Why companies never reduce their old game prices?

[StanicEnemy]

Some games been around here for ages,years but they are still at the same price and prices never go down even on sale they have fixed sale price.Seriously if they reduce its price they woul get more profit and stuff.

[Darren]

Also while a 10 year old game might not always compete favourably with a modern one I would rather replay Binary Domain again than play Battlefield 1.

And Binary Domain only cost me $5 I think I have done 3 playthroughs.

The difference between a 2 10 year old game and a 20 year old one is FAR bigger then a modern game and a 10 year old one.

Hell games in the last 5 years all have basically the same requirements (I have had the same machine that entire time and been able to play all the games comfortably), compare that to 20 years ago where every 2 years you would need to upgrade to continue to play the new games.

[cinedine]

Originally posted by Darren:

The difference between a 2 10 year old game and a 20 year old one is FAR bigger then a modern game and a 10 year old one.

And the objective improvements are pretty much only in graphics.
Else it's just game design and usability, which can be a hit and miss. For example I can't name one Tetris version that really moved the needle on the original, but a numbe of total failures. On the other hand you have seen with Yooka-Laylee that staying true to the original formula of platformers is a mixed boat at best. And then you have franchises where older and newer installments are equally viable for best-of lists, depending on what you like.

[Start_Running]

Yooka-LAylee was a failure in the same vein as Mighty no. 9. FOllowing a formula without really appreciating the derivation. They copied the look and feel without understanding the reason and so didn't quite nail it in application. This works both ways. Somnic Mania did well because the makers understood most of what the formula did and why it did it.

Gaming history is litered with this. It's what fully 70% of the titles for most systems are basically forgetabble if not terrible games. Remember when 2d fighters were all the rage and every game was trrying to be the next streetfighter or MK?

[Mikasa Ackerman]

theres a simple reason for it , Games on PC dont get old , i can play both arkham asyluzm and arkham knight in 4k and they both look great (unlike Consoles where asylum wouldnt even be full hd ultra )

and while i wouldnt pay 60€ for a very short old game , if its something great like sims 3 , an open world Game like Skyrim or something else , if the game gives me 50-200 hours of fun , i played Sonic Forces for 24 Hours ( and i beat it multiple times ) i still think the money was spent was worth it , so if a game manages to get twice the playtime of forces while being either the same or a slightly lower price why not ?

[Morethan2Letters]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by Spawn of Totoro:

They used EA as their publisher EA is in charge of the sales for the game.

$20 is not a high price.

Certainly mor ethan i'm willing to spend ona single game. but then that's just me..

OP the long and short of it is, the seller can determine their price to be what ever they want.. That's their right. YOu as the customer have the right to purchase only when the price and terms are acceptable to you.

You as a person choose the wage and salary you will work for, and they as a publisher choose what price they will sell at.

You maybe confiused with the old physical retail space where the retailer would start throuwing things into bthe bargain bin but that's because physical items cost moeny to stock and shelve. Every week something stays on a shelf is one week that bit of shelf-space earned you nothing.. When physical stores marke things down over time it is literally because they are losing mony every week that item remains unsold. It is costing them space they could be using for profitable merch.

20 dollars is to much to spend on a game? Did I read that right?

[Darren]

Originally posted by Advanced3:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Certainly mor ethan i'm willing to spend ona single game. but then that's just me..

OP the long and short of it is, the seller can determine their price to be what ever they want.. That's their right. YOu as the customer have the right to purchase only when the price and terms are acceptable to you.

You as a person choose the wage and salary you will work for, and they as a publisher choose what price they will sell at.

You maybe confiused with the old physical retail space where the retailer would start throuwing things into bthe bargain bin but that's because physical items cost moeny to stock and shelve. Every week something stays on a shelf is one week that bit of shelf-space earned you nothing.. When physical stores marke things down over time it is literally because they are losing mony every week that item remains unsold. It is costing them space they could be using for profitable merch.

20 dollars is to much to spend on a game? Did I read that right?

For some people it is. Remember there are literally hundreds of good games. Plenty of people have enough games they would happily replay to not really feel a need to purchase new games unless they are at a cheap price such as $5-10. Maybe not all games will get to that price point but there will likely be plenty of good ones that will.

Few people will ever buy 90% of even good games simply because they don't need to and have other expenses.

Me I find plenty of games worth spending $20, $40 even $60 on, but even for me there are games that aren't worth that price and I'll wait for them to get to $5 before purchasing.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Advanced3:

20 dollars is to much to spend on a game? Did I read that right?

Yes you did. Strangely enough, Hell I can't even remembver paying $15 for a single game. Well not since the Warcraft 3 Battle chest. Go fig neh?


As Darren says. Some of us have other expenses and really being a penny pincher just means games have to really work to pry the money from my claws.

[Xaelath]

Normally some game got price adjustment after year release and complete dlc.
Some game just forgotten like that.
Yes it sells but ofc it'll be forgotten overtime.

Active publisher will always change the price overtime on specific year .
But as long it sells the same amount each sale it won't change.

