Do you think games are getting too expensive

[mjs warlord]

I have just been looking at both steam and epic.
On epic mortal combat 1 premium edition STARTING at £84.
EA sports fc 24 STARTING at £89.

What do you think about the prices of some games , regardless of weather you are rich , poor , working or retired i think we are reaching a point where we say no to the asking price of some games. The only problem is that sales are world wide so for every 100 people who say no to the price 1,000 will buy regardless.

Whats the most you have paid for a game on any format

 

[DXCHASE]

I think they are but ive always thought they were a bit expensive for what you got but thats just me (and obviously still payed) but since everyone is charging more for everything, games are no different. I just wish that paying more for games meant that the employees who made the game were paid better than they were say last year or a couple years ago etc. But sadly thats not the case it seems to me.

I rarely buy anything off of steam anymore because of the pricing. Mortal Kombat 1 (with a K ) premium edition on steam is 120 usd, but on say, greenmangaming.com its around 91 usd or so (i get a member discount) so i usually get premiums (and regular editions) off other sites like that if i want one unless i want a LE.

But, funny story about MK1 premium on steam...my son informed that i had a bunch of Counter-Strike cases to sell that were selling between 6-15 dollars. I have sold cases in the past, but a lot of cases prices have gone up recently because they are unobtainable to some extent now. I sold about maybe 6 or 7 and was able to get a good 71.86 usd off of the premium through steam, so i wound up paying around 50 usd. I couldve sold more cases (i have a bunch since i rarely opened any over the last..almost 10 years?) but other games will be coming lol.

 

[Pifanjr]

Gaming is only expensive if you want to play the newest games. A lot of games get amazing sales after only a couple of years or are even given away for free.

 

[Colif]

plagiarising your own topics now?

whats the most expensive game you have ever seen

Did you buy it regardless of price. The reason i ask this is because i just seen need for speed unbound on epic at £69.99 I have also seen some early access games on steam for £50 or £65 for the deluxe version , my own personal opinion on this example is ..... if you are prepared to buy any...

forums.pcgamer.com

It was 1st suggested link under this thread.

 

[neogunhero]

It’s hard to value games to a price. Putting everything under a $70 blanket price for “AAA Games” is quite stupid but corporate greed dictates its own rules, but also it’s hard to gage the value when it comes to different people’s tastes and preferences too. I paid $70 for Starfield because I knew I would get 100+ hours on it, and I rarely buy brand new games, so I was okay with paying that price. Not everyone knows if they would like it or not, so $70 for a game they may potentially not want to play anymore is really steep. Then there are games like Gollum from earlier this year that was charging $50 but was still really bad. When a game is bad, short, and not fun to play, $50 is a slap in the face. The game came out in May and only has 347 total Steam reviews, only 36% are positive.

I guess where I’m getting at is I better get my moneys worth if I’m paying such high prices. $70 for a 100+ hour game is perfectly acceptable to me. $70 for a 20 hour game is something you wait for a major sale for. This doesn’t always work with every game, but I try to follow a general rule of thumb, “30 minutes - 1 hour of gameplay for every $1 I paid for the game makes a good value”. I still feel bad for buying Elden Ring for $60 and only playing for 20 hours, I just personally did not have much fun with it. That was the last major new game I bought full price before Starfield, if that gives you any indication how often I buy AAA games full price.

 

[Colif]

I question value of this game
still AUD1700

Ascent Free-Roaming VR Experience on Steam

A premium highly-immersive VR experience developed for haptic feedback via motion floors, body suits and climate control. Go it alone or play with up to four friends in LAN co-op to destroy the infestation at the FuriCorp Research facility.

store.steampowered.com

Starfield basic version is $119 for me.
Premium is $170

Probably why I don't buy many games a year. Especially new ones... AAA anyway.

 

[neogunhero]

I question value of this game
still AUD1700

Ascent Free-Roaming VR Experience on Steam

A premium highly-immersive VR experience developed for haptic feedback via motion floors, body suits and climate control. Go it alone or play with up to four friends in LAN co-op to destroy the infestation at the FuriCorp Research facility.

store.steampowered.com

The trailer shows that it’s basically made for those VR arcades. I guess it makes sense given that many physical arcade cabinets are so expensive, and you just need to buy it once and start collecting money after that initial purchase. You also need multiple VR headsets, a large space and accessories…

For a $1000 game it looks pretty lame.

