Ulysses Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Well i dont know about anyone else but i am really shocked about how much a typical pc game is now, recently I have bought quake 4 and today call of duty 2 and GTA:liberty city for my PSP. what did i get charged in the high street for theses titles......40 pounds which is about $72.00 each...which is now a rise of 8 pound on average ($15.00) compared with other releases. Now i know what they are going to say "due to the rise in copyright theft we have had to raise the prices" which if you ask me is bollocks. And they wonder why we start to download more and more games of the net, at this rate i will be for one starting to cut back the amount of games i buy and download them instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quosego Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Everything is getting a lot more expensive, and the quality isn't always that good... For example Civilization 4, you would have more luck teaching your comp to dance than to get this game to work with an ATI card... A lot of people who bought this are really pissed becasue they can't play this game... Then who is better off; the dude who just got himself an alcoholclone and found out that this game won't work on his comp, or the honest game buyer??? BTW, it took me three days but the game works....Except for the ATI issues it's a very good game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goliath Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 IMO the software/games companies look at things in the wrong way very wrong they think we are loosing money due to pirating ... instead of we are loosing money due to incomplete or poor quality products. if a game/software is good and the price for it is worth it then i gurantee u that they wont have any problems with the pirating the problem is the quality of the products leave more and more to desire and more and more ppl decide to try it out b4 actualy purchsing em and realize its a piece of crap not worth spendint the money on ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Many of the smaller game developing companies do have a hard time and are not making that much money... Even some of the bigger ones are not that money effective... A lot of money is going to the major release companies like: EA and Sierra/Vivendi and the others... They actual companies that do the developing are constantly being pressured into releasing their games as fast as possible so they can start bringing in money instead of costing it... Developing games has a similar problem as genral research: it costs a lot of money before it delivers it back and the timeframe is pretty long for that matter... That is why the big game studios are so powerfull, small companies can't afford the long time without resources... If you have a look at the development cost for games (which is a lot higher than for movies btw if you don't take into account the rediculous amounts they pay certain actors...), you'll notice that $40 isn't all that much and resonably fair, for some games $50-$55 is acceptable... $70 is too much for sure unless they spent more than 6 years developing it... Luckily games aren't that expensive yet over here... $59 is the highest I've come accross... Anyway, I'd sooner pay $40 for a game than $30 for a movie or $20 for an album (music). The music industry is the most overpaid one by customers, followed by the movie industry, then software, then games. But that's just my opinion... Talking about music and software, have you guys heard about Sony and their old DRM. Stupid frakkers!!! The stuff even allows you to cheat in WoW... Bah! :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 4, 2005 Author Share Posted November 4, 2005 yeah i undertand what you ment but a rise of about 20% is exessive if you ask me, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psheldrake1 Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Neomaster. To get back at them. Create images of these games and upload them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TetsuoShima Posted November 4, 2005 Share Posted November 4, 2005 Neomaster. To get back at them. Create images of these games and upload them. Yeah, haha! Good one! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 5, 2005 Author Share Posted November 5, 2005 Neomaster. To get back at them. Create images of these games and upload them. HEHE not a bad idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 5, 2005 Author Share Posted November 5, 2005 good point MM, trouble is as they raise there prices more and more then all they do is encourage more and more piracy. Then there is the other issue of why are games and software more expensive here in europe and the uk compared with the USA. for one it is not the import tax for sure as companies do reproduce them here within the EU. But that goes onto a larger issue of other goods being more expensive such as CD's, DVD's, clothing etc etc. Again we are being ripped off by theses multi nation companies. I do think it is time that the British govenment and the EU clamp down on theses prices descrepencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S0V13T Posted November 5, 2005 Share Posted November 5, 2005 I really like the idea that Valve has with Steam. You can buy your game directelly from them, and download it, don't even have to leave the house. I'm not a fan of keeping the boxes or instruction manuals when I buy games (I cut the serial key off, and keep it in a safe place). And it's a bit cheaper too, becuase theres overhead for pakaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beawulf Posted November 5, 2005 Share Posted November 5, 2005 Bioware is doing something similar with the premium modules for Neverwinter Nights. Costs about $5 a module I think. I hope other game producers will follow suit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philly Posted November 5, 2005 Share Posted November 5, 2005 I really like the idea that Valve has with Steam. You can buy your game directelly from them, and download it, don't even have to leave the house Yea but the thing is tho that you have to pay again for CS:S if you allready owned a previous version of CS/DOD. Thats something that really grinds my gears, companies that rerelease games with updated graphics/engine, but the same gameplay. Whats the point in that?? :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 5, 2005 Author Share Posted November 5, 2005 i hated steam software, when HF2 came out i thought great i will order it from amazon as i was somewhere in the world where a pc shop is not a option with no access to the internet with my laptop......it arrives install the game and i was screwed i couldnt play it as i couldnt access steam!