Are video games too expensive these days?

[rdhight]

On 5/27/2017 at 2:09 PM, GlennRhee said:

Digitally, yeah. I'll admit, I like digital a lot for the convenience. Being able to switch games without having to stand up and walk across the room? Hell yeah! But I think that digital games should be a little bit cheaper than their physical counterparts.

 

Yes. I look at a digital game and think, "If I'm giving up my ability to loan or sell this, I should get something in return. This game should be cheaper digitally than on disc."

 

The industry looks at that digital game and says, "Hey look, no disc! No disc switching! Isn't it great? Your game will be ready to go at all times! That's worth a few extra bucks, right?"

 

Maybe someday an all-digital future will come and bring us all massive price cuts, but the current line of thinking has to change first. A lot.

Edited May 29, 2017 by rdhight

[SkyMason]

Nah I wouldn't say so. Not in the UK anyway. In the late 90s Nintendo 64 games were like £45-50 brand new and PS1 games were like £35-40 new. Of course since then new games have more or less stayed £40 RRP on release. Adjusted with inflation that means they are actually getting cheaper, but then there's the whole question of DLC, whether it's necessary, whether it's a complete product, whether it's being held back, bla bla bla. That's another conversation altogether. Generally speaking though, PC games are ridiculously cheap and the deals on digital gaming are incredible, making it way too easy to build up a library of hundreds of games, rather than the 20-30 a piece I managed to have respectively on the PS1, PS2, N64 and GameCube. Long story short, either OP is a babby and too young to know all this, or that they are just being not putting it in perspective. 

 

TL;DR : Bruce Willis was dead the whole time.

[TehCro]

2 hours ago, Bullstomp said:

If games are too expensive you're buying them too soon after launch. Never before in history have games prices dropped so significantly in such a short time. Allow me to illustrate with some of my more recent purchases -

 

*Titanfall -released 10/2016 @ $59.99, bought it last week for $19.99

*Mirrors Edge - released 5/2016 for $59.99, bought it three weeks ago for $14.99

*Star Wars:Battlefront with all dlc, released 11/2015 for $120, bought it last month all on disc for $20

 

I could go on but I think that illustrates my point. Basically be patient, you can get the game you want at the price you want

 

You can also buy them for $48 when they come out and trade them 2-3 weeks later for $40

[ElyssarArFeiniel]

You people obviously got ripped off or were happy to waste your money on specialised gaming shops who demanded more money for no benefit in return. I'm just about old enough to know the prices of new PS1 games when they released (but young enough to need them bought for me), and they were generally £20, but I only got my PS1 around 2000 and going by some other websites and here prices must have stabilized by then as there is talk of $70 games. By the time of PS2 games averaged about £30, and PS3 averaged about £40, which I know because I was buying them myself at that point (I probably still have the receipts for some of them too).

 

Gaming shops were and still are rip-off merchants, they always add at least £5 on, and high-demand games get another £5 slapped on them. It's no wonder that those shops all died around here when the big supermarkets came around and took all the trade off them (being more expensive than the competition for exactly the same product is just bad business). Around me the price of a new high-demand PS4 game ranges between £50 or £55 depending on the publisher's optimism in getting that extra £5 off the first-day shoppers, with average games being £45. The same went for every system, some high-demand games were more expensive, some flops went on sale for about £10 less.

 

This is much more expensive than buying games 20 years ago, as inflation only makes that £20 for a new game in 2000 roughly £25 of today's money, the £30 in 2002 is about £35 today, and the £40 in 2006 about £45. And just to work it backwards, £50 of today's money is £42 in 2000, £45 in 2002, and £48 in 2006. All of these prices obviously ignore the DLC and its prices, which can add up to, and sometimes more than, £25.

 

[Conker]

As someone from Australia I say yes, most games are $100+ that come out here, though you might get the rare game that's $60, I imagine it was still expensive here back in the day.

[Valyrious]

The funny thing is that video games never dropped in price back in the 90s either.

I remember hitting the pawn shop when I was around 10 years old and even there they were extremely expensive. I'd visit and spend one month's worth of allowance money and get one game a month.

I know a lot of gamers are young nowadays and they're blessed with how quickly games drop in price now, but damn.

 

17 hours ago, I Am Error said:

As someone from Australia I say yes, most games are $100+ that come out here, though you might get the rare game that's $60, I imagine it was still expensive here back in the day.

Everyone always mentions Australia's prices, but always fail to mention that their minimum wage is $17.70.

Yes. That makes a difference, you know.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Valyrious

[Fing3rButt3r3]

On 5/27/2017 at 1:35 PM, ERGOPROXY-DECAY said:

No..I pay 12$ for a 2hr movie ticket. Hell no is 40-60$ AAA game expensive.

