@chrisI'm British and live in America. I earn more than I used to in Britain, pay less tax and virtually everything is cheaper to buy here.I remember a couple of years ago when it would have been cheaper for a British person to fly to New York, stay the weekend in a decent hotel, eat out a couple of times and then pick up a laptop than it would have been to just walk into their local store in Britain and buy the same laptop. It might still be for all I know.
I love Excite Truck, I think I've gotten my $50 worth out of it and then some. I'm still playing it.Also the reason why it's $50 - is because Nintendo knows how to run a business and random poster on Digg does not.
Its $60 because all games are about $60. Does everything connected to Gears of War have to be special. I mean we are discussing a price for a game that is quite honestly just above average and in 3 months no one will be playing anymore. Microsoft wants to sell a lot of Gears of War for Christmas but it is just a fps nothing special they know that and good graphics get old fast. I was disappointed in Gears but i still expect to see lots of Digg articles on it leading all the way up to Christmas then we will here nothing about it. A tip for Gears owners. If you plan on selling it back to EB to get something new do it fast because in a few months the entire pre-owned rack will be gears and you will get $10 for it.
Stop moaning. If people want adavnced next gen games, its going to cost a lot more to make. Especially when they put more work in hiring better voice actors and spending money and time on effects, graphics, testing and updates.$60 isn't that much, RRP is $90 per game here anyway (normally about $75 online)
I remember games costing that much. That was what, 10-15 years ago? $60 then was a lot more than it is now. But we still bought the games because they were good and provided entertainment. Heck, I have some old Disney VHS tapes that cost $80 when they came out 20 years ago. Talk about over priced (I guess hinesight is 20/20)
Engineering EconomicsIt's probably too late for enough people to read this, but the price of a game SHOULD have almost nothing to do with the cost to program it. Engineering design costs, like programming, are fixed costs. It's an up front investment that will be the same whether you make 8 copies or 8 million. The market price should be based on what maximizes revenues. In other words, if raising the price 20 percent from 50 to 60 dollars causes less than twenty percent of the buyers at 50 to look elsewhere at 60, thats the price companies should be using. Knowing this is a very difficult task, especially since this shifts downward over time. So you might price it high initially to get the people who'd pay 60 or more for it, then lower the price when that demand's played out, and maybe again on the "Greatest Hits" list. But there's an upper limit on how many games they'll sell: they can't expect to sell more copies of Gears of War than there are 360s. This is huge trouble for both Sony and Nintendo-- Microsoft's 360 has a huge lead on installed user base. This doesn't really justify the increase in price for Gears of War though, unless you compare the 360 installed base to the Xbox or PS2. What I find rather interesting is how much money retailers get from games. 20 percent! Best Buy reports something like a marginal profit of 5 percent, and I recall hearing they used games and music as loss leaders to draw you into the store thinking you might buy an overpriced TV, fridge or laptop one day. I recall reading that EB gets a much better deal on used games. Sounds like story's numbers are off there to me. But 20 percent is a long way to be off.In short, Gears of War is 60 because most of you will pay that much for it, and 360 owners don't have many alternatives.
Re: Re: Johny0 and Van3ckMe and some friends played 4 player wii tennis for a while and got a bit tired of the unreturnable returns off of a non-power serve. We were also really frustrated by the unpredictable backhand-forehand switch. Granted, we didn't level-up our players (so no jumping, but that would be cool), mostly because the aforementioned shortcomings kept us from playing more. My roomate was bowling a strike short of a perfect game on the first night. I hit a homer in wii baseball in my first game. Wii boxing is only fun to watch people play because they look so darn silly doing it. Baseball is super lame because you can't control your runners or your defense. So I guess my main gripe with wii sports is the limited control. I'd like it a lot more it if you could control the movement of your players in wii tennis, boxing, and baseball. So if you like wii sports, that's great. Seriously, have fun and play a lot. I just got bored of it real quick. I guess I was just expecting too much from a demo disc ;)
piper999Dec 20, 2006
@chrisI'm British and live in America. I earn more than I used to in Britain, pay less tax and virtually everything is cheaper to buy here.I remember a couple of years ago when it would have been cheaper for a British person to fly to New York, stay the weekend in a decent hotel, eat out a couple of times and then pick up a laptop than it would have been to just walk into their local store in Britain and buy the same laptop. It might still be for all I know.
