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Are consolegames too expensive and can their price be justified??? What do you think???
I remember the good old days of my Commodore64, I'd shell out the cash for a game every week or too, back then it only cost £2.99 for a game on budget, and people rarely brought the highly priced newest games (£10), although I admit I brought one…Golden Axe… a cracking game from Sega. Even then games were starting to get pricey, with NES games being the most expensive. Myself I moved quickly from the C64 to a Commodore Amiga, games on this system could cost up to £30, but then the games came on DoubleSidedDoubleDensity Floppy Disks an expensive medium which loaded a lot quicker than a C64 Cassette tape. However it wasn't till the advent of the Sega Megadrive and SuperNintendo that prices rocketed. When Capcoms Streetfighter II game came out on the SNES people were paying up to £80 for it (More for the faster imported US version). Ofcourse Streetfighter II was one of the best games available at the time, it was also on a cartridge and so had no loading time… in terms of hours of fun this game certainly made up for its price. I still remember when the import version was on display at the local shop - which became jam packed with kids wanting to play this virtually arcade perfect conversion for free.
The price could then be partly justified by the media - Cartridges, much as the cost of PerfectDark on the N64 can be justified today! However with the latest machines (PS1, PS2, Dreamcast) using the cheap Compact Disc media can the price of the games on these systems be justified. Should we pay up to £40 for the latest games???? What do you think????
Even so... going to the movies AND buying the DVD would cost less than half the price of a console game....
meka_dragon PQMS8/00
Also a jump of 10-20 quid over 10 years has GOT to be above inflation? ...
Equally why do PC games cost 30 pounds new, and console games so much more? The PC's game market presence is a good deal smaller than that of consoles, and game development costs are the same...?
> Doesnt that just mean we have been ripped off for over 10 years
> now?
Inflation. Game prices have not risen with inflation.
The costs of development have risen, with higher wages to be paid, and many more man hours taken to create todays games.
I honestly think that if we're paying a similar amount today for great games, as we payed for NES games 10 years ago, it can't be that bad!
meka_dragon PQMS8/00
The market for console games in Europe was much smaller then... and from what I remember most games didnt cost more than 30quid... special releases cost more (SFII being a notible example) but the 45+ quid seems a touch extortionate...