Game "shelf life"

[Goblin]

Just tonight I went out on a search for the PC game Falcon 4.0: Allied Force. About a month ago I asked for flight sim recomendations and this one was the winner. The other night I went online to compusa and saw that it was listed as sold out. A search of a few other places gave me the same result and left me scratching my head. While this title might be a "minor" title, unlike a "blockbuster" such as half life or even gun, I still expected to be able to find it a bit easier than I did as the game only came out at the begining of the summer.

So my question is what is the average "shelf life" of a PC title? (We can extend it to consoles too). As I acknowledged this is a somewhat minor title for a niche market so most likely it is limited to a single pressing. I just found it strange that I saw other titles that were clearly older at the 4 stores I visted on my quest.

[roushimsx]

There's no set standard and it varies from game to game. Some games, like Half Life, are successful years after they originaly came out. Others, like Pandora Directive and Grim Fandango last a few months at the most. Then you have games like Sanatarium that get reprinted and rereleased years after they originaly came out.

I don't think you can really peg a shelf life for pc games in general, and good luck even coming close to pegging one for flight sims.

Any reason why you passed on Lock On Modern Air Combat? :)

[Iron Draggon]

Shelf time seems to be getting shorter across the board. Games that initially sell for $40 when they come out for the holidays sell for only $20 after the holidays and then they're gone. It's kinda funny, actually. Stupid people buy it the day that it comes out, or ask for it for Christmas for twice the price, while smart people ask for cash for Christmas, wait until after Christmas to buy it for half price, and end up with twice as many games because they saved so much money. I will never pay full price for a holiday release again, unless it's so fucking hot that I just can't stand it, and even then I'd probably still wait at least until after Christmas to see if the price goes down. Why pay twice as much to get it now when you can get twice as much by paying half price for it less than 6 months later?

[stressboy]

Here you go:

http://www.gogamer.com/cgi-bin/GoGamer.storefront/SESSIONID/Product/View/001FAL4