Death of $60 Games Impending?

[Rayven]

Here's an interesting opinion article I found today.

Why the end of the $60 video game is near | Games Blog - Yahoo! Games

 

[Six Gun Tarot]

I highly doubt that the death will come anytime soon, while games like Angry Birds and others like it are fun for awhile, I've yet to see any of my friends or people i know clock in over 10 hours on them and they tend to delete it when they finish it (not saying that there isn't the diamonds in the rough). While the $60+ games tend to have more content, better graphics, massive game worlds (TES, Fallout, GTA) and multiple of things.

My own opinion but i tend to stay away from anything posted by Yahoo! seeing how 99% of their posters are completely clueless and/or ignorant of what is actually going on.

 

[bulbaquil]

As always, supply and demand. If people will pay $60 for a game, then the makers can get away with charging $60 for a game. If they can't, they won't, and the price will fall. The market rules all. Since the price for these games is $60/game, it stands to reason that the market still thinks it's an acceptable price - and it also bears mentioning that "lower profits" are still profits, not losses.

Besides, there is a big difference between the way people play the $60 console/PC games and the way people play the $1 mobile games. You don't spend an entire weekend playing Angry Birds or Bejeweled the way you might Skyrim. They're games you play when you're waiting for the train or for your appointment, or when you need a quick jolt of entertainment so you can focus.

 

[ShenziSixaxis]

I immediately laughed when I saw the link was a Yahoo one.

 

[xSuoiveDx]

Same here, as soon as I saw it was a yahoo link I moved onto another thread.

 

[DrunkenMage]

TES games aren't in danger, best plops I bought in years.

 

[Ironclad]

I refuse to pay top dollar for games, $60 (£45 UK) is ridiculous, I wait for a deal months later. Sadly, because i'm a miser, I am unlikely to play CoD online while everyone is wild about it, other than this benefit I fail to see why anyone would pay this sort of cash.
Bah-humbug!

 

[xSuoiveDx]

Games here range from $80 - $100 for standard new releases. For MW3 Prestige we paid $225 each & the kids and myself bought 3 packs.

 

[Rayven]

I didn't say it was news. I said it was opinion.

I thought the point about the big $60 games actually losing some market share because people are gravitating toward apps was an interesting one. We have traditionally been told that the reason the prices of the games are what they are is due to the time investment of the company combined with piracy. (You know who else that sounds like? Pharmaceutical companies.) It hadn't really entered my mind that the "app" stuff would factor in. I thought the added facet was interesting.

 

[Teritus]

Games here range from $80 - $100 for standard new releases. For MW3 Prestige we paid $225 each & the kids and myself bought 3 packs.

Here it's no less than $110 or 120 for new games. Must be an American thing to have $60 games?

 

[hexperiment]

Mainstream games are so overpriced nowadays IMO. I bought Sk- Oh wait. I got this game for free. I usually buy games when they are on insane steam-sales and sometimes pay full price for indie games that really deserve it. The last >$60 dollar game I purchased was Dark Soul. Frankly, it wasn't much of a smart purchase in my part and I rarely buy console game anyway. Ah well. $60 is just too much for some people. I hope the price goes down so more people could enjoy the game...

 

[Rayven]

I'm not sure what the AUS to US conversion rate is right now. $60 is about average for a big company new release game. That's assuming you're not getting some sort of special edition with maps and statues and guide books and so forth. Depending on where you buy it, there'd also be taxes but that additional fee isn't something the game company has anything to do with.

 

[Teritus]

I'm not sure what the AUS to US conversion rate is right now. $60 is about average for a big company new release game. That's assuming you're not getting some sort of special edition with maps and statues and guide books and so forth. Depending on where you buy it, there'd also be taxes but that additional fee isn't something the game company has anything to do with.

The conversion rate is quite literally the same, with the AUS dollar a bit higher, I believe. $120 here would be just over that in American dollars.

 

[Rayven]

Huh. Well maybe they have to hire unionized kangaroos to pilot rafts across the big wide ocean or something. I'm sure they've come up with some reason to charge so much extra to the "down under" population. While I do appreciate there being some amount of markup for shipping logistics, doubling the price seems egregious.

If you go to bestbuy.com or the US amazon.com does it do something with the pricing? Is there a "region" thing like on DVDs where they can't sell the American copy overseas?

 

[Teritus]

I rarely use those sites, you may have to ask Souive about that. But I believe you can buy them overseas.

 

[xSuoiveDx]

The conversion rates from Australian Dollar ( AUD ) to American Dollar ( USD ), Euro ( EUR ) & British Pounds Sterling ( GBP ) at the moment are as follows...

$1 AUD = $1.03 USD.
$1 AUD = 0.78 EUR.
$1 AUD = 0.64 GBP.

So the conversion rate has no bearing on the pricing of Games, the price of games is based on the Regional Lockout.

For all video Games there is Regional Lockout, in other words a different code for a different country or Regional Area, which in turn affects the price.

Nintendo

Nintendo Entertainment System is region-locked. Regions are: NTSC (North America), PAL-A (United Kingdom and Italy), PAL-B (other European countries).

Sony

The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles are region-locked.
The PlayStation 3 is region-free for PS3 games. There is only region locking for backwards compatible PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games, as well as DVD and Blu-ray Disc movies. Additionally, some games separate online players per region, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 Online. PlayStation Store only contains content for its own country, for example the UK store will not supply usable map packs for an imported US copy of Call of Duty 4.
The PS3 actually supports hardware region locking for PS3 games as well, based on Blu-ray Disc regions and a mechanism that allows for the game to query the model of the PS3,but as of current it is unused and all current region lockouts and separations are about online services.

Sega

Older Mega Drive games are region-free, but some new games can be region-locked (for example, Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 are region-free, but Sonic 3 is region-locked).

Microsoft

Xbox 360 is region-locked, however, a number of games are region-free and will play on a unit from any region, although it is up to the publisher if a game is region-free or not.

Some of the reasons for regional lockout are as follows:

Pricing


It is difficult to maintain a single pricing structure that can be applied worldwide. Region-locking a console means that there is no need for pricing parity across the world; different territories can have different prices for games without people simply shopping "wherever is cheaper".

Sensitive Regions

Some games could be regarded as offensive for religious or political reasons, and regional lockout may be required to prevent these games from being distributed in sensitive countries.

Staged Launches

If a console is region-locked, then staged launches of the games would be easier, as console producers could easily control the huge bow-wave of people wanting a game the moment it is released.

Piracy

Piracy is more common in some countries than others. For example it is particularly common in China as compared to North America. Region locks can prevent pirated games from these countries from being played on systems outside of their designated region.


So the the $60 Game pricing is restricted to America. I'm not the only one that wishes our games were only $60.

 

[SGT_Sky]

$60 (and up) new release console games aren't going anywhere.