News Nintendo: Mobile game prices are 'big risk' to industry

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/02/07/nintendo-mobile-game-prices-are-biggest-ris/1

 

Look at the Steam sales. For some reason Beancounters and Game-managers don't get this into their heads.

Pricing influences sales, lower price=more sales

Naah, didn't hear me

 

Let me rephrase that:

I'd have bought a console, if the game prices would have been Reasonable instead of Ludicrous.
Now I didn't buy a Console and I buy games dirt-cheap. The console and games industry lost both ways.

Have to agree with 2$ beeing not enough for an new-full scale game.
For something 1-2 years old however...*looks at steam sale again*

 

why are they comparing games that take a week to develop and you get bored with after 3-5 days against a game that took 6 months to develop and should last the player minimum 2 months

 

Because they want to be able to develop a game in a week and sell it for £30

 

Lower prices can mean more sales, but when sales are already low or an item is in a niche market it can afford to have a higher price tag.

I know a few people that play games on their mobile and paying a couple of quid for a mobile game seems like perfect sense. If I was to pay £2 for a PC game I'd expect it to be trash and put together by monkeys or made for 5 year olds. Thats not to say that I want to pay over the odds either. I choose my games carefully, read reviews, speak to friends and then make my decision before making my purchase. I don't ever buy games based simply on the hype.

 

he has a point, i think its more fear of people not giving in to the £40-50 a go for a game anymore that has him panicking.
I struggled to reason £30 for a game let alone the stupid amounts they want now.

 

Lol at nintendo

Games should not cost £40 for a handheld console it's crazy money

Most expensive game on app store is £7.99 and that's football manager 2011 of which will last most peoplle a long time

Uncharted 2 is last full price game I brought

 

I struggle to remember when i last paid full whack for a game. Pc games i wait until there's steam or play.com sales and grab a bargain, and xbox sales i buy at launch from a supermarket like sainsburys that are trying to undercut tesco. There are very few games out there that i would ever consider paying full price for. Make a decent game, and people will pay the going rate for it. Good games make money. Rubbish ones don't. Simples!

Don't start me on DLC.

I think this nintendo big shot is just trying to justify the rip-off price they're about to start charging. I also think they're starting to feel the competition in the mobile games market that has traditionally been dominated by the Gameboy. The simple solution is to stop moaning about it and make something special. Something that gets the punters lining up to buy the overpriced system and the overpriced game!

 

As a business the last thing you want to do is start price wars to sell product. It's a fundamental lesson. You start to devalue your own product internally an externally and it's easy for your competitors to match your price. When this happens, when does it end? The entire industry can't rely on ad-supported models and DLC alone. Fils-Aime is right here. It's not healthy.

 

More like:

"People are having more fun with cheaper games and not buying the **** we're peddling, and now I'm going to throw my toys out of the pram"

 

Neither is asking 50euro's for a game, and them blaming poor sales on piracy.
You're right that this doesn't count when a game is new. But after the initial price point has faded, keeping up a high price is not beneficial.

• If your game is bad (and doesn't sell)...slash it and sell lots (Mirrors Edge)
• If your game is good, but starts to loose momentum afer a few years, slash it and sell lots (GTAIV)

The positive side is you keep your company in view, and you bind more customers to your francise. At the cost of shoving a few bits down a download.

With consoles and handhelds: having older games available for a reasonable price (okay, 2$ isn't a reasonable price) can broaden your customer base.
If more people buy your hardware, they're likely to buy software for it too.

 

What ever way you look at things, its all "powered" by marketing and bean counters.

1 million sales at $20 is not the same as 2 million at $10 or even 4 million at $5.

It is to any sane person, but when youre projecting and guessing its never that simple.

What they need is a way to sell the game and charge you later, that way the price you pay depends on the number sold.

 

This is like saying the recent film Monsters is dangerous to the film industry.

Of course it is, because it is evidence that the evolution of digital technology, and the spread of technological know-how, means that more and more people can make the same sort of thing and do it for less, so obviously the established studios, whose business models are based on substantial investment and massive marketing budget, are going to lose out.

When all you can buy is Ambrosia Rice Pudding for 87p a can you're going to buy Ambrosia Rice Pudding. But when Sainsbury start selling 'Basics' Rice Pudding (essentially the same but less fat and sugar) for 17p a can there's a good chance you're gonna start buying Sainsbury 'Basics' Rice Pudding. Then when you see all these companies taking money off you for what is acheivable with consumer technology you might even contemplate making the rice pudding yourself.

You end up getting saturated with rice pudding. The rice pudding market is flooded, there's no money to be made anymore. The rice pudding industry collapses. Survival of the fittest.

Perhaps this Nintendo guy is worried he ain't as fit as some of the young app producers...

 

What he's actually saying is.
"Our games are over priced, we know their over priced, we know that you know their over priced and we don't care, we just don't want you to have the chance to not buy over priced games".

 

Phone games are killing consoles! It's the begining of the end!!!!

 

I really want some rice pudding

 

$2 for something like Angry Bird is reasonable, no way I'd pay more - in fact I have done most of it, golden eggs etc with the adverts and have no intention of paying.

£2.25 for the two Penny Arcade Adventures was well worth it on Steam last weekend, best money I've spent in ages!

 

Its just two sides to a coin. Sometimes I want some "cheap" entertrainment that is going to keep me occupied for a few hours. Sometimes I want some more complex entertainment that I am going to get lost in few a few days or a few weeks. Things like Angry birds are fun, but are at most a distraction for a few minutes or an hour every once in a great while.

Something like FFVII or XII, HL2, Total war games, etc...well those are weeks and weeks of fun that have tons of replayability. I'd gladly pay $10, 20, 30 or 40 for something like that (you lose me once a game gets over about $40 no matter how great, hence why I tend to be a "year after release" adopter)...$2 and I really only expect a couple of hours of entertainment.

 

Where did you bring it from?