what do you think of this?

[jmoid]

http://www.fairplay-campaign.co.uk

this is a site set up to promote a campaign in britain to lower the prices of games.

the site has some convincing arguments, and i think £40 for a game is too much, however i've seen some heavy opposition to this around too, arguing that the industry couldn't sustain itself if games were cheaper.

what's your opinion?

PS there's more information at the Edge magazine forums
http://forum.edge-online.com/index.php

[infoxicated]

Don't believe everything you read - for the most part the guys "facts" are simply him quoting his own articles and his quote of Peter Molyneux is actually six years out of date! :o

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27378.html

Consoles are sold at a loss - this is why games are expensive. Add to this that it takes several million pounds to produce a next-gen video game and the publishers/developers have to be pretty sure they'll make back the outlay.

Then there are games with licenses - games like Madden and F1 games usually cost the developer millions in licensing fees before they even start making the games. Stuart Campbell at FairPlay conveniently fails to take this into account... :-?

[jmoid]

yeah that's pretty worrying about the quotes - it doesn't exactly instill a feeling of confidence.

[DJ Techno]

^to put that site in the American view
even though there just quoting
(if you can tell the price range between american/british curency thats good to tell)
Video games here go as far as $60even more depending on what it has, included in a package deal, etc

I just read some of that site information
and I wouldn't disagree. the price on video games is high and when it comes to buying the games after 6 months of waiting for the price to go down maybe to $30 or $20 a game. Who wouldn't argue.

[xEik]

I never found licenses a very intelligent way to start a game. Licenses only attract lame gamers. If the product doesn't have quality poor sales are at sight.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Lance]

.
my opinion is that if the games were sold at a smaller per unit price, but still above their cost, of course, the games would sell in larger quantities and faster, thus providing a faster return on the company's investment. basically, they have to assume a larger sales base to amortize the cost over, then set the price to encourage enough sales to equal that assumption. it is a risk either way. to set the price high in an attempt to recoup costs quickly may actually slow sales to the point where costs are never recovered. so i favour the risk that is more likely to result in massive sales and also giving the players a break
.

[Thruster2097]

To be fair, think back to the days of the N64 and the Sega Megadrive/Genesis systems. Big titles like James Bond, Sonic, and Lylat Wars had an RRP of +£60 each!!!! At least the prices are generally stabilised now, and I consider the price to be fair, just purely considering how much work has gone into the making of the game justifies it. IMO.

[DJ Techno]

To be fair, think back to the days of the N64 and the Sega Megadrive/Genesis systems. Big titles like James Bond, Sonic, and Lylat Wars had an RRP of +£60 each!!!! .(thruster2097)

I hated Sega, but Sonic was cool in my book, but all the Sega system I thnk should have wen't particurly Sega 36bit and CD, Keep the Dreamcast because of Street Fighter and Taxi Cab Driver.
But they did put a lot of work in to the games, especially James Bond for 64, just like Doom, cant see yourself but you can see the enemy, your gun pointed in from of him and shoot. Bang

Game companys need the licenses to produce games
particurly Sports games because there making money off of another franchise or company or whatever the word is.

[AmigoJack]

but for games like sonic, bug, rocket knight adventures, wipeout or panzer dragoon i would pay the price - because THATs all quality. if the companies are upset about low sells then they should make better games. if they buy licenses for a relation to a big name or event its their own mistake. ive never bought a game, because the movie was great - i hate such adaptions! the best example for this is lawnmower man - great movie. and then a game should be released on smd/genesis - but it took years!! and when it came out it was more than total crap!

on the other hand game publishers also have to pay for a license to bring their game on the specified platform - which also costs.

[DJ Techno]

those were good quality games Sonic became Segas main logo for advertisement
Mario, well I think everybody was going to already find out Nintendo would have him as there golden ticket. Wipeout is Playstations main squeeze, I am not going to say anything for the XBOX that things just not worth my breath.

Sports games (real sports)Nascar, Wrestling, Football, Basketball, Baseball, and Golf
all got to have a license from both the game company and whoever organiztion there making the game with. Just to make a simple game, thats going to last in a day of playing at least an 1 and half, and pay some big green(money).
Lawnmower Man wasn't to good of a horror movie, it didn't need a sequal.

[xEik]

False

Licenses are not needed. Myths aren't generally games with a license from a movie, sport or whatever. I understand that if you want to make a F1 game it's lame not to have the companies and pilots names. Infox is to answer: do TOCA games use a license? Are they good games?

Movie licenses are usually a clear example of bad games. Did the first Tomb Raider need to be named "Indiana Jones something in the smeg" to get good sales?

The answer is no.

PRACTICE LEADS TO PERFECTION !

[Wamdue]

I think a 5pound drop or so would be a fair price drop... cause I know lots of ppl who uses the games prices as an excuse to piracy. I am for example, the only one of my freinds who actually spends money on my gaming-intrest in terms of buying games, while the others spend lots of money on new mousemats/mice but wouldnt consider for a second to actually pay for a game, I dunno, it might be that the pc-gaming scene is worse than the console scene.. but every freind I have who is thinking about buying either a ps2 or xbox says something like "Im just gonna wait til theres is a really good modchip released" or "Im buying a modchip first thing when I get my console".

So theres another view on the pricebalance, they need to keep low prices enough to discourage piracy and as well keep their profit and compensate for the loss of producing consoles.

I hope I made my point, its early in the morning and I need more coffee ;)

[AmigoJack]

wamdue is right

anyway, piracy will last as long as there exists lazyness. todays broadband inet connections are excellent for downloading everything you want.

since 1 year im not playing games anymore - just because i got bored. its very seldom when i switch on my saturn, smd or install sth to my pc. maybe its my advanced age (20+) that interests in this are overkilled. and so im not interested in console games. in the meanwhile i have bought quite a couple of games (music too) to have their originals - thats how i manage it. and the rest - i dont play it anymore. mostly you make copies because there is some hype to the game and you want to test it. after playing it one week you throw it away and never touch it again.

but on the other hand: maybe a lowered price would reactivate my interests in trying new games...

[DJ Techno]

That's why I wait to buy the game once it come on the shelfs
Buying the games straight when it comes out it alittle dum, because their are store out there where you can buy the same game for a lower price, whether its been used or somebody just sells the stuff to people at a reasonable price like a flea market.

People just don't know when to just wait until the price goes down and then you can buy it, it's like the stock market and gas prices going up and down. You want to wait until the market starts dropping the price on its product because its to high priced, and there warehouses are so full of the product that they just want to get rid of it.

so bam, prices go down and business go happy that people are buying there product at a rapid rate.

That's what you learn after two year in Econimcs, Business Law, and Accounting