it be at 30?

It's not from 2006. It's a remaster of a game from 2006.

If you don't want to pay the price, don't. Wait around for a sale, they come around regularly. There was one just a while ago.

Asking "but why does this cost X?" is just eminently unproductive. They don't roll dice to figure out their prices.

[StoneyWoney]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

Originally posted by Throwback to depression:

i understand those points, but a game from 2006 feels overpriced at 50 euro, that's some triple A games cost in 2020. I mean, shouldn't it be at 30?

It's not from 2006. It's a remaster of a game from 2006.

If you don't want to pay the price, don't. Wait around for a sale, they come around regularly. There was one just a while ago.

Asking "but why does this cost X?" is just eminently unproductive. They don't roll dice to figure out their prices.

I'm just hoping for the base price drop and then plan to look out for a sale. But it's taking mysteriously long. Remasters usually don't cost the full price of a new game to begin with. And this one stays even more expensive than most AAA games 2 years after Steam release. Lowest sale on FFXII I've seen so far was 25€, whereas many really new games may drop on <20€ discounts.

Even FFXV already is down to a base price of 35€ (I've seen that for 17,50€ on sale), which was released later on Steam and has more complex features implemented. And it has about 4 times more popularity on Steam than FFXII. So a game being popular doesn't really mean it stays expensive.

The math just doesn't seem to add up for FFXII. I too am confused why this game in particular appears to be so expensive. At this point it really does look like they roll dice.

[Hinnyuu]

Originally posted by StoneyWoney:

At this point it really does look like they roll dice.

Yes, it's more likely a multi-million dollar company with access to all the sales data and background info we will never see is actually rolling dice instead of relying on entire departments full of marketing people they pay to figure out their pricing.

Sounds legit.

I'm not saying what the price should or should not be. But to assume Square doesn't know how to properly price their products and that you know better because you saw third-hand stats on an aggregator somewhere just seems a LITTLE too out there to be believable for me.

[StoneyWoney]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

Originally posted by StoneyWoney:

At this point it really does look like they roll dice.

Yes, it's more likely a multi-million dollar company with access to all the sales data and background info we will never see is actually rolling dice instead of relying on entire departments full of marketing people they pay to figure out their pricing.

Sounds legit.

I'm not saying what the price should or should not be. But to assume Square doesn't know how to properly price their products and that you know better because you saw third-hand stats on an aggregator somewhere just seems a LITTLE too out there to be believable for me.

Hey man I wasn't trying to diss your favourite game and my continuation of your dice example was over the top, sorry. But that doesn't change how I'm puzzled about the pricing, especially when you set it in comparison with all other games of the series (With the exception being FFXIV. But as an MMO with constant content updates that's another matter). Well, I've been patient for 2 years, might just wait 2 more. If I can't hold it until then, just gotta dust off my PS2 :P

[Melodia]

I bought this game for $18 not even that many months after release.
*shrug*

[CyberHaggis]

The fact that the base price is not dropping after all this time may also be related to the game's un-popularity.
Continuing on the example of FF XV, that game is so popular and sells so much that Square Enix can afford to drop the price and still have a return of the resources expended in that project, Just relying on the sheer volume of sales.

Regarding FF XII, maybe the game is not as popular and does not sell as much. It may not sell as much even if they dropped the base price or gave it at a discount more often. Therefore Square Enix can't afford to drop the price on that game as often to make it worth.

[Hinnyuu]

That goes against pretty much all established business logic. If something ISN'T selling, why would that be a reason to KEEP a high price?

I think whatever other motivation we may speculate on for Square, assuming that they want to make money is probably one of the safer bets.

[Casurin]

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

That goes against pretty much all established business logic. If something ISN'T selling, why would that be a reason to KEEP a high price?

I can tell you from experience - no, that sadly is not how it works.
The marketing and sales people often are rather... how to put it - detached? from reality.

The high price is likely cause they think new players are comparateively unlikely to buy the game and old players are more willing to pay this (really high) price.

And it seems to work out good enough for them to not change it.

[Serafie1999AD]

Originally posted by Casurin:

Originally posted by Hinnyuu:

That goes against pretty much all established business logic. If something ISN'T selling, why would that be a reason to KEEP a high price?

I can tell you from experience - no, that sadly is not how it works.
The marketing and sales people often are rather... how to put it - detached? from reality.

