Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
Agreed about the inflation point, everything else dropped in price like DVDs and movies in general. Back in the 90's buying just a few episodes of a TV show could cost $18 or more at release, now you can buy a complete series for usually twice that or even the same price depending on the series. Finding any movie at $10 or under new would be difficult, now just look at Walmart and you can buy plenty of films for under that excluding only the latest releases, which usually drop to dirt cheap within a year. It's now cheaper to buy films than what people used to pay for rentals. For games to remain at the same price point just seems archaic.

As for valuing games, I don't see why cost should be included at all. Plenty of freeware games are good, and plenty are bad, just because they're free doesn't mean you should let them slide because they didn't cost you anything. The same should go for games you pay for. I might be willing to pay more for better games but my enjoyment doesn't depend on that cost. I generally don't pay much for games though no matter what.
That's interesting comparing game prices to DVDs TV/Movie prices, I've never thought of it that way before. My guess is that it is all about demand, and gamers will pay. With DVDs, (?)it was mostly enthusiasts buying them initially(?). Then later with the capability to make them cheaper, companies realised they could make them hugely mass-market if they were priced down. With games, I doubt sales numbers would go up as much with reduced prices, simply because of the percentage of the population that play games versus the percentage that watches TV/movies. That's my guess, anyway. Sure would be great to have game prices parallel video.

Including cost makes some amount of sense to me, but you are right, it does fall apart at the limits. But take something like NES Snow Brothers or Bonk's. Good games, sure, but worth the price of admission? Clearly not, assuming you take out the collectibility aspect. Think of all the other fantastic games you could get at MSRP for the going rate of those two.

Daria, I agree that a formula isn't needed. The engineer in me just finds it fun to try to express it that way, and I think it helps tease apart the different factors that play a role, and how those factors may differ from person to person.