Lets talk game prices (And why they are too cheap).

**Kanati** · 08-31-13, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by CivilWars

Speaking of kanati, I wonder how much he has spent on steam games that he has never even installed. Do those not count towards his personal cost per hour of video game entertainment?

I sensed a disturbance in the force and just FIGURED Civil was talking about me.

If I lumped all my games together to get a dollar per hour figure it would probably be kinda meh... I think at this point with 517 games... 3000ish hours in steam games... and an account, going by recent database figures, worth of ~6000 dollars...

2 dollars per hour. Remove the L4D2 numbers from that equation though and it goes to more like 12 dollars per hour. Not as good. So... it's all relative. Add in the computer upgrade costs over a couple years time and it's more like 20 dollars per hour... now we're talking real money.

As to the specifics of game pricing though. I rarely pay full price for a game. It's truly a rare AAA title that I will buy when it comes out. I wait for bundles or deals. I don't think any game is worth 60-80 dollars. I wouldn't have nearly as much heartache paying ~40 though.

**Red_Lizard2** · 08-31-13, 01:22 PM

Found a forum thread at The Escapist that has some good numbers dealing with the cost of making games, the % earned from sales, etc.
The Escapist : Forums : Gaming Discussion : The Rising Cost of Game Production

It would seem on face value that digital downloads are actually often overpriced, though haven't dug through the numbers provided to really check.

**Alundil** · 08-31-13, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by maximusboomus

I like your comparison to consumer items Al but I do feel it limits us, based on the sheer amount of time a game can consume. I know people who have 2k+ hrs in L4D2. They have obliterated the cost vs entertainment times to lower than 1cent an hour, and that seems incredible.

1000s of hours per person per game might be normal here or in other gaming communities, but is hardly the norm I imagine. Therefore that number is an outlier from an overall statistic.

Originally Posted by maximusboomus

Also to add to Als other thought : distribution - I'd argue the cost of digital distribution is similar to actual physical cost right now. Physical distribution has manufacturing, production, delivery costs and more. Digital has infrastructure, redundancies, staff to run those (white collar highly paid techs).

I disagree. If the cost to maintain a digital architecture were close to an "analog" manufacture and publish perspective we would never see ebook prices at the levels we do. Or per song prices at the levels we do, or streaming movie/music services for less than $10/mo. Case in point, Amazon, for example, literally gives away Kindles because they make lots of money on the sale of ebooks. It's not that costly for them (I know they largely had the infrastructure prior so not a perfect example) same with Apple and iTunes etc. Taken in conjunction with the revelations the Apple and some publishers were price fixing only further shows that the cost gains of digital distribution models are severely challenging those of the more physical models.

It takes less than two dozen highly skilled and highly paid it people to run a well planned/implemented network storage and distribution setup. Most of the big cost would be in the hardware and network bandwidth. Neither of which would come close to printing presses, binding machines, the buildings required to house, power, cool and staff those plus the shipping (including the equipment and personnel it requires).

Digital is cheaper in terms of overhead no question. It's why everyone in the distribution game is looking to go that route yesterday (product willing of course).

Sent via highly charged bolt of electricity.

**maximusboomus** · 08-31-13, 06:58 PM

I was thinking more along the lines of video games being similar priced for distribution, although I will say there is a tipping point where the electronic delivery gets allot cheaper.

**DuDDy** · 08-31-13, 08:25 PM

Interesting topic. The simple answer to this question, at least for me, is yes and no. Yes some games are fairly priced, where as there are other that are imo way over priced.

New release games that developers have spent a lot of time and effort into making the game deserve the asking price for said game. I have absolutely no problem in shelling out 60 bucks, or release price, for a game given the right circumstances. Last one for me that fit this was Halo 4. Every game purchase since then for me has either been a used copy, or F2P game.

Now there are some games, and this starts my rant, that I will refuse to pay 60 bucks for and even 40 seems high to me. These games would include all the annual releases such as any sports title and the COD franchise. I dont think its fair to the consumers to shell out the full amount for any of those titels, especially when there is no major changes from year to year. To me they seem like a reskinned game, with updated bells and whistles, updated rosters, and minor tweaks here and there that unless they told you that it was there you wouldnt notice. Charge 30 bucks for these games and I would consider buying them, but even then I most likely wont.

Thats my two cents.

**PvtPrivate** · 09-02-13, 05:31 PM

I get my money worth on most games. That all I care about.

**CivilWars** · 09-03-13, 01:56 PM

To further the point I have 3 EVE accounts right now that I pay for(hope the wife doesn't read this one). I would gladly pay $10-15 per month for an FPS game that was patched and supported like EVE is, and with developers that listened to their players the way CCP does.

**Warprosper** · 09-03-13, 02:05 PM

Average retail price of Mortal Kombat 2 1992 $60
Average retail price of Assassins Creed 3 Recent $60

Average price of a candy bar in 1992 $.50
Average price of a candy bar today $.90

Adjusted for inflation today's cost.

Mortal Kombat 2 $99.9
Assassins Creed 3 $60.00

Candybar 1992 $.50
Candybar today $.83

**SmokenScion** · 09-03-13, 03:05 PM

The only game I'm really saddened about purchasing was True Crime:Streets of LA.
20 hours in, I found out the Sad truth, and burned it.

I've been fairly happy or errr... Content with all the other Purchases.

Payday 2, 75 hours
Arma 3, worth it Already, and it's still in Beta
Arma 2, Um yeah....
Battlefield 3, Yes Dissappointed by EA, but I got my Monies worth.
BF2,SF,AF,EF, Well, Well Worth it with over 2,000 hours on RANKEd servers, + all the Mods.
BC2, Worth it.
GTA 1,2,3,LC, Worth it.

The only Problem I come up with is GTA: Vice City.
I paid 60$ for the Game, but had to buy the PS2 to play it. at $200.00
That's a bit Much. Thankfully I got GTA:San Andreas out of it too.

Now I'm looking at GTA:V 60$ + $400.00 for a PS3

That's way way too much. Not gonna happen.