Warren Spector Said If Publishers Didn't Overcharge For Games People Wouldn't Have To Buy Them Used

[zorg1000]

Slimebeast said:

zorg1000 said:

Slimebeast said:

zorg1000 said:

DerpSandwich said:
If you factor in inflation they're still cheaper than games have ever been. I can't complain. Nobody's forced to buy at launch, either.

I dont get the whole inflation argument, thats assuming that everybody gets paid more as product prices increase.

How can you not get it?

Prices nominally go up due to inflation. This is occuring all the time in the industrialized world everywhere.

If in 1990 a typical small car cost $10,000 but today it costs $15,000 and the meal at McDonalds went from $5 to $7 and the average movie ticket from $6.50 to $9 and the salary for an average worker increased from $2,000 to $3,000, but in the same time the video game remained at $60, then surely the game got relatively cheaper.

Did the average salary go up by that percentage as well? And games cost $50 last gen.

Roughly. Of course it depends on the country, but in Sweden it has pretty much gone up by 50% between 1990 and 2013 despite all the crisises and austerities. And I would bet the rate is very similar in the US and the rest of the Western world.

Perhaps the standard price in last gen was $50 but on the other hand games in current gen drop in price very fast in just a few months after launch, and I've read many times that people say games in the Snes era cost $60 if not more. And I know for a fact that the price of games in general (PC as well as consoles) in Sweden has stayed flat since 1995.

Ok solid argument. I still feel that not all games need to cost $60, the big blockbusters its fine but devs have started thinking every game needs to try being the next big thing. Weve seen so many companies go under or lose money because they have huge budgets and need to sell millions just to break even. Maybe instead of trying to make every game have top of the line graphics and tacking on mp when its not needed and selling it at $60, they could focus more on solid gameplay and sell it for $40 thus selling more copies and making more profit.