The price of games and not the price of consoles causing the drop in sales?

[Squilliam]

Smashchu2 said:

Squilliam said:

scottie said:
Good points Squilliam, but I've got to disagree. If you look at the best selling games this gen, they are all full priced (for their console) All of the 1st party Nintendo games that are selling well are doing so without price drops, even after years on the market. What's the RRP for Nintendogs??

Although it is certainly true that a game now has to be either low priced or long lasting in order to sell.

The one comparable model which is steam and its metrics does show validity to what im saying. Revenue in the short run increases by over 100% for short term price cuts on the games. Unfortunately within the console market there is no such price discrimination, its generally one price and only one price. This is the big reason why a digital distribution model would would wonders for publishers by allowing this kind of stratified pricing.

@Smashchu: Theres no comparable game to Wii Fit, theres hardly any competition for that kind of game from any other game on any other system.

One problem with your ideas is they don't look at factor numero uno: consumers. Take digital distribution. Consumers will only want it when it becomes more convinient are more accessable that driving to the store and picking one up. With games getting bigger and bigger, even Wii games, the consumer will not take to a digital distribution method as downloading a game takes far too long. Although your comment was not dirrected at me. I will say that digital distribution is not the future as it pleases the publisher, not the consumer.

But Wii Fit is a perfect comparison. It is a game consumers demand and it is more expensive than other games on the market. JUust because Wii Fit is one of a kind means nothing. Every game was one of a kind at some time. We don't need a Wii Fit like game anyway, as the comparison is on price, not the product itself.

For many consumers its already more convenient. Online gamers already have a tendency to buying very fast internet connections, so for someone on say a 20mbit connection, they would only have to wait about 5 minutes before they could start playing a game (Xbox Live demos are about 600MB and fully functional in respect to being playable). Its very convenient. Also theres the factor where the publisher can offer short deals like Steam weekend deals on their games which is impossible to do at a retail setting.

Wii Fit as a comparison to what? Theres a difference between say Call of Duty IV which has about 5-6 viable competitors for the same genre and Wii Fit which is essentially a monopoly as no other company produces a good enough substitute. The product lifecycles for both Call of Duty IV and Wii Fit are essentially different enough to be non comparable with each other.