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Forums - Gaming - How would you put a price on a videogame?

My belief is similar to the way Nintendo goes about making games. Since retail prices depend, in large part, on the budget, the ideal way to go about it is not to over spend and make the game as fun to play as humanly possible within said budget. If that means going with 16-bit graphics ala Axion Verge, then that's what you do. At the end of the day, if the game is great, no one cares what it looks like and it will sell. Just look at Minecraft if you need an example.



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Volterra_90 said:
GoOnKid said:

This. While very basic, it's the only truth that can be applied. Consumers established a consensus that 60$ is appropriate for regular games. They don't give a sh** about how expensive it was to produce a game, that doesn't affect them in their buying decision at all (well, the most of them, some exceptions always exist). If a game had to cost very large amounts, it's not the consumers fault. Developers should rather think about how to keep costs low while reaching their aimed quality.

If a developer charges less than 60$, it trys to expand the number of sales. Pricing is one of the measures that can be taken to do this. Looking at Nintendo, they usually charge 50 or even less for their first party games. Looking at PS4 games, they cost 70€ here, some even more, which I myself consider way too high. You could counterattack me here and say that they still sell like hotcakes, which is undoubtedly true. I salute Sony here, they took that risk and got rewarded. It works well, so they shouldn't change it for now. It brings me back to the consensus I mentioned earlier. But for me, it's too much.

As a matter of fact, paying 70€ for a game is one of the main things that keep me away from buying a PS4. I'm buying WiiU/3DS games between 30/50€ and paying 70 is a big leap for me. I can buy two 3DS games for the prize of 1 PS4 game, and it seems a bit too much for me. 

Why don't you wait for a price cut? I bought Dragon Age for around 15 pounds, Until Dawn 19, Tearaway 12, and Infamous: Second Son for 15. It's that simple.

I own a 3ds and buying games for is much more expensive for me, as the prices don't tend to go down like with ps games.



With all due respect to the Gamers community, i have to recognize that sometimes we (i include myself) are too whiny when it comes to how much we pay for our hobby.

The 60$ price point have been the staple for some years now, i dont see the reason why it should be higher or lower for AAA games, and even then if a game didnt have a huge budget but it has content to back it up, why price it lower?

Sometimes we spend too much time being PRO-gamer but we forget about the other half of the coin, which are the developers. They have as much right as we do, and the relationship between both parties have to remain in the realm of mutual respect. We dont fuck with them and viceversa.

Why is it that people is not that demanding when it comes to movies?

The ticket for a movie like "Star Wars The Force Awakes" (Budget 200.000.000) cost the same as a movie like "How to be Single" (Budget 38.000.000).

The ticket for a movie like "The Hobbit an unexpected Journey" (Lengh 2h 49m) cost the same as a movie like "Paranormal Activity" (Lengh 1h 26m).

I dont see anybody complaining about the ticket price. In both cases you could wait for the game to go into a sale or lower the price with time, or you could wait for the movie to release on Netflix or whatever.



AEGRO said:

With all due respect to the Gamers community, i have to recognize that sometimes we (i include myself) are too whiny when it comes to how much we pay for our hobby.

The 60$ price point have been the staple for some years now, i dont see the reason why it should be higher or lower for AAA games, and even then if a game didnt have a huge budget but it has content to back it up, why price it lower?

Sometimes we spend too much time being PRO-gamer but we forget about the other half of the coin, which are the developers. They have as much right as we do, and the relationship between both parties have to remain in the realm of mutual respect. We dont fuck with them and viceversa.

Why is it that people is not that demanding when it comes to movies?

The ticket for a movie like "Star Wars The Force Awakes" (Budget 200.000.000) cost the same as a movie like "How to be Single" (Budget 38.000.000).

The ticket for a movie like "The Hobbit an unexpected Journey" (Lengh 2h 49m) cost the same as a movie like "Paranormal Activity" (Lengh 1h 26m).

I dont see anybody complaining about the ticket price. In both cases you could wait for the game to go into a sale or lower the price with time, or you could wait for the movie to release on Netflix or whatever.

Hit it on the head there.



naruball said:

Why don't you wait for a price cut? I bought Dragon Age for around 15 pounds, Until Dawn 19, Tearaway 12, and Infamous: Second Son for 15. It's that simple.

I own a 3ds and buying games for is much more expensive for me, as the prices don't tend to go down like with ps games.

Yeah, that's undeniable. The problem is I always buy the games I'm interested in at its release date, so when it comes to buy a game day one, Nintendo is cheaper. But they don't usually lower their games' prices, so I don't usually take risks with games I'm not confident, while, maybe, if I were gaming on another device (PS4, One), I'd take the risk when they lower their price, which is normally very soon. So there are two sides of this problem, and it depends on what the person is willing to pay or wait. 

AEGRO said:

With all due respect to the Gamers community, i have to recognize that sometimes we (i include myself) are too whiny when it comes to how much we pay for our hobby.

