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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Would Cheaper Video Games Sell More ?

baloofarsan on 18 February 2014

I am a budgetgamer by nature, but even if I like bargains there are games I Would not buy even for $1! Games like FPS, superhero games and sport games are games I probably never will buy, cause I know I would not appreciate them very much. On the other hand some games like Endless Ocean I bought for the full price (despite not even owning the console for it) The percieved value for this game was enough for me to invest in a Wii. Those of you who have small or no interest in Endless Ocean would not buy it for $1!



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baloofarsan on 18 February 2014
kitler53 said:

i think sony/ms should do what they can to make digital distribution advantageous for consumers.   a lot of money would be going back into developers if you cut out the retailer, distribution, and returns.  some of that can go to pulishers and some can go to justifying an price drop to $40.  that should spur increased unit sales which would be good for developers.

furthermore, with the services like xbl and ps+ i think msony should lower their platform royalty.    the more games they can get on their device the more compelling the device becomes.   shifting their business plan to profit on hardware and services moreso than game unit sales should shift to balance of power from mobile back to console for developers looking to profit off of their unit sales.


As long as the consoles does not have the advantage of the smart phones "free" advertisment (Hey,! Buddy, look at this game I downloaded for only a few bucks) I imagine the developers are afraid of going all digital. They still will have to have retailers help them sell the console and if that sale is the only one they get(ie. No software sales) they probably want more revenue on the console and will not show of the hardware as much as they do now. It will be equal to a toaster or a keyboard.  

When Nintendo Fusion comes to market you will be able to impress your buddies with your handheld/stationary console games and Nintendo will not be so dependant on retailers anymore, making it possible to go all digital. 

There are more things to consider when going digital, competition in prizes is eliminated and you will not have any bargain bins in shops where you can find you favourite game for a budget prize.



JazzB1987 on 18 February 2014
wolfofthepack said:
JazzB1987 said:
wolfofthepack said:
JazzB1987 said:
sabastian said:
Landguy said:
Won't work.

Even if they dropped the price of the games to $40. Or even $30.

People pay for what they want. If you dropped the price, there wouldn't be millions of more people interested in the game. The people who plan to buy it will, and the people not interested won't.

Sure, when games get extremely inexpensive, they begin to sell to people that will impulse buy them. Developers already have that scenario in their sales plan for the lifecycle of the game.


Huuum ?? So how do you explain impulse iPhone games buy ? 

Example, on the ps3 the custom themes are sold for around $2.99. If they were priced at .99 cents, I would buy more.

Same would apply to me on WiiU Virtual Console games.

I would never ever pay $5 for a NES game rofl.    I would buy 500 NES games for 30cents each tho simply because WHY NOT? ITS CHEAP!.
So Nintendo either gets 500 x $0.3 = $150 or nothing.

(I mean there was the 30 cents promotion for NES and SNES games on WiiU last year that was AWESOME I bought all games but two because I had no internet for a while)

so u want a game to drop to 6% of the price right?

No I want a game to have reasonable pricing.

I mean I did buy AssassinsCreed3  Farcry3 SleepingDogs HitmanAbsolution TombRaider  DarkSouls and BioshockInfinite for 5 - 7.5€ each.
So why the hell should I pay 5€ for a NES game? NES games should cost $1€.   30cents would simply result in me buying every game because 30 cents is NOTHING.

I would buy some Snes games for 2-3€ but never for 8€ I would also buy some n64 games for 5€ never for 10€. The virtual console game prices are at least twice as expensive as they should be. If Snes games would cost $1€ I would probably buy 100 at once. But since they cost $8€ I wont buy a single one.

do u ever think about the cost that comes with these games ?  and also the last i checked u cant get any nes or snes games for $1 to $5 anywhere

I do think about the costs or why do you think I compared the games to multimillion dollar games from 1-2 years ago?

Or are you telling me that WiiU lacks games because everyone at Nintendo was busy working on emulator roms for years?



Landguy on 18 February 2014
sabastian said:
Landguy said:
Won't work.

Even if they dropped the price of the games to $40. Or even $30.

