Game Design 101 Mini - The video game prices are too damn high!

[Zazubat]

This is a quicker shorter mini, as it's not as detailed. That said let's begin:

 For a while now games have been pretty expensive, this is nothing new, games has always been expensive, and some of the most expensive form of media there is. Look at movies, while it can cost a lot to buy a Blue-Ray, DVDs and rentals have always been extreamly cheap, and now that services such as Netflix for a fixed price a month I wonder why games arn't so cheap. Movies and games make the same amount of money (on a grand scale), and some games even more. People want cheap products, and not many would want to pay a full $50-60 for a game, when they could use $10 to get a month of movies when ever they want.

 While some do this sort of thing (like Playstation Plus) they don't offer the same as others do. And I wonder why? People still have the option to buy and own their $50-60 game, which they can resell again, and not a $10-20 service they have to rebuy again and again to use. While digital media is something that both requires space, time and a good connection and doesn't give you a physical copy of the product, many would rather want cheap than convenient, and some the other way around.

 Giving people the option should be the best way of handling things, nobody is left out, everybody is happy, though here's the problem. They still sell it for the same price. They don't make it cheaper, with the only exception of Steam, though you will still find CoD to full price on there. It's been said many times, I am sure you have heard of it, but it's not as expensive to put something online than it is to make a dist and case and then ship it everywhere. And before you jump on my back, I know that there's still the problem with servers needing to get paid, services needing payment to allow the developers to put their games on with more.

[Spellcaster2000]

So DVDs and games should be the same price? No.

[Zazubat]

So DVDs and games should be the same price? No.

You have no point except no, care to explain?

[Spellcaster2000]

You have no point except no, care to explain?

 

I shouldn't have to explain. Things are priced depending on how much they cost to make. If games went for £10, the industry would simply fall apart. Companies would lose too much.

[Zazubat]

I shouldn't have to explain. Things are priced depending on how much they cost to make. If games went for £10, the industry would simply fall apart. Companies would lose too much.

I said that people should have the option to choose if they wanted to pay 60 or a lower price at around 10-30 online

[Synchronized]

This logic is horrible based on the fact that game companies have to pay salaries, copyrights, maintenance, server costs, advertising, and everything in-between.  Games are priced the way they're priced for a reason, not just for the sake of profit.  Of course profit plays a part, don't get me wrong, but it's not exactly cheap.

[Flame Dragon]

Don't services like gamefly exist so you can rent games? 

 

Also if you add together to cost of a movie ticket and the DVD/Blue-Ray you don't end THAT far off from the cost of a game. Factor in movies are more widely consumed and you end up with the reason why they have such a price difference. 

 

Well that and the average game is a minimum twice the length of a movie and often are never exactly the same each time you play through it.

[Tentacruel]

I hope you realize that a lot of game developers have been shutting down due to losses, even at $60.  We're lucky they're not higher.  Also, it's very easy to get games for cheaper if you wait a few months.  You can already get Halo for $40 on Amazon, brand new. 

 

 

That being said, I do think we should be seeing more games that are cheaper, but are shorter and have less padding.