Buying games for $59.99 just doesn't seem very logical [Archive]

WCP

12-03-2009, 05:23 PM

I'm not trying to start a flame war with this or anything, but I was noticing that almost all the big games are available for much cheaper than $59.99 if you just wait a week or two and are willing to shop around. Uncharted 2 is $40 a couple of places, Left 4 Dead 2 was $34.99 at Fry's. GameStop had that deal where you trade in 2 games from a list of acceptable games and you could get Uncharted 2 or Dragon's Age for $19.99. Then there is the factor of Craigslist. I was just looking on Craigslist a few minutes ago, and there are a couple of Modern Warfare 2's on there for around $45 or so.

The only logical reason to pay the full $65 ($59.99 plus tax), is that you simply can't wait a week or two and absolutely need to have the game immediately. Even under those circumstances, you're probably better off having a 1 month pass at Blockbuster, and renting the games you absolutely must have right away, and then when you see them on craigslist, snag them for $40 with no tax or anything. Easy way to save $25. I must admit that I'm the "cheap bastard" type, so to each his own....

portnoyd

12-03-2009, 05:33 PM

Yeah, the amount of sales chopping in some cases half off the biggest titles released in the past 2 months is insane. I don't remember them going this nuts in the past.

Raedon

12-03-2009, 05:43 PM

kupomogli

12-03-2009, 05:51 PM

I think they can afford to drop the prices on games because the games aren't as much as we're made to believe. This is the reason I don't ever pick games up full price any longer because now days it's a guarantee that they're going to drop to 19.99 or lower eventually.

Trebuken

12-03-2009, 05:57 PM

I believe the cheaper prices this year on new games is a tactic to combat Gamestop's used game sales. I think I read that Gamestop took a big hit in stock yesterday, possibly as a result of these deals.

I got a bunch off Amazon for les thean retail and/or with money off my next purchase. I would have paid $60 for a couple of them (Demon's Soul's and Dragon Age are woth $60...).

Go for the deals....there are more coming.

Gamefly just had Killzone 2 for $17.99, so there are deals on older and used games as well...

ScourDX

12-03-2009, 06:03 PM

Depends who you are referring to. There are many types of gamers out there who will pay full price.

Hardcore franchised gamer - will pay full price no matter what the price
Profiteering - willing to gamble on newer games and hopefully cash in on the hype
Follower - Fans who usually follow whatever popular games are out there

As for rest of people, they will wait till the price drops.

The 1 2 P

12-03-2009, 06:04 PM

I believe the cheaper prices this year on new games is a tactic to combat Gamestop's used game sales. I think I read that Gamestop took a big hit in stock yesterday, possibly as a result of these deals.

I just read that too (http://www.industrygamers.com/news/gamestop-stock-takes-beating-on-wal-mart-game-pricing/). Although theres usually healthy competition around the holidays, I'm going to second that I don't remember it being this competitive thru out the entire four years of the current gen. Black friday of course had some really good deals, but the next three days had even better deals(or just as good) thru cyber Monday specials.

Now if only they would keep this up for the entire year or atleast drop new game prices to $40. It's not going to happen but it would be nice.

WCP

12-03-2009, 06:04 PM

This is why I always buy old games. If the game is more then $5-10 I'm just looking to play it to soon. I've got so many games to finish it really is a full time job. If I tried to finish just my NES collection I'd be an old man before I needed to buy a new game.

Yeah, I'm starting to get like this. Just today, I bought Mirror's Edge from a dude on craigslist for 10 bucks. I like buying stuff used on Craigslist, cause not only am I not paying the normal retail, but I'm also avoiding tax. It's like buying Mirror's Edge from a store for $8.99. I hate how places like GameStop give people pennies on the dollar for their games, so I'd rather buy from individual people on Craigslist. GameStop is giving $5 trade in credit for Mirror's Edge, which is actually like 75 percent more than they give for most games, but even so I'd rather give my fellow gamer $10 cash for it.

diskoboy

12-03-2009, 06:05 PM

I actually agree. $60 is too much - Especially in this economy.

Yet, as I stated in another thread - mark my words, they'll try and jack up the prices to $70, next generation.

MS is still jacking up prices on practically everything for the 360, and if they don't stop, they'll lose a majority of their audience. I haven't bought a 360 game since Summer.

megasdkirby

12-03-2009, 06:11 PM

I try my best to wait, sans a few exceptions.

It's hard to shell out $60 for one game when I can get a few for the same price...usually 3-4 games.