The high price is likely cause they think new players are comparateively unlikely to buy the game and old players are more willing to pay this (really high) price.

And it seems to work out good enough for them to not change it.

If you have such high thoughts about your knowledge about how economics and business work compared to SE's incompetent workers, why don't you apply to become the head of SE's finance and marketing team? If not, at least show some proof to back up your claims, as your post is nothing but speculation.

[CyberHaggis]

Originally posted by Serafie1999AD:

Originally posted by Casurin:

I can tell you from experience - no, that sadly is not how it works.
The marketing and sales people often are rather... how to put it - detached? from reality.

The high price is likely cause they think new players are comparateively unlikely to buy the game and old players are more willing to pay this (really high) price.

And it seems to work out good enough for them to not change it.

If you have such high thoughts about your knowledge about how economics and business work compared to SE's incompetent workers, why don't you apply to become the head of SE's finance and marketing team? If not, at least show some proof to back up your claims, as your post is nothing but speculation.

As is everyone's in this thread ;)

[StoneyWoney]

Originally posted by Serafie1999AD:

Originally posted by Casurin:

I can tell you from experience - no, that sadly is not how it works.
The marketing and sales people often are rather... how to put it - detached? from reality.

The high price is likely cause they think new players are comparateively unlikely to buy the game and old players are more willing to pay this (really high) price.

And it seems to work out good enough for them to not change it.

If you have such high thoughts about your knowledge about how economics and business work compared to SE's incompetent workers, why don't you apply to become the head of SE's finance and marketing team? If not, at least show some proof to back up your claims, as your post is nothing but speculation.

Did he call SE incompetent? No. It is a fact that many companies leave non-sellers on a high price, to at least make some money when someone finally buys the product. As long as the price stays high, it also makes the product appear more valuable, so potential customers might actually risk a look.

You can sometimes bring this to the extreme and actually make a success out of it with the Chivas Regal effect, which is named after the whiskey brand. This whiskey didn't really sell first. But then the company doubled the price (without changing anything else about the product), and suddenly people started buying it. So it doesn't really go against all established business logic like Hinnyuu stated. It is well established to keep appearances of a high quality product by keeping a high price.

So as long as I don't see a real comprehensible reason why SE made a remaster so expensive, it is most likely that this is the case.

[Serafie1999AD]

Originally posted by StoneyWoney:

Did he call SE incompetent? No.

"detached from reality".

It is a fact that many companies leave non-sellers on a high price, to at least make some money when someone finally buys the product. As long as the price stays high, it also makes the product appear more valuable, so potential customers might actually risk a look.

You can sometimes bring this to the extreme and actually make a success out of it with the Chivas Regal effect, which is named after the whiskey brand. This whiskey didn't really sell first. But then the company doubled the price (without changing anything else about the product), and suddenly people started buying it. So it doesn't really go against all established business logic like Hinnyuu stated. It is well established to keep appearances of a high quality product by keeping a high price.

So as long as I don't see a real comprehensible reason why SE made a remaster so expensive, it is most likely that this is the case.

So a whiskey brand doubled the price because their product wasn't selling well, and that is enough evidence to suggest that FFXII's case is most likely the same?

Let me come up with a counter-example, from Square Enix. The Final Fantasy XIII trilogy is massively hated by fans of the series. Even though critics gave FFXIII pretty good scores, the fan reception was quite mixed when compared to other FFs:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/final-fantasy-xiii/user-reviews
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/final-fantasy-xiii-2/user-reviews
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/lightning-returns-final-fantasy-xiii/user-reviews
The Steam prices? 12.99€ for FFXIII, 15.99€ for FFXIII-2, and 15.99€ for LRFFXIII. These are low prices, even though FFXIII-2 and LRFFXIII come with almost all of the DLC content that SE was allowed to port to PC (the DLC had to be bought separately on console versions).

Then take Octopath Traveler. This game received a lot of praise on Switch, and was constantly sold out:
https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/octopath-traveler
https://screenrant.com/octopath-traveler-sold-out-stock/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2018/07/16/octopath-traveller-stock-is-selling-out-all-over-the-world/
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/08/latest_octopath_traveler_restock_in_japan_sells_out_again
The Steam price? 60€, which is even more expensive than this game.