Do you think games are worth their current retail price?

Ridge said:
No. If it is a great game the company and people who made it should be able to live good lives, and have money to make their next project. That takes priority over people feeling entitled to games.
Click to expand...
This is pretty much how I feel also. They take big risks by investing serious money into the games and so they should be rewarded by making a good living. Movie tickets have increased in price over the last decade, same thing for show tickets and tickets to sporting events while video game prices have actually remained the same.
 
Games are cheaper today than they were ... a few years ago. That being said, the quality has dropped also. Companies shipping unpolished games or even broken. Also it seems that is a new thing to sell a game in alpha state and tag users as testers.
 
This really depends on the person that you ask. To a non-gamer, $60 for a racing game is way too high. However, to a person who loves a good quality racing game, $60 may be a great price since they know they'll enjoy the game and play it for years.
I normally buy used games to save a good 20-45% off of retail, because I just don't have the money to pay $300 for 5 video games. A college student's budget is very tight, lol.
 
tournique said:
Games are cheaper today than they were ... a few years ago. That being said, the quality has dropped also. Companies shipping unpolished games or even broken. Also it seems that is a new thing to sell a game in alpha state and tag users as testers.
Click to expand...

Yep, developers are learning that marketing and ´I need this fast´ means they can release unfinished or half-done games and have a DLC already in the works before the game goes live. As long as people keep pre-ordering and buying pre-release versions of games, it is only going to get worse.
 
Azrile said:
Yep, developers are learning that marketing and ´I need this fast´ means they can release unfinished or half-done games and have a DLC already in the works before the game goes live. As long as people keep pre-ordering and buying pre-release versions of games, it is only going to get worse.
Click to expand...
That is true. Consumers can always voice their opinion with their wallet. If enough people feel that games are becoming too expensive for what enjoyment they receive out of them, they will stop spending $60 a game. I am not sure this will happen, though.
 
Last edited:
Gaming industry is pretty underpaid at the moment. Problem is the whole thing is treated like business for profit, not for players.
 
It really depends at what price you are buying your games. If you are buying them in bundle promotions, they are really really cheap, but $60 for a game is just out of my league.
 
tournique said:
Gaming industry is pretty underpaid at the moment. Problem is the whole thing is treated like business for profit, not for players.
Click to expand...
True. Just check the prices and quality of games like 10 years ago. Completely different of what we have now. I don't mean that 10 years ago games were for $10. I mean that when we were buying a game for $30-40, we received a high quality content, free DLCs after premiere, awesome feedback, etc. For now, we have to pay for DLC which can be bought as preorder, the feedback in most of companies are really bad, games are full of annyoing bugs, unfinished... I remember when I was playing Need for Speed Porsche Unleshead - that was awesome. I was waiting long time to play another NFS. For now, newest two-three NFS games sucks in my opinion.
 
I do understand that games were more expensive then but that's because they probably were more expensive to make. They were essentially starting from scratch. We have more technology now. Many games today are also devoid of quality IMO. As much as I'm a "shine" or "sparkle" obsessed person "shine" should not be the core of a video game. The game should be highly interactive and then worry about how it looks later. Decent graphics is enough for me.
Also it is more expensive...at least for me when it comes to the fact it is pretty much impossible for me to earn a decent living for myself now. Your mileage may likely vary as it seems like a lot of people find a job easier than I do anyway although they do make the process harder overall for everyone.
 
For some games I think it is worth the price. It really depends on how much I am going to play the game. If its something with a lot of replayability then yes, it is worth the retail price. The way I come to this conclusion is I can easily spend $30 on fuel to drive to the beach and spend 4-6 hours there before driving back home, or I could spend $30 on steam and get a few games that I would probably play for hundreds of hours. To me the games are the better deal.
 