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vektram Posted November 6, 2005 Share Posted November 6, 2005 i hated steam software, when HF2 came out i thought great i will order it from amazon as i was somewhere in the world where a pc shop is not a option with no access to the internet with my laptop......it arrives install the game and i was screwed i couldnt play it as i couldnt access steam!! I believe that you can set steam to not have to connect to the net inorder to let you play games ;) Valve is awesome, I payed $80 AUS (usually $100 AUS per game here) for the HL2 silver package which not only includes HL2 but like, 10 other games that I love as well. Prices are high, but I don't mind paying $100 AUS for a great game, I just read reviews, make sure that i'll like it and that it'll work before I buy it, simple as that. Piracy is causing price rises. Don't deny it, it's true. Although it's only one of the factors and probably doesn't account for a HUGE price rise. I download a game, that's me not spending $100 AUS on game, that's another $100 AUS the company misses out on, the more people who do this, the less profit the company is going to make, until eventually they'll be making games at a loss. So what then? If a company needs, hypothetically, $100,000 profit from each game to stay in buisness they need a certain amount of buyers. If thier last game was for sale for $50 and they had 2000 buyers that's enough, if thier latest game was the same price, but they only had 1000 buyers because 1000 people decided to download it, then they only make half thier target profit. So, the next time they release a game thier going to have to double the price to even get close to thier target profit. It's simple, stealing games means that the prices have to be raised. That's that. A lot of people say "piracy doesn't raise profits, it's greed" sure, that may be it, but I think people are just trying to justify thier actions. I still download games though. :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 6, 2005 Author Share Posted November 6, 2005 actually most of the games that i have downloaded from the net are ones i have had views on buying and wanted to try out first. One good thing is that most games you cant play online without a valid cd key, other wise punkbuster can catch you out with a duplicate cd key. So in my case the downloaded game does encourage me to go out and buy the game if it is good, or if its bad like playboy mansion I know not to waste my money on a game that is not that good. as for the break down on the games prices , i am doing this from memory now but i do remember some of the figures Retailer profit margin 25% to 35% distrubutors 20% to 30% about 50% of any game does not actually go to the company that produces the game but the distrubution and retailer of the game. I personally think its kinda strange how when a game first comes out you end up paying a higher price for it then a couple of months later they seem to drop the prices Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaveng Posted November 10, 2005 Share Posted November 10, 2005 I think games are actually cheap. Consider: Back in the 1980s you paid $150 (inflation-adjusted) for a game that was developed by only *1* man. Sometimes two. Fun, but not particularly beautiful because programmers aren't great artists (and 8-bit technology couldn't create beauty anyway). Today we pay $50, only a third as much, but we get a whole TEAM behind the effort, including artists, musicians, and voice actors, such that you get a near-movie experience. So you're actually getting MORE, for less. As for the "today's games are crap" that's always been true. I can point to some real crap from the 1980s-era. (Ever heard of Beat'Em and Eat'Em? It involves a man without pants... and a woman. Um. Yeah. You should be able to figure that out.) The key now, as then, is to not buy the crap, but instead focus on the FUN games from people like Nintendo or Sega or Square. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 I think games are actually cheap. Consider: Back in the 1980s you paid $150 (inflation-adjusted) for a game that was developed by only *1* man. Sometimes two. Fun, but not particularly beautiful because programmers aren't great artists (and 8-bit technology couldn't create beauty anyway). Today we pay $50, only a third as much, but we get a whole TEAM behind the effort, including artists, musicians, and voice actors, such that you get a near-movie experience. So you're actually getting MORE, for less. As for the "today's games are crap" that's always been true. I can point to some real crap from the 1980s-era. (Ever heard of Beat'Em and Eat'Em? It involves a man without pants... and a woman. Um. Yeah. You should be able to figure that out.) The key now, as then, is to not buy the crap, but instead focus on the FUN games from people like Nintendo or Sega or Square. if i recall games in the 80's for the commodore 64 ranged from 1.99 (anyone remember mastertronic) to 7.99 sterling. That was my point aveng is that the companies tend to charge more outside the states, in other words ripping us non-americans off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juhan Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Heres another food for thought: Unlike textbooks and cinemas, games are priced roughly the same worldwide (not following the McD index!!). Imagine teens trying to get their hands on the latest Civ4 or WOW. With lower income levels, these games seem alot more expensive than what an American or Australian would consider expensive. So what do they gotta do? P-I-R-A-C-Y. Its not a fair thing to do and its not an ideal solution, but its a very good bargain! Imagine working for 50 hours in McD's just to earn enough to buy an original game in Malaysia. Compared to 15 hours in Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ulysses Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 Heres another food for thought: Unlike textbooks and cinemas' date=' games are priced roughly the same worldwide (not following the McD index!!). Imagine teens trying to get their hands on the latest Civ4 or WOW. With lower income levels, these games seem alot more expensive than what an American or Australian would consider expensive. So what do they gotta do? P-I-R-A-C-Y. Its not a fair thing to do and its not an ideal solution, but its a very good bargain! Imagine working for 50 hours in McD's just to earn enough to buy an original game in Malaysia. Compared to 15 hours in Australia.[/quote'] good point there juhan about the level of income in different countries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostShadow Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 yeah, here in America they are talking about rasing the price from 50$ to 60$ of new games once the next gen systems come out. I think that is bull spit. they are gettin greedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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