The Japanese are putting out a lot of AA games this gen.
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Ok we have to talk about price crashes
- Thread starter madmackem
- Start date
The Japanese are putting out a lot of AA games this gen.
7DollarHagane
Banned
One post and done.
I bought Titanfall 2 digital pre order tho and love that game so don't regret it.
Bought almost every other big title this holiday for $30 or less
Jack The Nipper
Banned
games have always been mostly high price, maybe they can all just drop down to 40 and see if the increase of sales happen for more profits and more games being bought by more people overall
Yeah it can't be sustainable, but personally I don't buy games if they're more than £20 and even that is my upper limit.
With PSN and Steam and sales and even second hand games I can generally find most games for half that
(I also play a lot of older games, which helps)
What's bad for the industry is that hype culture.
Games are only sold during one or two weeks before being forgotten with the only exception of a few long sellers.
So, customers returning to being more cautious (no preorder, no day one purchase, wait for customer feedbacks) can only be a good thing to re-establish what was previously the norm.
Games are only sold during one or two weeks before being forgotten with the only exception of a few long sellers.
So, customers returning to being more cautious (no preorder, no day one purchase, wait for customer feedbacks) can only be a good thing to re-establish what was previously the norm.
Yeah, this.
These days, there are very few games I absolutely want to play the day they're released. The next Steam sale is never that far away, the backlog is getting huge and I've always had that one game that I play regularly for 12 to 24 months before getting burnt out on it. Currently, that game is Rocket League. Still.
I used to always buy games day 1 and often had them sitting on my shelf unplayed for months. The glut of titles with rushed/buggy/fucked up launches combined with constantly cutting or delaying content to sell it as DLC finally got me to stop and instead buy a few months later.
There are very few games I feel like I NEED to have day 1, since I don't play online often. So why pay $60 + $20 to $50 more for season passes when I can wait a few months and get all of it for a steep discount?
The solution from a company's perspective is to stop fucking customers over by rushing unfinished games out the door, which makes customers ask why they bother buying day 1.
Maybe also stop releasing everything in the same 1-2 month period, which leads to less popular titles getting prices slashed since people focus on the bigger titles for Christmas purchases. (And even then bigger titles wind up with prices slashed since there is so much competition due to everything being released at the same time)
There are very few games I feel like I NEED to have day 1, since I don't play online often. So why pay $60 + $20 to $50 more for season passes when I can wait a few months and get all of it for a steep discount?
The solution from a company's perspective is to stop fucking customers over by rushing unfinished games out the door, which makes customers ask why they bother buying day 1.
Maybe also stop releasing everything in the same 1-2 month period, which leads to less popular titles getting prices slashed since people focus on the bigger titles for Christmas purchases. (And even then bigger titles wind up with prices slashed since there is so much competition due to everything being released at the same time)
Oh yeah, thank you for the explanation. I've already wondered why games like NG 3 RE and Deus EX HR are 60 on the e-shop, so I guess, they still sell like crazy.
OrbitalBeard
Member
In the states, Nintendo games definitely go on sale on sites like Amazon. It just happens much less frequently than every other publisher.
You'd think amazon would have this in the uk by now, assholes.
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
Almost every game that dropped to that uber-low price has additional content to sell. Season passes up the wazoo, and those games will let you know about it.
Game publishers want to push their games as a service, they need folks filling up those multiplayer queues, so what better way to do that then drop the price like crazy for Black Friday and then reap the benefits.
I don't think it's going to work out too well in the long term - there's only so many massive multiplayer services that people will want to play at once. Or hell, even single player for that matter. I want to play Battlefield, Titanfall, Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare Remastered, plus I want to go get the DLC for Star Wars Battlefront, pick up Doom, etc etc.
I'm just a casual FPS player and I just can't keep up. I've long since stopped caring, most of those games will be $5 in two years. Patience is a virtue when you have a backlog.
Game publishers want to push their games as a service, they need folks filling up those multiplayer queues, so what better way to do that then drop the price like crazy for Black Friday and then reap the benefits.
I don't think it's going to work out too well in the long term - there's only so many massive multiplayer services that people will want to play at once. Or hell, even single player for that matter. I want to play Battlefield, Titanfall, Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare Remastered, plus I want to go get the DLC for Star Wars Battlefront, pick up Doom, etc etc.
I'm just a casual FPS player and I just can't keep up. I've long since stopped caring, most of those games will be $5 in two years. Patience is a virtue when you have a backlog.
Well i'm lovin it.