I like when a game reachers the $20 mark, as it makes me get the game at what I consider and affordable price.

As I speak, I am still debating shelling out the $100+ tax ($107 here) for GOW 3 Ultimate Edition. Specially when Amazon has it for $90 plus free shipping (and no tax). But I am also thinking I should wait, just like I did with the Ghostbusters Slimer set for PS3 (used to be what, $110? I got it for $40!).

IcBlUsCrN

12-03-2009, 06:12 PM

the only time i buy new games this generation are when they have sales like b2g1 , i still manage to get screwed sometimes on pricing. I have so many games to play even from this generation that i dont need to buy a new game for a bit. the problem is my short attention span and A.d.d kicks in and i get bored really really fast. Metal gear 4 and halo odst are the first games i completely finished this gen. i usually play for a few hours and move on at $60 a pop it could get expensive.

Gameguy

12-03-2009, 06:12 PM

ScourDX

12-03-2009, 06:25 PM

You forgot a category;

-Parents buying a game their kid(s) asked for so their kid(s) will stop annoying them.

Those will probably filed under Uninformed parents. ROFL

WCP

12-03-2009, 07:14 PM

Now if only they would keep this up for the entire year or atleast drop new game prices to $40. It's not going to happen but it would be nice.

It should be more like Japan. In Japan, the game comes out, and the price is very high for like 3 or 4 weeks, and then the price drops pretty drastically. I think if they used a system similar to that here, like after a game has been on the market 60 days, then the price drops about $20 down to $39.99. And so on and so on. That's kinda what is happening anyways, but it's not across the board. Some games drop and some don't. And to get the $39.99 deals, you usually have to go places like Fry's or order the game online from Amazon or whatever.

kupomogli

12-03-2009, 07:32 PM

PC games drop quickly, but in order to be a PC gamer and play newer games, you generally need to spend thousands on your PC every two weeks.

Press_Start

12-03-2009, 09:32 PM

Let me put my two cents into this:

Penny 1

I love diving head first into B2G1 sales, but sometimes I tend to pay full price. Normally I'd buy Atlus or other niche titles cause big name like Mario, Halo, GoW, etc. will make their profit and feel my money is better off supporting these forgotten gems and the companies who develop them.

Penny 2

I actually agree. $60 is too much - Especially in this economy.

Yet, as I stated in another thread - mark my words, they'll try and jack up the prices to $70, next generation.

Yeah, times are tough but you guys are overlooking one tiny detail.....

HD is NOT cheap!

Do you know how much modern-gen games cost? Remembered an article stating dev costs for a game was high as 15 million meaning 300k-600k unit must sell (given a $25-50 rake-in per sale) before they see any profit. The goal bar rises factoring prices cuts assuming they haven't made gains left.

The problem with "games are too expensive" threads is the lack of understanding the industry from the dev pov and becoming one-sided argument. Nothing against you guys but I feel that something should be said for the other side.

That's my two cents.

dodgeme

12-03-2009, 09:42 PM

I rarely buy games retail brand new right away anymore. I ended up getting Modern Warfare 2 from a cag like new for 48 bucks 3-5 days after it came out. The latest thing retail was Assassins Creed 2 Master Assassins Edition just becuase I wanted it lol.

Zoltor

12-03-2009, 09:55 PM

For the most part I agree(sigh, especialoly when 99.9% of new games are nowhere near as good as the older games anyway, but there are exceptiomns to this(Pre-ordering a game, that has special Pre-order bonuses or It's a ATLUS game. You don't buy an ATLUS game on more or less day one, you better hope it doesn't happen to be one of they better game or you betty get ready to pay a hell of alot more then 50-60$). However aside from that, there are some games, that are actually worth it(However outside of NIS, and the before mentioned godly company, It's rare that an actual game worth paying these new high prices is released).

MeTmKnice

12-03-2009, 10:08 PM

Yes, new games are way over priced. If I want really want a NEW game, I'll wait for a week or so and wait till someone has it up for sale already on a forum or craigslist.

erehwon

12-03-2009, 11:08 PM

Considering my homepage is cheapassgamer, I don't buy a lot of games at retail price or higher. It usually has to meet certain conditions:

1. Is it a Atlus game or other quality publisher?
2. Is it a niche game that will likely go out of print quickly?
3. Is there some good preorder bonus that I would actually use (ex. soundtrack)?
4. Is it a CE or DE that comes with something useful (ex. Demon's Souls DE version with guide)
5. Is it from a publisher such as Nintendo or SE that takes years, if ever, to lower prices on games?

