The price of games

[mjs warlord]

Whist i admire the talents of games designers and all the hard work they put in i have noticed a sudden increase in the cost of games recently.
I have recently completed horizon zero dawn and i enjoyed it so much i did it again on a higher difficulty level , the graphics and cut scenes are awesome.

I have just been looking at the games on steam , i would love to try the assassins creed games but they range from £49 to £75 ........ no i am not picking on this one company their are lots of games around with an asking price of £50.

Marvels guardians of the galaxy is priced £60 for the deluxe version and at the time i posted this you cant even purchase it yet. No doubt the first people to pay £60 will have to deal with bugs and crashes.

Yes i said i admire the work put in and how long they take to make ... but .... considering how many games players their are around the world i am sure they could charge less!

Whats the most you have paid for a game.

 

[Brian Boru]

Whats the most you have paid for a game

Not sure, been buying them for 30 years, but probably not over £50.
In the last decade I only paid over $20 once, and that was $40 for a complete Civ6, which included the 2 main expansions and a lot f DLC.

i would love to try the assassins creed games but they range from £49 to £75

I picked up both Origins & Odyssey for $5 each at Epic during their Xmas sale, I think it was 2019—they were 75% off = $15, and Epic gave a $10 coupon to spend on $15+ purchases. I picked up a bunch of $60 games that time for less than $60 total.

i am sure they could charge less

They do, just not all the time. Keep your buying to the 2 big yearly sales—summer and Xmas—and you should save around 75%.
Also, create wishlists on the retailers you want to use, and sign up for notification when a game on your wishlist goes on sale—I have daily emails coming in.

 

[Zloth]

I would actually say the opposite: considering how many hours of fun we get from a game, I'm sure they could charge more! It's easy to get games where you're paying less than a dollar for an entire hour's entertainment. High quality entertainment, too, not just sit-there-and-watch-it-happen entertainment.

As for the people paying top dollar to get games, yeah, they do that. Dunno why. The game will be better and cheaper in months to come. I've gone on about that plenty on these forums, though.

Game prices are remarkably stable, at least for the big production games. They were locked at $50 from sometime in the 90's up until the naughties, when the $10 surcharge that was going to console makers somehow showed up on the PC game prices. They've been stuck at $60 ever since. But now we've got lots of supply chain problems and inflation going on - will that raise the price again? (Less big budget game prices are all over the place, but mostly less than $60.)

Most I've paid... quite a lot for Air Warrior, which costed $6 per hour to play. And that was in the late 80's.

 

[DXCHASE]

The cost of a full price 60 dollar game doesn't really bother me if its something i really want, i havent seen much go over that, but certainly a lot of games at 60 that could easily be 40 and the company would still make a bunch of money. 60 for a physical copy, ok i get that, but that should translate to a 50 dollar digital product imo, like i said if its something i really want though, ill shell out the 60 for it, though thats rare unless its a collectors edition.

Speaking of...The most ive paid for a game is when it comes to collectors editions which can range from 100-300. Ive bought my fair share of those, most recently being Destiny 2's The Witch Queens collectors edition (sub-185-200?)

As for bugs and crashes, thats just run-of-the-mill day 1 for a good chunk of games that release these days. Its always good to wait but most people dont want to.

 

[Johnway]

Generally i very rarely buy any game when it comes out on full price as frankly, its just better to wait. Why buy something full price when i could get it cheaper? Why buy the game immediately when they will bundle everything in a GOTY edition? Why buy the game immediately when they run like garbage/needs patching or they the fools who rush in and buy and play a game that turns out to be crap?

If people want and can buy a game at full RRP, more power to them. But i can wait, i'm generally not suckered into FOMO and if experience tells me a game can drop in price, i can and will wait. With a large Steam back catalogue i have plenty to play. its somewhat galling that there were games i might be interested in and realize that it comes with annual Season passes i have to cross the game off my wish list. Mercifully, most of these are online games so i can ignore 99% of them.

