- Joined
- Jul 20, 2006
https://totalgamingaddicts.com/can-playstation-exclusives-be-worth-70/
Can it work? Can Sony and Microsoft reasonably expect gamers to pay $70 (+tax in some cases) for a video game?
This isn't actually a new question. In fact... Gamers have paid MORE in the past. I believe when Strider (the first 8 meg game) came out it as $80 or something like that. And Street Fighter 2... again if memory serves me correct... being the first 12 meg game I believe they were asking $120 dollars for it... the day it came out.
The hype for these two games was so great that gamers would've paid ANYTHING for them.
...but "hype" alone does not translate directly into SALES.
If you look at any ranking of the best-selling video games of all time... the original Street Fighter II on the SNES and Strider on the Genesis are not... there. I don't mean they aren't in the top ten or the top fifty... they aren't even THERE.
EXTREMELY popular games... but there's a limit to how much gamers are willing to pay.
For most of my life brand new games cost about $49.99. Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft tried over a series of DECADES... with ever-bewildering excuses to raise the price. They finally managed to get it up to $59.99 in the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 era. But it took that long.
Now two console generations later they're attempting to jump into $69.99 with both feet and, thus far, it has been ineffective.
NBA2K21, Madden 2021, Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed Valhallla... and every other game that had a $69.99 have recently been on sale for under 30 bucks.
Like most games they sold decently at launch... when the consoles were still new and rare as were the number of available titles.
But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about $70 as the STANDARD price. Even for mediocre titles.
I think the fact that you can now, regularly, get the latest Call of Duty for 40 bucks or under is testimony to the fact that this is not sustainable.
Still... it's unlikely that Sony and Microsoft will change their tune. They've drawn their line in the sand. Better to keep the $70 base price and have regular sales than to change it now and lose face.
This... will only hurt them in the long run. Because they'll lose money on all those constant sales. They'll lose money from impulse buys. (50 bucks is an impulse buy... 70 or 80 with tax is more of an investment. So titles that someone might have bought on a coin flip will now sit on the shelf.) They will lose money trying to gain that extra ten bucks which... by the way... they never actually needed in the first place.
Just a stupid thing to do.
Can it work? Can Sony and Microsoft reasonably expect gamers to pay $70 (+tax in some cases) for a video game?
This isn't actually a new question. In fact... Gamers have paid MORE in the past. I believe when Strider (the first 8 meg game) came out it as $80 or something like that. And Street Fighter 2... again if memory serves me correct... being the first 12 meg game I believe they were asking $120 dollars for it... the day it came out.
The hype for these two games was so great that gamers would've paid ANYTHING for them.
...but "hype" alone does not translate directly into SALES.
If you look at any ranking of the best-selling video games of all time... the original Street Fighter II on the SNES and Strider on the Genesis are not... there. I don't mean they aren't in the top ten or the top fifty... they aren't even THERE.
EXTREMELY popular games... but there's a limit to how much gamers are willing to pay.
For most of my life brand new games cost about $49.99. Nintendo, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft tried over a series of DECADES... with ever-bewildering excuses to raise the price. They finally managed to get it up to $59.99 in the Xbox 360/Playstation 3 era. But it took that long.
Now two console generations later they're attempting to jump into $69.99 with both feet and, thus far, it has been ineffective.
NBA2K21, Madden 2021, Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin's Creed Valhallla... and every other game that had a $69.99 have recently been on sale for under 30 bucks.
Like most games they sold decently at launch... when the consoles were still new and rare as were the number of available titles.
But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about $70 as the STANDARD price. Even for mediocre titles.
I think the fact that you can now, regularly, get the latest Call of Duty for 40 bucks or under is testimony to the fact that this is not sustainable.
Still... it's unlikely that Sony and Microsoft will change their tune. They've drawn their line in the sand. Better to keep the $70 base price and have regular sales than to change it now and lose face.
This... will only hurt them in the long run. Because they'll lose money on all those constant sales. They'll lose money from impulse buys. (50 bucks is an impulse buy... 70 or 80 with tax is more of an investment. So titles that someone might have bought on a coin flip will now sit on the shelf.) They will lose money trying to gain that extra ten bucks which... by the way... they never actually needed in the first place.
Just a stupid thing to do.
![]-[itman](/forums/data/avatars/s/9/9309.jpg?1650325391){kind=avatar}
