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Forums - Nintendo - Nintendo's unrealistic pricing for old-school platformers et al.

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IsawYoshi on 03 February 2013
KHlover said:
Spazzy_D said:
happydolphin said:
Spazzy_D said:
I beat God of War 3 in 8 1/2 hours. Never wanted to play it again. I've played New Super Mario Bros. 2 for about 30 hours. First game cost me 60 bucks, the second 40.

Which one ripped me off more?

I didn't like GoW, so maybe that's a bad example?


Ha, well you can use the same formula for Uncharted or really any other big game this gen that isn't either A.) Focused on Multiplayer or B.) A Sandbox game or RPG.

The point remains that video games are a terrible value proposition.  If you don't want to get ripped off, go buy a book. (Can't get a better hours per dollar enjoyment ratio anywhere else.)

Haha, what? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone cost us $25 when it released and I need 2 hours to read it. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. cost me $60 and I have already invested 600 hours into the game. I didn't feel ripped off by either one, but hours per dollar for a book  are a bad example :) 

I've read every harry potter book 7 times now, so I would say they are worth the value. I think it is better to compare it to toys. (Not saying games are toys btw) Compare a game like my little pony to a toy tractor. Divide it on the hours spent, and the lowest score wins. Haha :p



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KHlover on 03 February 2013
Spazzy_D said:
KHlover said:
Spazzy_D said:
happydolphin said:
Spazzy_D said:
I beat God of War 3 in 8 1/2 hours. Never wanted to play it again. I've played New Super Mario Bros. 2 for about 30 hours. First game cost me 60 bucks, the second 40.

Which one ripped me off more?

I didn't like GoW, so maybe that's a bad example?


Ha, well you can use the same formula for Uncharted or really any other big game this gen that isn't either A.) Focused on Multiplayer or B.) A Sandbox game or RPG.

The point remains that video games are a terrible value proposition.  If you don't want to get ripped off, go buy a book. (Can't get a better hours per dollar enjoyment ratio anywhere else.)

Haha, what? Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone cost us $25 when it released and I need 2 hours to read it. Super Smash Bros. Brawl. cost me $60 and I have already invested 600 hours into the game. I didn't feel ripped off by either one, but hours per dollar for a book  are a bad example :) 


Not when buying hardcover best sellers new, lol, but you can buy most books now a days for under 5 dollars.  I can also make a case for retro or used gaming, but modern "AAA" gaming does not provide much bang for the buck.  MMOs. which get criticized for monthly payment plans, actually aren't too bad as they are crazy time sinks.

Anyway, this is all completly off topic... I was jsut pointing out that a lot of "high quality" gmaes that people don't mind spending 60-70 dollars on don't have as much lasting apeal as platformers that cost less.  That being the case, who is being robbed?

The only people robbed, regardless of how much they spent on a game, are those who were not satisfied with the game they bought for the money they paid. I don't think someone who throughly enjoyed a game would feel robbed :D  



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RazorDragon on 03 February 2013

Agreed, that's why i still haven't bought Zelda 3D and Mario 3D Land for my 3DS, the price is almost the same as when the game launched.



forest-spirit on 03 February 2013

Out of those "overpriced" games I've played NSMBWii and DKCR and they are totally worth full price in my book.
Just because you don't see that kind of value in those games doesn't mean that no one does.



Spazzy_D on 03 February 2013

At the end of the day, people pay what they think is reasonable, and company's charge what people are willing to pay. No one is being robbed here... the market dictates the price. Economics 101. That's really all their is to this.



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happydolphin on 03 February 2013
forest-spirit said:
Out of those "overpriced" games I've played NSMBWii and DKCR and they are totally worth full price in my book.
Just because you don't see that kind of value in those games doesn't mean that no one does.

I see you liked Minecraft. Minecraft had an MSRP of 26.95 on release . Is that a competitive offering to the games you listed?

Spazzy_D said:
At the end of the day, people pay what they think is reasonable, and company's charge what people are willing to pay. No one is being robbed here... the market dictates the price. Economics 101. That's really all their is to this.

That's why I said in OP:
"These Nintendo games sold like mad when the Wii was at its peak, but is it reasonable to expect that trend to continue?"



KHlover on 03 February 2013
happydolphin said:
Immortal said:

Considering the rest of us have to tolerate the words "unrealistic", "appaling" and "robbery", I think you can humour me.

Not really, you're always like this. The attributes I'm using are actually relating to my points, whereas your are simply insulting my PoV.

Rolstoppable said:

So this another one of this thread's where you are trying to force your opinion on everyone.

Newsflash: Opinions differ and people can buy what they want with their money. So what you'll see in this thread will be a lot of people that tell you that they gladly paid $50 for Nintendo games and don't regret it one bit.

Also, if others are offering more interesting games at a much better price, then why aren't they outselling Nintendo games? The obvious answer is that others aren't offering more interesting games at better prices and their only option to even compete with Nintendo is to drastically undercut Nintendo's prices.

In my humble opinion, Nintendo is selling at that price on brand alone, and that can only go so far.

Had super mario been released on Steam with no prior name recognition, at 60$, you can be sure Trine 2 will destroy it in sales. Temple Run is selling much more than Nintendo games, so is Angry Birds, so if it's sales you need you have them. League of Legends probably has an immense userbase at the moment.

From Wikipedia: As of July 2012, League of Legends had over 32 million registrations and averages 12 million players worldwide per day, with the number of concurrent users online at any given time peaking over 3 million. Players also collectively log 1 billion hours per month, making League of Legends the world's most played video game[46][47]

People bought Mario for 50$, I'm thinking that with the increased competition from the marketplace, with games of IMHO competing value, the markup will no longer be in Nintendo's favor. I'm not sure how this is me imposing my opinions on anybody...

This single word makes me disagree with your post: Temple Run is a free game, as are Angry Birds and League of Legends. As such they are guaranteed to VASTLY exceed the Mario games sales (except LoL totally doesn't), additionally the combined userbase of Android and iOS / PC vastly exceeds the userbase of the current Nintendo consoles, providing further DOWNLOADS. 

 



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thekitchensink on 03 February 2013

I know what you mean. Monday Night Combat, a downloadable third-person shooter, is 800 Microsoft Points, or $10. Therefore, I am appalled that Microsoft and Sony have the gall to charge $60 for Gears of War and Uncharted.

Wait, what?

I don't believe anyone would agree with what I just said. So, unless you mean to imply that 2D sidescrollers in general are somehow not worth as much as other genres, the OP makes absolutely no sense. Nintendo's continued success in this area is evidence that people find their prices fair, and the developers behind Trine and Limbo would absolutely love to sell their games for $50 or $60. The problem is, no one would buy those particular titles at that price.

And before anyone accuses me of bias toward one price/format/whatever else, I recently purchased both New Super Mario Bros U and Trine 2: Director's Cut, thoroughly enjoyed both, and thought they both provided great value for their prices.



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Salnax on 03 February 2013

Maybe it's just me, but I find that Nintendo's games, though they are 5 times as expensive, take about 5 times as long to play through and/or complete. I mean, I really like VVVVVV, and it's about 10% of the price of NSMB2, but it only takes about 3 hours to beat the main game, and the bonus quests are generally garbage. NSMB2, though it lacks the ingenuity of VVVVVV at its best, is much more consistent, takes 30 or 40 hours to collect all the star coins, and also has Coin Rush mode.

So, in short, I'd say that both games are appropriately priced. Maybe I'd think differently if there were more cheaper games that could match the Mario style, but there aren't. Most of the Great indie/downloadable platformers avert Nintendo-style tropes and mechanics, so that they simply play differently.



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Metallicube on 03 February 2013

Lol at implying that Braid and Super Meat Boy are anywhere near the level of quality of NSMB and Donkey Kong Country Returns