60 was always a bit much imo (heck if you're from europe or certain other places they ask almost 70 for a game). Ideally they should cost 40 or 50 max but pricing has been off for a while now and they got greedy thinking the demand would always keep steady but ever since this gen the demand kept dropping and dropping. So I don't think it's just the competition. If you had waited merely 1 month you could easily get 2-3 games for the price of 1. What's the point buying day 1 anymore ?
What I'm wondering the most is how they will deal with these market changes. Will they keep pricing the games 60 bucks day 1 ? Or will there be changes ? Will they play around with their release dates to spread out their games ? Or will they march on with no changes hoping demand will recover ? I think those days are gone imo.
60 was always a bit much imo (heck if you're from europe or certain other places they ask almost 70 for a game). Ideally they should cost 40 or 50 max but pricing has been off for a while now and they got greedy thinking the demand would always keep steady but ever since this gen the demand kept dropping and dropping. So I don't think it's just the competition. If you had waited merely 1 month you could easily get 2-3 games for the price of 1. What's the point buying day 1 anymore ?
What I'm wondering the most is how they will deal with these market changes. Will they keep pricing the games 60 bucks day 1 ? Or will there be changes ? Will they play around with their release dates to spread out their games ? Or will they march on with no changes hoping demand will recover ? I think those days are gone imo.
Not everyone lives in the US or Canada.
SatoAilDarko
Member
Overshipment has a lot to do with it.
The latest AAA games are underperforming so stores want to get rid of stock.
You can see the same with Nintendo games. Stuff like Animal Crossing and Star Fox pretty quickly dropped to half price on Amazon because the demand wasn't there.
It's just that most of the time Nintendo is extremely smart about calculating how many copies they should release of something.
The latest AAA games are underperforming so stores want to get rid of stock.
You can see the same with Nintendo games. Stuff like Animal Crossing and Star Fox pretty quickly dropped to half price on Amazon because the demand wasn't there.
It's just that most of the time Nintendo is extremely smart about calculating how many copies they should release of something.
This is only a thing in console land. As a PC gamer in an EU country most of the games are digital and the only way to get good deals on those is steam sales and even those are just a price correction to the real value of the game. Only way to get console like retail/physical deals is on key sites (my main source of games nowadays).
This is true. Lots of ways to avoid paying full price, even on day 1.
Suburban Thug
Member
True they just seem to be digital or on handhelds. I'm definitely playing more Japanese stuff than I did last gen though, that's for sure.
0ptimusPayne
Member
Welp looks like FF15 dropped to $34.99 Amazon today. Might pull the trigger!
Randomizer123454444
Member
There is an incredible amount of games available. F2P games, indie games, AA-games. Mobile games. The so-called AAA industry is no longer the only option. And AAA industry can only disappoint people so many times before they get tired of same old game formula being repeated over and over.
Open world car-stealer-shooter 5. With open world and a lot of side activities! 500 hours of content, of which 4 is interesting.
First person military shooter 23. Run in these pre-scripted corridors to face the enemy #542131 that threatens with massive destruction. Guns are the same as last game but with different skins and effects.
Builder game 2000. We simplified the mechanics that made the last game popular "to make the game more accessible". But at least it's prettier than last time!
People would buy the games at $60 if they were worth it. But in this day and age there are SO many games available that there is no reason to spend that $60 on the same experience I already had 2 games ago. But prettier.
Open world car-stealer-shooter 5. With open world and a lot of side activities! 500 hours of content, of which 4 is interesting.
First person military shooter 23. Run in these pre-scripted corridors to face the enemy #542131 that threatens with massive destruction. Guns are the same as last game but with different skins and effects.
Builder game 2000. We simplified the mechanics that made the last game popular "to make the game more accessible". But at least it's prettier than last time!
People would buy the games at $60 if they were worth it. But in this day and age there are SO many games available that there is no reason to spend that $60 on the same experience I already had 2 games ago. But prettier.
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
Yeah i've adjusted accordingly. Not viable for me to buy day 1 anymore, unless the hype really warrants it.
Only did it recently, and now wishing I would have done this for years.
Only did it recently, and now wishing I would have done this for years.
LuvOfThaGame
Banned
I agree, OP. Its worrying to me because it would seem this will lead to cutting budgets for development and a continued ramping up of microtransactions. With the PS4Pro and upcoming Scorpio, i feel we are just getting to a hardware level where extra care and details will really pay off. I just hope we dont end up seeing a step back. IMO, mobile games have set a precedence with the younger generation of expecting extremely low prices or free to play models.
zephervack
Member
Not that addictive multiplayer games are a new thing but they are starting to be a little too effective, between Rocket League and Overwatch, my friends and I aren't really buying or playing that many new games, like at all. Anecdotal I know.
