Prices of next-gen games

Hodge4ever

I've become accustomed to picking up PS3/360 games for £30 around or just after release, however the prices for the latest games seems to be around the £40 - £45 mark.

Will this be the new norm or will prices start to creep down as the number of next gen console users increases?

I'm struggling to remember how expensive the PS3/360 games were around release, but do vaguely remember a friend of mine paying £65 - £70 for N64 games when it first came out.

DCFC79

I don't think £40 isn't too bad for a game for a next gen console.

donnajunkie

at asda they seem to hover between £45 and £53. i noticed in game most ps4 games were £60. i spent a period of the early 90's paying silly money for games. i wont be doing that again. i think its obvious that the second hand game market will be bigger than ever if they continue to charge silly money for new games. i think microsoft realised this and that was probably the thinking when they initially wanted to stop the sale of second hand games on the xbox one.

donnajunkie

Hodge4ever wrote: »

I'm struggling to remember how expensive the PS3/360 games were around release, but do vaguely remember a friend of mine paying £65 - £70 for N64 games when it first came out.

i remember paying £65 for donkey kong country on the snes and the same for street fighter 2 on the megadrive. never again! i dont know what the prices were like for the 360/ps3 at launch as i waited 18 months before getting the 360 and 2 years before getting a ps3.

Dave101t

i have a few megadrive boxes still with £39.99 on them...eep!

Joe_Boy_1986

Hodge4ever wrote: »

I've become accustomed to picking up PS3/360 games for £30 around or just after release, however the prices for the latest games seems to be around the £40 - £45 mark.

Will this be the new norm or will prices start to creep down as the number of next gen console users increases?

I'm struggling to remember how expensive the PS3/360 games were around release, but do vaguely remember a friend of mine paying £65 - £70 for N64 games when it first came out.

From what I remember games were/are always more expensive during the initial launch. I suppose they can afford to be as they know people will buy them at that price to begin with. I bought Dead Rising and LOTR: BFME2 both for £60

donnajunkie

Dave101t wrote: »

i have a few megadrive boxes still with £39.99 on them...eep!

yeah, alot of games were at that price but the price of games did vary alot and some big titles were as much as £65.

DKLS

Development budgets have gone up somewhat, Rockstar allegedly spent 265 Million dollars creating GTAV which is well into blockbuster movie budget territory.

bluenoseam

Hodge4ever wrote: »

I've become accustomed to picking up PS3/360 games for £30 around or just after release, however the prices for the latest games seems to be around the £40 - £45 mark.

Will this be the new norm or will prices start to creep down as the number of next gen console users increases?

I'm struggling to remember how expensive the PS3/360 games were around release, but do vaguely remember a friend of mine paying £65 - £70 for N64 games when it first came out.

You've become accustomed to pricing structures initiated by supermarkets. The price you pay for the game is heavily subsidised by other shoppers who pay a couple of pence more for every day items in order to pay the subsidy for games. Not your fault I hasten to add, but as a gamer & someone who's worked in the industry it drives me round the :mad: bend. (more so because I know there will be thousands of elderly people who've paid more for Grand Theft Auto this year than Bob Smith who bought it out of Asda)

Next generation you have to factor in increased costs for development, with Xbox you have to factor in the fact it's a bluray disc. Count yourself lucky though, if EA could get away with it the SRP for FIFA would actually be closer to £69.99, but the retail world does actually go to bat for gamers knowing that £70 isn't a realistic figure to pay.

I doubt we'll see significant drops from £50-60 for a while yet, simply put it's too expensive for these games to be made because of the demand of gamers. After all, none of us expects regression with technology, we're a demanding bunch & well, improvement costs money. Besides, think back on it, PS1 games were £40+ back in the mid to late 90's which by the time you factor in inflation would translate well into the £80+ range by now.

But that being said, the most expensive video game I ever sold was a second hand game - granted an extremely rare one but still 10+ years old.

frugal_mike

Microsoft would probably have gotten away with their always on policy if gamers had thought the download prices would compete with Steam. In the last few months I've spent about £20 on steam and have 12 games, including 3 'big' games (Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and Sleeping Dogs). Those prices are so low I no longer care about second hand, I can afford to take a punt on a game without worrying too much about whether its good enough. At £60 a game that isn't the case for most people.

I doubt the xbox one or ps4 games will reduce in price for some time though. Firstly there aren't many second hand games in circulation yet, and secondly the market is tiny so the publishers are not going to sell many games on these consoles for a while. Both of those will improve over time I imagine.

G_Model101

donnajunkie wrote: »

at asda they seem to hover between £45 and £53. i noticed in game most ps4 games were £60. i spent a period of the early 90's paying silly money for games. i wont be doing that again. i think its obvious that the second hand game market will be bigger than ever if they continue to charge silly money for new games. i think microsoft realised this and that was probably the thinking when they initially wanted to stop the sale of second hand games on the xbox one.

Yeah, this. I feel sorry for my parents really, in the sense that I always seemed to have the consoles that the games cost the most for. I understand videogame development costs have gone up, but as I was saying to my brother yesterday, I don't think I'd even consider paying £47 for the likes of Assassins Creed 4. It's just too much money.