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ninjaz1337
27 May 2009, 09:24pm
Seriously, new anticipated upcoming PC games are....60 BUCKS??!!! Really now? Modern Warfare 2 is 60 bucks, starcraft 2 is 60 bucks. Just because they are highly anticipated, it doesn't mean it should be 60 bucks. The reason x360 and ps3 games are around 60 is because they USE A DIFFERENT DISC. Here, PC games use DVD, so 50 already is overpriced...now 60?? Ironically the current 60 dollar pricing is on big company games. Blizzard and Ifinity Ward, Blizzard notorious for the 15 dollars a month WOW, Infinite Ward notorious for the CALL OF DUTY 4 NOW SUPER CHEAP, 40 BUCKS....3 YEARS AFTER RELEASE. Both owned by Activision (hint hint). Please, they completely ignore the fact that the US is currently STILL IN RECESSION.

Anybody else mad at this? The fact that Activision may be the one that sets PC game standard pricing to 60?

I take that back, officially starcraft 2 will be 50...but officially, MW2 will be 60

Bad Dog
27 May 2009, 09:55pm
Theres a new tax now on awsomeness

ninjaz1337
27 May 2009, 10:03pm
Theres a new tax now on awsomeness

Apparently bioshock 2, starcraft 2, assassin's creed 2, are not awesome. But by the next year you will see games as crappy as Big Rigs putting on a 60 dollar price tag because they think their game will be awesome.

Ultramarine
27 May 2009, 10:06pm
actually, the 360 uses the same dvd discs and PC's.. thats why u can burn 360 games from the net... the dvd game price has something to do with Microsofts' royalty fees or something like that...

Bad Dog
27 May 2009, 10:13pm
Apparently bioshock 2, starcraft 2, assassin's creed 2, are not awesome. But by the next year you will see games as crappy as Big Rigs putting on a 60 dollar price tag because they think their game will be awesome.

This is madness! This is insanity! THIS. IS. A RECESSION!!!

ReGIONALS
27 May 2009, 10:54pm
Apparently bioshock 2, starcraft 2, assassin's creed 2, are not awesome. But by the next year you will see games as crappy as Big Rigs putting on a 60 dollar price tag because they think their game will be awesome.

shun the no believer
i dont own ass creed but ive played it and its great i own bioshock and it kick the ass of of a mix of L4D, KF, TF2, GMOD, and any athoer game that is great so bioshock 2 will be frucking amazing

ninjaz1337
27 May 2009, 11:19pm
actually, the 360 uses the same dvd discs and PC's.. thats why u can burn 360 games from the net... the dvd game price has something to do with Microsofts' royalty fees or something like that...

True, Microsoft does have a royalty fee for everything, probably why it's 60 bucks on x360. But what's infinity ward's excuse for the 60 dollar price? Because it's a "call of duty" (AHEM IW SAID IT'S NOT ANYMORE) game? They probably did work hard on it, but what makes them think they worked any harder than 2k games (yes, they publish and develop), or rockstar, or any other developers?

I think they want to promote pirating (sorry IW, but higher prices means more pirating, whether you like or not, it's true)

ninjaz1337
27 May 2009, 11:21pm
actually, the 360 uses the same dvd discs and PC's.. thats why u can burn 360 games from the net... the dvd game price has something to do with Microsofts' royalty fees or something like that...

True, Microsoft does have a royalty fee for everything, probably why it's 60 bucks on x360. But what's infinity ward's excuse for the 60 dollar price? Because it's a "call of duty" (AHEM IW SAID IT'S NOT ANYMORE) game? They probably did work hard on it, but what makes them think they worked any harder than 2k games (yes, they publish and develop), or rockstar, or any other developers?

I think they want to promote pirating (sorry IW, but higher prices means more pirating, whether you like or not, it's true)

Reagionals, I'm just saying if they actually did put the extra 10 dollars because of the name, they should take at other great sequels coming out but putting the 50 dollar price tag

Sorry for double post, but for some reason I can't edit the previous posts.....nor can I delete this post

Slavic
28 May 2009, 01:35am
umm $60 is pretty much standard. You should be lucky its not higher seeing how we are in a recession and have been experiencing inflation.

VirDeBello
28 May 2009, 03:03am
Fuck that guy that said StarCraft 2 ain't awesome, it ain't even out yet lol But when you buy games from EB games just try to think of where the money is going. Thats why Steam is doing so damn well because of their 25% off weekend deals and shit. And still making a good profit in the end.

Jaffa
28 May 2009, 05:09am
LOL complaining about $60?

In the Uk we have had to pay £30-40 a game for the past decade. Even steam screws us, £15 for Killing Floor, £50 for Empire Total War

James
28 May 2009, 06:36am
LOL complaining about $60?

In the Uk we have had to pay £30-40 a game for the past decade. Even steam screws us, £15 for Killing Floor, £50 for Empire Total War

Don't buy from steam, it charges rip off prices, just buy them from the shops or from play.com or amazon, much more reasonable prices.