I suppose this survival mentality is perhaps being raised in a family where money was tight (Dad was the only bread winner). I've learnt to be savvy with my money and think twice when i buy something. Recently its Chivalry 2. I would like to get it, but should i get it? I can easily afford it, but will i find the time to play it? probably not, so it would be a wasted investment and the commitment needed to play it might not be a good use of my time. Especially when I'm studying for an exam, i have other hobbies and PoE scourge league kicking off... not to mention the complaints on reddit being a real turn off. But they're mostly console gamers or based in asia and australia so who cares. That said, i'm not sure who populated the game is and with BF 2042 and various other online games coming out, its going to haemorrage players and could die quickly etc etc.

So is there a price that i would accept to fork out money immediately? that depends.

If i know a game is never going to drop in price, i'll pony up (but with a backlog i probably won't for a while). The other time is when I know that the price is going UP and its a game i really want, i'll be an early adopter and buy it.

Any game that is around 70-60 i definitely push into the wait category. if i believe there will be GOTY/complete edition i will almost certainly ignore it for years. That said, even when a game is around £20, £15 or even a £5 i would probably wait because i have a big backlog to finish off so no rush i can wait till a steam sale or 2. Websites like Isthereanydeal.com are damn useful in telling me how things are developing and i can gauge whether to wait or pull the trigger.

 

[Brian Boru]

60 for a physical copy, ok i get that, but that should translate to a 50 dollar digital product

No, ~$59 at best. Almost all AAA costs are in dev—think 100 people working for 1-3 years on it. Next main cost is probably marketing, altho localization, quality and support can also be substantial.

Printing on DVD, enclosures, and physical distribution is a relatively very small and mostly one-off cost.

games i might be interested in and realize that it comes with annual Season passes i have to cross the game off my wish list

I don't follow. My games have season passes which I ignore, and play away happily.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Its a rare game I'll buy full price at release but it has happened a couple of times.

I can remember paying 60-70 GBP for Nintendo 64 games in the late nineties, those cartridges were expensive. Playstation and PC games at that point were 30-40 on CDs IIRC. I think with the amount budgets and complexity have gone up for marketing and production €60 isn't unreasonable IMO. Especially as I'll just wait for a sale and not pay that 95% of the time anyway.

No, ~$59 at best. Almost all AAA costs are in dev—think 100 people working for 1-3 years on it. Next main cost is probably marketing, altho localization, quality and support can also be substantial.

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I was pretty shocked to read that COD Modern Warfare 2 had a marketing budget of 4 times its development cost in an article the other day. Its not the norm but some of the biggest AAA games spend more on marketing than development.

I also had to look it up because 100 felt a bit on the low side. UBI had 15 separate studios working on Valhalla. Apparently there were just under 1000 people working on Origins, with 200-300 on art alone. No wonder they are adding in game purchases to top up profits!

 

[Johnway]

I don't follow. My games have season passes which I ignore, and play away happily.

its more like stuff from Rainbow 6, for honor etc. Its the Annual season passes i can't stomach where i'm expected to pay 20+ every year for measly amounts of content. With everyone getting it, i feel i'm being forced to get it. Mercifully, its consigned to the online content so i can avoid it.

But if a game constantly throws out additional expansions every year, i feel like i'm being nickle and dimed constantly. So i would wait to get them all in one go and get the best experience possible. If they keep releasing content? well, my opinion on that game drops and i have to do more research to be selective or avoid the game entirely. Some games i've fallen foul of expansions (like cities skylines) and i did have fun with the limited content, but i can't help feel to get the best experience i have to fork out for the expansions especially if they add features to the base game.


Additional scenarios/seperated content, additional gear, skins etc i can drop or ignore for the most part. But content that improves the base game (like unlocks part of the map, additional missions on the main map or the bloody epilogue). i would feel immensely hacked off to see. If its a one off season pass, i can probably wait but if i'm constantly being charged for features i feel short changed that i'm playing an inferior product. Best to wait till everything is in place and buy it or they better have some guarantee that if i adopt the base game early i get those features for free. No i don't mean just buying the season pass right off, i find it bloody stupid that all the additional smaller content is worth the cost of the base game and thensome. That stuff can sod off. I'll spend my money on actual games rather then half backed bitesize pieces of a game.