bpapaDec 20, 2006
I love Excite Truck, I think I've gotten my $50 worth out of it and then some. I'm still playing it.Also the reason why it's $50 - is because Nintendo knows how to run a business and random poster on Digg does not.
aacidusxDec 20, 2006
google checkout is awesome, the 360 wireless controller is $30 flat with free shipping <a class="user" href="http://www.buy.com/retail/Product.asp?sku=201975277&adid=17662">http://www.buy.com/retail/Product.asp?sku=201975277&adid=17662</a>oh, im not trying to spam for buy.com, these are just awsome deals, better then fleabay
kelbearDec 20, 2006
Use the picture link at the bottom of the article for the % price breakdown estimation.
vigiloDec 20, 2006
Its $60 because all games are about $60. Does everything connected to Gears of War have to be special. I mean we are discussing a price for a game that is quite honestly just above average and in 3 months no one will be playing anymore. Microsoft wants to sell a lot of Gears of War for Christmas but it is just a fps nothing special they know that and good graphics get old fast. I was disappointed in Gears but i still expect to see lots of Digg articles on it leading all the way up to Christmas then we will here nothing about it. A tip for Gears owners. If you plan on selling it back to EB to get something new do it fast because in a few months the entire pre-owned rack will be gears and you will get $10 for it.
jjintheukDec 20, 2006
Stop moaning. If people want adavnced next gen games, its going to cost a lot more to make. Especially when they put more work in hiring better voice actors and spending money and time on effects, graphics, testing and updates.$60 isn't that much, RRP is $90 per game here anyway (normally about $75 online)
fotodevilDec 20, 2006
I remember games costing that much. That was what, 10-15 years ago? $60 then was a lot more than it is now. But we still bought the games because they were good and provided entertainment. Heck, I have some old Disney VHS tapes that cost $80 when they came out 20 years ago. Talk about over priced (I guess hinesight is 20/20)
jlduggerDec 20, 2006
Engineering EconomicsIt's probably too late for enough people to read this, but the price of a game SHOULD have almost nothing to do with the cost to program it. Engineering design costs, like programming, are fixed costs. It's an up front investment that will be the same whether you make 8 copies or 8 million. The market price should be based on what maximizes revenues. In other words, if raising the price 20 percent from 50 to 60 dollars causes less than twenty percent of the buyers at 50 to look elsewhere at 60, thats the price companies should be using. Knowing this is a very difficult task, especially since this shifts downward over time. So you might price it high initially to get the people who'd pay 60 or more for it, then lower the price when that demand's played out, and maybe again on the "Greatest Hits" list. But there's an upper limit on how many games they'll sell: they can't expect to sell more copies of Gears of War than there are 360s. This is huge trouble for both Sony and Nintendo-- Microsoft's 360 has a huge lead on installed user base. This doesn't really justify the increase in price for Gears of War though, unless you compare the 360 installed base to the Xbox or PS2. What I find rather interesting is how much money retailers get from games. 20 percent! Best Buy reports something like a marginal profit of 5 percent, and I recall hearing they used games and music as loss leaders to draw you into the store thinking you might buy an overpriced TV, fridge or laptop one day. I recall reading that EB gets a much better deal on used games. Sounds like story's numbers are off there to me. But 20 percent is a long way to be off.In short, Gears of War is 60 because most of you will pay that much for it, and 360 owners don't have many alternatives.
davidroolsDec 20, 2006
Re: Re: Johny0 and Van3ckMe and some friends played 4 player wii tennis for a while and got a bit tired of the unreturnable returns off of a non-power serve. We were also really frustrated by the unpredictable backhand-forehand switch. Granted, we didn't level-up our players (so no jumping, but that would be cool), mostly because the aforementioned shortcomings kept us from playing more. My roomate was bowling a strike short of a perfect game on the first night. I hit a homer in wii baseball in my first game. Wii boxing is only fun to watch people play because they look so darn silly doing it. Baseball is super lame because you can't control your runners or your defense. So I guess my main gripe with wii sports is the limited control. I'd like it a lot more it if you could control the movement of your players in wii tennis, boxing, and baseball. So if you like wii sports, that's great. Seriously, have fun and play a lot. I just got bored of it real quick. I guess I was just expecting too much from a demo disc ;)
Closed AccountDec 21, 2006
No. Excite Truck isn't even worth $50 to the company that dumped it out. After all, it's just a GameCube game.
unununiumDec 21, 2006
If games cost more to make then why haven't PC games gotten more expensive?