I do like supporting Atlus and other smaller publishers. They also can have much smaller print runs of games. I'm rather glad I bought my copies of SMT: DDS1 and 2 when they came out. I am also a sucker for games with bonus soundtracks.

I'm really a sucker for CE or DE games. I have the collector's version of Mass Effect and I got the CE of the sequel on preorder at amazon. I got the DE of Demon's souls since it was the only version with the guide. On a hard game like that, the guide is useful.

I've also noticed that some publishers don't usually lower prices or take a long time to do so. Nintendo is an example of that. I don't know how many months I watched stores like kmart, sears, and target for a drop on the gamecube version twilight princess. It also took a very long time for a drop on the GBA versions of FF IV, V, and VI.

ScourDX

12-03-2009, 11:18 PM

It should be more like Japan. In Japan, the game comes out, and the price is very high for like 3 or 4 weeks, and then the price drops pretty drastically. I think if they used a system similar to that here, like after a game has been on the market 60 days, then the price drops about $20 down to $39.99. And so on and so on. That's kinda what is happening anyways, but it's not across the board. Some games drop and some don't. And to get the $39.99 deals, you usually have to go places like Fry's or order the game online from Amazon or whatever.

The way I see it is more game developer will be releasing game at $60 and hopefully cash-in on DLC. This means whatever new game you got will have missing content. If wants complete experience, you'll have to pay more. So the price for full complete game will not be $60, it will be $120 or more. Activision is doing it with their Guitar Heroes franchise and I am sure other company will follow suit.

WCP

12-03-2009, 11:49 PM

The way I see it is more game developer will be releasing game at $60 and hopefully cash-in on DLC. This means whatever new game you got will have missing content. If wants complete experience, you'll have to pay more. So the price for full complete game will not be $60, it will be $120 or more. Activision is doing it with their Guitar Heroes franchise and I am sure other company will follow suit.

True, but if you're a "really" cheap bastard, then you just wait an extra year to get the "game of the year" edition, that comes with all the DLC added to it. Like for Fallout 3. I recently bought Fallout 3 for 16 bucks. Just the regular version. Next year, I'll probably see the GOTY version somewhere for 15 bucks. I've got so many games on my pile of shame stack, that I can pretty much wait a year or two to get this stuff for a song.

The games that you can't really get any deals on are the Xbox Live Arcade games. I mean, at least with PSN you can do game sharing, and they also sometimes have sales on PSN games. Like right now, I think a few PSN games are 50 percent off like Flower. With XBLM, they very, very, very rarely have a sale, and I find that even the sale price is way too high. I'm not looking forward to the digital download era, because it will mean the end of finding great deals on things. Today I bought Mirror's Edge for $10 (no tax), and I got Dead Space for $9.99 plus tax. In the Digital Download future, that would never happen. (I already know that somebody is going to mention the amazing sales that Steam have, but I'm not talking about Steam. I'm talking about Microsoft and Sony. They are just too damn greedy to have any rock bottom sales. You won't ever see any of their high profile catalog games selling for 1/6th their original price like I got Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. Just look at Microsoft's prices on Xbox originals or their new downloadable 360 games. Some of those games are being sold for $14.99 or $9.99 new now, and yet they are selling them for $19.99 or whatever, and you're not even getting a physical item that can be resold or traded in, or lent to a friend.

skaar

12-04-2009, 12:01 AM

If you don't buy your games at full price, then the terrorists win.

kupomogli

12-04-2009, 01:07 AM

Atlus games are no longer rare anymore. The Demon's Souls Deluxe Edition was, but usually if you miss an Atlus game nowdays you don't have to pay out the ass to pick it up in the future.

I just searched every game Atlus released stateside from now to Trauma Center New Blood, released in November, 2007.

A full two years. Every game but two of them were fulfilled by Amazon(Spectral Force 3 and Dokapon Kingdom(Wii version only/PS2 version can still be bought for 19.99.) Now the ones in 2009, obviously, haven't dropped price. Most in 2008 can be found for less than MSRP, alot at 19.99.

Alot of games further back can still be bought for a fair price. However, games such as Growlanser Heritage of War and Monster Kingdom Jewel Summoner can't be bought for a decent price unless it's on Ebay. These two sold pretty poorly even shortly after release.

But again, I listed everything up to two years and you can still buy them all but two(and one of those is still available on PS2.) If you're a retard who goes to purchase a game after two years, regardless if it's Atlus or whoever, then you deserve to pay overly priced new game prices unless it's one of those games that are obviously going to sell for a long time.