 

Not everyone could afford to go to the movies either!! But yeah, I understand your logic here...Last time I paid 12+a soda+some popcorn and it was already 20$...oh had a churros too. Movie wasn't event hat great! but the taco I had after was great.  Totally worth it.

[FireFoxie]

I'm not going to speak for other countries, but in America I feel like that's a huge no! Games back in the 80s/90s costed (with inflation) more or the same! Plus, there are so many ways to save on video games it's not even funny.

 

1.) trade in - you can always trade in other games you no longer play into gaming stores for credit for another.

 

2.) Black Friday - if you're brave enough you can adventure out on Black Friday and get a huge deal on games in stores or heck online from Amazon from their lightning deals.

 

3.) PSN /Xbox Live /Steam sales - There are constant sales every week/month for Steam, PS4/PS3, and Xbox that can save you huge amounts of money. I can't tell you how much money I've saved through flash deals. 

 

4.) rent - rent games for a day or two from Red Box or your local video store (if you still have one in your area). GameStop supposedly is having their own rental service soon. 

http://comicbook.com/gaming/2017/10/27/gamestop-leak-power-pass-rental-program/

 

5.) wait/ definitive addition - easy solution is to wait till the price drops or wait to the definitive/GOTY edition comes out. Even after a definitive edition comes out you can wait till that drops in price or it goes on sale.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 29, 2017 by Firefoxie

[DrBloodmoney]

Nope - they are clearly too cheap, hence the continual attempts to shoehorn in micro transactional nonsense into new games to try and cover the cost of development.

 

[Babsimabuse]

I can wait, so I bought the Call of Duty, Assassins Creed...and other Blockbuster titles for 10-15 Euros on disc. That´s cheap enough.

[Mr_Skirra]

Before the days of ps store sales and steam sales (even humble bundle for that matter) I could never buy games for €1 or 80-90% off. Where I had about 30 ps2 games during the entire lifespan of the ps2, I bought around 30 games since the beginning of 2017 for a fraction of the same price. In my opinion we tend to forget that and only look at full priced AAA games, deluxe editions and microtransactions, but never at this good side. 

[RadiantFlamberge]

$60 game prices aren't too bad.  It's gotten better if you adjust for inflation, compared against PS2/PS3 games.  The AAA PS3 game you paid $60 for in 2007 is $71.42 in 2017 dollars.

 IMO, digital game prices really should be lower than the boxed versions.  One good thing on Steam/GOG is the launch discount on some games, such as 10% off for the first week.

While there are some games I'll buy at launch, PS/Steam/GOG store sales are a good thing.  Some games that I passed on for $60 look more tempting at $20-30.

[wafflestomper810]

Its not so much the games that are too expensive because they've always been around the same prices for the past few decades.  The one thing that drives me nuts is how you only get one controller now and in order to get a second one it costs about the same price as a new game.  Better not break the one I have.

[jka121]

They are to expensive. Buying that at close to $100 dollars is bs

[Superbuu3]

A vague memory but i think SNES games were around the £70 mark which was considerably more than the price of games on Genesis/Mega Drive. If anything Gaming is one of the chepest hobbies given cost to the gamer to hours of entertainment. The prices of PS2 to PS4 games have been around the same price point. 3DS games are the only thing that I think are overpriced the development cost of those and nintendo handheld games are significantly lower than home consoles yet here the pricing of games especially first party nintendo ones are price drop resistant and at the same price of home console games.

 

EDIT: TL;DR Nintendo treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen

Edited October 29, 2017 by Superbuu3

[Guest]

On 5/27/2017 at 6:16 PM, OrigamiBomber said:

Considering how expensive game development is, no. The game prices are actually very cheap these days.

 

 

On 5/27/2017 at 7:11 PM, damon8r351 said:

I don't really think games are too expensive. I used to pay between $39.99 to $49.99 for Nintendo games when I was a kid, and $49.99 was a lot more money in the early 90s than it is now. Consoles are definitely more expensive than they were, but they also do a lot more, and they have an actual hard drive memory. I remember the Super Nintendo costing $199.99 at opening day, which was an utterly ridiculous price back then.

 

Agreed! I'm surprised physicals hasn't gone up in price instead these years. But I guess people think prices are high because of dlc content, think a game isn't complete without dlc. I agree some games feel left cutted and gutted without dlc. Luckily I never/hardly ever buy games on release but always months if not up to a year later when these full priced games drops 30-80%. Waiting is great!!

[stitchesnscars]

On 5/27/2017 at 3:58 PM, g-bake_1986 said:

Video games have never been cheaper and that will get even better when we fully accept the digital switch.  

I realize that I am responding to a 5 month old post but I 100% disagree with the part i placed in bold. They will get worse if everything went digital. Currently the sales of physical copies of games that are at least 3-4 months old are far more frequent than they are on digital mainly because 3rd party sellers (hell even 1st party sellers) will cut the price of games due to their over abundance in inventory or simply because they can. I can't tell you the amount of clearance prices ive found in amazon (or even target clearance rack)on a physical game while that same game was still 59.99 at the digital price.

