What is your opinion on cost of games?

[0248991]

Hey,
I wanted to discuss the cost of games here.

I know there's the AAA market with the standard price being 60$, then F2P games in which the cosmetic content is roughly 20$ a piece, give or take.
Do you like the pricing?
In the case of Witcher 3 or C77, I would quite happily pay even 80$, were the games more polished and with fewer bugs.

I find the prices of CDPR's expansions - roughly 30-40$ - pretty low, actually.
I think their soundtracks alone have a value of 35$ each, were they standalone releases.

What do you think about the video games market and prices in general?
Is there any specific company/genre/etc,...you are happy or unhappy with?
Do you see anything that could be improved which would have a major impact on the cost and quality of games?

 

[Tarille]

What do you think about the video games market and prices in general?

The market is trending towards Live Service and MTX laden products which is sad.

Especially since that's where pricing becomes totally whack.

In general, the cost of games is fine. $60 is reasonable, $70 isn't too absurd given inflation.

It's the Live Service costs that are an abomination. Selling half baked alphas for $60-70 is disgusting. MTX that cost $20-100 for a single cosmetic is obscene. "F2P" titles that lock progression behinds hundreds of dollars of MTX is egregious.

MTX should be like $1-2 maybe some premium skin should be like $5. Since it's just a freaking skin, not an entire game...

Of course, nothing will change because companies can get away with milking consumers because whales will whale irregardless of how it impacts the overal market.

Is there any specific company/genre/etc,...you are happy or unhappy with?

"F2P" and Gacha games are pretty awful. What with their terrible systems designed to simply make you spend as much money as possible.

Not to mention Live Service games which are now staple for companies like Ubisoft, EA, Activision... Where there's so much shoved into a store it's sickening (What's even worse is when they make their games intentionally awful so they can sell you the solution... I recall playing AC:Origins and finding obtaining components to upgrade gear was super tedious... Then seeing how they had this super popular bundle in the store where they just sell you everything you need)

I'm more of a fan of companies like FromSoft, Owlcat, Larian whom release full products, with maybe a DLC/Expansion later for more content.

Do you see anything that could be improved which would have a major impact on the cost and quality of games?

More focus on releasing complete games would be wonderful. Too many companies are trying to get away with releasing unfinished products, but still charge full price for them (Including Cyberpunk 2077)

Of course, it would increase production costs as games would spend more time in development without generating money. But it would overall provide better games which would lead to better sales when they do release.

 

[Sunsibar]

Generally I'm fine with the pricing if the games is (for varied reasons) interesting enough. Although a new PS5 release for 80 euros already starts to hurt.

I have gladly paid full price for CDPR games, Horizon games and Cities Skylines games. I did pay full price for latest God of War too, but never finished that, so I it was bit of a miss for me. Even though I loved the previous game.

Most semi-interesting games have to drop down to 20-40 euros before I will buy them, since I don't have too much extra money to spend on games.

Edit: I'm talking about AAA games here. I'm not generally a fan of free to play games, even though I have greatly enjoyed few of them.

 

[devivre]

Considering how expensive everything has become these days prices for singleplayer games are actually not that bad. That being said, given how expensive game development has become the pricing is probably not high enough for many games, especially for the ones, that do not have a deal with Epic Games, Microsoft or similar.

On the other hand, with offers like game pass and free games every month, my desire to spend 50-80 bucks on a newly released game is low these days. Still need to finish a lot of other stuff first. And often I'm not even sure if it's really going to interest me enough to play it for 30-100+ hours.

But yeah, once you set prices to high it's always risky as there are many alternatives out there.

 

[tavellone]

As far as compared to the market in general, CDRP's pricing isn't that bad, however I still think that paying £50 for a video game is nuts and paying anything above that is ridiculous.

Companies use the excuse that games are more expensive because they're more expensive to make, which is complete horseshit because large companies have been experiencing increasing profit margins for decades, also a game like Alan Wake 2, which clearly had a massive investment is £40 and I'm pretty sure Remedy still made a boat load of profit. They simply decided to not be as greedy as everyone else.

Even if the 'games cost more to make' argument is true, it's not like anyone asked these companies to commit to ever inflating budgets simply for the sake of flashy graphics and a bunch of gimmicks nobody gives a shit about.

I also dislike that, particularly large companies, justify inflated game prices on the dubious fact that their games are longer due to being artificially padded with pointless repeating missions and collectables and all that nonsense. Imagine if a film charged based on run time and you now had a six hour version or reservoir dogs where half of the film is the characters silently driving in traffic.

The video game industry is one of the most lawless cowboy industries out their and I can't wait for another E.T in the desert moment where a lot of these big companies come crashing down.

Though I have to say a lot of high quality games came out this year and I'd even include Phantom Liberty in thstt so it probably won't be any time soon.

 

[Draconifors]

I don't really care what base prices are; if it's a game I want, I can simply wait for a sale if I don't want to pay the full price, and if it isn't then why should I care what it costs.

I've no need to get games the day, week, month, or even year they're released.

Besides, video games are a luxury, not any kind of a necessity.

