The Price of Games...

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The thought just occurred - why the hell are we paying £40-50 per game on the Xbox 360, compared to other platforms?

I seem to remember reading that it's something to do with production costs in making an HD game, but if that's the case why haven't we been paying £50 for PC games all these years?

Take Splinter Cell: Double Agent. 360 version in the shops for £50, or £40 online. The PC version (arguably exactly the same game): £30 in shops, £20 online.

What gives? Or is this just the giant hand of Microsoft pinching pennies from our wallets again :)
 
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ping666 said:
What gives? Or is this just the giant hand of Microsoft pinching pennies from our wallets again :)

No, it happens with all new console lauches pretty much. Prices start off relatively high, but the RRP will fall, probably by about £5-£10 in a year or so I would imagine.

Nothing new.
 
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Hmmm fair enough. Was the PS2 ever this expensive for games then? My ageing memory lets me down, but I can't believe I ever shelled out £50 for a game :)
 

~J~

~J~

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We went through this weeks ago. Nothing new and nothing really changed. Games on the N64 were priced around £50, Some PS2 games were £40. And what has Microsoft got to do with companies setting the prices? They gain nothing from it!
 
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I guess you could even argue that on the whole console game prices are generally cheaper these days.

Remember the days of £60-£70 Mega Drive, SNES or even N64 games? Ok so the fact they were using cartridges had an impact on this, but they were still just games.

Gamers have never had it so good :p
 
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Moonpie2 said:
Remember when a full price Spectrum game was a tenner and you got budget titles for £2.99 ?
:D

My point exactly :p

Anyway, I honestly didn't realise that games initially cost so much on consoles. I only bought the PS2 (my first console) after it had been out a year or so, so the games were relatively cheap.

Just goes to show I suppose - think I'll rent any titles I'm interested in first, before taking the plunge :)
 

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~J~

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Moonpie2 said:
Remember when a full price Spectrum game was a tenner and you got budget titles for £2.99 ?
:D


O yeah, I remember them been £1.99 (the Mastertronic range) and their more upmarket ones M.A.D. (Mastertronic Advanced Design IIRC) at £2.99.

Dinner money was £3.00 for the week, so rather than have a dinner on a monday, we'd all put about .60p into a kitty, go down to Woolies, buy a mastertronic game, walk round town recording it onto one of those HUGE Amstrad twin tape decks, take the game back for a refund and walk back to school with a bag of chips with the returned money :D

Happy days.
 
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Remember, £300 is relatively cheap for a console that is technically better than a £2k PC. It's relatively cheap really, MS make the money up in game prices. Game's are basically £40 now if you look in correct places, and even cheaper within a few weeks.

I'm glad my gf has a HMV student discount, and her mum a 10% Tesco discount :)
 
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Main reason for the difference is that Microsoft take a cut of the cost of games. (Same with Sony and Nintendo). Whilst with PC games you don't have this.

Although I doubt this explains fully the large difference in price mind between console and PC games.
 
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~J~ said:
O yeah, I remember them been £1.99 (the Mastertronic range) and their more upmarket ones M.A.D. (Mastertronic Advanced Design IIRC) at £2.99.

Dinner money was £3.00 for the week, so rather than have a dinner on a monday, we'd all put about .60p into a kitty, go down to Woolies, buy a mastertronic game, walk round town recording it onto one of those HUGE Amstrad twin tape decks, take the game back for a refund and walk back to school with a bag of chips with the returned money :D

Happy days.


LOL, could have sworn there was a big post on no piracy talk not a couple of days ago :D
Hurrah for high speed dubbing! I remember copying out the entire Jet Set Willy 2 colour code chart out on a piece of squared paper for a mate.
Then there was the god awful Lenslok system on Elite, you where lucky to get past it even if you owned the game and the prism!
 
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ping666 said:
The thought just occurred - why the hell are we paying £40-50 per game on the Xbox 360, compared to other platforms?
Personally I would rather eat dog poop than pay £40 for a game which is why I am waiting until games reach a sane price before I buy a 360. If we all did the same then prices would have to fall sooner :)
 
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I've noticed gameplay and a couple of others have started knocking a couple of quid more off of some new games plus there seems to be more with a RRP of £44.99 instead of £49.99. Game and Game Station on the highstreet have started doing new games at £39.99 on certain promotions (PES6 for example) so its all moving in the right direction.

Personally I don't mind it too much. With the old xbox I was buying 2 or 3 £8 games a week and never getting round to playing or completing a lot of them.
 
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dirtydog said:
Personally I would rather eat dog poop than pay £40 for a game which is why I am waiting until games reach a sane price before I buy a 360. If we all did the same then prices would have to fall sooner :)
If we all did the same the 360 would have fallen on its rear and vanished into a "what might have been" console.
 
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lordrobs said:
If we all did the same the 360 would have fallen on its rear and vanished into a "what might have been" console.
Maybe, I don't know :) I'm just speaking for myself. When a console first comes out, people with the most money (or who don't mind hammering their credit card) will buy it, and its expensive games. After a year or two when prices fall, those with less money will enter the market.

If the console and games had been cheaper to start with, both would have sold in greater numbers I am sure. Albeit the aim is to make the maximum profit rather than simply sell in the highest volume possible of course.
 
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dirtydog said:
Maybe, I don't know :) I'm just speaking for myself. When a console first comes out, people with the most money (or who don't mind hammering their credit card) will buy it, and its expensive games. After a year or two when prices fall, those with less money will enter the market.

If the console and games had been cheaper to start with, both would have sold in greater numbers I am sure. Albeit the aim is to make the maximum profit rather than simply sell in the highest volume possible of course.
No I agree with what your saying but I don't agree that a mass boycott would force an instant price drop, its more likely to put them out of business.

I bought into the DC, PS, PS2 and xbox when they got to around the £100 mark and I think its these buyers that give the boost needed to keep the games manufacturers churning out titles.

This time round I had a full time job and no outgoings so though, why not.

Also bear in mind that when the 360 was released it was the number of available consoles, not the price that limited sales.
 
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I agree. £40-50 is way to much for a game. It starts off on a high but the prices will eventually drop to PS2 standards and so on. Its nothing new so don't worry lads, the prices will drop!
 
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I have a rule.

I need to get 1 hour's worth of entertainment out of a game for every pound I spend on it.

Well its more of a guideline really, I won't spend £100 on a massive RPG for example. :D

£35 is my absoloute ultra limit. Anything else is just not cricket.
 
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