 

[Slasken]

Games are getting more expensive, but I have been a gamer for a while, and I remember the price of SNES games in the early 90s. They were just as expensive, even before adjusting for inflation. No need to just buy AAA titles either. A lot of indie games are really good and often overlooked.

Just wait for a sale. Chances are the game is more patched up, maybe you have a better specced PC at the time of the sale as well. Personally, there is only a few select titles I would buy on release. The rest I wait for sales.

 

[Johnway]

Games are getting more expensive, but I have been a gamer for a while, and I remember the price of SNES games in the early 90s. They were just as expensive, even before adjusting for inflation. No need to just buy AAA titles either. A lot of indie games are really good and often overlooked.

Just wait for a sale. Chances are the game is more patched up, maybe you have a better specced PC at the time of the sale as well. Personally, there is only a few select titles I would buy on release. The rest I wait for sales.

Agreed. As the constant tight fisted man that i am, i've always waited. It pays to wait 99% as the games will always be cheaper a few months down the line. of course back in the 90s when internet shopping and online game stores like steam were non existent, people were more inclined to buy upon release and dare i say, preorder a game? it was all about a matter of supply. most of the popular games would be in stock but the rare gems like the thief series or system shock 2 were in limited supply. paranoia starts to set in when it vanishes from the shelf...

You sometimes prayed and there was a GOTY edition or a budget label rerelease completely patched etc. We all remember the old days of magazines with DVDs/cds/floppy disks on em.

Now with online stores like steam, there is no problems of stock running out or needing to preorder as its all there. Sure, there is preorder exclusive stuff but most of it, i found out was tat. oooh, day one exclusive armor! too bad its not that good. if it was op it would break the game. Its balanced that whilst useful isn't necessary. or cosmetics and thats an all whole new different kettle of fish...

 

[Brian Boru]

On epic mortal combat 1 premium edition STARTING at £84.
EA sports fc 24 STARTING at £89.

Well, a premium edition is meant to extract extra cash—base game is $70 = £56.42

EA sports fc 24 is also $70= £56.42

So are they gouging that heavily in UK? Unlikely, there'd be a big backlash. What do other UK members see for these?

 

[Shodan_]

Adjusting for inflation (yep, I'm that fkin guy) games are actually cheaper now.

I paid 60-70$ cdn for Delta Force, Rainbow 6, Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon, Medal of Honor Allied Assault and all these other games back the day. Most games are still 60$.

Super Nintendo games were 80 something canadian dollops back in the day as well.

 

[Brian Boru]

Gaming is only expensive if you want to play the newest games. A lot of games get amazing sales after only a couple of years or are even given away for free.

A wise man once said "My name is Pifanjr". Patient Gaming

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Starfield basic version is $119 for me.

= US $76.65

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It’s hard to value games to a price

That's the kernel, it applies to all entertainment and other discretionary subjective products like fashion, cosmetics etc.

I've got more than 10x the MSRP value from a select range of my games, and far less than 1/10x from a whole raft of games.

"far less" includes the cost of my time, cos if I wasn't playing the crappy game, I could've been doing sth else enjoyable or productive—like eg trying a diff crappy game

There are 3 relevant concepts at play here:
♣ Price—the main topic so far, the $70 you hand over.
♦ Cost—Price plus whatever other resources you expend. In old days, trip to game shop and back home; today mainly the opportunity cost of wasted time on a game you don't enjoy. PC crashes, hardware upgrades etc also fit in here.
♥ Value—the 10x and 1/10th I mentioned above.

As @neogunhero is alluding to, there's no objective way to put a price on a game. If there was, there wouldn't be sooper-dooper editions for 2x base price, and there wouldn't be ½ price sales either. It is a very simple equation of what the market will bear, at diff times in the product lifecycle, to maximize seller's revenue and profit.

---

Adjusting for inflation (yep, I'm that fkin guy) games are actually cheaper now

I was trying to remember… not sure, but if I recall correctly, I paid £50 for C&C in '95. That was around $78.50 back then—and around $158 today with the @Shodan method.

