Games - what are they worth?

There are a few reasons why the pricing structure isn't as bad as it seems. Theoretically:
- you're paying for fixes and upgrades and new features released by the developersw
- you're paying for support if you ever need it
- you can recoup some of your costs by selling the game after you're done with it
As well, packaging makes up less than $2 of a game's cost so that's barely an argument. You get way more value out of a game after the initial play than a lot of movies; how many times after the first was The Usual Suspects surprising?

So are games overpriced? You receive everything that's included in the price, so no, I don't think they are. However, they are way too expensive, and those two ideas should be kept separate. Going to a movie theater and paying $13 to watch 15 minutes of advertisements beforehand, then 15 minutes of trailers, then listening to crying babies and cellphones for 2 hours is overpriced, because you are paying for an experience that you are not receiving. Theaters here realized that and started lowering the prices, but only because they clearly started to lose customers. The bottom line is that if you think games are too expensive, you can complain and cry and write letters and do whatever you want, but there is only one thing that will force publishers to sit up and take notice: stop buying games.

The "evil" publishers aren't in the business to delight fans, they're in it to make money. If they stop making money, they will have to re-think their strategies, and one of those strategies might be cutting back on development costs in order to make the game cheaper. So they don't sign 50 Cent to rap on Need 4 Sp33d Super-Pimp Edition, and you can't count every individual droplet when you drive through a puddle, and you can't quite make out the digital nipples on the girl who drops the kerchief a la Grease. But now the game is $5 cheaper, and their business goes up. But if that's all it takes, why haven't they done it already?

Because we, as gamers, told developers that we want those flashy graphics and sound and are willing to pay for them. Ever since the NES, consoles (still the primary gaming market) have focused more and more towards advanced graphics production than any other part of the game. It has now gotten to the point where developers for the next-gen platforms will have to make choices between AI that doesn't get stuck behind walls, or the ability to make out the serial numbers on the bullets you shoot. And while computer gamers like us would want the better AI, we're not the ones who drive the market; the console gamers are.

If you owned a game publisher and wanted to make a lot of money, which customers would you listen to? Computer gamers are from all generations, have more complex interfaces and more computing power, and demand games that remind them why they bought a 3Ghz processor in the first place. Computer gamers also have less money due to more expenses and upgrade costs. Console gamers, on the other hand, are mostly teenagers or young adults (under 25) with LOTS of disposable income, and won't think anything of dropping $70-$80 on a game purely based on the graphics seen in ads. You can't afford to develop two versions of the game that focus on different aspects of the demand, so you pick the one that will be bought by more people and port it to the rest of the platforms. That's why Halo 2 sold so much better on Xbox than on PC, but why Starcraft was the exact opposite.

I'm ranting now and I have to get back to work, so I'll end with this. Games are expensive. And the only way to make them less expensive is to stop buying games and tell publishers "I will not buy your games until you lower the prices." So you have to ask yourself: does the price of games bother you enough that you are willing to change your behaviour? Unfortunately, I believe most people don't care enough to make that personal sacrifice, so I still have to put up with cell phones in movie theaters.

 

I would buy my PC games via digital distribution but I wouldn't be comfortable to do the same with console games. I've tried to think of a logical reason for this but have none other than a big case of game boxes looks cool. As for whether I'd like to see a different pricing model for games well, the idea of having premium prices wouldn't make a heck of a lot of difference. I don't waste money on crappy games now and wouldn't waste money on crappy games if they were £20 new. And yes, as Wil mentioned, big publishers would push mediocre games in to the limelight anyway.
Ritualistic have a great idea with the SiN Episodes, it certainly seems to make sense for them as developers and for consumers at least financially. I can't shake the idea that I'm not really getting a game if I bought digitally though, perhaps it's just a feeling the 80's generation of gamers have. I'm pretty certain future gamers will consider it natural to receive their games digitally.

 

I just wish that Joyride studios would do the ships from Starfleet Command. Too many figures out there...