Why Such High Prices?

[Serendipity]

How can developers justify the high prices they are putting on some games?

Subnautica £41.05 down from a whopping £64.36
Persona 5 Striker £54.99

This is just a couple of examples, I did not want to list all of them that are in the store, but, if you care to look you will find lots more.

[Start_Running]

Walach eredeti hozzászólása:

Yes, yes I do.
All I want is for developers, and everyone else aswell, to think "should I have this price".

And...why do you think they didn't?

Kindness before money, I don't know what more to say really. :P

So why don't you apply that to your side of the equation?

You can earn money, but I believe you shouldn't aim to earn as much money as possible.

But again you fail to apply this to your end of the equation.

Dev/pub = The highest price a significant percentage of the target audience is WILLING to pay
Gamer - The lowest price they can get the game for.

I believe that the things above is the reason why I want it changed. :(
Only extremes when both want everything.

And yet we have such a wiiiiide range of prices...
Almost as if this whole thing is based on both sides edging towards a compromise

Apply that to your own life.
Should I accept this pay raise?
Should I accept this performance bonus?

Yes. For example; I pay more in taxes because I can and I know it helps, even if it's just a drop in the sea, you have to start with yourself.

That's a little different M8.

Yeah but the snickers guy is thinking. Get all the people who will pay $10. Then dropp the price to $9 and ghet all thsoe people. and then drop the price to $8.

And I don't believe that's the right thing to do. :(

Yeah because you want to pay $5.
If the price ios not what you want. You walk away.
No one is obligated to sell at the price you want.

"When everyone needs to be a shark to be able to eat then you don't want to be the fish."
I made that up on the spot! I hope I didn't steal it from someone without knowing! :P

Sharks are fish. And sharks eat other sharks.
Everyone needs to eat. And so far it's worked well enough for the last 15K years of human history


Don't like the price... don't buy.

[crunchyfrog]

Kargor eredeti hozzászólása:

crunchyfrog eredeti hozzászólása:

Look at what Square do with Eidos products (I don't know if it's the same here on PC, but certainly on console).

With a game like any of the Tomb Raider series, or even Hitman, they turn out the game at normal price, but QUICKLY turn on the discounts after a couple fo weeks. Then they DEEP discount too, usually more than other publishers.

To make matters worse for the games, they also tend to put these up for PS+ or XBox games with gold, devaluing them further.

All this means is that it detracts regular fans from buying the game on release as they know it'll quickly drop in price. Kind of shooting yourself in the foot when done to this extreme.

Square is pretty large, though, and a good example why you need to look at games, not at publishers.

I purchased "Tomb Raider" normally -- the collection many years ago, a game here and there, and recently I got the collection again to fill in the gaps. 80%, 85% discounts, no problems there.

However, a couple years back, I noticed that I don't even have a Final Fantasy game, despite having some of them on my shopping list. What happened? Looking at the price history, I noticed that discounts never go above 50% -- and when I see a 50% discount, I ignore it.

I do have a couple of them by now (and actually got slightly above 50% due to a shop discount that also applied to discounted games). But, the same overall "AAA" behemoth, different pricing strategies.

I get the suspicion that there are more franchises (different publishers too) with low discounts, possibly even going as low as 40%. I will have to go through my shopping list at some point, to weed out items that shouldn't be there in the first place, and reassess those that stick to low discounts.

Well put.

It's basically down to this - how they value their properties. I deliberately used Square Eidos for this reason as it's such a wildly different situation. Eidos stuff does get QUICK deep discounts as I said, but the Final fantasy games always hold their value (to extortionate degress for mobile phones too).

I know Square do look at various things like markets, because WAY back in the time of the PS1 I wrote to them asking why they didn't release an awful lot of their catalogue in Europe and that I had to import so many US and Japanese versions.

They kindly wrote me back saying that this is something they monitor. Not long after that on their website there was an addition to their general questionnaire - "which of thse Square games do you own?" and obviously other details were your adress and so on, as it's a mailing list.

Then not long after that was when they started to retro release the earlier Final Fantasy games on PS1 in Europe.

So I've little doubt they just value Final Fantasy higher in that they have "longer legs" for sale.


Fun note - I also have the same feelings as you regarding your Final Fantasy purchases. I haven't bought a Switch yet for one simple reason that I experienced on the WiiU especially. I bought a WiiU back when it was current and many games were stupid prices that held because Nintendo do that stupid "fake rarity" thing and keep their prices high even in resale that affects things.

So I had only a couple of games before the WiiU went tits up with a bad memory. Didn't bother replacing it until a couple of years ago when they were dirt cheap and surprise, surprise as most games were re-relased on the Switch I now have a far larger library because they're dirt cheap now.