 

[ZedClampet]

Games are too expensive, but we gamers are too stupid to stop buying them. That $25 DLC for TWW3 sold quite well because there were so many people eager to write a negative review for it. That kind of brainpower gets us nowhere.

 

[Brian Boru]

we gamers are too stupid

 

[Zloth]

It's looking at consoles, but....

The Cost of Gaming Since the 1970s

Video games are an expensive hobby. All of us as fans of the medium spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on games and consoles across the board to provide us with experiences all to our own. But here is a question: How much would games cost now?

techraptor.net

There was hunk of time (early 2000's?) where PC games were $10 cheaper than on consoles, but I think we paid the same price most years.

We've had extra inflation since 2020 and some nations have had more than others, but I'm sure you can add at least 10% to those 2020 prices.

So, yeah, I've already paid over $100 in 2023 dollars for plenty of games - and that's just the base game, too.

 

[Konquerah]

Well, a premium edition is meant to extract extra cash—base game is $70 = £56.42

EA sports fc 24 is also $70= £56.42

So are they gouging that heavily in UK? Unlikely, there'd be a big backlash. What do other UK members see for these?

As someone who is from the UK, I can confirm they are not £89.00 and £84.00 for the games listed.

on STEAM, Mortal Kombat 1 is currently priced at £59.99, Starfield is £59.99 and EA FC24 is £59.99. In fact, that is pretty much the blanket-covered price of newly released games.

If you head over to CD-Keys.com you can pick up Mortal Kombat 1 Premium Edition with Pre-Order Bonus for the hot price of £57.99 or the "basic starter" edition for £43.99. Starfield is also £43.99 while EA FC24 is priced at £34.99

You also earn "CD-Koins" on these purchases which results in money off on your next purchase, so there are deals to be had. But you just have to search for them.

I do feel as time has gone on, games have become much more expensive, especially given that now they are mostly digital and have had a massive cost saving of disc manufacturing, manual printing, general shipping, and storage costs as a hold.

The other part that bothers me, is most games are massively flawed, bugged, or unfinished on release but because of the beauty of the internet, this allows them to fix it on the fly. So not only do we pay more for games now, you don't have any physical product to show for it and it's usually worse quality than it used to be.

 

[Pifanjr]

The other part that bothers me, is most games are massively flawed, bugged, or unfinished on release but because of the beauty of the internet, this allows them to fix it on the fly. So not only do we pay more for games now, you don't have any physical product to show for it and it's usually worse quality than it used to be.

Blizzard used to have the saying "we'll release it when it's ready". My saying now is "I'll buy it when it's ready". It doesn't really matter if the developers delay the game's release because they think it isn't ready yet or I delay my purchase because I think it isn't ready yet, except that the latter one usually results in me paying less money.

 

[Konquerah]

Blizzard used to have the saying "we'll release it when it's ready". My saying now is "I'll buy it when it's ready". It doesn't really matter if the developers delay the game's release because they think it isn't ready yet or I delay my purchase because I think it isn't ready yet, except that the latter one usually results in me paying less money.

That is a win/win situation, a cheaper and more reliable game with extra content & mods.

 

[Colif]

EA Sports games designed to never stop costing you cash.

difference between cost of games before and now is, now they keep expecting you to keep buying things in the games after you buy them. Too many games are just open ends for your credit card. The initial cost isn't the final cost.

 

[Brian Boru]

digital … massive cost saving of disc manufacturing, manual printing, general shipping, and storage costs

Those sound large—I suppose cos they're visible, tangible—but very probably add up to only a tiny part of overall product cost. The hundreds of millions spent up-front on both dev and marketing will almost always dwarf logistics and materials.

The initial cost isn't the final cost.

Very true, unless you make it so. A bit like the arcades in the 60s and 70s which regularly demanded another coin, without ever a hint of ownership for you. Or is that more like microtransactions

"I'll buy it when it's ready"

Love it!