 

Case in point today(10/29/17) right now on amazon if i wanted to buy a physical copy of Madden 17 i could get it new for 14.99(from amazon llc)  the digital copy is still 39.99. Having a physical inventory of a game forces more competitive pricing.

 

 

 

[FarSideOfSaturn]

My buying habits make it cheap for me at least. I'm pretty patient and it's not often I'll buy a new release. The majority of the time I'll wait at least a year and by then whatever I want is around half price, even less if I shop around. An example I like using is the £10 I paid for Skyrim several years after release. For that I got upwards of 1400 hours playtime. Even one the few exceptions I made, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain which I bought for £35 a few days after release I managed to get 400 hours of playtime from it. I don't think value for money has ever been greater in the history of gaming. 

 

I waited a while to buy myself a PS4 too. By the time I went for a 500gb PS4 it was down to just over £200, then coupled with an Easter sale and me using my staff discount card meant I got it for around £160, I'll be amazed if I ever get a bargain like that for the rest of my life. Although I'll admit the staff discount makes that one a fairly unique situation. 

[SnowxSakura]

On 5/27/2017 at 5:50 PM, rdhight said:

Systems I think are pretty reasonable. It's kind of dumb that going from the base system to 4-player couch co-op costs $120-150 for the extra DS4s, but... you know, first world problems. If you have 3 people locally to play with, don't complain too loud. Some of us are lonely.

 

Games are much too expensive if you buy new releases and deluxe editions. Often you might pay well over $60 for a game that's unplayable at launch, and your preordered season pass includes content that won't be ready for months. I know past generations were more expensive than they looked because you were paying in 1980s dollars, but back then at least you were getting polished, complete games! Seriously, don't pay $80 for a game that's broken and incomplete. But if you're patient, games become among the best entertainment bargains.

Games were just as broken unplayable messes back then as they are now, the only difference is they can at least be fixed with patches. 

 

 

Cartridge based games in the 80s and 90s also fluctuated from anywhere as low as 20-30 dollars to well over 100 at launch

 

Phantasy Star IV on the genesis was 99.99

Mega Man X3 was 73.95

Chrono Trigger was 89.99

Final Fantasy 3(6) was 79.99

Edited October 30, 2017 by SnowxSakura

[Bullstomp]

Neo Geo and 3DO each cost in excess of $700 per console and Neo Geo cartridges cost more than $200 each in the mid-nineties, over 20 years ago! Add inflation over that time frame and you realize no, games aren't priced bad now at all.

[SnowxSakura]

3 minutes ago, Bullstomp said:

Neo Geo and 3DO each cost in excess of $700 per console and Neo Geo cartridges cost more than $200 each in the mid-nineties, over 20 years ago! Add inflation over that time frame and you realize no, games aren't priced bad now at all.

Well those were actual arcade pcbs inside the cartridges which explain the price but yeah it was pretty bad. 

[Gamma]

No, games aren't expensive.  To be frank, I often feel like I'm ripping developers off only getting their games for 60 bucks.  And really, that's because I am.  

[Leaderboards]

https://www.cheapassgamer.com/

https://twitter.com/Wario64

 

Problem solved.

 

 

[Lordguwa]

newspaper articles bring back the good times. didn't have the chance to own many games up till about high school (when i did manage to have a small collection of used games).

 

i remember goemon's great adventure being around 50$ managed to be able to be given from my parents.

 

on topic, as far as games being too expensive. not at all if not wanting it immediately.

Edited October 30, 2017 by kingdrake2

[Elvick_]

In Canada yes, but that's because our dollar is worthless. If our dollar weren't, then $60USD is fine for me. That's reasonable. But $80CAD is just a nightmare.

And I hate the price creep on digital games. Gone are the days of $10 games with $15 being premium. Even $15 games and $20 premium is flying out the window. $20 standard soon yay. Really sucks when the games are like 3 hours long or less. :/ Even if it's good, that's not a great value proposition for me. [going with USD prices for ease... and nostalgia for when CAD was on par and prices were the same... *sigh*]

On 10/29/2017 at 5:27 PM, SnowxSakura said:

Games were just as broken unplayable messes back then as they are now, the only difference is they can at least be fixed with patches. 

 

 

Cartridge based games in the 80s and 90s also fluctuated from anywhere as low as 20-30 dollars to well over 100 at launch

 

Phantasy Star IV on the genesis was 99.99

Mega Man X3 was 73.95

Chrono Trigger was 89.99

Final Fantasy 3(6) was 79.99

*snip*

lol, I guessed the year right before actually checking [at least for Genesis image]. Go me.

$69.99 [Hang Time is what I used] is $110 today according to this site. Crazy.

Edited October 31, 2017 by Elvick_