EA Boss Says Games Too Expensive

EA's John Riccitiello has been shaking things up at EA lately, with everything from layoffs to the purchase of BioWare. Now he's suggesting the company take some really drastic measures: make their games less expensive. "Riccitiello says the $31 billion gaming industry will suffer if it doesn't start to reevaluate its business model. Game executives at Sony, Microsoft and Activision must answer some tough questions in the coming years, like how long they can expect consumers to pay $59 for a video game. Riccitiello predicts the model will be obsolete in the next decade. 'In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with this. In China, they're giving games away for free,' he says. 'People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt.' As more publishers transition to making games for online distribution, Riccitiello says he expects EA will experiment with different pricing models."

Cheap games would be nice but...

If this is an excuse to release crappier games, count me out. These things are expensive to make and I'd rather own 3 or 4 good games that have been invested in than 10 games that were just pounded out by some off-shore devs.

Yes, I'm sure some troll with mod points will kill my karma by me stating the obvious.

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If this is an excuse to release crappier games, count me out. These things are expensive to make and I'd rather own 3 or 4 good games that have been invested in than 10 games that were just pounded out by some off-shore devs.

Yes, I'm sure some troll with mod points will kill my karma by me stating the obvious.

Amen. And would it kill them to make at least one or two games that aren't either about shooting-everything-that-moves, sports, or race cars?

If you can read this... 01110101 00100000 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100

No no no. A 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011, if you please.

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what kind of games would you suggest?

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A simulation of a commercial nuclear plant would be cool, as would an updated version of WeatherWar.

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I've always (albeit with no scientific reasoning behind it) figured that Nerds are those who are socially inept, ashamed of it, and incapable of changing.

Geeks, on the other hand, are proud of it and wouldn't want to be any other way.

At any rate, from

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If this is an excuse to release crappier games

It's probably more of an excuse to move towards a "game license" system like other too well known software products. No longer will you own the game, you'll only own a license to play it on your machine and y

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Try some of the cheap games, they can be very good - and the gameplay is what makes the game. If you really think that spending thousands of dollars on graphics makes a game then it's your choice whether to buy it or not.

It's not just the graphics as much as the overall immersion in the game, and larger budget production games generally do a better job. There are many things that can be short-cut in order to produce a lower budget game like physics, writing, voice acting,

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so if you want to deliver a Doom 3/Unreal 3 engine game then you need to simplify the parts more. I personally find that the original games are just tech demos.. and the original companies quickly go back to engine building, not game advancement. Perhaps

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Like the Orange Box you mean?

I think they may be going there.

lol

And stripping online support of expensive games to force them to buy new versions is a worse tactic. Pot kettle EA!

I never did.

...how long they can expect consumers to pay $59 for a video game.

I only shop for games in the bargain bins. The most I've ever paid for a game was $10. And I save the cost of having to upgrade my machine every, what, six months.

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I've paid $59 for a few of my games. But those were good games. Games that gave me 50+ hours of play time just to beat that. Compare that to buying a movie on DVD for $15, where even if I watch it 5 times, I sill only get 10 hours out of it. A good game

Not this old trope!

And I save the cost of having to upgrade my machine every, what, six months.

Yes yes.. very relavent to conversations FROM THE LAST DECADE. Dude.. computers don't change anywhere near as fast as they used to - I can get a machine now for $1000 dollars that will last me through the end of this decade, and probably into 2011.

I ass

Stop licencing sports then

I expect the cost of licencing NBA, FIFA, Nascar, NFL, Tiger Woods etc. far, far, far, far outweighs the costs of actual game development. Perhaps if EA wants to make a cut costs they'll relinquish their exclusive deals. Let some other company bear the weight of forking out for some exclusive franchise plough the savings into making decent titles.

Interestingly the NBA & NHL both allow multiple game franchises and probably each is better for it.

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Licensing gives them far more sales than the licenses cost. If anything that's the *smartest* move they can make. Sports games, while no piece of cake to produce, have costs that are far less than, say, an RPG like Final Fantasy. How many stadiums do you h

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Licensing gives them far more sales than the licenses cost.

That may well be so, in which case why bitch about development costs when they are not the major source of expenditure?

