shams - If development had nothing to do with prices, why did Final Fantasy 6 in the US cost $80, Phantasy Star 4 cost $90, and Chrono Trigger cost $70 in the USA?

I agree.  I think that every single console or handheld should have a budget range of games virtually straight away from release.  And I agree about the ports.

With reference to the PSP....I don't mind paying full price (£30) for Crisis Core or Portable Ops...but games like Prince of Persia and other ports should be released at a budget price of say £15...well thats what the platinum games are priced at now and most of them are much better games than your normal port.

There is no reason for Wii games to be more expensive than PS2 or PSP.  PSP games prices have not dropped...they've stayed constant....yes there are more deals on games and more budget games but games have always been RRP £35 or less since the PSP's release. 

Wii does have a range of prices. Metal slug is only $39, Far Cry is $19 (was $49 at launch), etc... So I am not complaining too much about the price. Besides, it's not just a question of development costs. If a game costs twice as much, but sells 5 times as many copies, it doesn't need to cost more. They set the prices to maximize profits. Which means, if games were $49 last year, they might come down in price this holiday seaon or next...

Sounds like pricing is different in the UK than over here in middle Europe (Switzerland)

I have just checked my online retailer, new games are all 89 CHF for PS2, GC, Xbox and Wii. PS3 and X360 games are slightly more expensive (89 to 105 CHF).

DS and GBA games are usually 69 CHF, PSP games are 69 to 79 CHF.

   This is a weird thread. In the US anyway, Xbox and PS3 games raised their standard new release prices ($10) and Nintendo kept theirs at the same level its been for years. And your complaining about the Wii prices? Did they do something different in the different regions?

No, he's comparing to PS2 prices. XBOX/PS3 games are even more than wii. That said, I just checked a PS2 title, and it's $49 for PS2 version, the same as the most expensive Wii game. How much is God of War II for the PS2 where you are? Is it really less expensive then Wii games? PS2 has so many "older" games, unless you are careful what game you are pricing, it's hard to tell if it's a fair comparison or not...

Could the reason be the smaller user base? Wii User Base - 7 million PS2 User Base - 117 million Less people buy the product, the more expensive it needs to be for companies to make a profit.

Are you kidding me? Can you not see the difference in a final product Wii game to a Final product game for 360or PS3? Nothing inside the Wii is relatively new at all. It is made with old hardware that people have been designing on for years. There is alot more money going into PS3 and 360 games.

MS and sony are Milking people? I have a Gamecube and a Wii along with a PS2 and PS3 . After playing the Wii you can feel that maybe Nintendo could have made a Motion sensing bar and controller for the gamecube and that would have been very much like the Wii and the Wii games. on the other hand  the PS3 is clearly an evolution over the PS2 you see it in every sceen of every game. I am in no way trying to tear down the Wii but it is what it is . It is last generation hardware, and sould be cheaper than PS3 and 360  to develop for.

So why aren't you complaining about the fact that PC games still cost the same amount for a new game as they have for years and years.  The architecture for a PC game hasn't change in a very long time .  People continue to use the same languages and the same tools to build PC games, yet you aren't complaining about those prices.

This argument about the Wii being "Old hardware" is bull poop, for several reasons.  First, just because its built on the same architecture as the Gamecube does NOT mean its gamecube hardware.  Get serious people, the original pentium and the P4 are the same architecture as well (by that I mean they are x86 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86), but they are vastly different in power and performance.

Second, even though the architecture and SDK's are similar, the Wii has many extra resources so games still have to be optimized differently, meaning developers still need to learn how to develop for the wii WELL.  This just means the learning curve is greatly reduced.

You Sony and Xbox fans need to get off your freaking high horses.  Yes, PS3 and Xbox are vastly more powerful than the Wii.  That does not mean they are somehow superior in any way.  It doesn't mean they are better engineered, it doesn't even mean that they are preferrable, it just means they are MORE POWERFUL.  An F1 engine is more powerful than a Honda Civic engine, but Honda uses the same amount of engineering in both.

Nintendo has kept the same game pricing as last generation.  In my opinion, the fact that xbox and ps3 games feel they need to increase that price just indicates game development costs for those two systems are rediculous. 

Because carts don't magically hold as much informations as you want.  The bigger the game (Hey look, RPGs!) the more ROMs you need in the cart and the more the price goes up.  RPGs, in what will be a shock to many I'm sure, aren't really that expensive to develop simply because of the style of game they are.  Which, of course, is why they stopped regularly costing 50-100% more than contemporary games when CDs came along.  The games didn't get any easier to develop, the media they were sold on got cheaper to make.

And that's why the N64 basically had nothing for RPGs, a standard-sized game like Killer Instinct had a cart that cost about $28 to make.  Great for fighting piracy, really bad for games that take a lot of space.