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[MattyGrovesOrMe]

Yup. I remember the days of $80-100 NES games (and even $40-50 Atari 2600 games that you'd be bored with in 20 minutes!). Saved up money all summer to buy Zelda II on NES in 1989... $90 plus tax and shipping. I remember because my dad told me if I saved up the 90, he'd pay the tax and shipping!

No cheaper, used-games alternatives. No demos to even know if what you were getting was decent or not. No real reviews other than biased write ups in quickly destroyed copies of Nintendo Power or GamePro that hyped every single game (so sometimes you'd spend $90 on absolute shite... fuck you Tommy Lasorda Baseball) And where I grew up, no opportunity to shop around - games were ordered out of Sears catalogue. They listed maybe 10-12 games per system in any given edition of the catalogue, price range of $70-120 or so into the SNES/Genesis era. For me and my friends, those were the only games we had access to, so we'd make sure to ask for different ones for birthdays/xmas so we could get some diversity, then share with each other...

$50-60 game standardized price range, weekly, high-profile game releases, global access to any game out there via interwebs and frequent free shipping on orders of a certain price, review aggregators and GAF for word-of-mouth to help you with your choices: it's hard for those of us who've been at this hobby for 30 years to complain.

 

[Speevy]

What's really changed for me is that Gamestop used to push barrels of used games out the door.

This generation, their deals have been pretty poor unless you're buying a brand new, high profile release.

 

[gamergirly]

While I remember paying more than $60 for games back in the day, I'd say $60 is too much in this time period. $50 is the standard price for a game that Im willing to pay for. $40 if it was cheaply made or isnt a big name title. Anything under $60 is handheld worthy and anything above $60 is not money worthy

 

[Malio]

Thank God for Ebay.

 

[test_account]

I guess it depends on how much entertainment/enjoyment a game gives. If a game gives about 10 hours of enjoyment, that is about $6 for each hour. That isnt too bad i think? I dont live in the US, so i dont know what other stuff that gets you 1 hour entertainment for about $6. How much does a movie ticket usually cost in the US?

 

[carlo6529]

Yup. I remember the days of $80-100 NES games (and even $40-50 Atari 2600 games that you'd be bored with in 20 minutes!). Saved up money all summer to buy Zelda II on NES in 1989... $90 plus tax and shipping. I remember because my dad told me if I saved up the 90, he'd pay the tax and shipping!

No cheaper, used-games alternatives. No demos to even know if what you were getting was decent or not. No real reviews other than biased write ups in quickly destroyed copies of Nintendo Power or GamePro that hyped every single game (so sometimes you'd spend $90 on absolute shite... fuck you Tommy Lasorda Baseball) And where I grew up, no opportunity to shop around - games were ordered out of Sears catalogue. They listed maybe 10-12 games per system in any given edition of the catalogue, price range of $70-120 or so into the SNES/Genesis era. For me and my friends, those were the only games we had access to, so we'd make sure to ask for different ones for birthdays/xmas so we could get some diversity, then share with each other...

$50-60 game standardized price range, weekly, high-profile game releases, global access to any game out there via interwebs and frequent free shipping on orders of a certain price, review aggregators and GAF for word-of-mouth to help you with your choices: it's hard for those of us who've been at this hobby for 30 years to complain.

I remember those days aswell. As a kid it would take forever to save up the cash. I remember going to a KMART looking for Road Runner for the SNES and they did not have it; I needed a new game so instead of waiting for them to get Road Runner, I ended up buying this game called "Claymates" which cost me 104$ after tax. I've been crying inside every since that day....

On to topic though, 60-70 bucks for a game is way too much to pay nowadays.

 

[Gio_CoD]

All I know is that I'd take a chance on more games if they were $30 instead of $60. Even when it was $50 I would blind-buy the odd game. That doesn't happen anymore.

I only buy games now that I know I'll get a lot of replay value out of.

 

[orion434]

All of these old-school stories made me think about the most I ever paid for a game @ retail, was $89.99 for Phantasy Star III ( I paid $79.99 for Phantasy Star IV ) I haven't even bought a collector's edition this gen for more. That was 1991...

 

[test_account]

I remember those days aswell. As a kid it would take forever to save up the cash. I remember going to a KMART looking for Road Runner for the SNES and they did not have it; I needed a new game so instead of waiting for them to get Road Runner, I ended up buying this game called "Claymates" which cost me 104$ after tax. I've been crying inside every since that day....

Hehe, sucks that you didnt get to buy Road Runner instead :\ But isnt Claymates a fairly good platforming game? I havnt really tried Claymates that much though.

On to topic though, 60-70 bucks for a game is way too much to pay nowadays.

Do you mean every game or just the games that dont give too much entertainment/enjoyment?

 

[RedSwirl]

$60 is too much for most games.

Yep. I know it's only $10 more than we used to pay, but for some reason raising the price crossed some kind of mental barrier for me. It's caused me to severely raise my standards for what's actually worth buying.

