(Before you read this, I want you to participate in the poll so the rest of the readers and myself may your assess your opinion about this matter based on the title question.)
How many hours should a singple player game be to warrant a sixty dollar purchase?
I wanted to do another opinion piece after being at Best Buy today and finally picking up Black Ops 2. This might be a little long winded, so I will do my best to keep the paragraphs short and broken apart. Welp....here goes nothing!
In this day and age we're beginning to see the single player experience quickly becoming eclipsed by the robust AAA multiplayer giants. In more ways than one these games are being played for hours, days, months and years respectively. We've seen great titles that have been severely overlooked due to the fact that their single player duration is just too short. I mean, lets face the it, when looking into the issue and speaking to many people, the initial launch price of retail games today does not inspire a sixty dollar price point for a title. The economy might be partially to blame for this, or maybe its just now become a social condition of expectations of what constitutes a large scale full priced title. Theres no one major reason at all, because for everyone the tastes and motivations of purchase are different; however, on the large scale side of things its becoming vital to success to increase the value of games to match the dollar you've spent.
The Rise of Online Multiplayer
As quick as a flash, with this generation online multiplayer grabbed ahold of the non-online multiplayer market in the console realm and also attracted new gamers to the concept of playing competitively against one another versus random gamers from around the world. Everyone, vying to gain achievements and dominance in particular titles finely crafted to bring a human player vs another human player. Online multiplayer was already huge on the PC, but on consoles with the money publishers paying for the top shooters, they will end up being the ending factor as to whether a games lasting value can meet the sixty dollar price point demands of today. The value of mutliplayer games raises the overall use of a specific title in its genre and if it is truly the best it can mark its own signature multiplayer style that no other game has. Because of this, people flock to these games and will pay the sixty dollar asking price without question. What are the best games to test this theory on? Games like Battlefield, COD, Halo, Gears and Uncharted. Lets face it, games with multiplayer have set a standard for what a full priced game should be and the rest the effect will never leave them unscathed. Most of these games have six to eight hour storylines that end quickly, but are easily remedied by the multiplayer. The story is now a refresher course of mechanics and lore in preparation for the multiplayer experience, which even today is chosen over the story in the top shooters.
The paradigm shift
Last generation online was being introduced on a small and subtle scale and there should be no wonder why it was so overlooked. The amount of important games donning the colors of online multiplayer titles were vastly low. The single player titles ran the show with a fifty dollar price point, and PC held their own with online multiplayer without competition. The ideal fifty dollar game was nearly anything that came out. With the rise of the games I mentioned, the expectation of what one should have in their games for the sixty dollar price point suddenly changed. Every year the average gamer that I see has the top multiplayer games from FPS to sports and a couple of the hottest single player titles out now (if they even bought it new).
The DLC bait tactic
With the age of DLC has come a greedy and underhanded system of bait that publishers have applied to the gaming process. It is like putting a fish at the end of a hook or dangling a carrot in front of a curious potential victim. This hurts the most and truthfully, no one knows this hurt more than Sleeping Dogs this year. Not only did the game not sell stellar, but its DLC came well out of range for most to even warrant holding onto a title in preparation for the new DLC prepped to come on specific dates. In my eyes, DLC for single player experiences should be launched within a two week window (one by one), while keeping the price point affordable and worthy of the expanded experience. The factor which is hurting games like this is none other than the launching the DLC one or two months late, severely hurting the demand of a ten to twelve hour game. This is where GTA trumps Sleeping Dogs by a mile. It DLC was far larger with newer characters and feel while maintaining the overall quality gamers expect.
The two year cycle effect on the single player experience
The two year cycle has definitely had its toll on the development of story heavy games, with no multiplayer to speak of. Publishers tend to forget that today gamers are thinking of the greater picture when they purchase games and whether it truly is worth their money. Games like Enslaved were a great testament to story driven action games and their bright future. The problem is that I beat the game in six hours and the DLC was barely anything at all to talk about. Truly, there needs to be some sort of new regulation for story driven games, increasing the hours of time spent to match the value of the dollars spent. Without multiplayer, single player games today seem to now be percieved as bare bones with no longevity in mind for in its development. Games like this definitely needed three to four years of tailored love and only to be announced half way through the cycle.
The exempt single player genre
In a time where multiplayer reigns, the RPG (particularly the western RPG) has risen to the occasion with large branching stories that last from twelve to twenty + hours. The customizable nature of these games force a player to sit back, think and then react to decisions whether it be on aesthetic of their character or to affect the storyline three. People feel emotionally attatched to these games and the interactions you have with characters like in Mass Effect, Skyrim, Dragon Age and more. This is the ultimate genre who for those who want to invest in a universe and affect it in his or her own way. With RPG's extended story DLC are always welcomed, as long as it is within the range of consumer to purchase. RPG's suck you in a fashion that is just as good if not better than multiplayer, because of the experience of being in the world that was created for you. This is why they sell so well if made properly and marketed well enough.
The Gamestop predicamenth
Everyone who are a true gamers know that in this day and age Gamestop is the king monopolizer of brick and mortar videogame stores worldwide. Even though they are percieved to be evil they are considered a necessary evil. To bolster the point about single player games, instead of waiting a year for the price of an expensive single player experience people wait for the pre-owned price to plummet after three months or more. Today the price just is not justified to most and they demand more for a sixty dollar purchase. Times are changing and companies are not profiting as they should off of these single player experience. Gamestop swallows up all of the profit and it hurts the publishers and developers. Not a dime from used games is seen by these fine people. This brings me (yet again) to the longevity issue, which seems to be the case.
Budget Indy Games
Along with the rise of multiplayer games, budget indy games have also come into the fold and have risen above a lot of the larger budget titles in sales. These games are fairly priced drastically lower from the high end retail titles that everyone has become so accustomed to. For ten to fifteen dollars, you can enjoy the single player experience and not feel damned for wasting sixty dollar. This has also aided in changing the perception of how much games value should change. The Walking Dead series, Journey, Flower, Fat Princess, Shadow Complex, Deadlight and more have set a standard that will open many doors for indy developers who seek a profitable legitimacy for their creative drive while on a small budget. Some people complain about the prices that are even at ten dollars. As I said before, the perception is purely subjective based on the players taste, but there is no doubt that fair priced small downloadable games are responsible for a huge paradigm shift in gaming.
What the future should hold (conclusion)
In the end its all subjective, but the reality is now becoming more evident that games should be fairly priced based on the duration of time of use for the game. It doesn't matter how much detail they put into the graphics, but rather the value of the content inside that disc that recently purchased. I saw an episode of Bonus Round and I believe it was names like Garnett Lee and N'guy Croal who stated that game prices will eventually be set by the market, or there should be hour long demos which give an in-depth preview of what the game is all about. This will keep the consumer wondering about how much they can get out of that game and increase sales. What is known is that pricess will have to be more diverse based on what type of game you are getting. In the end the customer wins based on their votes and their vote is with the dollar.
Thanks for your time! Hope you enjoyed it!
