The $70 Price Tag Is Actually Indefensible (The Jimquisition)

[Steel]

Season pass for additional content. That's perfectly fine, and nothing out of the ordinary in paying for that.

You should cite examples where the base game is an unfinished experience. Examples?

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Season passes are part of the game and are real money that publishers drag in on top of the game's initial price and are still going to be priced the same or more with this $70 price tag. Kinda pedantic that you're eliminating that.

But, top of my head Soul Calibur VI required you to preorder the game with the season pass to get Tira who was built into the base game and already finished on release, otherwise you'd have to pay for both the season pass plus $5 for Tira. So, SCVI with season pass one was $100. I'm not all that interested in looking up every game that this type of scheme applies to to satisfy your seemingly zealous need to defend a $10 price hike from corps that are making absolutely record profits that have been going up every year without a price increase.

Also: if you think this $70 price tag means games will ship more complete instead of just being another + to the corporations profits to get the stock price to go up, then there's no point in having this convo.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

What has always boggled me (and continues to) is why games are so much more expensive outside the US/Japan.

VAT can't account for all of that, can it? I realize it's a "what the market will bear" situation, but why do people expected to, and then do, pay so much for games in those regions?

 

[Steiner_Zi]

The trade-off is Sony first party games tend to not have any MTX. No repeatable currency to buy, no loot-boxes, no skins etc., and the DLC if there is any is often a good-sized good value expansion. And their games are often very highly rated too. This is what everyone wanted, isn't it? And yet $50 in 2000 (the cost of PS2 games then) would be worth $77 due to inflation.

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Please don't tell me we've come to the point where we should be grateful to any company for not putting micro-transactions in full-price, single-player games. The fact that their games respect the consumer and are very good has been rewarded with excellent sales. I've been there Day 1 for all their first-party games and am a big fan of most of them, but they cost £40-£50 in the UK until now and now they'd cost £70. Sony has been making much more profit than ever before, much more than the PS2 era you're referencing, so there was no need to increase the game prices so much.

 

[Sheepinator]

Every game that has a season pass included in a deluxe edition?

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I'm wondering, was Bloodborne an incomplete game? Because they came out I think it was eight months after launch with an expansion and later sold a bundle called the Complete Edition. So does that mean Bloodborne was incomplete? It sure as hell felt like a complete game to me. In fact they didn't even announce the expansion until a few months after launch, but everyone playing at launch would be thinking it was a complete game, right?

The whole "complete game" argument is basically an excuse to try and get a ton of additional content for free, by comparing a game with additional content to a game ten years ago without additional content and then suggesting they should be the same price because reasons.

 

[Jade1962]

I will pay an amount of money that matches the value I think a given game has. It really is that simple. For most games, that is much less than even 60 euros. For some, it's more and it already was more (special editions, DLCs/expansions and what-have-you). They can price games at 300 euros as standard and it's not going to affect my purchasing habits one bit. Only my own value perception will, and the only thing that has really changed that over time has been my own purchasing power.

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It's as simple as this really. I don't get complaining about the prices of luxury goods. If someone doesn't think something is worth the price don't pay.

 

[KillerMan91]

What has always boggled me (and continues to) is why games are so much more expensive outside the US/Japan.

VAT can't account for all of that, can it? I realize it's a "what the market will bear" situation, but why do people expected to, and then do, pay so much for games in those regions?

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Games are actually rather expensive in Japan. Especially on PS. 8k yen (so around $77 with current exchange rate) is pretty common price point with some games going even over 9k yen.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Weird, so why are games cheaper in the US?

 

[Turnbuckle]

My ps5 is basically just a nicer PS4 Pro atm. I was already very selective at $60, and I can't buying more than a couple games @$70. Really, the only game I can think of that would get me to pay that price is something like a Dragon Quest XII.

Luckily I have a ton of other games, platforms, and life commitments to hold the line.

 

[TheJollyCorner]

Weird, so why are games cheaper in the US?

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We get price cuts on things by clapping after everything we do. It's in our Constitution.

 

[Sheepinator]

Weird, so why are games cheaper in the US?

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You have to be careful with some of the comps you see here. US prices are before sales taxes, which vary from state to state, county to county. UK, EU and AUS prices include their taxes of about 20%. Also, some UK retailers routinely undercut the RRP by a large amount.

 

[Deleted member 23893]

It's as simple as this really. I don't get complaining about the prices of luxury goods. If someone doesn't think something is worth the price don't pay.

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Yeah. I'm with you. I specially considering variance of prices across all games and the "worth it" factor varying from game to game.

Also, when you look at the games that are launching at 70 dollars they are A) games that are massively popular with the "I buy 2 games a year" crowd, and B) if you wait will go on sale almost immediately, and digitally that sale will likely be substantial.

No one is forcing anyone at gunpoint to pay 70 dollars for the new Assassins Creed.

Like does it suck? Sure. But it's also a lot muddier than most enthusiasts want to admit.

 

[The Gold Hawk]

Wild that this is still an argument.

If folks are up for it, I'll sling them my £40, they can go and spend their £70 and they can just give me the game.

They get to spend extra money for reasons I cannot fathom (I guess they hate having money as much as they love Game companies) and I get the game at the price it would have been 3 god damn months ago.

Sorted.

 

[Ringten]

You'll never ever see me buy a game for €80.

Luckily, not every shop is sticking to that RRP and games can be found for a tenner less.
Still that's a lot of money, that I'd only pay for my favourite games (God of War for example this year)

It's sad because it'll stop me from buying games I'd be curious to try. For example Returnal looks fun, but not €80 fun to me.