I remember fall out came out 60 bucks.
Now it's 30. same goes to doom.

There's also stuff i noticed like dangan ronpa, it was around 30 price launch then drop to 20.

[AbsynthMinded]

Originally posted by StanicEnemy:

Some games been around here for ages,years but they are still at the same price and prices never go down even on sale they have fixed sale price.Seriously if they reduce its price they woul get more profit and stuff.

Theres no incentive to lower the base prices because of the frequency of Steam Sales, and how the Steam pricing structure works. THey get a certain cut no matter how you buy. Copies that are sold on sale get the developer only a sliver of profit if any. If they lowered the base price by more than it sits now, they would likely end up paying Steam for every copy sold on sale.

[The Rock God]

Originally posted by shiel:

Originally posted by The Rock God:

High prices are a sign of a non-greedy company that doesn't put profits first.
Companies that lower prices are greedy and only interested in making more money.

By that logic Activision is a "non-greedy company.

All companies are interested in making money... to say otherwise is naive. Companies look at how much they make at a specific price point compared to projected sales at a lower price. Then they find the sweet spot that maximizes profit.

Activision is at least a less greedy company, if you use forum logic.

There are two things we know from forums:
1) Companies are greedy and will do anything to increase profits.
2) Lowering prices would increase their profits (a claim that even the OP makes).

By not lowering their prices, Activision are giving up profits. If they were truly greedy they would lower their prices and make so much more money than they are now. By keeping prices high they are signalling to consumers that they are not as obsessed with profits like the more greedy companies.
(Once again, this is forum logic.)

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

2) related: digital products are perishable, in the sense that, while the product itself may not degrade, the platform ecosystem moves forward, and that is practically guaranteed to eventually render what otherwise should be a perfectly functioning product unusable. literally, a game could be working one day, and not working the next. regardless of whether this is actually the game's fault, there is obviously a steep drop in value there which any sensible merchant would take into account when setting prices.

How, exactly, does this happen? The only possible case I can see for it is an online-only game where the servers shut down. I have never heard of a game that just suddenly stops working one day. I own thirty-plus year old games that still run perfectly fine.

[Chilled Nomi]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by StanicEnemy:

Some games been around here for ages,years but they are still at the same price and prices never go down even on sale they have fixed sale price.Seriously if they reduce its price they woul get more profit and stuff.

And what are you talking about. None of these old games are being sold anywhere near their launch day price.. well with the exception of super popular games.

Geez. Kids these days.

I go to classic game stores and still find old Gamecube, PS2, and N64 games for $5-20 depending on game and popularity of it (and sometimes stores stock). Sometimes even $60 plus for those really rare old finds so a digital version not going down is no surprise to me.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Remember when 2d fighters were all the rage and every game was trrying to be the next streetfighter or MK?

Id prefer to forget this era.

[子不是字]

Some companies do reduce the price of their old games though, so your whole statement is wrong.

[Paratech2008]

Originally posted by The Rock God:

Originally posted by =Snappy=:

2) related: digital products are perishable, in the sense that, while the product itself may not degrade, the platform ecosystem moves forward, and that is practically guaranteed to eventually render what otherwise should be a perfectly functioning product unusable. literally, a game could be working one day, and not working the next. regardless of whether this is actually the game's fault, there is obviously a steep drop in value there which any sensible merchant would take into account when setting prices.

How, exactly, does this happen? The only possible case I can see for it is an online-only game where the servers shut down. I have never heard of a game that just suddenly stops working one day. I own thirty-plus year old games that still run perfectly fine.

I guess you never had Starforce DRM games broken by Win 64 bit OSes, or games that don't work in 'new' OSes. There are games on Steam that don't run in Windows 10.

People worry about Denuvo shutting down and taking games with it. Some people won't buy Denuvo DRMed games.

Steam could get shut down. There was another site Desura that went down and people can't access those games. I purchased games off another digital store and lost games, I have a game on Origin that was shut down.

[子不是字]

Originally posted by Paratech2008:

Originally posted by The Rock God:

How, exactly, does this happen? The only possible case I can see for it is an online-only game where the servers shut down. I have never heard of a game that just suddenly stops working one day. I own thirty-plus year old games that still run perfectly fine.

I guess you never had Starforce DRM games broken by Win 64 bit OSes, or games that don't work in 'new' OSes. There are games on Steam that don't run in Windows 10.

People worry about Denuvo shutting down and taking games with it. Some people won't buy Denuvo DRMed games.

Steam could get shut down. There was another site Desura that went down and people can't access those games. I purchased games off another digital store and lost games, I have a game on Origin that was shut down.

not even just that, but some games are made for a particular OS and does not work on newer OS. Lik,e I bought a C&C bunble on disk, and I can't even install it on win 10 at all.

[Start_Running]

But that's already happeend and work arounds are a thing. In windows 10 you can always run a Windows XP or 7 VM and run the game in that. Or run it under Wine in Linux or install the needed OS on a bootable partition.

Hell I suspect WinBox will be a thing soon enough.