GTA 4 for 10 dollars?!

I'm from India, where piracy is ultra rampant, hardware (not the cutting edge stuff - or the really old stuff) is pretty cheap, and software is quite expensive - all relative to the cost of living and salaries here of course. For all my calculations below, you can make use of the conversion rate of 50 Rupees = 1 US Dollar (actually1 USD = 48.9117 INR ).

I've usually waited for games to come below the 500 Rs mark before buying them - mostly the 300 Rs ones from the bargain bins. This can take a year or two to happen, but with initial prices as high as Rs 2500, it's worth it. Besides, new hardware here can cost around 10 X times older hardware prices (say a year old), so staying a year behind the rest of the world has immense financial benefits.

Anyway, I digress. Just headed to ebay.in (formerly known as bazee.com) to check out the prices for GTA 4 on the PC. The prices were all around the Rs 500 range or 10 USD! All original discs, the sellers are reputed vendors. And this is a relatively recent release...Just checked the comparitive prices for the XBox 360 and the PS3 - Rs 2500 and Rs 2700 respectively for Discs that have been in retail for nearly a year. That's a 5X difference in prices! No wonder consoles sell so miserably in this country.

Too bad my hardware won't run this all that well now. Another 6 months down the line, I'll get myself a new PC and see what the fuss is all about. By then R* should have released all patches as well :).

I'll post some more data on other cross platform games below.

Anyone thinks Saints Row 2 is way better? I mean, i'm having a lot of fun, an actor job! Where you are a cop and you receive objectives like stop a biker without helmet, i had a chainsaw and then I cut him in half with a beautiful animation. I can kill lots of pimps with a sword. It's great. GTA IV ain't got no fun.rmfd341

not really i cant aim for BEEP..... in technical temrs its worse :cry: but as game its better in fun, however gta iv is fun its its on way..eg i was at my home and watching tv..HOLY DAMN I CAN WATCH TV? i died laughing from those unexpeted stuf, but that game really needs time to sit down and spent time in freeplay, id say that both of them at the same time create a 10 rated game...

$10.00 is a bit steep. how much do blank discs usually cost?Philosoph

I find it easy to aim. I think it must be because i never had any videogames after Super Nintendo x.x.rmfd341

I bought GTA4 for rs 500.Ironically the pirated Cds were selling for RS300.I even know some of idiots who bought it for RS 300 bec they thought GTA must be costing above 1500RS.

Anyway game aint that good and u should only get if u dont mind playing the game on 20-30 FPS.Online is really booring and total gamelay is very short than rest of GTA games.But one thing good about this game is free roaming and performing stunts.

I wish all other games would also cost less here but sadly COD4 is still RS 125.Where as new COD5 is just RS 999.

$10.00 is a bit steep. how much do blank discs usually cost?Philosoph

I'm from India, where piracy is ultra rampant, hardware (not the cutting edge stuff - or the really old stuff) is pretty cheap, and software is quite expensive - all relative to the cost of living and salaries here of course. For all my calculations below, you can make use of the conversion rate of 50 Rupees = 1 US Dollar (actually1 USD = 48.9117 INR ).

I've usually waited for games to come below the 500 Rs mark before buying them - mostly the 300 Rs ones from the bargain bins. This can take a year or two to happen, but with initial prices as high as Rs 2500, it's worth it. Besides, new hardware here can cost around 10 X times older hardware prices (say a year old), so staying a year behind the rest of the world has immense financial benefits.

Anyway, I digress. Just headed to ebay.in (formerly known as bazee.com) to check out the prices for GTA 4 on the PC. The prices were all around the Rs 500 range or 10 USD! All original discs, the sellers are reputed vendors. And this is a relatively recent release...Just checked the comparitive prices for the XBox 360 and the PS3 - Rs 2500 and Rs 2700 respectively for Discs that have been in retail for nearly a year. That's a 5X difference in prices! No wonder consoles sell so miserably in this country.

Too bad my hardware won't run this all that well now. Another 6 months down the line, I'll get myself a new PC and see what the fuss is all about. By then R* should have released all patches as well :).

I'll post some more data on other cross platform games below.

arun_pullat

All games are originally designed for Platforms aka Consoles. Furthermore all of the games are of the highest quality and run best on consoles. When you see them on PC they're called ports. Meaning the companies reformat the game to be able to be used on PC. A lot of the times the games are lower quality, take more power to run, and have more bugs in them. And guess, they don't care, they rarely take the time to fix them. GTA IV is one of those poor quality games. I don't recommend it. Consoles dominate the game industry.

All games are originally designed for Platforms aka Consoles. Furthermore all of the games are of the highest quality and run best on consoles. When you see them on PC they're called ports. Meaning the companies reformat the game to be able to be used on PC. A lot of the times the games are lower quality, take more power to run, and have more bugs in them. And guess, they don't care, they rarely take the time to fix them. GTA IV is one of those poor quality games. I don't recommend it. Consoles dominate the game industry.