I rented virtually every game I've played this year. So far this year I've bought maybe five console games full price.

I also don't like how $39.99 and $29.99 is now being considered "budget price." You don't cross the budget line until you hit $19.99 plain and simple.

 

[xSL4INx]

I've gotta really be into a game to buy it at $60. The only games that come to mind that I've done that with this generation have been Burnout Paradise, Fable 2, King of Fighters 12 & Pokemon Soul Silver import.

Otherwise, I wait until a big price drop, and then still question if it's going to be worth the time investment.

 

[Warm Machine]

...it's hard for those of us who've been at this hobby for 30 years to complain.

Exactly.

 

[Corky]

yup 60$ sucks

MSRP of 100$ is even worse ( sweden )

 

[Prine]

N64 games were £50-£60 each, with Turok selling for £70 (thats $100 to $140).

And this was in 96-99. If you factor in inflation thats a lot of money.

£38 - £42 right now is very reasonable. Combine online play and then you have a long lasting game.

 

[Mr Nash]

I'm very seldom compelled to buy a game at $50 or $60. I just wait for the price to drop. That's one of the things that I love about Steam. So many great deals there. =D

 

[Purist]

I agree $60 is too much. That's more like $70 with tax. I use GameFly a lot now. Still takes a while to ship stuff but overall I'm happy.

 

[sadaiyappan]

You want books, you get them at the library. You want to hear the latest songs you can listent to them on the radio. The latest tv shows are free too. Most forms of entertainment are free, only games charge you so much. I think we need free games. A video game library would be nice.

 

[elrechazado]

Yup. I remember the days of $80-100 NES games (and even $40-50 Atari 2600 games that you'd be bored with in 20 minutes!). Saved up money all summer to buy Zelda II on NES in 1989... $90 plus tax and shipping. I remember because my dad told me if I saved up the 90, he'd pay the tax and shipping!

No cheaper, used-games alternatives. No demos to even know if what you were getting was decent or not. No real reviews other than biased write ups in quickly destroyed copies of Nintendo Power or GamePro that hyped every single game (so sometimes you'd spend $90 on absolute shite... fuck you Tommy Lasorda Baseball) And where I grew up, no opportunity to shop around - games were ordered out of Sears catalogue. They listed maybe 10-12 games per system in any given edition of the catalogue, price range of $70-120 or so into the SNES/Genesis era. For me and my friends, those were the only games we had access to, so we'd make sure to ask for different ones for birthdays/xmas so we could get some diversity, then share with each other...

$50-60 game standardized price range, weekly, high-profile game releases, global access to any game out there via interwebs and frequent free shipping on orders of a certain price, review aggregators and GAF for word-of-mouth to help you with your choices: it's hard for those of us who've been at this hobby for 30 years to complain.

exactly...I wonder if we took an age based poll and compared the results if we'd find the majority of complainers to be people who joined us last gen and are simply bitching about 49 -> 59 transition.

 

[Dark Octave]

Hmm? $22 for two tickets I presume, not one. And TDK is 2-1/2 hours long. So it ought to be $11 for 2.5 hours of entertainment in the theater.

Also, you're likely to watch the Blu-Ray with more than one person. Batman: AA is single player. This also doesn't address the very common discounts on Blu-Ray on release day... a phenomenon that is very rare among video games. I bought TDK on Blu-Ray for $22, brand new, the day it was released.

EDIT: Finally, I think it's evident that as a practical matter people do not price their entertainment by the hour. A live concert will be considerably more expensive than an album, even if only the exact same songs are played.

Batman was just one example. There are tons of multiplayer games out there. Day one videogame deals also exist and happen regularly.

As a gamer I guess I value playing something, being involved and controlling it, over simply watching it from the outside. I think that alone is worth much more and warrants the price of admission.

You want books, you get them at the library. You want to hear the latest songs you can listent to them on the radio. The latest tv shows are free too. Most forms of entertainment are free, only games charge you so much. I think we need free games. A video game library would be nice.

We have tons of free games on PC.

Also, my local library has Xbox 360 games to borrow, no different from a book.

 

[woodypop]

Thank God for Ebay.

And Craigslist, and pawn shops, and Value Village, and Buy/Trade/Sell thread, and clearance sales...

 

[AwRy108]

Thanks to Amazon's always-lower-than-MSRP pricing and the ECA 10%-off discount, I haven't paid even close to $60 for a game over the past few years.

Heck, even some of the big hitters (Uncharted 2, R&C, Assassin's Creed 2, etc.) are listed at $56.99 (no tax in most States, free S&H), so after another 10% off, I'm damned close to paying $50.

I don't think I could even walk into a retailer and pay $60 + tax for a game without feeling incredibly guilty for not saving money with Amazon.

IMHO, the MSRP should vary by game; for instance, Fallout 3 was well worth $60, but, say, Wet should be $30 or $40.