Game prices.

Bluray new releases can range up to $80, depending on the popularity (or un-popularity) I hardly buy any popular music but my albums can cost a good $25. Music is relatively cheap, since you were able to buy that over the net in many convenient ways, so the market leveled. However new release games are $100 up...
 
Naph said:
Bluray new releases can range up to $80, depending on the popularity (or un-popularity) I hardly buy any popular music but my albums can cost a good $25. Music is relatively cheap, since you were able to buy that over the net in many convenient ways, so the market leveled. However new release games are $100 up...
Click to expand...

$5 is my personal limit for movies (DVD). Yes, they are several years old, and you won't get movies like Saving Private Ryan, but usually you can see that somewhere else by then. There are a lot of average ones, but you can get some good ones.

During huge sales like Black Friday, you can pick up DVDs for $2 and $3 - nothing outstanding, but still, there are some decent ones. Production overruns I guess. (they made too many that didn't sell)

It's ridiculous that they would sell a movie for $80, when they can clearly make profit off of $2 for a DVD...

$80 for a movie is a crime against humanity. No wonder piracy has taken the mainstream. It's not scarce; it's not valuable. It's a little bit of printed plastic. They deserve a fair profit for the content, but basically, they have a license to print money, and they are abusing it.
 
Saturos said:
but it's not THAT big of an improvement/difference as say, VHS to DVD.
Click to expand...

Oh yes it is. Blu-ray is allowing displays to get larger and larger - which is all good.
 
If it's $80 for the disc, you'd think they would allow you to pay for a download at a smaller price, say $15.

1080p movie only takes about 8.5 GB with a single audio stream. They could even use a system like Steam (P2P) to charge for it, the bandwidth doesn't cost them anything, and the 'Steam-type' launcher could be used to promote their other movies...

But no, they'd rather just keep taking $80 for the plastic disc. Much easier for them, and more profitable. Sorry, but you guys are suckers for paying that much. Can't you just import?

EDIT: and obviously, your $100 games could be distributed through a Steam type service, because we already have that. It's called STEAM. ;)

The same could be done for consoles.
 
game pricing is completely broken. they're released at a set price but within the first month they drop in price so really there's not much incentive to pay full price at launch. Games that cost $70 at release can be sold through services like Steam for a fraction of the price a few months after release. so when the market is glutted with titles (christmas season) it makes much more sense to buy one or two games and wait for the inevitable price drop on the rest. but this hurts developers and publishers who have to scale back their profit margins to reflect consumer demand. part of the problem as I see it is there's next to no marketing a month after release (except mmos). publishers shoot for the bulk of their sales to occur during first few weeks after release. but by fostering games long after release (HL, Unreal games, etc) publishers can actually grow their audience through good faith and giving their customers and incentive to continually come back to the game

consoles have thrown a wrench into this old way of doing business. console gamers tend to move en masse to whatever new game is hot atm, whereas it wasnt uncommon just a few years ago for pc gamers to have a lively community years after release
 
Discs are designed to be an extremely cheap way of distribution; that is their purpose. It's pure profit for them. Therefore it makes no sense that they need to charge that much for them. They are crooks.

Wouldn't you rather have a 2 (or more) Terrabyte hard drive that holds twenty 1080p movies, where you could just click on a title to start watching? Through digital distribution, you can.

Discs are antiquated technology; I can't stand messing with them anymore. I rarely even use discs for backup anymore since large, cheap and fast HDD's do a better job.

I really hope to see cheap Pay-to-download HD from our TV-top boxes in the future, with huge removable storage. It's about time.

CptStern said:
they're released at a set price but within the first month they drop in price so really there's not much incentive to pay full price at launch.
Click to expand...
But it's understandable because supply is low and demand is high. It's got expensive launch advertising behind it, some people might have been waiting a long time for the anticipated release, and it's the new item 'on the shelf'.

Anyway, good luck guys. I can't fight for you here. Be patient, and stick with the cheap stuff. Yeah, it may be a few years old, but I can buy 20-40 movies for the price of one of your BluRays.
 
movies and books have had this same business model for years and dont have the same limited selling window that video games have. I mean sure there's sales but 20 years after the fact the Godfather can cost as much as a new release at a retailer. the movie and book industry certainly puts importance on the launch of a product but they also stick around to market for the long haul. games are pretty much abandoned shortly after release by the publishers and fans are left to move on to the next game. it wasnt always like that
 
When it comes to PC games, I always remember them being no more than 20-30 dollars when I was a kid. It was right around 2002 when I started seeing 40,50,60.
 
CptStern said:
movies and books have had this same business model for years and dont have the same limited selling window that video games have. I mean sure there's sales but 20 years after the fact the Godfather can cost as much as a new release at a retailer. the movie and book industry certainly puts importance on the launch of a product but they also stick around to market for the long haul. games are pretty much abandoned shortly after release by the publishers and fans are left to move on to the next game. it wasnt always like that
Click to expand...
You're right, but you are saying that like it's a bad thing. Who doesn't want the prices of games to come down?

Right now, games are selling better than any other media, and shelf space is valuable. Older games aren't worth to stock when new games constantly are there, where retailers are making a killing. Not only that, but computers improve so fast, that older games may not even work for the right OS, or the right console, or what-have-you.

This isn't the case for books and music. They hold their value because they are [supposed to be] timeless.

When it comes to movies, I think they should come down in price quicker and sell for cheaper. As it is, I have to wait 5 years, but you know I won't even really care then. I'll probably see it somewhere. A one and a half hour movie is just not worth a lot to me. I'll just watch something else.

But the better movies tend to hold their value. Some of it is timeless, I guess. (Disney)

For all digital media, it's not profitable to keep the factory printing up old discs, when they can use the [expensive] equipment to print up the latest and greatest, because what if it doesn't sell? Landfill/lost money: see E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, goodbye Atari.
 
CptStern said:
consoles have thrown a wrench into this old way of doing business. console gamers tend to move en masse to whatever new game is hot atm, whereas it wasnt uncommon just a few years ago for pc gamers to have a lively community years after release
Click to expand...
I've noticed this with Borderlands maybe since it's a multi-platform game and all.

The first week it was launched, everyone was like, "zomfg! Borderlands is soooo f**king awesome!" Then along came MW2, "Borderlands? :laugh: That's like, soooo 15 minutes ago!"
 
World of Goo was cheap because the production costs where low and they where also cutting out the middle man by selling through steam.

If you really think your paying for plastic in a box then you are the "knuckle head".

Did you not stop to think about the 130+ people working for 3 years on AAA titles, it staff, hr staff (average sally is what $40k?) marketing, studio fee's, equipment, bills, rent, software licenses?

3d studio max... $2500, zbrush $1200, photoshop $700.. maya, mudbox, modo, havok... etc etc etc....

And you wonder why a game costs £45quid?

Also the studio its self gets a very small % of profit. First sony/microsoft get a cut, then the vender, then the publisher and the studio gets to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
 
the $100 copys where special edition copy and yes it annoyed me that the basic copy was more then the average game. At the end of the day Activision are ****s and did over charge for MW2 because they knew people would buy it.

At the end of the day, games are about making some guy in a suite lots of money... if you don't like it don't buy them, as a consumer you have that choice.

What does annoy me is when you buy half a game and the rest is then added on in DLC or you only get to unlock this gun if you buy it from this shop. Everyone should get it all from the start.
 
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