Nickchick said:
I do understand that games were more expensive then but that's because they probably were more expensive to make. They were essentially starting from scratch. We have more technology now. Many games today are also devoid of quality IMO. As much as I'm a "shine" or "sparkle" obsessed person "shine" should not be the core of a video game. The game should be highly interactive and then worry about how it looks later. Decent graphics is enough for me.
Also it is more expensive...at least for me when it comes to the fact it is pretty much impossible for me to earn a decent living for myself now. Your mileage may likely vary as it seems like a lot of people find a job easier than I do anyway although they do make the process harder overall for everyone.
Click to expand...
One of the advantages of buying physical games is that you have the option of buying used games which can considerably lower the cost. In addition, you are also able to sell the game on if you didn't particularly enjoy it or if you feel as though you will not play it again.
 
Like others have said, I agree that with inflation games are more affordable than in the past. But, the market is so competitive now that games prices are forced to come down. I remember when NFL 2k5 released as a $20 retail title, and I believe Madden was forced to drop their price.

For me though I will hardly ever pay full retail price for a game, and never for a digital game. I only buy games on sale from Steam. I have a tight budget, so I can't afford to buy brand new, full priced games.
 
As I take advantage of sales and offers I can't say I have an opinion about the actual prices in games.

After all I go for a price as cheap as possible, ignoring the retail price. It also helps that on the Internet it is often much cheaper than buying it in stores in my city.
 
Gaming is more expensive than ever if you're a teenager who wants to play the latest games his friends play, and also get the best versions of them - the collector's editions, the uber-full-packages with-all-them DLCs and whatnot.

If you're a bit older, and don't rush into things, gaming's cheaper than ever. If you can postpone playing a game for 3 months to a year, you won't buy it for 50 - 60 bucks: you'll buy it for 2 to, worst case scenario, 10 bucks. And let's not even mention the existence of Humble Bundle and all similar stores, that offer packs of interesting games - and ocassionally AAA titles - each and every week for peanuts. Or talk about Steam's Sales :-D
 
I recently bought Gauntlet during the Steam winter sale and I'm finding it well worth the price. It was for $30 or so for the four-pack. I gifted the other copies to a few friends and have been playing co-op through the campaign - it's been extremely gratifying burning through dungeon after dungeon with my buddies, especially when it's coming at less than $10 per pop!
 
Let me tell you something about full-price 60$ games: if they don't offer 500+ hours of fun and engaging content with triple A graphics and mechanics these days, they are a scam. If they try to sell you things such as DLC especially on day 1, they are almost definitely not worth it. There are free games that offer THOUSANDS of hours of content with fun gameplay. Prime example is Evolve, I was playing the closed beta of a game going to be released in less than a month and there was less content in that game than games I've bought for 5 dollars. On top of that they're trying to sell me stuff in a beta where I'm supposed to be providing feedback. My general theory is to avoid companies with bad business practices, good examples of companies you can trust are Valve and Grinding Gear Games.

They use legitimate Free to Play mottos and Valve's pay-to-play games are cheap and provide more content and fun gameplay than pretty much every 60$ game on the market.
 
The price of games are very important nowadays, it's pretty known that life is getting more expensive the older you get. I honestly always look out for free games or games that are very cheap. I'm a PC gamer myself so it's pretty easy to find these kind of games but if you look at PS4 or Xbox One games the prices are absolutely ridiculous! It's just insane. Especially if you realise that it doesn't even come close to how much it costs to program/make the game itself.
 
Not at all, at least not in my country! $60 is too damn high. $30-$40 would be okay for my country, I'd say. You have DLC too these days which add up to the cost. I always suggest having patience and buying games on sales as they're too cheap during a big sale, like Steam sales.
 
I only spend 60 bucks on a game in extreme cases, when I really cannot wait to get a game. That's almost never though. Otherwise I just wait for it to go on sale on Steam or something. Often that means waiting for a year or so after release to play a game, but 60 bucks for a game that I finish in like 15 hours is just not worth it at all for me, especially being a student
 
And let's put it another way: I live in Greece. Here the minimum wage is, dunno how much it fell (again) lately, possibly around 400 - 500 euros. Dollars are usually translated to more Euros, making things even more expensive than in the good 'ole US of A. Where, how much did we say the minimum wage was?

So, "over here", to buy a new game you have to spend almost 1/8 of your full wage! This...Is...Madness... as King Leonidas would say before giving gamedevs the boot in a Silicon Valley remake of 300!

"Honey, we won't have water this month. I bought the latest Call of Duty"...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom