To heck with videogames being "too violent." Are they too expensive?

[Archae]

They are getting that way.

Out side of used-videogame stores, the prices are through the roof.

I just bought the latest Skylanders game, "Superchargers."

Comes with game platform, one vehicle, two figures and the game.

Cost me $80.

I'm looking at a Shopko flyer, the Disney "Playmation" basic set and the "Lego: Dimensions" basic set costs $100, and the add on sets or figures cost $13 to $15.

Meanwhile games that have been out for several months now like the latest Madden football game is listed on "sale" at $55.

[Xyzse]

1. Dang... I haven't been playing games in years.

I didn't realize it has gotten that bad.

[TM99]

2. We just don't buy new anymore.

I also tend to lag about a generation behind in order to afford new games. I am still working my way through may of the 360's library of titles. I just started the Batman series, and each one probably cost me new $20.00. I also got two that were GOTY editions so that saved even more off of when they were new and each DLC was just coming out. I also got a deal last week from Live Gold for the season pass for Arkham Origins for $9.99.

Yeah, I will definitely get an Xbox One soon, especially after they have the backwards compatibility fully functional with lots of titles, but I just don't buy the games new. They are too damned expensive, and many are just not worth it.

Yeah, Skylanders is fun. We are still on the Giants version, and there is no frakin' way I would pay $80.00 for that series! Wow!

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

3. I remember when a $30 Nintendo cartridge was too much

I have a PS 3 and generally wait until a game becomes a "Greatest Hit" to get it for $20. I only recently got Bioshock, great game.

[Shandris]

4. I realize it looks very high...

...but compared to inflation, games had been doing amazingly well until pretty recently (and it's not completely changed yet, but its underway). Most titles are within $8-10 of what they cost back in the early 90s, although the Skylanders and Disney stuff is way more expensive admittedly. This is before DLC, of course (DownLoadable Content).

Nintendo came up with an...interesting method. They not only offer DLC for many titles, they also have Amiibo's, which are little character figurines that can store character data for that same character on select games, as well as give little bonuses in other games. Each Amiibo is 'targeted' to a single game (to my knowledge), but here's the thing: they limit production on them, so there's a rarity and collector's market. THEN they put some of them with game-expanding info also, like the recent Splatoon ones (said to essentially double the size of the game, but you shell out $40 for the set provided you're lucky enough to find one), and usually those are the rare ones (naturally). That's when it really starts to get expensive, if you want to get 'all content'.

So in short...they've held relatively steady for a very long time, but the price spike is finally underway by parting and parceling the content. OTOH, it allows them to make the game incredibly vast with deep mechanics (provided they actually want to, of course). It's a tradeoff.

[Archae]

5. Nintendo ripped off the figures concept from Skylanders.

The Skylanders games started the toys into the games concept in 2011.

I have most of my figures upgraded, (the toy remembers the upgrades,) and even the 2011 figures work in the latest game.

[Shandris]

8. Oh, did they? I'm sorry, I was mistaken on that part.

I thought Nintendo did it first, but I've only in the last couple months started learning about them (I was a Playstation Loyalist since day 2 of the original Playstation; the only time I haven't used a tax check solely to pay bills, muhahahaha!). I actually had a chance to buy the Splatoon 3 pack...and didn't understand anything about Amiibo when I had the chance. A few days later...they discontinued it. Meanies!

I remember we gave $45 at some now-defunct retailer back in the day for Yar's Revenge. I wanted that game so bad...and got a lesson that day about misleading cover portraits (...not that its a lesson I would learn for a few years, because OH BEAUTIFUL PICTURE I'LL BET THIS IS A GREAT PRODUCT!!). Ahh, to be so young again.

[Archae]

14. I'm pretty sure the Skylanders were the first with the "toys into the game" concept.

Here's an early promo video for the 2011 game.

"Yar's Revenge," that was the one for the Atari 2600, about 35 years ago, right?

Nowadays you can get the old Atari 2600 games all on one joystick, that plugs into your TV!

But if you had an original Playstation, did you have any of the "Spyro The Dragon" games?
I have the Playstation 2, it plays Playstation games with a Playstation 1 memory card.
So I can still play the Insominiac Spyro games!

[Shandris]

15. Oh yeah, a friend of mine brought over his Coleco version of the...

...99-in-1 console hits. Or was it Activision? Whichever had River Raid, AKA The Greatest Game Ever Made (at the time lol). Yah, that ancient Yar's Revenge.

But no, I never played Spyro; I was all into Crash Bandicoot and...umm...oh what was it...Intelligent Qube. I could play that game forever! And then Final Fantasy of course, and then I liked fighting games (back when my nerves could handle them!) like Soul Edge. That Spyro looked fun though; I had totally forgot about him though. Now I think it's time to go hunt down an emulator!

[Archae]

17. If you have the Playstation 3 or 4, you can download the original Spyro games.

[Dawgs]

6. I buy from Glyde.com and resell when I'm done playing.

I end up spending $20 on average for all of the top titles.

For instance, I bought Batman: Arkham Knight on 8/10 for $38 used and in excellent condition. I plan on selling the game in another month when I'm finished with it. At that time I expect it will still sell for $20 (today it would sell for $24).

[Throd]

7. First world tragedy.

The Syrians send their condolences.

[NuclearDem]

16. That was entirely necessary!

[Maedhros]

9. It's the Invisible Hand, baby.

Supply and demand.

[Decoy of Fenris]

10. You're just using the wrong medium to buy 'em, mate.

True, AAA games will always cost more, but there are a lot of comparable if not superior games available in Cloud-based gaming. "Steam" is a fantastic system with lots of cheap, incredibly good indie and AA games. If you haven't taken a look yet, I'd suggest it. I check every day for their best sales and currently have a game library numbering very close to a thousand. Best part is, the Summer and Winter sales make everything affordable (50-90% off, except AAA games, which normally hover at 20-30% off.)


Also, the games you spoke of in the OP are part of the Microtransaction subculture in gaming, also known as Freemium. It's a loathsome practice that's earned a terrible rep with a larger portion of the gaming community. Hopefully developers will catch on eventually.

[azmom]

11. Yet, another reason my daughter is voting for Bernie

[link:

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[backscatter712]

13. And she was playing patty-cake with Evan Bayh and Joe Lieberman to inflict this piece of censorship

on our country. Hillary has shown she doesn't give a fuck about the First Amendment unless she puts her finger to the political winds and they suggest she should.

Reason #61967296 not to vote for Hillary.

[cemaphonic]

12. The games you're talking about all have physical collectables as part of the package

And Disney and Lego have always been able to charge premium prices. Dunno about consoles, but PC gaming is a pretty cheap hobby, especially if you don't buy games right when they come out.

Even if you do buy new, $60-70 for a new, AAA game is in line with the $30 dollars that even the crappiest shovelware cartridge for the NES or Atari 2600 used to cost.

As for Madden, I guess they figure if people will buy the same game with a new roster year after year, they can charge whatever they want for it.

[BarackTheVote]

18. Thing most people don't think about:

AAA games now have budgets that match Hollywood blockbusters. We're talking 200, 300 million. And unlike with movies, they don't have a big theatrical release where they make back most of their monies. That is, if movies didn't have a theatrical venue to premiere into, and everything was exclusively released onto DVD or Blu-Ray, and those discs were expected to make back the entire budget of the cost of making the film, we would, without a doubt, be seeing DVDs and Blu-Ray that cost $70-$80 a pop.

I may have to restrict my game purchases to two or three a year, but I think it's generally worth it. I have no problem paying premium prices at my own discretion for entertainment and well-done pieces of art (and even if you don't agree that video games are art, each game utilizes the talents of many, many individual artists making a living at their work).

[Archae]

21. About the same for me.

I bought two games last year, and one this year.

I will say the graphics, play and just downright fun I have playing games is worth it.
Just beat an enemy boss in Skylanders Superchargers, he falls out of his sky vehicle to bounce on a road getting major road rash.

[NuclearDem]

19. The games industry has turned rabidly anti-consumer.

If it's not microtransactions, it's preordering, and if it's not preordering, it's "collecter's editions."

It screws developers and consumers, and only serves to benefit publishers and pirates.

[BarackTheVote]

20. Not even the half of it

They also don't like to make new consoles backwards-compatible, meaning if you loved a game last generation, but don't have a working system (they don't last forever), you have to re-buy that game that you already spent money on, or you have to kiss that game goodbye if it wasn't released for the new generation.

Also, publishers, and the console manufacturers themselves, are trying to go all license with their games--basically what they were talking about was, the game disk only has a DRM passcode on it that says you are able to play that game, and only on your own console (or at least your own profile). Meaning, no sharing a game with friends, no reselling the games once you're done with them.

And the icing on the cake is fuggin' console exclusivity. Which is pure BS. Last generation, I had an XBox360. Liked it, but didn't like where they were going with the XBoxOne, and I felt that last generation I had missed out on a lot of great exclusive PS3 games (God of War, Uncharted, etc), while the only exclusive from XBox that I really loved was Alan Wake (which didn't become a franchise). So I bought a PS4, and when I bought a PS4, I rebought Tomb Raider, because it was perhaps my favorite last-gen game. Well, imagine how pissed off I was when I learned that the sequel to Tomb Raider (a game that I had bought TWICE for two different platforms) was going to be an XBone exclusive.

Consoles need to be standardized. Imagine if only Sony Blu-Ray players would play Sony Studios movies. It just isn't right. Game consoles should be like VCRs, DVD, and Blu-Ray Players: standardized.

[NobodyHere]

22. New games have been 50-60 dollars for a long time.

However wait for a Steam sale (or other sites like gog.com, humblebundle or gamersgate) and you can pick up lots of quality games for 5-10 dollars.

[Blue_Tires]

23. +1

[Blue_Tires]

24. No, I don't think so...

[davidn3600]

25. Games, especially new releases, have been $60 for a long time

They drop in price after several months and you can usually get used copies on ebay.

[LostOne4Ever]

26. I remember when a brand new Super Nintendo Game (game only) was $50 in 1992

[font style="font-family:'Georgia','Baskerville Old Face','Helvetica',fantasy;" size=4 color=teal]Adjusting for inflation that would be $87.50 today.

From my point of view games are pretty cheap.

Related:[/font]

http://www.joshuakennon.com/video-games-may-seem-more-expensive-but-they-arent-its-all-in-your-head/

[justiceischeap]

27. I only buy a new console game if it has tons of content

For example, the Borderlands franchise. It takes days, if not weeks, to play through the game (if you do all main, side and DLC missions) and play through the game three times (that's how it's set up -- each game play through is harder than the last). To me, that's worth $60. However, something like Call of Duty, which I can finish in a few hours, I wait and buy used.

If I played games more, I'd subscribe to a service like Game Fly.

[Skeeter Barnes]

28. They have been at the same $60 price point for a long time. Considering that

I might get hundreds, in some cases thousands, of hours of entertainment from a game, that's a bargain. How much would it cost you to watch movies at the theater or go out to eat for 200 hours?

Games also have become much more sophisticated in the last couple of console generations. The biggest games have development costs into the eight and nine figure range.

The game I'm playing right now was originally $60 but I got it on sale for $25. They are usually half price after being out for a year so you can save a lot if you wait to buy.

[Enrique]

29. "Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it."

I learned that from Civ IV, Leonard Nimoy says it when you research Currency.

[Act_of_Reparation]

30. There's always indie games

While I don't think the current prices are that bad, if they're too rich for your blood, there are troves of indie games in the $5-$20 range. A few of them are exceptionally good.

[DesMoinesDem]

31. They are obviously not too expensive for you if you bought it.

If a non essential item like a video game is too expensive for someone they can wait a year and buy the game cheap. Or they can get thousands of other games for dirt cheap right now. There is no shortage of cheap video games. $80 for a video game is too expensive for me. I wouldn't pay that.

[bigwillq]

32. The price of pretty much everything is too expensive these days (nt)

[Travis_0004]

33. I dont think so

As games have advanced it takes longer to program.

Breakout took steve Wozniak 4 days to develop, with a very sall team (Steve Jobs and just a few other people.

Games today take 2 years or more to develop with hundreds of people working on them.

[Skittles]

34. would not know, have never bought one

shocked at how many adults are so into GAMES