If something happens when the Switch is dead that means cheaper games, I may be in, but I ain't going to worry if it doesn't happen. I never bought a Vita for the stupid reasons of proprietary memory being the killer.

[Paratech2008]

I just wanted to mention that some great introduction discounts have made me buy games I have on Steam already because I see them as inexpensive backups should Steam ever shut down. Also DRM free games which still have DRM on Steam qualify as games I'll buy on GOG particularly if the price is cheap enough. Finally games I get via keys from Humble choice bundles I'll buy on GOG if the price is right to support the developers / publishers. Gris was an example.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

It should be pointed out that profit maximization and cost minimization are not necessarily the goals (and almost certainly not the only goals, in any case) of the publisher and customer respectively, and so it may be overly simplistic to assume that people only have these goals and thereby interpret everything they do through these lenses.

[crunchyfrog]

Paratech2008 eredeti hozzászólása:

I just wanted to mention that some great introduction discounts have made me buy games I have on Steam already because I see them as inexpensive backups should Steam ever shut down. Also DRM free games which still have DRM on Steam qualify as games I'll buy on GOG particularly if the price is cheap enough. Finally games I get via keys from Humble choice bundles I'll buy on GOG if the price is right to support the developers / publishers. Gris was an example.

Excellent point as I've done the same but I completely forgot about this angle.

For me with having so many platforms, it can be a pain in the arse (or would be if I didn't enjoy it) to maintain them. If a console goes wrong and I don't have a replacement to hand, then that catalogue is inaccessible and you can guarantee that makes me think more of it, and want to play some of the games.

SO if I see other copies for different platforms cheap I'll likely grab them too purely for this backup. There's also some that offer different features too, like the Resident Evil versions for the Gamecube or Dreamcast versus the PS1.

This bit of convenience is a neat one.

[Paratech2008]

Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition sells like hotcakes on GOG sales at $2.99. impulse sales.

The Witcher 3 GotY sells great at $9.99. Another point is with digital and unlimited copies, older games can be sold for next to nothing but considering no money has to be invested towards developing the games it's free profits. Again impulse buys.

I've often equated buying a game for under $1 as the same as playing a videogame in an arcade. Heck many arcade games can cost more than $1 a credit.

[crunchyfrog]

Paratech2008 eredeti hozzászólása:

Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition sells like hotcakes on GOG sales at $2.99. impulse sales.

The Witcher 3 GotY sells great at $9.99. Another point is with digital and unlimited copies, older games can be sold for next to nothing but considering no money has to be invested towards developing the games it's free profits. Again impulse buys.

I've often equated buying a game for under $1 as the same as playing a videogame in an arcade. Heck many arcade games can cost more than $1 a credit.

Bloody excellent point.

You're absolutey right on the money as per those prices. It really is a no brainer once a game has made it's bulk of money that it doesn't matter how cheap they sell it thereafter as it's just extra cash. One only has to look at when Valve themselves did that experiment several years ago with Left 4 Dead by offering it first at something like an unheard of 90% off, and then once free on Xmas Day.

You'd think particular after the freebie that EVERYONE who wanted it would now have it. Except every time they had such promotions sales went UP thereafter. I guess it generates new people who wouldn't normally buy and their friends get informed and the domino effect happens.

But your other point about value and perspective is an excellent one too. Being a cheaparse myself, I have certain metrics I roughly use to place a value on a game and wait until it hits that price point and adding other valuations to it - such as the cost of say playing an arcade game - really brings that value into perspective.

For instance, I quite like footie but I would never do the whole yearly iteration thing of buying every year. I don't like it THAT much. But within a short period the older titles drop to around 50p at shops. I'm in then. And what else could you do for 50p?

[Zeno]

✰Aℓexis✰ eredeti hozzászólása:

games often take YEARS to produce and make, not to mention all of the costs that goes into making one.

Has also taken years when I played two decades ago, yet I paid around 16 dollars for a game back then.

I remember all the prices raising within a short time period very quickly, this is clearly not just some economical change this is also greed and ripping people off, plain and simple.

Not to forget all these paid extra contents that sometimes SHOULD be part of the base game.

The guy who created this thread is right and only people who find those prices alright are people who are still very young and have not even experienced the development and " evolution " of video games. What they pull nowadays is unacceptable.

Serendipity eredeti hozzászólása:

How can developers justify the high prices they are putting on some games?

Subnautica £41.05 down from a whopping £64.36
Persona 5 Striker £54.99

This is just a couple of examples, I did not want to list all of them that are in the store, but, if you care to look you will find lots more.