The 60$ price point have been the staple for some years now, i dont see the reason why it should be higher or lower for AAA games, and even then if a game didnt have a huge budget but it has content to back it up, why price it lower?

Sometimes we spend too much time being PRO-gamer but we forget about the other half of the coin, which are the developers. They have as much right as we do, and the relationship between both parties have to remain in the realm of mutual respect. We dont fuck with them and viceversa.

Why is it that people is not that demanding when it comes to movies?

The ticket for a movie like "Star Wars The Force Awakes" (Budget 200.000.000) cost the same as a movie like "How to be Single" (Budget 38.000.000).

The ticket for a movie like "The Hobbit an unexpected Journey" (Lengh 2h 49m) cost the same as a movie like "Paranormal Activity" (Lengh 1h 26m).

I dont see anybody complaining about the ticket price. In both cases you could wait for the game to go into a sale or lower the price with time, or you could wait for the movie to release on Netflix or whatever.

That's it. And that's why I was triying to prove, that we complain too much about games prices, in other media is way more standarized and widely accepted. In games, we complain a lot about prices, but we don't try to understand them since the developers' POV. We react at the prices thinking about our possibilities, not thinking about companies' profit and budget, and why is it priced like that. 



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Volterra_90 said:
naruball said:

Why don't you wait for a price cut? I bought Dragon Age for around 15 pounds, Until Dawn 19, Tearaway 12, and Infamous: Second Son for 15. It's that simple.

I own a 3ds and buying games for is much more expensive for me, as the prices don't tend to go down like with ps games.

Yeah, that's undeniable. The problem is I always buy the games I'm interested in at its release date, so when it comes to buy a game day one, Nintendo is cheaper. But they don't usually lower their games' prices, so I don't usually take risks with games I'm not confident, while, maybe, if I were gaming on another device (PS4, One), I'd take the risk when they lower their price, which is normally very soon. So there are two sides of this problem, and it depends on what the person is willing to pay or wait. 

AEGRO said:

With all due respect to the Gamers community, i have to recognize that sometimes we (i include myself) are too whiny when it comes to how much we pay for our hobby.

The 60$ price point have been the staple for some years now, i dont see the reason why it should be higher or lower for AAA games, and even then if a game didnt have a huge budget but it has content to back it up, why price it lower?

Sometimes we spend too much time being PRO-gamer but we forget about the other half of the coin, which are the developers. They have as much right as we do, and the relationship between both parties have to remain in the realm of mutual respect. We dont fuck with them and viceversa.

Why is it that people is not that demanding when it comes to movies?

The ticket for a movie like "Star Wars The Force Awakes" (Budget 200.000.000) cost the same as a movie like "How to be Single" (Budget 38.000.000).

The ticket for a movie like "The Hobbit an unexpected Journey" (Lengh 2h 49m) cost the same as a movie like "Paranormal Activity" (Lengh 1h 26m).

I dont see anybody complaining about the ticket price. In both cases you could wait for the game to go into a sale or lower the price with time, or you could wait for the movie to release on Netflix or whatever.

That's it. And that's why I was triying to prove, that we complain too much about games prices, in other media is way more standarized and widely accepted. In games, we complain a lot about prices, but we don't try to understand them since the developers' POV. We react at the prices thinking about our possibilities, not thinking about companies' profit and budget, and why is it priced like that. 

Except one thing. For as long as film has exsisted. How much did tickets increase in price, over 100 years. VS games were it constantly goes up and down, so many times. In just 30+. There really isn't a full standard. DLC just makes it worse. And you don't buy hardware every 5 years for movies and shows. In 100 years there was only: Film projectors, VHS, DVD, BD, Download.

Yeah, you can argue the failed formats: Betamax, Laser Disc, and HDDVD. 6 hardware, over 100 years. I'll throw a few other bones: VCD, UMD, 8 hardware choices. VS 40 in 35+ years. Ignoring the 70's with all the pong systems. It's a lot less easier to maintain and keep up with movies and shows. Than it is with video games. That's why people do get sick of the prices for the games. People would probably be less bitchy, if the hardware aspect just finally got to the point of, good enough. And you didn't need to buy a system for 15-20 years.

People would sure bitch, if movies and shows sold 30 minute packs adding to your favorite episode/movie. Or there was the VHS 360. Now you can record in SP mode! Or how about owning 3 VHS players. Because only certain movies work on them. And we don't need 2-4 remote controls to play media. Video games aren't just, the games. It's everything.

I have 300 DVD and BD's. Bought them over the past 17 years. And they all use one BD player. Before that. I had a DVD player for 10 years. And before that a VHS, used for 20 years. I probably had 20 VHS movies. 300 tapes of TV shows. 3 Hardware purchases in the spand of 29 years, of my life.

In the same time frame I got: Gameboy, SNES, Genesis, Game Gear, Nintendo 64, NES, GameCube, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, GBA, GBC, DSlite, 3DS, Wii, Wii U.