I do read up on the content of the season pass/DLC and see if its worth getting or not and that decides whether i pony up for the complete edition or not. But you're right it depends on how much i get in the base game as well.

 

[Brian Boru]

I was pretty shocked

Bejapers! Those figures are eye-watering! Thanks, good info

I'll spend my money on actual games rather then half backed bitesize pieces of a game

I hear you, I thought season passes were mainly for cosmetics or something for online play—shows you how much attention I've paid to 'em

wait to get them all in one go and get the best experience possible

Right, that's me too. I waited 6 years to get the full Civ6 on a nice sale—and you know what, they released another DLC after that! Still, I don't mind Firaxis milking it too much, they provide good after-launch to the Civ games.

Another reason I wait is so the mods I end up choosing won't break within a year.

 

[Johnway]

Right, that's me too. I waited 6 years to get the full Civ6 on a nice sale—and you know what, they released another DLC after that! Still, I don't mind Firaxis milking it too much, they provide good after-launch to the Civ games.

Another reason I wait is so the mods I end up choosing won't break within a year.

Don't get me started!

XCom2 i was fortunate enough to get XCOM2 the collecters edition for a dirt cheap price and the DLC was (IMO) essential as it added features to your main game. The anarchy pack was cosmetics but i have a feeling that some mods used it or something so not sure if it was required. But that said, a prime example of tat i would probably ignore. Then WOTC came out and i bagged it when they released the final DLC the tactical legacy pack (So it was DLC on top of expansion pack) forcing my hand getting them at a knock down price sooner then expected. Do i regret it, not really as it was around 50% and i found some way to justify it.


Sadly not the same for Age of empires 2 the definitive edition. That right, the definitive edition doesn't contain everything. They've since gone and released not one, but TWO additional DLC packs! I'm definitely giving these a miss as frankly the definitive edition will have enough content for me. But it still feels like they've pulled a fast one.

 

[Pifanjr]

I think the most expensive game I've purchased was the pre-ordered Deluxe version of Mass Effect 3, probably around €80. That's probably also the last game I bought at full price. Either that or one of the Assassin's Creed games.

Since then, my backlog has gotten so big that there's really no reason to buy new games anymore unless it's to play together with my friends.

The only exception is the DLC of Total War: Warhammer. I got the base game of the first and second Total War: Warhammer for my birthday last year, after I had been playing it through a shared library of one of my friends. Too bad the race I was playing as was a DLC one, so I had to buy the DLC to continue my campaign. I've since bought 2 or 3 more on sale and I'll probably get the rest at some point as well.

 

[ZedClampet]

Whats the most you have paid for a game.

Some years I don't even buy a full-priced game, but the next few months are going to be very different for me. Just so happens that the games I love most are all coming out with sequels that I don't want to wait for.

I fully intend to spend $99 on Forza Horizon 5. Barring death or disability, I'll put hundreds of hours into it. The extra $40 comes with the two expansions, which cost $19.99 each, plus the car pack, which has a ton of cars exclusive to it, and the VIP pass, which gets you more cars and more wheel spins, etc. every week.

I'm at a point in my life where spending $99 on a game doesn't mean that I'm eating ramen for a week. I mention that only because some PC gamers are very judgmental when you buy a full price game or a special edition, but it's my money and I can afford it, so it's none of their business.

 

[Ryzengang]

Admittedly I am considering dropping $100 on the Forza Horizon 5 premium edition. I put 115 hours into Forza Horizon 4 within a span of a few months and it is my favorite racing series. Long-term I think I would easily get the value out it.

Interestingly, this is a topic I think about a lot and I think I have a sort of unpopular opinion on it (although I can't rightly say; determining these sorts of things on the internet without data is effectively a guess). I think many gamers - especially PC gamers - have an incredibly warped sense of value when it comes to video games. I don't know if it's all the steam sales or what but people really have insane standards for how many hours they want out of a game. I understand that there is a lot of subjectivity on the topic of value, but I think things have gotten a bit too skewed for my taste.