Red
28 May 2009, 09:08am
umm $60 is pretty much standard. You should be lucky its not higher seeing how we are in a recession and have been experiencing inflation.

Usually recessions bring on lower prices. Game companies will learn the hard way when piracy grows even more.

SpikedRocker
28 May 2009, 09:30am
Pricing of games is a dynamic process. There are several factors that are built into why game prices are so high. When you look at it, company size has alot of weigh-in factor. Next is the name or series of a game. Then you look at support the company will give the game upon release. Finally, the expected player response/reviews of the game will weigh-in.

I'll start off with company size as it is probably the easiest to explain. When you get someone like activision porting a game, you should tend to see the start price at least around 30-40 bucks. That company, even though is broken down into several small companies, is one of the largest video game makers out there. Lots of people actually work on that game and the comany needs to compensate those people. Now on the flipside lets use TripWire Interactive. TWI is the company that ported Killing Floor. The entire company is about 25-30 people strong (if that). Everyone, including the VP and President of the company was hard at work till the release date on the codes and the game itself. Not as many people worked on this game as say Warcraft or Starcraft.

Next I'll cover the name or series of what the game is for. Probably when you buy a game, 50% of the time you are more paying for the name of it than the actual game. Anything that has a sequal provides a good example for this. Grand Theft Auto, originally that game was a cheep PC game. Now with GTA 4 it was released at 50 bucks I believe. The orginal Half-life when released was 20-25 bucks I think, Half-life 2 when released was 40. Typically a sequal of a very popular and high-selling game will influence the price a bunch.

The support that the game will recieve reflects the workers who continuely work on the game after release. These people's salary will come from game sales as well. When support workers are scalled back thats when you see prices fall as they don't need to pay for the workers.

Finally pre-release hype always influences prices. There are hordes of people waiting for the next COD, StarCraft, and when or if they do, Half-life 3 (not episode 3). They know the masses are waiting and are anxious to play and most are willing to pay the price to play upon release.

One thing I did not cover in this is the consumer, sad to say, the consumers are still paying the price of any new game because they want to pay it. I've been saying this for quite sometime, the videogame industry seems to be recession proof atm. Reason being, people will want to find some way to entertain themselves the cheepest way possible. Videogames provide hours upon hours or entertainment for 1 price, unlike sporting events or arcade stores. Sure some videogame makers have had their rough times and some games have been killed or put of due to financial reasons but most places are thriving.
Another factor I did not include, the hacker. Illegal videogame downloading is at an all time high. There are several security measures now to prevent it, but it still goes on. If this did not occur you would see prices not as high.

In conclusion, videogame prices are actually reasonable when you look at it from a economic, business and consumer side of it all. You may not think its reasonable because in your mind you shouldn't be paying so much but the reality of it all is, you should be more careful of what games you buy and when you buy them. Do your research and you'll find yourself always satisfied when purchasing a videogame.
Thanks for reading this long ass explaination.

ninjaz1337
28 May 2009, 04:51pm
""

True, there are always people that are going to buy the game regardless of pricing, due to mainly one factor...hype. Because of hype companies are able to raise the pricing of a game, and if that increase is successful, other companies will follow up. The thing is if this continues to happen, we will see the pricing of games go up to unbelievable prices...crappy or not.

The video game industry actually was hit by the recession, there were some companies that had to close down, companies merged, workers fired. But that's not the main reason why some companies lower average pricing to 30-40 bucks on release, because they want the consumers to be satisfied with the pricing. What I'm basically saying is that companies like IA who aim towards increasing the average pc game pricing, doesn't give a damn about getting that extra money from your pocket (most likely people who have high paying jobs, or spoiled kids who doesn't care about where money goes).

If this continues, pc games will be just as costly as adobe photoshop. In result, next gen console games will have higher prices because of royalties (I'm looking at a 70-80 dollar price tag). The reason why PC games are at a lower price than console games is because of royalties.

Game prices will drop, that is true, but in this case it's IA (ahem NEW "LOW" PRICE OF 40 BUCKS). MW2 may drop to 50 in 2 years.

Guys, my main point is that IA is trying to raise the standard pc game pricing. If you're not aware many DLCs for PC are starting to cost money. PC gamers will soon have to pay just as much as console users without the same support (most game developers ignore PC users and focus on console, developers such as EA and Ubisoft). IF IA manages to raise the standard to pricing, money-wise, we will be spending the same amount as console users, but with less support (achivements, friends list, customer support, less DLCs, less updates, less patches so on). I'm not stating the less support towards IA, but seeing how EA and Ubisoft may see the success of IA, they will start raising prices too, and if you don't know, EA and Ubisoft have a habit of ignoring PC gamers. Release and forget.

b0red
28 May 2009, 05:08pm
Its crap i know, how the hell am i going to afford this!!!