Most games I play are worth at least 20% less of what they cost in full and almost £ 70 for a video game is just TOO MUCH, I can eat from this money for two weeks if I buy cheap.

[Paratech2008]

The thing is nobody has to buy a game when it's released.

I don't justify $70+ videogames with day one season passes. I simply wait for the price to be what I'm willing to pay.

I waited a few years after the GotY Witcher 3 was $15 on sale. I eventually picked it up and a month or two later they started having $9.99 sales. No biggie over $5.

In an earlier post I mentioned how early purchasers often get the worst version of the game and those who wait pay less for improved versions, Cyberpunk 2077, Street Fighter V, and other games are proof of what I'm saying.

[Start_Running]

SgtDewayne eredeti hozzászólása:

✰Aℓexis✰ eredeti hozzászólása:

games often take YEARS to produce and make, not to mention all of the costs that goes into making one.

Has also taken years when I played two decades ago, yet I paid around 16 dollars for a game back then.

Two decades ago games were smaller, required less specialized tech and labour, and had less complexity. All those things have scalled up quite a bit.

Most games I play are worth at least 20% less of what they cost in full and almost £ 70 for a video game is just TOO MUCH, I can eat from this money for two weeks if I buy cheap.

That's you. There are people who don't measure money the same way you do.

[Walach]

Ohh boy, this post will be a lot of work, you know that? :P

Start_Running eredeti hozzászólása:

And...why do you think they didn't?

Because they didn't lower the prices? That's what I believe you're asking anyways. :P

So why don't you apply that to your side of the equation?
But again you fail to apply this to your end of the equation.

I do... I... I think.

That's a little different M8.

I don't know what that means. :/

Yeah because you want to pay $5.
If the price ios not what you want. You walk away.
No one is obligated to sell at the price you want.

I do? Well I learn something new every day! :D

Sharks are fish. And sharks eat other sharks.
Everyone needs to eat. And so far it's worked well enough for the last 15K years of human history

Ohh yeah but how about this one then:
"All sharks are fish, but not all fish are sharks".
Ehh? Ehh? That ones much better? :D

[Zeno]

Start_Running eredeti hozzászólása:

SgtDewayne eredeti hozzászólása:

Has also taken years when I played two decades ago, yet I paid around 16 dollars for a game back then.

Two decades ago games were smaller, required less specialized tech and labour, and had less complexity. All those things have scalled up quite a bit.

Most games I play are worth at least 20% less of what they cost in full and almost £ 70 for a video game is just TOO MUCH, I can eat from this money for two weeks if I buy cheap.

That's you. There are people who don't measure money the same way you do.

Game developement was not any less hard than today nor did it take less hours.

But I am sure gaming industry is going to love your support for voluntarily paying high prices for mostly bugged and broken video games, as quality isn't a thing anymore nowadays.

[Senator Armstrong]

Serendipity eredeti hozzászólása:

How can developers justify the high prices they are putting on some games?

Subnautica £41.05 down from a whopping £64.36
Persona 5 Striker £54.99

This is just a couple of examples, I did not want to list all of them that are in the store, but, if you care to look you will find lots more.

Games cost companies a lot to make. That's why a flop can bankrupt smaller game devs. I understand when the tag is $70 but any more than that it gets a tad obsurd.

[Zeno]

evangalway2666 eredeti hozzászólása:

Serendipity eredeti hozzászólása:

How can developers justify the high prices they are putting on some games?

Subnautica £41.05 down from a whopping £64.36
Persona 5 Striker £54.99

This is just a couple of examples, I did not want to list all of them that are in the store, but, if you care to look you will find lots more.

Games cost companies a lot to make. That's why a flop can bankrupt smaller game devs. I understand when the tag is $70 but any more than that it gets a tad obsurd.

The answer is YOU.

Developers can justify this price because there are people like you who would pay such ridiculously high prices for a game and eventually end up supporting them rising the prices more and more every year.

In around 5-8 years it is going to be normal to pay around 100 dollars for one lame a... video game thanks to people like you.

Congratulations.

[Silverkite]

Serendipity eredeti hozzászólása:

How can developers justify the high prices they are putting on some games?

Subnautica £41.05 down from a whopping £64.36
Persona 5 Striker £54.99

This is just a couple of examples, I did not want to list all of them that are in the store, but, if you care to look you will find lots more.

in the past your title was not inna stocks, now everything has to be a stock value and they waste tons of money for paid reviews, shills and marketing campaign, that's why triple a industry is a joke and that's why you should stop buying their yearly crap.