People pay for what they want. If you dropped the price, there wouldn't be millions of more people interested in the game. The people who plan to buy it will, and the people not interested won't.

Sure, when games get extremely inexpensive, they begin to sell to people that will impulse buy them. Developers already have that scenario in their sales plan for the lifecycle of the game.


Huuum ?? So how do you explain impulse iPhone games buy ? 

Example, on the ps3 the custom themes are sold for around $2.99. If they were priced at .99 cents, I would buy more.

Did you read my comment? 

I stated in the bold that if the games are extremely cheap(under $10 from my perspective), you can sell more of them. The real problem is, people will take a chance at that price point. Compared to $60, tht is a 80%+ discount.  You would have to sell 5 times as many games!



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kupomogli on 18 February 2014

I think cheaper video games would sell more. Not $10 or $15 cheap, but $40 instead of $60.

I used to buy a lot of games full price at $50, but after the jump to $60, I dont just buy less, I buy far less. I instead play the waiting game. When the games drop down to $40, I still don't buy them because once they start to drop in price from $60, it's a much shorter time to wait for them to hit $20 or less.

If games were $40 at the start though, I'd buy a lot more of them again. I'm good with paying $20 for just about anything I'm remotely interested in, and another $20 is worth it compared to waiting a few months to a year.

If game prices are going to drop though, they'd have to get third parties on board and all the first party publishers would have to be in agreement. If one first party publisher starts selling their games at a reduced MSRP, and that's the only one doing it, everyone would probably think the game must not be very good for launching at a reduced price. Sony tried it with a few of their games last gen and every one of them sold worse than any $60 game they've released last gen.



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mjk45 on 18 February 2014

Question ? how long as $60.00 been the rrp. and what inflation have we had over that time.



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oldschoolfool on 18 February 2014

Of course anything cheaper would sell more,but I don't look at it like that. I'm surprised video games don't cost more,for the millions it cost to make a video game these days. $65 is nothing when you look at it that way. If you want to get a cheaper video game,just wait a few months. They all drop in price eventually. I usually like to pay full price for video games that I know i'll really like. infamous:second son is going to be one of those examples.



Soleron on 18 February 2014

There should be more mid-range games

Super Metroid had a 20 person team. 

20 people * 2 years * $100k inc overheads -> $4m budget -> $20 per digital copy sold at $30

-> 200,000 break-even point

Very, very doable.

A full production value 2D game can be made for that easily.



sabastian on 18 February 2014
baloofarsan said:
Having a high initial price makes the "value" of the game increse. You imagine you make a bargain when you "only" pay half that price. When the price falls even more the game lands in the bargain bin, and even if it is very cheap compared to the initial price your interest in it is mostly because of its "high" value.
In the movie bargain bin there are a lot of former blockbusters but as the price has not gone down that much (in percent) you tend to dismiss these former masterpieces.


Dont think I agree with this. Having a higher price does not make the game any better. If its crap, its crap. When gamers get their hands on it, the price will drop eventually. I just will not sell.



sabastian on 18 February 2014
kupomogli said:
I think cheaper video games would sell more. Not $10 or $15 cheap, but $40 instead of $60.

I used to buy a lot of games full price at $50, but after the jump to $60, I dont just buy less, I buy far less. I instead play the waiting game. When the games drop down to $40, I still don't buy them because once they start to drop in price from $60, it's a much shorter time to wait for them to hit $20 or less.

If games were $40 at the start though, I'd buy a lot more of them again. I'm good with paying $20 for just about anything I'm remotely interested in, and another $20 is worth it compared to waiting a few months to a year.

If game prices are going to drop though, they'd have to get third parties on board and all the first party publishers would have to be in agreement. If one first party publisher starts selling their games at a reduced MSRP, and that's the only one doing it, everyone would probably think the game must not be very good for launching at a reduced price. Sony tried it with a few of their games last gen and every one of them sold worse than any $60 game they've released last gen.


This is partially true. Sony tried a cheaper pricing last year with both Puppeteer and Ratchet & Clank:ITN, and they both did not sell too well. (We still dont know about the digital sales though), but I can honestly say, I loved the pricing of Puppeteer. The game was a blast and the price was perfect.