 

[Colif]

Very true, unless you make it so. A bit like the arcades in the 60s and 70s which regularly demanded another coin, without ever a hint of ownership for you. Or is that more like microtransactions

You didn't buy the game you played, the coins were the only payment. Its up to you if you extend a game or not, but you couldn't take say the Galaga game home with you once you finished.

the coins count as the initial payment.. for most games it was 1 coin per play.

Big companies can blame consoles for giving us free games we could play without constant input. Without that intermediate step they could just charge per play still. They would love you to buy a game and have to pay per play... hope gamers never stupid enough to go there.

 

[Konquerah]

Those sound large—I suppose cos they're visible, tangible—but very probably add up to only a tiny part of overall product cost. The hundreds of millions spent up-front on both dev and marketing will almost always dwarf logistics and materials.


Very true, unless you make it so. A bit like the arcades in the 60s and 70s which regularly demanded another coin, without ever a hint of ownership for you. Or is that more like microtransactions


Love it!

Somewhat true but as time move forwarded, so did the way things were done. You've now got masses of social media reaching billions of people without the cost of a magazine, television, billboard advert. It's easier than ever to market something but the market is more noticeably oversaturated now.

The development cost probably has increased to some aspects depending on how you build and design a company and games but initially CD Projekt Red showed that you can make a blockbuster game with a smaller team and probably technology that isn't quite the best of the best.

Can't tell me that Call of Duty and EA FIFA has this huge cost of development when they casually re-skin the same game over and over and over.

 

[Brian Boru]

Can't tell me

Oh yes, you're right—as always there are a small number of exceptions. I was talking about the industry, not a few companies or a few games.

social media reaching billions of people without the cost

Google, Facebook, X and all the other social media companies—definition: where it's apparently 'free', but you're the product—would like you to check their stock market valuation and growth

In short, they're no freer than TV etc.

It's easier than ever to market something

As someone involved in marketing for nearly 25 years, I assure you it is much more difficult to market a product today than it was 20 or 40 or 60 years ago.

The development cost probably has increased to some aspects

It's a lot more than 'some', have a look at these:

Major Publishers Report AAA Franchises Can Cost Over a Billion to Make - IGN

A report released alongside the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition reveals the demanding costs behind modern AAA game development, which can surpass $1 billion over a franchise.

www.ign.com

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Price and Value

It's easy to lose sight of the overall industry trend across decades. Price has dropped a lot in the last 3 decades, as pointed out in earlier posts, and value has gone thru the roof—compare say RDR2 or Baldur's Gate 3 with games from the 90s, which would most people prefer to play?

Players RoI today is so far ahead of the 90s, it's ridiculous. Even if it's hidden, it's still true.

 

[Pifanjr]

Can't tell me that Call of Duty and EA FIFA has this huge cost of development when they casually re-skin the same game over and over and over.

I think FIFA changes more than most people realise, it's just fairly gradual because they release a new game every year. I think if you compare FIFA games three years apart there's quite a decent amount of new features and mechanics in there.

As someone involved in marketing for nearly 25 years, I assure you it is much more difficult to market a product today than it was 20 or 40 or 60 years ago.

Is it more difficult to reach the "right" people or is it more difficult to reach enough people nowadays? Or both? Or something else?

I could imagine the decrease in people who watch television would make it harder, as advertisements on websites typically need to be a static picture, which means you lose out on the power of the jingle.

 

[Colif]

Big companies can blame consoles for giving us free games we could play without constant input. Without that intermediate step they could just charge per play still. They would love you to buy a game and have to pay per play... hope gamers never stupid enough to go there.

EA boss wanted to charge people money for bullets in their games 12 years ago.
His profit making hasn't really ended since

Now he wants to charge devs for everytime a player installs their game. SO he wants games with use by dates as how does a dev know how often a game is going to be installed? Set a max install limit for entire population? Might work for indie but not for major releases.
How to stop people buying old games and playing them years later when they cheaper. He wouldn't have a problem with that as how dare people get things for less.

In 2022 he called anyone who released a game without Microtransactions, an idiot.

He is so into gaming, I can tell. He does it for the love of gaming, not for profit... its so obvious /s

Seems he is ground zero for all the charges we have to deal with now. He was in charge of EA when FIFA started ultimate league profit bonanza.