I used to be an every-Tuesday game buyer. I'd make the rounds to local stores and try to have stuff right away. Then I realized I wasn't actually playing new stuff, but going back to older stuff over and over. So I stopped. Now it's rare I buy day one, and I miss out on the community that a new game has, but I play games mostly to isolate anyway, so that's not a negative for me. Save some money and have the same experience I would've had, just a little later.
I don't know what the effect of that is on the market, for me and other people who have similar buying patterns. Maybe half my purchases are AAA, but they add to a game's tail, so isn't that a good thing too?
I don't know what the effect of that is on the market, for me and other people who have similar buying patterns. Maybe half my purchases are AAA, but they add to a game's tail, so isn't that a good thing too?
NOLA_Gaffer
Banned
I'm having a bigger problem with games going out of print and becoming expensive...the 2016 Mario & Sonic Olympics title, published in June, is nigh-impossible to find for less than $100.
Goro Majima
Kitty Genovese Member
I vaguely remember this still being a big thing during the PS2/GCN/Xbox era. It was just more retailer specific but internet savvy people would go to either Circuit City or their local Frys for a huge day one discount on whatever popular titles.
Best Buy's gamers club is basically the same thing but you have to pay up front. I just don't understand why anyone would pay full price for a console game these days. PC games can be a bit trickier if there isn't a retail release.
Best Buy's gamers club is basically the same thing but you have to pay up front. I just don't understand why anyone would pay full price for a console game these days. PC games can be a bit trickier if there isn't a retail release.
PapaEmeritus
Member
So we're complaining that you don't have a little patience to wait a week or two and that you have to pay more? I'm all about sales, give me the lowest price possible. Why on Earth would anyone complain about spending less money.
Yup. Wait a month and get the patched game at half price. That's my strategy for the upcoming year.
Alternatively, some games launch in such a state that they really don't deserve to have their publishers rewarded with pre-orders. Let's make such practices not garner enough rewards that it's worth chancing it and shipping games that need 20gb patches a few days later as they are forced to react to customers complaining about their £60 game.
I'm all for people buying whatever they like at whatever price they like, but blindly paying the publisher for AAA games at launch when they almost routinely have patches and dlc availble in a collected edition a bit further down the line seems a bit of a false economy to me.
If prices are dropping, it's because games aren't selling. If they aren't selling, it's worth looking at the release list as a whole rather than assuming customers have a responsibility to pay £60 for every major game that releases. I'm not a fan of shooters but if I were, I don't think I would have paid £200+ for Battlefield, CoD, Gears, Titanfall etc all within a few weeks of each other. I'd pick one and pick up the rest when the sales rolled around, which is happening increasingly quickly as retailers are terrified of being stuck with huge shipments they can't get rid of at full price. Same goes for action-adventure-open-world-rpg-lite games all blending into each other. The AAA industry is cannabalising itself by pouring the lion's share of development costs into a handful of increasingly merging genres.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
With GCU it still pays to wait since the 20% is off all new games and not just the first couple of weeks like Amazon.
Better to get that hot new game for $32 plus tax a few weeks later when it's dropped to $40 than for $48 plus tax at launch most of the time.
I think people are more worried about what it means for the health and future of the industry that big release are tanking in price so quickly. It's of course great for our bottom lines as consumers, but could mean fewer games in the future of developers or publishers go under.
All of these price drops are/should be baked in to the marketing plans for these games.
The publishers know exactly what they are doing.
Yeah sure Argos had a gret deal on Dead Rising but how much product did they have to order or what terns did they agree to to get that price? That deal came from a trade between the pub and Argos. Pub gets a guaranteed order at a price, so guaranteed revenue, and Argos gets a hot new title it can put in an ad to get you to come to the store etc.
So I am not worried at all about the retail practices of big Publishers. They know what they are doing and what deals they want to cut at wholesale etc. What concerns me regardig publishers is the push for loot crate crap and micro transactions to make up for the margins on the back end of the deal.
They are pushing towards a more an Average Monthly Iser type metric that they hope to monetize versus getting all the cahs up front. This is just going to happen thanks to mobile games. The rise of always connected games and the push to games as a service. Selling 10plus million copies @$40 wholesale isn't nearly as good as selling 2-5 million at $25 wholesale and then converting half those players in to regular users and monetizing a good chunk of that base.
