What should videogames and dvds cost?

In order to keep the industry alive and make it fair for all gamer,what should game cost...the can be said about movies.

While looking through games in GAME the other day and seeing several PS3 game that were completely disgraceful in product and even more ps2/360 games like that i thought...most games are actually worthless!They actually are not worth purchasing,and the same thought occurred during my walk through the dvd section.

The problem is the standards have fallen very low as systems become more accessible,movie-game licenses more common place and new developers sprout up. With movie companies it has never had a lower standard then what we see at the moment!

The problem is that the makers of these poor quality products and repetitive sequels charge the same price as the makers of quality products. As a collection of customers we should refuse to pay that,but we dont! What gives game makers the right to charge the same amount for Halo 3 as Hour Of Victory???Yes we have a choice to pay it or not but should they even be on shelves.

So i continue, it is my belief that it is not only the improvement of file sharing and hackers reverse engineering that has caused massive piracy but also the blatant sub standard quality. I actually belive that Microsoft/sony/ninty should set up there own independant review centres that review game and price them accordingly. I have no issues pay £50 for a that i will play for a year or so.on-line,solo,good product. So i believe those prices are fair, but if any media company ever wants to beat piracy the prices MUST come down a=on the whole. Do they not realise that selling a new game at £19.99 would sell twice as much on that fact alone?That price would make it easier to purchase then download!!!!

So i think most next gen games should be price around £20-£30 ( forget dollar conversions as we get ripped off and the world knows and does not care) but Quality major releases should be able to charge £40-£50 its simple logic i know but you can make a million excuses to charge more for anything, the truth is, that is a reasonable price point!!!

As for movies, we all know HD is only here to prevent piracy as it makes the downloads too big but maybe that is a good thing. I like a really good HD movie on sky but will i ever pay £20-£30 for a movie? NO CHANCE!as customers we now have alternatives and the media companies hate this. Just look at sky tv, they have the monopoly and look how customers are treated...10 HD channel only!5 are rubbish!there is no drive to better themselves as they have no competition. In the dvd industry it is different, constant change now all because the people have the power now. Now they work for us and they dont like it. They are doing everything they can to recapture customers away from downloading (and so they should...it is illegal afterall in alot of places isnt it?) and bring them back to the stores...everything EXCEPT the most important thing...lowering the price!That is why people download in the first place THEY CANNOT AFFORD IT.

My price point on blu rays and dvds etc...£5 for a dvd (same as cinema) and £10 for a HD dvd (or whatever wins)...there is 0 cost incurred in the difference of dvd and hd dvd...why should they cost more when we are seeing the product as it was intended???

In summary, i think if quality is too survive and the games and movie industry to move forward (combating piracy at the same time) the industries need to GIVE IN,admit defeat-times have changed, and lower the prices as we certainly dont HAVE TO purchase your products. And i am in NO WAY saying that downloading NEWcontent is ok as it is not...we all end up paying for it in the end guys...its just that quality and standards are the currency!

As far as games go, I could see the prices being lowered to like $39.99. But, sometimes that isn't even a justifiable price.

As for dvd's, the same thing is going to happen to them as did cd's a few years back. Bootlegging dvd's is going to only become more and more popular until the stores start seeing a rapid decline in sales. When that happens, they are going to lower the price to about 10 dollars.

That was a bit toomuch for me to read at the moment but all I can say is that we seem to be at price equilibrium so...we'll be paying these prices for the time being. Sure it's expensive, but we're still going to want to play the best/latest games and since we're still willing to pay the current prices, the companies will continue to charge us these prices.

Well since these are luxury items companies will generally try to push the limits and charge as much as the mass market can bear. I really have no problem with companies wanting to make a profit from their work as long as the end product is worth the value of it's cost to me. I buy quite a few games which most are usually new products selling at full retail and I am almost always satisfied with what I get from these games for what I have paid. I know what I like and typically make informed purchases based on previews/pictures/videos/reviews/demos.

Overall I don't really have a problem with what games cost these days and if there are games that I want to get but don't feel they are worth the full retail price I'll just wait and get the game later. Being a long time gamer I get the impression that nowadays games tend to drop in price further and faster then they ever did.

A honest price would be $20 ($19.99, whatever) for a new PC game, $30 for a new console game. They'd comfortably get the production costs covered and would still manage to make money for themselves, because more people would buy even more games.

Think about how many kids in the forums start threads like 'I have $60, should I get Bioshock or two platinum games?'. If they could get Bioshock and the two platinum games, chances are the market would benefit from this.

I agree with you Black_Knight_00 it is very harsh on kids in particular and also if we consider,in the UK at least, the demographic of hardcore gamers is not exactly a wealthy one. I just hope the increase of Demos on services such as xbox live will stop people from paying for poor quality games having played through a taste of the game.

And on another note...anyone else noticed how demos are not what they used to be also. Remember the Tekken 3 demo?3 playable characters and the whole arcade mode and VS mode. Now thats a demo!!!

