The price of games and pants..

[Choupolo]

Guardian Unlimited recently wrote about how 'the gaming industry' thinks the growing business of cheap second-hand games means less money for developers, and as such, less innovation ie fewer good games. Basically publishers like EA are saying they want you to buy their £50 game rather than waiting a few days to buy it for £20 less in the used section, so they can have more money from us, and can then take more risks. (Not mentioning how much more money they/EA tend to get from NOT innovating, and feeding us the same shite games with updated graphics...)

But a lot of developers, while tending to agree that they get less money if we buy used, they also know the only reason we do it is because games are so expensive in the first place. I mean you don't see any used DVD sections anywhere right? So their solution would be to introduce a revamped business model that makes it cheaper to make and distribute games from the start, like having smaller development teams, better tools, and going with digital distribution methods. I say if they'd make the games half the price, say £20-25, more than twice the number of people would pay it, especially since they're targetting the mainstream now.

Here are both sides to the story:
Industry to gamers - "Dont buy used games!"
The Reply

Well I was just interested to know whether people were optimistic about the way we're heading or not with the price of games and the general lack of innovation. Would you pay £50 for Madden 2007 when they release it? Would you even buy it for £25??

....

And oh, the pants bit. What dyu think to E3 putting up rules this year about nakedness? GH's 'Booth Babes' vids will be less sexy, but will it give gamers and the industry a much needed more mature image? I mean this is the internet, there's not exactly a shortage of nakedness, why do we need it to advertise games as well as our chewing gum?

"E3 puts on some pants"

:P :P

[64705]

There really hasn't been a price increase in games for a long time. For instance, when the first PlayStation (1995) was released I remember the games being £40-£50 retail. Xbox360 games are around that price today in 2006. The real price of games in the UK hasn't increased with the level of inflation, so I can understand why companies wish to charge more for a game. Perhaps they should concentrate on selling more to an increased market.

Are customers willing to pay £50 for a game? I'd say that the gaming industry is increasingly growing per annum, so there must be demand for games at £40-50. I agree that many people have an 'eBay' ethos of purchasing now, and are willing to purchase games etc. second hand at half the price.

I don't know wtf EA are talking about, the amount of sequals they churn out is hardly innovative. I doubt if they had a rise in net profits they'd increase research and development for creating innovative games. They continue to make these games becuase there's little risk involved, according to predictions anyway. The film industry is the same way at the moment.

Good thread :thumbup: I won't comment on the E3 ladies though, I personally think its ok

[Xpendable]

Babes need 2 be sexy therefor they are called Babes
I think all boothbabes should be naked btw, will give a more mature image. ;)
And it will give all game mags an 18+ rating wich is good, so people will think damn, gaming is serious buisness.
I should be running for president soon i think. :thumbup:

[Choupolo]

It's true that a LOT of people are willing to buy games new at £50, and have been since the PS1 as you say. I suppose it depends on how much you value your entertainment in relation to other stuff like good food or nice clothes etc. How much is 10 hours of gaming worth? Apparently it's 50 quid. Things are changing though it seems with EA losing profits recently, and larger retailers like Best Buy now joining the used trade, which is partly what sparked EAs (publicly known) interest in the first place. Im just dreading to think what those 10 hours on a Blu-Ray disc will cost me!

The whole structure of the industry needs to change imo. Atm we're getting games that last us about 10 hours that we'd never play through twice. (Of course there are many successful exceptions thankfully. ) So publishers have to get as much money as they can while they're hot. The games are then removed from the shelves within a year or two to make way for the new hot thing. Whereas movies can stay on retail shelves for decades, just because they are made to be more 'timeless'. I guess that's the other reason we buy from used stores, is because that's the only place we can get a hold of that cool dreamcast game we never played. EAs boss Keith Ramsdale was quoted as saying in the article that "new product is being made to look almost worthless and some retail outlets are starting to look more like libraries" with almost a tone of disgust. What's wrong with libraries?? :P

Oh and you've got a point there X! I'll vote for you.

[Xpendable]

People will remember the two magic words in my victory speech though :

Naked Chicks !







A vote for X is a vote for.. (ah well have 2 figure that 1 out still)

[64705]

What are you competing in/for?

[Hitman47]

I will still be downloading games untill i get a 60k a year job.

[Choupolo]

X is running for president of Wales, aren't yu X? :P

It is pretty hard for jobless ppl like me (and Hitman?) to justify £50 *tear*, but the £18-£25 PC games you can get from online shops are pretty good deals imo. I guess its cos they can store games for longer in huge warehouses. It gets silly though when you have to pay almost double to get a game on the console/360 compared to equally good games on the PC, but then on PC I guess you've already shelled out tonnes of money for the hardware.


One site had this to say about the babes in booths situation today, which I can agree with:

As most publications seek to bemoan the news, perhaps its worth pointing out what E3 is actually like. Battling through masses of lecherous men queuing to be photographed with generic glamour model X isn't exactly fun. There's also the fact that draping semi-naked women over sub-standard videogames doesn't really do anyone any good, let alone the huge numbers of women working within the games industry at all levels.

Rather than bemoaning this guideline, perhaps we should look to why it's been put into place. Surely it's embarrassing that a sector turning over billions of dollars globally relies so heavily on base-level gratuity to draw attention to products that after half an hour, all look the same anyway. A girl in a bikini throwing cheap caps at a bunch of fat men trying to take pictures of her crotch isn't exactly the golden future of interactive entertainment we have collectively pictured.

Remember to stick with *insert any gaming site here* throughout E3 for all the 10X optical zoom upskirt smut you can drain your nuts with, every day.

[KamisoriX]

About time we have to pay more for games. I was already thinking of just buying 2 copies of each game just to get the money running.

[Xpendable]

X is running for president of Wales, aren't yu X? :P

Hey any little country will do, I just need a base to start my operations

From Zhereon I will starzht dominating zhe world. withz operation '' Nackte Princesse''