What we should also be worried about the slacking sales of some of these big franchises. This is the second part of the equation as retailers will aggressively discount to clear inventory space and working capital, and then they won't order as much in future.
Finally all of this is due to change as we march ever forward towards an almost 100% digital future. It is coming, slowly, and it may not evn be in the same format as we have today, but the digital future of gaming removes a lot of the obstacles that regular retail has. It could end up better or worse for the hobby.
Personally I don't think you need to sweat out the prices you are seeing currently, in most cases all of this is negotiated and planned for by the Publisher, they have expected sell through at each stage and plan for this. Devs get paid almost regardless of sales, which is good and bad. Maybe all of this just points to the fact that we do need to change the way we buy games.
CaptainofIndustry
Member
There's pretty much no point in buying a game day one anymore unless it's a online shooter (sometimes) especially with patches that get released later to make games a better experience (example: Bloodborne loading time patch). You are better off paying less for a better version of the game down the road. I know that sucks for developers and publishers to read but it's true.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I think the fact that Activision is dropping the price of Infinite Warfare so quickly means times are really bad for games right now. I'm done pre-ordering even with the discounts anyway.
Duxxy3
Member
IW sales are very low and they're trying to do whatever they can to boost sales before year end.
I have to be really hyped for a game to pay full price these days, and even then I regret it sometimes (see FFXV @ $35 already, thankfully I only paid $48 for it at launch).
Nintendo games and Dragon Quest games are the only games I will happily pay full price at launch for these days.
There's a ton of games coming out on PS4 in Q1 that I'm interested but I won't be getting any of them at launch and don't intend to pay much more than $30 for any of them.
Nintendo games and Dragon Quest games are the only games I will happily pay full price at launch for these days.
There's a ton of games coming out on PS4 in Q1 that I'm interested but I won't be getting any of them at launch and don't intend to pay much more than $30 for any of them.
Do games get overshipped to compete with the used market? Better to have many copies available for less in two months than lose your sales the used market. It's all front loaded for a lot of these people anyway.
Edit: a flodded market also devalues your used game sales potential.
Edit: a flodded market also devalues your used game sales potential.
I also wanting to addend that people buying games at a discounted retail price doesn't really have much affect on Devs/pubs getting paid. Especially if the price you paid is at or above wholesale.
So don't feel bad or worry, just wait, being part of day one hype is rarely worth the $20 plus it costs.
So don't feel bad or worry, just wait, being part of day one hype is rarely worth the $20 plus it costs.
League of Legends, Overwatch, DotA 2, CS:GO... All of these are massive games that are basically free (not Overwatch ofc).
I bet almost everyone on this forum is spending some significant time on at least one of these games.
And they're not getting smaller. They're still growing.
These games have set very high quality bars that many AAA games aren't matching.
All of those above have skill-based matchmaking, and yet most boxed products don't (Uncharted 4, DOOM, Infinite Warfare, Titanfall 2).
They all maintain that you can't buy power, and yet microtransactions in many titles are going that way.
They're constantly introducing free content, or give players the tools to make their own, to bring players back; AAA still selling DLC.
They're focused on making 1000 hour experiences. AAA still trying to sell you a new game every few years.
Games-as-a-service is killing AAA boxed products.
I bet almost everyone on this forum is spending some significant time on at least one of these games.
And they're not getting smaller. They're still growing.
These games have set very high quality bars that many AAA games aren't matching.
All of those above have skill-based matchmaking, and yet most boxed products don't (Uncharted 4, DOOM, Infinite Warfare, Titanfall 2).
They all maintain that you can't buy power, and yet microtransactions in many titles are going that way.
They're constantly introducing free content, or give players the tools to make their own, to bring players back; AAA still selling DLC.
They're focused on making 1000 hour experiences. AAA still trying to sell you a new game every few years.
Games-as-a-service is killing AAA boxed products.
I agree absolutely with those who say that this industry has basically trained their customers to become more patient. Now they are the ones who need to adapt to this new situation or some of them will go down one after another:
- No more deluxe BS
- No more broken games at launch
- No more unjustified hype
- No more pre-order BS
- A better distributed release schedule
- don't spend millions on the "cinematic" side of games if you can't get the basics right
(writing)
- No more deluxe BS
- No more broken games at launch
- No more unjustified hype
- No more pre-order BS
- A better distributed release schedule
- don't spend millions on the "cinematic" side of games if you can't get the basics right
(writing)