 

[Netrunner2go]

Yeah… digital deluxe/collectors/special editions raise till 150€/$ onwards based on… what exactly?

I’m surprised that games like Alan Wake 2 or AC Mirage were sold for 40-50€/$…

There is absolute no argument to sell broken games for 80€/$+ other than greed. Sadly it becomes more and more regular….

 

[Nixilos]

Full price games release in beta and F2P make your characters look like clowns unless you shell out 40 dollars for cosmetic mtx every time you wanna change your look.

The industry is pretty good at making you feel ripped off even when they are giving you a good deal.

I don't typically buy games unless they are deeply discounted, Phantom Liberty is the only exception I've made in years. I also stay away from early access like the plague.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

a game like Alan Wake 2, which clearly had a massive investment is £40 and I'm pretty sure Remedy still made a boat load of profit.

That's not what I read... I could be wrong but 70 millions is far to be a "massive investissement" for a game nowaday (about 6 times less than Cyberpunk). It would be interesting to see how the GTA6 will cost. From what I heard, the devellopement cost already exceeded two billions, so I won't be surprised to see the game at 80-100€/$.

About game cost it depend of the game and the interest I have for it...

 

[tavellone]

That's not what I read... I could be wrong but 70 millions is far to be a "massive investissement" for a game nowaday (about 6 times less than Cyberpunk). It would be interesting to see how the GTA6 will cost (from what I heard, it cost more than two billions to devellope).

Well man, my yearly income doesn't even breach 6 figures so I'd describe it as a massive investment. Even relative to the company's income it is a massive investment given they don't make that amount in income in a year on average.

Even beyond that, 70 million is in general a very expensive amount of money to spend on a video game. If you're only comparing it to the most expensive games ever made it might only be in the middle, but compared to the average game in general it is incredibly high. Regardless, the point is that Alan Wake 2 was a very expensive game to create, yet Remedy decided to sell it for a low price, because it is perfectly possible to sell a high budget game at that price level and still make a profit. Selling games for $60 upwards is pure greed and they get away with it because enough people buy this shit and video games are not very well regulated.

 

[Netrunner2go]

That's not what I read... I could be wrong but 70 millions is far to be a "massive investissement" for a game nowaday (about 6 times less than Cyberpunk). It would be interesting to see how the GTA6 will cost. From what I heard, the devellopement cost already exceeded two billions, so I won't be surprised to see the game at 80-100€/$.

About game cost it depend of the game and the interest I have for it...

And that’s the point one of if not THE most expensive game of all times released as a total disaster - even more the question why one should pay that much for such a fail… if others with way less investment deliver much better? It’s just pure greed if you like it or not.

Post automatically merged: Dec 29, 2023

Well man, my yearly income doesn't even breach 6 figures so I'd describe it as a massive investment. Even relative to the company's income it is a massive investment given they don't make that amount in income in a year on average.

Even beyond that, 70 million is in general a very expensive amount of money to spend on a video game. If you're only comparing it to the most expensive games ever made it might only be in the middle, but compared to the average game in general it is incredibly high. Regardless, the point is that Alan Wake 2 was a very expensive game to create, yet Remedy decided to sell it for a low price, because it is perfectly possible to sell a high budget game at that price level and still make a profit. Selling games for $60 upwards is pure greed and they get away with it because enough people buy this shit and video games are not very well regulated.

+1 nothing more to add.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

And that’s the point one of if not THE most expensive game of all times released as a total disaster - even more the question why one should pay that much for such a fail… if others with way less investment deliver much better?

For AAA games, 60€/$ it's an average price... It doesn't excuse the issues/bugs, but in general AAA games are sold more than that. Beside 60€/$ is the average cost of games since a while now (hence the debate to increase to 80+)

 

[Netrunner2go]

For AAA games, 60€/$ it's an average price... It doesn't excuse the issues/bugs, but in general AAA games are sold more than that. Beside 60€/$ is the average cost of games since a while now (hence the debate to increase to 80+)

80 is already standart for most AAAs on console platforms - sad thing is prices increase while quality & quality testing decrease. There is no other word than greed to discripe this situation : /

 

[Tarille]

There is no other word than greed to discripe this situation : /

There is another word. Inflation.

One thing that people always gloss over is that game prices have been relatively static throughout their lifespan.

I bought brand new games for £40 ($60) back when I was a kid. I still buy brand new games for £40 ($60) now.

This is contradictory to literally every thing else in the entire world, which gets affected by inflation over time with prices steadily climbing.

Meaning that games have simply getting relatively cheaper over time with their static price point.

Only NOW is there being any attempt to push the prices of video games, so they're going up by $10-20.

The only thing to keep in mind, is how unregulated the video game market is and how it's Sony that first pushed this price hike. If consumers aren't careful, it could be a "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile" scenario where they push things to the limit and they'd try to pass off $100-150 games (Outside of Australia because that's actually already the price for games in Digeridollars)

 

[Netrunner2go]

They already pushed „special“ editions way over 100€/$ - it’s unbelievable to pay 150-200 for an extra digital artbook or soundtrack… compared to haptic merch back in the days for way less money.

i would take inflation as argument if not every 2nd game would be released in alpha or beta status… but let’s face it most games are way overpriced for their launch status nowadays.

