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Today I ask another question that needs to be asked:
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????
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????
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Good post Rhino, Nintendo are bringsing out games at a cheaper price...some online shops seem reluctant to sell them at the normal price..though people still buy them full price from the High Street.
Game prices are high for certain reasons. Nintendo have the highest game prices on the market still with there game cartridge desighn. The reson they are priced at £40-£50 is that they are cartriged based and the developers find it much harder to program onto game cartriges so this is why the prices are so high. Playstation games cost less because they are made with cd's which are so cheap to make. They also lost much money by making there console so easy to play backups.
Dreamcast costs are slightly more than Playstation because they are built on Gd-Rom disks. These disks can store alot more infomation (nearly doubled) than the playstation. That would explain there higher costs. Playstation 2 also use cd's which are cheap to make and easy to copy.
But the main reason that game producers charge high prices for there games is that it takes several months or years to make a really good game and this will be recongnised if people who support the producers pay the price for a good game.
If people do not pay the prices that the games are sold at then the producers will go out of bussiness and you will then not recieve the hi quality gaming we expirience today and jepadise the future of gaming.
Do not moan about prices because they will drop and do not buy pirate discs! support the company and buy the games
Golden Rhino. Born and raised in the jungle since 1985
Dreamcast costs are slightly more than Playstation because they are built on Gd-Rom disks. These disks can store alot more infomation (nearly doubled) than the playstation. That would explain there higher costs. Playstation 2 also use cd's which are cheap to make and easy to copy.
But the main reason that game producers charge high prices for there games is that it takes several months or years to make a really good game and this will be recongnised if people who support the producers pay the price for a good game.
If people do not pay the prices that the games are sold at then the producers will go out of bussiness and you will then not recieve the hi quality gaming we expirience today and jepadise the future of gaming.
Do not moan about prices because they will drop and do not buy pirate discs! support the company and buy the games
Golden Rhino. Born and raised in the jungle since 1985
There was always a problem with buying games sometimes the price tag given for some games. Like DK64....whew £60 is alot even with an expansion pak it's too expensive too buy from any High Street shop, instead i found a decent service that sold it for £30 and got it on release date, though i got Perfect dark for a mere £27 only aswell and got it on the exact date.
That is superb to find other places to buy games in, browsing through the huge catalogue of games online isn't so easy then looking at the collection in your local games shop. It's crazy if you find a mail order online company to sell a game for cheaper.....legilized or not it's superb publicity for them to do that.
The amount of games costing about £30 has risen simply because the companies making it finally relise the fact that we mainly like to buy games for around that price only. Anything below that is a bargain for anyone.
I only can afford one game per 2 or 3 months and in the end online is the only way to get find a good bargain for a game then the High Street.
That is superb to find other places to buy games in, browsing through the huge catalogue of games online isn't so easy then looking at the collection in your local games shop. It's crazy if you find a mail order online company to sell a game for cheaper.....legilized or not it's superb publicity for them to do that.
The amount of games costing about £30 has risen simply because the companies making it finally relise the fact that we mainly like to buy games for around that price only. Anything below that is a bargain for anyone.
I only can afford one game per 2 or 3 months and in the end online is the only way to get find a good bargain for a game then the High Street.
Ever heard of a song taking 3 million man hours to write?
I'm Jake the peg, didlidlidlidlid
With an extra leg, didlidlidlidlid
This a a tradional type of welcome from the forums.
Welcome Jake - are you a "newbie"?
I'm Jake the peg, didlidlidlidlid
With an extra leg, didlidlidlidlid
This a a tradional type of welcome from the forums.
Welcome Jake - are you a "newbie"?
I think game prices are silly, but they are so high because us suckers still buy em.
To be honest, they should cost the same (if not less) than music CDs - they're no more expensive to make, and the wages of a games programmer is slightly less than that of a 'musician' (if we class S Club 7 and the like as musicians - something i never thought i'd do).
Games prices are in a catch-22 situation though: the more piracy there is, the higher prices get, but the only way to get rid of piracy is by lowering the price. This circle will hopefully end with anti-piracy measures on next-gen consoles, but PS2 games arent getting any cheaper, are they?
To be honest, Nintendo have no excuse: you dont get many counterfeit cartridges about, do you? £50 is ridiculous.
If we keep paying, the prices will stay as they are. Thats the way business works, unfortunately.
To be honest, they should cost the same (if not less) than music CDs - they're no more expensive to make, and the wages of a games programmer is slightly less than that of a 'musician' (if we class S Club 7 and the like as musicians - something i never thought i'd do).
Games prices are in a catch-22 situation though: the more piracy there is, the higher prices get, but the only way to get rid of piracy is by lowering the price. This circle will hopefully end with anti-piracy measures on next-gen consoles, but PS2 games arent getting any cheaper, are they?
To be honest, Nintendo have no excuse: you dont get many counterfeit cartridges about, do you? £50 is ridiculous.
If we keep paying, the prices will stay as they are. Thats the way business works, unfortunately.
I heard Warner Bros put a load of their DVDs down to 12.99... But if DVD's have so many overheads... how come PC games cost more?
DVD surly are maintained by the comparitivly lower number of sales (compaired to videos) and that comapnies will get as much money as they can for a product...
DVD surly are maintained by the comparitivly lower number of sales (compaired to videos) and that comapnies will get as much money as they can for a product...
I got DK when it was first released for about £30 and P&P was free!
Of course you guys are right, certain games can be bought cheaply if you shop around. Prices online are alot cheaper than the highstreet, particularly if you pre-order... I'm just kicking myself now for not buying DonkeyKong64(with free N64 expansion pack from Special Reserve) when it was only £29.99...that was a great bargain considering yould pay £30 for the expansion pack alone if you bought it from a high street retailer.
Armatige Shanks ...although old DVD movies are currently Pricey on the High street..they can be bought cheaply online, Special Reserve has a large collection of Warner Brother Classics such as "Ace Ventura Pet Detective", and "Goodfellas" for only £12.99.
Armatige Shanks ...although old DVD movies are currently Pricey on the High street..they can be bought cheaply online, Special Reserve has a large collection of Warner Brother Classics such as "Ace Ventura Pet Detective", and "Goodfellas" for only £12.99.
PC games probably drop in price more often than console games because the benchmarks are often pushed back every time a new PC game comes out. Games from 4 years ago can be run on new systems, but some of them look really dated compared to modern games. Add to this the PC games market is not as big as the console one.
As for movies, DVDs cost £2.50 or so to copy, yes, but each type of extra on a disc costs more to produce and then there are distribution rights, advertising costs etc. Hang on, I seem to remember typing this a few months back about the cost of games. How time flies.
As for movies, DVDs cost £2.50 or so to copy, yes, but each type of extra on a disc costs more to produce and then there are distribution rights, advertising costs etc. Hang on, I seem to remember typing this a few months back about the cost of games. How time flies.
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