BlueFalcon said:
The 'average' folks are what's killing gaming in general - dumbed-down mainstream games with a focus on QTEs and cinematics over gameplay, short SP campaigns, truckloads of DLC/Season Passes, rehashed sequels, health regeneration in games, most games are way too easy, etc. All of this started once consoles went mainstream. If these so called 'average' mainstream gamers stopped buying consoles because they are too expensive for them, only the hardcore gamers would remain. Ironically, console gaming would be better anyway. These 'average' consumers have no problems with buying $300 tablets and iPhones on a 2-year contract but then complain about $400-450 prices for next gen consoles. If they don't want next gen consoles, let them leave so developers focus more efforts on fewer high quality games like was the case in the past. Steam does just fine with a much smaller # of PC gamers (50 million users), which means you don't need a base of 240 million consoles to be profitable. If companies are spending $130+ million on developing a game and then $150 million on marketing it, they are doing it wrong. When small studios like Crytek and CD Projekt Red were able to make stunning games on small budgets (Crysis 1, Witcher 2), there are no excuses why great games cannot be made for a fraction of COD Blacks Ops 2 budget. The indie PC developers are thriving, which lands more evidence you can make good games for 1/10th the cost. Trine 2 - awesome game made by a small studio. In the context of historical console pricing, $400-450 isn't that expensive assuming the hardware is next generation and there are new exciting games/IPs that take advantage of new technology. If people don't want to pay $400-450+ for a next generation console, they can always wait 2 years for prices to drop. This is actually not a bad idea since bugs get worked out and the console's gaming library expands. The funny part is the same people who complain about $400+ hardware don't talk about what is often an greater cost of console ownership over its useful life -- software. For instance, games like COD:BO2 cost $59.99 and then come with $30-40 of DLC. Borderlands 2 was what $59.99 and had $29.99 of Season Pass? The average person in NA doesn't even blink at $60 a month + $199-299 2-year smartphone plans but then complains about spending $400 on a console that will last 6-7 years with 0 upgrades. The same people also pony up $ for Xbox Live Gold fees and amass a collection of 50+ videogames over 6-7 years. If someone purchased Xbox 360 on launch day and paid $40-50 a year on Xbox Live, by now they would have spent $280-350 on Xbox Live alone. On another note, when Xbox 360 250GB bundle (a 7+ year old console) is still selling for $299.99, it's mind-boggling people are complaining about possibly paying $400-450 for next gen consoles. I am guessing mathematics and capital budgeting decisions are not strong points of the average console gamer! Furthermore, videogaming is among the cheapest hobbies, compared to just about anything else out there. The average family spends > $400 on attending a single Football game. What about learning to play sports like tennis, golf, skiing/snowboarding? All way more expensive than videogaming. Gun ownership/shooting range, learning how to fly a plane, sailing, traveling, photography, wine tasting/China collecting? All more expensive than console gaming. |
We are back to the casuals issue and what ends up making up the bulk of the sales. People end up using tablets and smart phones as a need, with this, comes games at a much lower price point to. When this ends up sucking off revenues, you are going to get "NO WAY AM I SPENDING AN ADDITIONAL $400 FOR VIDEOGAMES!" That is the reality now. You can speak of historically this or that, but reality is that it is different now, with viable alternatives out there. And I did delete the graphs to save space.
On that note, do you SERIOUSLY think Nintendo released at $350 on the high end, out of giggles, and because they wanted to be cheap? They had to do research and see that is as much as the market can bear. And the issue here isn't horsepower. Do you SERIOUSLY think the average person thinks they need additional horsepower, so they can then drop $400-$500 or more? How big is the power PC gamer market? There is a market out there already that goes into gaming rigs. That market is not that large. It is viable.
Reality, there is cheaper to play options out there, per game experience, than consoles.