Entityshadow

I've observed that cross-platform games by publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision/Blizzard have all been of a very, very high quality on the PC. Rockstar have been having issues porting games - they'll either learn to improve or ignore PC gamers once and for all. I do miss games like MGS 4 - but I feel there are enough good games on the PC to get along.

Consoles are popular in the west among consumers because they're the cheapest option. Here in India, they're the most expensive. For around 30,000 Rs (600$), I can get a PC much better than either console (6 months down the line, with the same price, I can get a much better PC though). As I demonstrated with my GTA 4 example, the games for consoles are priced exactly the same as they are abroad - in the 50-60$ range (80-100$ in the case of fallout), while PC games are sold at much more subsidised rates to counter rampant piracy. Honestly, with rates the way they are on consoles, I can't afford to buy games on them. With a half decent PC and shrewd hunting, the PC works out to be much more affordable.

Some of my finds in the bargain bin include Farcry for Rs 120 (2.5$), Call of Cthulhu for Rs 50 (1$) and The Indigo Prophecy for Rs 50 (1$). All legal copies, with box et al :). The hyped games are expensive - but they'll eventually be sold on the cheap. Clearance sales are a greeat place to be at!

I bought GTA4 for rs 500.Ironically the pirated Cds were selling for RS300.I even know some of idiots who bought it for RS 300 bec they thought GTA must be costing above 1500RS.

sandeep410

I know a few chaps who bought it for Rs 500 - and it turned out to be San Andreas :D. I just checked out the San Andreas prices by the way. It ranges from numbers as low as Rs 250 (5$) in a thriving computer hardware market in my city, to numbers as high as Rs 2100 (42$) in a bookstore near my place. I'd bought it for Rs 1000 (20$) around 2 years back. This market is crazy!

I wish all other games would also cost less here but sadly COD4 is still RS 125.Where as new COD5 is just RS 999.

sandeep410

You mean Rs 1250, right? I bought it for the multiplayer - absolutely insane! My GOTY 2008 (as I said earlier, I'm a year behind :) ).

And I must say for a guy from India you can speak or atleast type english very well :)Helbrec

I'm not sure whether this will surpise you Helbrec, but I'll go as far as to say that English is my first language. Sure, I know 5 other languages, but I find myself most comfortable using English. A lot of Indians you'll meet over the internet will also use English that is of a pretty good standard.

About GTA 4 on a PC, I'll wait. The prices will not rise, so let's see the health of the game after all its patches, and after I buy my new system. If online is boring, that's a worry. But as a huge fan of the three GTA 3s, I'm convinced this won't be all that bad.

GTA4 on PC = fail. Save your money for a better game. And I must say for a guy from India you can speak or atleast type english very well :)Helbrec

[QUOTE="rmfd341"]I find it easy to aim. I think it must be because i never had any videogames after Super Nintendo x.x.Hellboard

Yeah, I'm playing GTA IV on my pc with an x360 controller...it's really easy using the controller. I wouldn't recommend using a keyboard and mouse for this port. Also, I've had fewer technical glitches with GTA IV than I have with Fallout 3...I may be in the minority, but I'm just saying that's been my experience.

[QUOTE="Helbrec"]GTA4 on PC = fail. Save your money for a better game. And I must say for a guy from India you can speak or atleast type english very well :)sandeep410

GTA iv is a very, very fun game, but a very lousy port. R* spent too much time implementing online registration for install, and save games and etc, and didn't pay enough attention to the game itself.

just check the official *error* message list, a very long one, those are bugs and glitches encountered by legit gamers. This game is like a beta, and all gamers are testers, finding out bugs along the way.

well, at the very lesat, with such high degree of unstability, R* should make the game more PC friendly, implementing the quick save and save anytime feature, which is a norm in PC games (check points are mostly for consoles). so very often gamers crash during saving the game in the safe house, and that's after a long and laborious car chasing quest! that's just killling the whole gaming experience~~:

GTA iv is a very, very fun game, but a very lousy port. R* spent too much time implementing online registration for install, and save games and etc, and didn't pay enough attention to the game itself.

just check the official *error* message list, a very long one, those are bugs and glitches encountered by legit gamers. This game is like a beta, and all gamers are testers, finding out bugs along the way.

well, at the very lesat, with such high degree of unstability, R* should make the game more PC friendly, implementing the quick save and save anytime feature, which is a norm in PC games (check points are mostly for consoles). so very often gamers crash during saving the game in the safe house, and that's after a long and laborious car chasing quest! that's just killling the whole gaming experience~~:

teardropmina

just check the official *error* message list, a very long one, those are bugs and glitches encountered by legit gamers. This game is like a beta, and all gamers are testers, finding out bugs along the way.

teardropmina

Indeed. Just look at the range of issues listed down on the Rockstar Support page and you begin to get a feel for the sheer number of issues people have been facing.

So very often gamers crash during saving the game in the safe house, and that's after a long and laborious car chasing quest! that's just killling the whole gaming experience~~:

teardropmina

The first time that happens, I break something that's unfortunate enough to be lying around. The second time, I just stop playing. I play to de-stress, for God sake!