Icarus Moonsight

12-04-2009, 02:34 AM

Not everything that takes millions to produce is worth full MSRP to experience. I call "Pluto Nash" to the stand...

Cryomancer

12-04-2009, 02:53 AM

I agree that they cost too much, I only pay retail for developers I specifically wish to support, or games I would have never thought we'd ever get, etc. I bought EDF and both Onechanbara games at full retail for example. I want more crazy budget Japanese games, so I voted with my dollar.

Games don't HAVE TO cost millions of dollars. I'm sure lots of people enojy their "cinematic" FPS games and whatnot, but I personally don't most the time. I like games with simple graphics and silly premises. There is plenty of ground to cover left for "cheap to make" games. How about some new english translations of old games that we never got, more collections (where is our colorized Game Boy Megaman games Capcom? You said you were doing it!), and just standard puzzle/shooting games and so on.

Unrelated rant: I wish they'd put some of the effort that would go to graphics and put it to damn COLLISION DETECTION instead. Holy crap there is bad collision in games lately.

j_factor

12-04-2009, 02:57 AM

Yeah, times are tough but you guys are overlooking one tiny detail.....

HD is NOT cheap!

Do you know how much modern-gen games cost? Remembered an article stating dev costs for a game was high as 15 million meaning 300k-600k unit must sell (given a $25-50 rake-in per sale) before they see any profit. The goal bar rises factoring prices cuts assuming they haven't made gains left.

The problem with "games are too expensive" threads is the lack of understanding the industry from the dev pov and becoming one-sided argument. Nothing against you guys but I feel that something should be said for the other side.

But it's cheap enough that there are multitudes of sales and price drops. Look at Mirror's Edge. Full price, $60 release, and the price was dropped in less than two months. And then it was dropped again and again. One year after its release, it's $9.99. Couldn't it have just as easily come out at $39.99 and then held firm on the price?

Zoltor

12-04-2009, 03:11 AM

Rickstilwell1

12-04-2009, 03:11 AM

If it's not an RPG I can spend countless hours on, I don't see it worth getting until it's used at that price. I last bought Disgaea 3 for $50 new.

skaar

12-04-2009, 03:52 AM

It's market saturation. They'll only keep so many titles on shelf, and if you want to stay on shelf you need to either be selling enough per week to justify staying with the A titles or you keep moving down a grade until you're in the bargain bin.

They keep lowering the price because there's still no reason not to sell more units at a discount - the profit is still there, and it's not worth calling it back - you just give a rebate to the retailer and they drop the price for you. You can remanufacture for years and still make "free money" off a game... and the customers get a bargain.

People pay MSRP to play it near release because it's an in demand game others are playing.

Press_Start

12-04-2009, 04:03 AM

But it's cheap enough that there are multitudes of sales and price drops. Look at Mirror's Edge. Full price, $60 release, and the price was dropped in less than two months. And then it was dropped again and again. One year after its release, it's $9.99. Couldn't it have just as easily come out at $39.99 and then held firm on the price?

Going back to my example, if they chopped $20 off from the start (assuming they make $15-35 per sale), then the numbers skyrockets in the range of 400K to 1 million. That's setting the bar way high. Unless you can confidently convince an exec that $40 starting price will cover 400k-1MILL units needed AND make them more money than without the $20 cut, then that kind of idea is very risky especially with new franchise.

On top of that, for every one game approved, there's 3 or 4 unfinished games waiting in the wings the company have to pay and factor in.

skaar

12-04-2009, 04:31 AM

Going back to my example, if they chopped $20 off from the start (assuming they make $15-35 per sale), then the numbers skyrockets in the range of 400K to 1 million. That's setting the bar way high. Unless you can confidently convince an exec that $40 starting price will cover 400k-1MILL units needed AND make them more money than without the $20 cut, then that kind of idea is very risky especially with new franchise.

On top of that, for every one game approved, there's 3 or 4 unfinished games waiting in the wings the company have to pay and factor in.

Retailers expect you to price at a certain level as they want more margin on new titles. GS is the worst for this. Deciding what price point you're going out at is a lot more complicated than you think, Jr. CEO ;)

Considering the cost of development these days, it's a tough gig.

Legend Of Zelda

12-04-2009, 05:11 AM

$60 is why I'm glad I don't have any of the new systems. I'm a little saddened by $40 for a DS game, but it's still better than $60 and it's usually only for big titles like FFIII etc.

