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[Ryder]

Crash 4 is one of those games that I’d love to buy but it feels completely overpriced. If it launched at €50 I would probably have bought it at launch but I refuse to buy it when its 40% off and still costs over €40.

I just bought crash 4 for $25 at Eb games last week. Surely its been cheaper than that.

 

[MrS]

Indie games should be $10 max

Games like Hades, Loop Hero, Disco Elysium are worth more than the AAA shit companies like Ubisoft and EA put out.

The real issue is not having a robust refund system in place, particularly Sony.

 

[Guilty_AI]

In the console space, judged in financial/production terms it absolutely has. The centre had collapsed pretty much by the late oughts, whereas in the 90's it made up the majority of releases.

Well, cant say i'm too familiar in the console space. But on the pc market its not uncommon to find AA/indie production titles selling millions of copies.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Good point.

Although, an argument can also be made that for niche kinds of genres, it'll never have mainstream appeal. So why chip down the price?

So might as well make it $70 knowing core rogue fans will buy it full price no matter what.

But this issue with this argument is that it presupposes that the same will sell the same number of copies at $70 as it would at $50.

I think that's the mistake with Sony's thinking. If the game inherently has niche appeal, thus limiting the total addressable market of the game, you don't want to limit it further by pricing it such that the perceived value proposition is not worth it for a portion of your potential market. With a niche game, there's even more reason to maximise the potential sales in order to make a reasonable ROI, so lowering the price of entry is a way to do that.

 

[ZywyPL]

5th option: Let me try part of the game for $10 and if I like it give me that amount in discount for the whole game.

SO MUCH THIS. I'd absolutely love to try out just 15-60min. of any game out there for like 2-5$, with the option to pay the remaining price to remove the timer.

I buy a lot of games which I'm not sure whether I'll like them or not once they're on sale for 2-8$ instead of full 40-60$, and I always can't fight the feeling the developer is missing out huge money, because if only I got to check out the game earlier I'd buy it for higher price, but now he got like 5 bucks from me and that's it.

Becauae there are so many games that look good/interesting, but the price point is set to high to just blindly give those games a try where it might turn out you'll drop it after mere 15-20min... And vice versa, there are games that maybe don't look that much fun/interesting at the first glance, and the full AA/AAA price is only making things worse, but for just a few dollars you don't have much to lose to just give them a try.

This issue is mainly due to the fact that in modern day demos are sadly extinct, and the only option to try out games for cheap instead of buying them blindly for full price is either sales or Game Pass.

I understand that creating a seperate demo takes time and resources, that's why they're so rare nowadays, but selling a full game with a time limit shouldn't take that much of an effort.

 

[reinking]

4th Option: It needs to be easier to try games.

Many games look good, but maybe not $70 good.

5th option: Let me try part of the game for $10 and if I like it give me that amount in discount for the whole game.

This used to be a thing called shareware. You could by a floppy for a buck or so and try the game. If you liked it, you could purchase the unlock for the full version.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

I wouldn't buy any games at $70.

For $50-60, show me the game first.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

I buy most of my games when they are on rebate.

If "second rate" games are cheaper you will know in advance which games you will have no fun (under 5$, little fun 20$ - 40$, medim to good fun 40$ to 60$ really great games 70$).

Sure, then I will know only to get the games that are the most fun and I will not bother with second rate games... I just hope nobody will raise their prices to imply their games are better than they are!

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

In defense of the status quo, all games follow a cost curve, so if you don't think a game is worth $70 at launch, you just need to wait until it reaches a price you're willing to pay.

E.g. I've never paid full price for a COD or Assassin's Creed game. Ubisoft shunts don't their game prices 3-4 months after launch pretty significantly, and with COD game if you wait until the newest annual release you can buy and play last year's COD on the cheap (I don't care about COD MP).

 

[skit_data]

I just bought crash 4 for $25 at Eb games last week. Surely its been cheaper than that.

Not on PSN store in Sweden, we get the EU pricing + additional cost for conversion to SEK (swedish crown). For example I bought Demon’s Souls and Returnal for 850 SEK, thats almost $100/€84.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

4th Option: It needs to be easier to try games.

Many games look good, but maybe not $70 good.

5th option: Let me try part of the game for $10 and if I like it give me that amount in discount for the whole game.

SO MUCH THIS. I'd absolutely love to try out just 15-60min. of any game out there for like 2-5$, with the option to pay the remaining price to remove the timer.

This used to be a thing called shareware. You could by a floppy for a buck or so and try the game. If you liked it, you could purchase the unlock for the full version.

Well there used to be a 6th option. Free demo downloads and trials. Just about every game had them during the 360/PS3 era. I bought some games myself after testing a demo.

But when Xbox One/PS4 came around, probably 95% of demos/trials disappeared.

 

[WitchHunter]

Well, when it comes to games, the pricing structure seems like this:

1. Game is $60-70 US (current or next gen)

2. A remaster and some second games like Cabela's Game Hunter might be $40-50

3. Old games considered greatest hits and indie budget games $10-30

Let's face it, some of those $60-70 games sure seem out of place against the big name games with lots of content at the usual launch price. But they're still that much?!?! But you can tell they are nowhere near the production quality and content as a well known AAA franchise.

There are 2-3 good AAA games per year, at max. Rest is indie.

 

[Alandring]

I don't think the launch price really matters. For example, Life is Strange True Colors is at $70, which is very expensive, but I think it's worth it, because the game is amazing.

If you don't want to pay as much, you can wait until the game is at $50, $30 or even less.

Another example: Mario Tennis Aces. I played it with my friends and enjoyed it. I would like to buy it to have my own copy, but I won't pay $60 for a game that my friends already own. And this game has never been cheaper than $40, even during sales.

So: I don't care about day one price, but give me great sales.

 

[Banjo64]

Not on PSN store in Sweden, we get the EU pricing + additional cost for conversion to SEK (swedish crown). For example I bought Demon’s Souls and Returnal for 850 SEK, thats almost $100/€84.

It’s really bizarre how badly we’ve always been screwed in the UK/EU, but this gen is the worst so far. Luckily, as with the PS4/One gen, I’m expecting games to revert back to £40-50 at launch after 2 years or so.

Ironically Nintendo get abuse for being expensive but all of their games are now £30-£40 on launch day in the UK.

 

[Codes 208]

I dont play games for the sake of playing them, if im interested then ill buy it. Price is hardly a factor.