 

[Tarille]

They already pushed „special“ editions way over 100€/$ - it’s unbelievable to pay 150-200 for an extra digital artbook or soundtrack… compared to haptic merch back in the days for way less money.

Well... Then that's not the price of the game. That's the price of the extra content.

No-one is forcing you to buy "Special" editions over standard. It's optional to pay the extra money for the extra stuff.

At which point it's like what $40 for an artbook, OST and maybe a couple of extra nick-nacks. Not particularly out there for pricing (An actual music album costs about $15-20 or something right?).

The $150-200 editions are normally the ones that come with physical merchandise, like figures, physical maps etc.

i would take inflation as argument if not every 2nd game would be released in alpha or beta status… but let’s face it most games are way overpriced for their launch status nowadays.

Sure... But they're using the standard pricing model. They're not going to suddenly undersell themselves because the game is not good.

The launch state of games is an entirely different topic than pricing. It has more to do with how game development works, with pressure from publishers and executives to meet arbitrary release schedules more so than trying to intentionally nickle and dime people by releasing unfinished products for full retail price (Just ask The Day Before developers how that goes... Oh wait, you can't because the studio closed down 4 days after trying to do that)

 

[Netrunner2go]

fntastic is a good example how payback becomes a b*tch - sadly that won’t influence the bigger publisher & studios in their doing

edit: well okay blizzard… but there were way more reasons than just underperforming in that case

 

[Bartinga2077]

"WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON COST OF GAMES?"​

One time fee of €60.00 for a AAA game is fair, suppose. Games have always cost €60.00 as far as I know. Though some game devs are now starting to use the inflation as an excuse, and ask €70.00. If I'm interested in those, I'll wait for a sale.

Although games grew in size, with that they also contained less and less. So in that retrospect they stayed even indeed.

With a large exception of Cyberpunk ofcourse. For (only) €60.00 we got a whole truckload of content insuring 10s of hours playtime. And now for, (just) €30.00, (where other game devs would charge €40.00), a whole trailer got coupled behind it, insuring another 10+ hours of playtime.

So yeah, taking into account the exceptional high amount of content, agree with you that Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty is indeed kinda underpriced. CDPR must've felt very generous.

During the first 3 PSs, I bought games on the US and Japanese markets because; they were usually released a hell of a lot sooner than in Europe, ran faster, (NTSC vs PAL), less censored, and above all, way cheaper. About $45.00. Tax exclusive. Saved quite some eds.

I. am. super opposed against lootboxes! I condemn them harshly! Just because you never know what you'll get. Won't ever see me buying those, even if they're free. I'm also kinda opposed against monthly fee games. FF14 is really the only monthly fee game I ever played. (€12.00 each month. You paid a tad bit less if you choose a package of 3 or 6 months).

Now, I'm not exactly directly opposed against the fact that you have to pay a monthly fee to play the game. That's really no issue for me. It's more over the fact that this producer of that game has camouflaged his reward system so well, that absolutely no one has noticed that his reward system is in fact... a lootbox.

You never know if or what'll fall. Once, out of no less than 7 extreme boss victories... there was all but 1 reward. 1. That's when I noticed it.

On the other hand, I like micro transactions. Ranging from €1.00 to €25.00, if it's something I like in the game I play, weapon, costume, mount, vehicle, sure. No prob.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I bought brand new games for £40 ($60) back when I was a kid. I still buy brand new games for £40 ($60) now.

Yeah, I said "since a while" but I think I remember bought games for about 400 "Francs" (in 90s-2000s) when Euros didn't even exist which correspond to 60€. So currently, 60€ for a game, compared to absolutely everything else, didn't change much and seem "cheap".

 

[Schachmatt222]

Yeah, I said "since a while" but I think I remember bought games for about 400 "Francs" (in 90s-2000s) when Euros didn't even exist which correspond to 60€. So currently, 60€ for a game, compared to absolutely everything else, didn't change much and seem "cheap".

Since then, a lot has changed. Digital distribution replaced most of the physical copies, which often included goodies such as instruction booklets, physical maps and key mapping templates. These copies needed to be stored in warehouses, and shipping of course. On PC, digital distribution is the norm now.

Due to DRM, pirating is not much of an issue anymore. And gaming is booming, 20 years ago gaming was more of a niche, while today much more units are sold compared to the old times. The profit per unit has increased since then, plus the much higher sales revenue.

And thanks to high speed internet, patches can be delivered in no time, while 20+ years ago the games couldn't afford many bugs on release.

Oh, and most games were finished, and expansions were developed on it's own, while today you have content cut out and presented as day one DLCs (ME3 Javik ring any bells?). You pay 60 bucks (on pc at least) for the base game, then there are season passes, more DLCs, and MTX. The real price for the complete game is actually higher than 60 bucks in many cases.

P.S.: Phantom Liberty is an excellent example on how to do a proper expansion. Worth every cent, combined with the base game on sale relatively often, when it comes to pricing CDPR is doing a good job in my opinion. (Of course, the release state and now 2.1 just before holiday season shouldn't be excused).