Oobgarm

12-04-2009, 06:57 AM

I actually waited on Left 4 Dead 2 and was pleased to get it at nearly 50% off just by waiting. Outside of the Limited Edition releases I want, I think this is going to be the way to go in the future. I know that it's mostly thanks to the holiday season, but if sales ever stagnate it's nice to know that retailers can afford to lower their prices so much to incite a sales increase.

I'm still of the firm belief that these guys can still afford to put games out at $40 and still make a profit, regardless of what they've invested in the title. I would guarantee you if Activision released Modern Warfare 2 at $40 instead of $60, they'd still have made the same amount of money they did putting it out at the higher price. It'd take more copies sold to get there, but I think that $20 savings would spur sales enough.

BydoEmpire

12-04-2009, 07:25 AM

I've had my 360 for what, three years now and I have yet to buy a full-priced retail game. eBay and Gamefly have pretty much saved me. I have bought a bunch of $50 Wii titles, but that's slowed down dramatically in the last year.

I don't have a problem with $60 games, it's just that I'm not that interested in as many of the "big blockbuster" games companies are putting out nowadays so if there is one I want to play I don't mind waiting for a price drop (or I'll just Gamefly it).

duffmanth

12-04-2009, 08:18 AM

I buy so few games over the course of a year, that I don't mind paying full price for a few of them. The only games that I've bought this year at $60 is Infamous, Killzone 2, and Uncharted 2. Last year I only bought about a half dozen games at full price, most of which were well worth it. I'm not one of these gamers who will go into whatever game store and buy boat loads of used games just cuz they're cheap mainly because I don't want to have hundreds of games laying around. I just like to keep a small collection of my core favorites and the odd obscure game or two thrown in there as well. I probably average 1 game/month whether it's new at full price, new at a discounted price, or used.

That being said though, it takes a lot for me to spend $60 or more on a game these days. This whole discussion goes back to something I posted months ago, gaming has always been and will probably always be an expensive hobby. It's just up to each individual gamer to decide how much they're willing to spend on certain games. For me, top notch AAA games like MGS4, GTA4, Uncharted 2, Halo 3, and Modern Warfare 2 among others, I have no problem paying full price for. It's unfortunate that games of this caliber are floating amongst a sea of what should be $20 games for the most part, but that's the way it's usually been.

bcks007

12-04-2009, 06:01 PM

The last game i paid more then 60 was for Turok on the n64, bought it day 1 for $70 bucks at a fred meyer. At the time it was worth it to me, but looking back on it, that was alot of money wasted that day.

Damaramu

12-04-2009, 07:26 PM

A game has to be something really special for me to drop $60 on it. I play the waiting game and will pick a game up after its been discounted by half or more.

The last game I paid full price for was the Street Fighter IV Collectors Edition.

Zap!

12-04-2009, 07:32 PM

Certain Nintendo first party Wii games just don't drop. Aren't Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and Mario Kart Wii still $49.99?

Sonicwolf

12-04-2009, 08:29 PM

Almost all new releases where I live are 69.99 now.

Ouch.

kupomogli

12-04-2009, 08:39 PM

Certain Nintendo first party Wii games just don't drop. Aren't Super Mario Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and Mario Kart Wii still $49.99?

Also all their first party DS titles still in production. Super Mario 64, Mario Kart DS, Zelda, New Super Mario Bros, every Pokemon, etc.

Good sales or poor, Nintendo never price drops. Last generation there were a few that dropped in price to 29.99, some to 19.99, then they went out of print.

If you buy Nintendo first party, you better look around Amazon or hope you hit a lucky sale somewhere else if you ever want to see lower than the MSRP.

duffmanth

12-04-2009, 10:03 PM

Almost all new releases where I live are 69.99 now.

Ouch.

Actually $59.99-$69.99 CDN. seems like a bargain compared to what games were going for last generation, usually $79.99 and even higher in some cases.

WCP

12-04-2009, 10:55 PM

$60 is why I'm glad I don't have any of the new systems. I'm a little saddened by $40 for a DS game, but it's still better than $60 and it's usually only for big titles like FFIII etc.

Yeah, paying $39.99 or even $34.99 for a portable game is pretty crazy, imo. I honestly don't even consider buying those until they hit the $29.99 or $24.99 range. Sometimes it's even hard for me to consider them at that price. It's pretty crazy when two new games cost more than what you could buy the system for used.

By the way... I got Dead Space at Blockbuster last night for $9.99. It was complete with a good case and manual and the disk had no scratches on it. I think it might have been a trade in or something.