One example: I have multiple friends who have a criterion for buying games of 1 hour for every $1 spent. On the surface this doesn't seem too unreasonable, but upon further inspection it is incredibly flawed. I mean, can you really expect to get 20 hours from every $20 indie you purchase? That's pure insanity. Similarly, most games that are 60 dollars are simply not going to yield 60 hours of gameplay just due to genre alone. It biases towards games like roguelikes that are repeatable.

Further, a recent example of God of War coming to PC, there were people grumbling about paying $50 for a 3 year old game. Really? One of the highest rated games of all time that has sold over 20 million copies comes to Steam and $50 is too much to ask? These AAA blockbuster games cost an insane amount of money to make, and $50 is a perfectly reasonable asking price.

The $60 price tag has been remarkably stable over the years even with the rising costs of game development. Don't get me wrong, there are sensible reasons to wait for sales, stability patches, etc. But I think the idea that games aren't worth full price is generally absurd.

 

[Frindis]

The most I ever paid was for the SWTOR collectors edition, 150USD. Well worth the money as the Darth Malgus statue I enjoyed for a lot of years before giving it to one of my nephews. The game was pretty fun to play, with excellent character stories, jumping puzzles (Tatooine one sucked), good PvP, and OK raid wise (even if the raids REALLY sucked at the start)

I guess it all depends on what YOU want to invest in a game and what the game means for you personally. I do think it is important to reflect on just what you get when buying though, especially at full price. Like, I enjoyed Far Cry 3, but would I pay full price for Far Cry 6? Heeeeel no! I don't see myself getting much new in that game, just generic crap sewed in with different packages. Then again, perhaps I am not a fan enough to enjoy it at full price.

@ZedClampet Can't wait to snipe some cars like the Ferrari 599XX E 🧐🎩

 

[Hitobat]

I think the biggest single purchase price I've paid for a game was £100 for the Lord of the Rings online special edition version, with lifetime membership. And even though I've got bored of it and stopped playing, and they switched to ftp, that game is still going even now, and theoretically I could go back in any time (with extra bonuses).

Second biggest which I'm not seeing many people mentioning is World of Warcraft. I played for a few years and I believe it was £10/month or something which means over £200 easily.

Third biggest for me are maybe mobile ftp games like Clash of Clans.

On the flip side, overall best value for money was potentially my purchase of Factorio. Steam says I have over 500 hours clocked on that game, but I actually bought it direct from their website before they even put on steam so I think it might be closer to 600. So it seems I payed maybe 3p/hour.

 

[mainer]

The cost of goods, services, and labor have increased radically over the last few years, resulting in rising production costs, and cost of goods to the consumer; in absolutely every area. Even with all of that, I think the cost of PC games has remained steady, and the cost of new games reasonable. The cost of those games has increased of course, especially AAA type games, but so have all the different production costs that a developer has to endure.

We see most new releases in the $39.99 to $59.99 USD range and I see nothing wrong with that, in fact I think it's one of the best values you can get for your entertainment dollar; assuming you're a gamer of course. I'll wait for sales on some games, but if I really want a specific game, I have no problem buying at full price.

As far as how much I've paid for a game, I will buy collectors editions of certain games, or game series, that I love. I'm not so much into the "digital rewards" kind, but give me a cool little statue, or trinket, or a cloth map (or all of them) and I'll pay the extra cost. I think the Witcher 3 Collectors Edition was the most expensive @ $199.99 USD, and I've never regretted it.

 

[Only games]

Most of popular games are free but if you want to get some extra upgrades you need to spend some money 🤑🤑🤑

 

[SleepingDog]

I was looking at my wish list of games which totals 11 games which would cost £300. They range from £10 to £70. At the moment cost is not an issue but finding the time to play them is. So I can wait for the price to drop - I notice that Resident Evil Village has already dropped to £33 from £60 (I think?).

Value for Money - if a game costs me £1 per hour played and I enjoyed it then it's money well spent.

 

[Slasken]

I paid 900 NOK back in 1992 for SNES games. That's about US$110.