[...] I just hope the increase of Demos on services such as xbox live will stop people from paying for poor quality games having played through a taste of the game. And on another note...anyone else noticed how demos are not what they used to be also. Remember the Tekken 3 demo?3 playable characters and the whole arcade mode and VS mode. Now thats a demo!!!

piinshot

Mh... about demos. I noticed that some demos don't correspond to the quality of the final game (the demo is good, the game is bad). I don't know if this is a deliberate marketing technique or anything, but I think it's rather unfair.

Allow me a cynical thought about games price: if games cost so much, it is us, the final users, that partially are to blame. If we weren't so easily excited about any new thing the market generates (to the point of forming miles-long lines outside the stores on a console release day), it would be us, not the market, to hold a certain control of the prices fluctuation (if we let the damn Playstations/XBOXes/Nintendos/games collect dust on the shelves for a few weeks after their release, we would see the prices drop dead).
Let's face it: we are paying $600 for an electronic device that could cost $100 tops ($10 tops for a game DVD/blu-ray, taxes and production/distribution costs included). The rest is hype. $500 of hype.

[QUOTE="piinshot"]

[...] I just hope the increase of Demos on services such as xbox live will stop people from paying for poor quality games having played through a taste of the game. And on another note...anyone else noticed how demos are not what they used to be also. Remember the Tekken 3 demo?3 playable characters and the whole arcade mode and VS mode. Now thats a demo!!!

Black_Knight_00

Mh... about demos. I noticed that some demos don't correspond to the quality of the final game (the demo is good, the game is bad). I don't know if this is a deliberate marketing technique or anything, but I think it's rather unfair.

Allow me a cynical thought about games price: if games cost so much, it is us, the final users, that partially are to blame. If we weren't so easily excited about any new thing the market generates (to the point of forming miles-long lines outside the stores on a console release day), it would be us, not the market, to hold a certain control of the prices fluctuation (if we let the damn Playstations/XBOXes/Nintendos/games collect dust on the shelves for a few weeks after their release, we would see the prices drop dead).
Let's face it: we are paying $600 for an electronic device that could cost $100 tops ($10 tops for a game DVD/blu-ray, taxes and production/distribution costs included). The rest is hype. $500 of hype.

In Australia the new releases are generally anywhere between $80-110 regular edition depending on the store, with the special editions normally having an extra 10 or 20 dollars on top.

I would be quite happy to pay $50-$75 AUS dollars for a game, with the special editions being around the $80-$100 mark.

The biggest problem is that pricing them lower will likely not be enough to gain much of a profit, even if more people buy them.

Comparing the movie industry to the games industry is flawed for one major reason: Movies have multiple subsidies, video games dont.

Movies make a profit from the theatrical release, then at the DVD release, then the rental, and finally on TV programming. Thats 4 chances to for movie makers to gain money. Video games only have a single channel, and thats a retail release.

Like it or not, renting games is probably one of the bigger factors in why game prices (more specifically, console games) are gettign higher. Every game you rent is lost profits for the publisher. And since games are released in physical form immediately, they could be placedas rental in just a handful of days, instead of the typical month(s) delay for renting a movie.

Your ideas benefit the consumer, which is nice, but it doesnt come off as a very realistic solution to gaming business.

[...] Apparently we aren't buying that $600 machine. [...]

[...] What's interesting though, is that the eagerness to jump at the latest and greatest is the problem and the solution, in some ways. Sure, jumping at that $150 Legendary Edition of Halo 3 doesn't say much for our self control, but then again, the industry would be in worse shape if everybody waited until a game was in the bargain bin to buy it.yodariquo

The $600 machine is referred to is any our best-selling next-gen consoles, which are selling very well, despite their overkill (though slowing lowering) price.

My opinion is: if we all waited to buy games, software publishers would have to quickly adapt and lower prices, so we'd have cheaper games and the bargain bin would be filled with $1 oldies instead of $10. And I'm positive there'd be no need for piracy anymore.

i think video games should go back to $49.99...and dvd's 14.99 and hd-dvd and bluray 19.99

I think the games' price should stay as it is.

Firstly,it's becausei don't like to see kids owning more games than i do.Just kidding.

Actually i really think that games are really worth the money nowadays.Especially those excellent releases,which are the ones worth collecting.About wanting games to be sold at a lower price because the standard of games are dropping are just an excuse to cover up the fact that you cannot afford all the good games.If you clearly knew that the game is not good, would you even pay 20 dollars for it? I bet you wouldn't even bother to pirate it.

Game prices are high this is true, but let's have a little perspective here. I'm not TOO old(30), but I've been gaming a good while and actual games(not the consoles) have been the same price for about 15-20 years. When I was a kid, TMNT on the NES ran you $56 from Wal-Mart. Same for most other high production,good games at the times(SMB3). It's really a wonder that prices aren't higher when you look at it like that.

Personally, I wish game prices were lower too since I'm not rich. Looking at inflation and the market for games though, the prices aren't that bad.