Re:Stop licencing sports then

Because not all genres are created equal. RTS games generally have lower dev costs than FPSes, due to the fact that FPS environments are scrutinized more closely, and tend to be disposable (once you've been through an area you don't go back). RPGs have the highest dev cost of all, due to players being accustomed to massive CG-quality cinematics and huge, epic storylines full of expensive voice acting, as WELL as non-recyclable maps.

I think the majority of the complaints here is that, the market's insatiable thirst for shinier graphics is ballooning the cost of content development, driving games to the edge where only "arena" based games like Sims, strategy games, and sports games, have a dev cost low enough to be profitable. HL1 was produced for a mere fraction of the cost to produce HL2, but somehow had a longer playtime. Before one blames Valve one should look at the level of workload difference between creating a scientist model in HL1, vs. the effort to do so in HL2.

One of the focuses right now for the industry is procedural content. How much can we reliably generate by machine without significantly impacting quality? Also we need to look at our toolchain, much of our tools are still too "dumb", exponentially increasing required artist hours for every extra little thing we add. The solution to our cost problem is technological - we need smarter tools that reduce man-hour cost, and we need procedural tools that can take a number of things away from humans entirely.

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Now that is just completely untrue. It is all about the game play, it has always been all about the game play and it will always be all about the game play. Licenced content games have proved to be some of the crappiest games of all time and have demonstra

Look who is talking

EA can afford to distrib their games for less because they just recycle the same crap from last year with a new badge and a few small incremental improvements rather than developing NEW games.

Is this thing on? Can you hear me...

game publishers? I won't spend $60 on a game. I won't spend $40 on a game. You'd be hard pressed to get me to spend $25 to play a game that has a storyline, because it's wasted money after the story is complete. I'll buy used games for far cheaper (if at all) if I'm looking to kill some time. I'm about as casual a gamer as you'll ever find, but the ever rising price of consoles and games means you've lost me as a customer. I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust. I may break them out once a month (or far less frequently in the summer) but don't count on it. I've considered buying a Wii because it's almost affordable, but there's not a whole ton of games for it. Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week. I realize you'd be hard pressed to put out that many quality titles, so chapterize them. Break the content up over a few games and I'll buy 'em one piece at a time, but don't make them updates, each would have to be a standalone title I'd be able to pick up and play for a few hours. At those prices you'd be competing with movies, and have my attention for at least twice as long.

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I disagree COMPLETELY. Why should I pay for a game that relies entirely on users to create story? That's like buying a novel prices and getting a blank notebook.

Mad Libs

Why should I pay for a game that relies entirely on users to create story? That's like buying a novel prices and getting a blank notebook.

People buy Mad Libs books. Likewise, people buy video games that provide a framework in which to tell a story.

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They already made a game console that'd be perfect for you. It's called a Sega Genesis... :-)

OK, I say that jokingly -- although... I recently went on a retro-trip and picked one up on eBay for like $30, and spent almost an entire day playing the origi

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I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust.

I have both as well. The thing that really pisses me off is that new PS2 games still cost $30 to $50. On the one hand, I really am glad they still make PS2 games (as opposed to XBox games), but on the other hand, do they really expect me to pay that muc

Try downloadable games

Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week.

Have you considered downloadable games? I purchased a PS3 this summer because of the PS3 games, and was surprised about the downloadable games you can purchase at low cost from the PlayStation Network store. My fave right now is Super Rub-a-Dub [youtube.com] - I'm 35,

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I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20.

Try Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, Nintendo DS (some games $20, most games $30), Leapster, and soon WiiWare.

Games aren't that expensive

Games truly aren't that expensive because theres no free/open source equivalent of them. Not to mention I would rather pay $60 for a good game that has a solid gameplay rather then a $20 of a movie-rip-off game that has the gameplay of an old NES game. Nex

Three models of less expensive games

1. Release games in increment bundles - you buy basic version and get expansions or pay extra for online content.

Pro: Better revenue stream for game producers. Bug fixes easier to release.
Con: Consumers feel, rightfully, that they're getting ripped off.

2. Release games with in-game ads and product placements - signs in game and t-shirt logos and decals and maybe songs and optional extras are from adversiers.

Pro: Better revenue stream for game producers. Targeted ads from game registration.
Con: Consumers may feel they are oversold.
Note: If done only to level of real world or fantasy world normal experience, without flashing vids and noisy ads, this has higher buy in from consumers and doesn't feel bad to them.

3. Release games at lower cost and take money from CEO/exec pay while not stiffing game developers.

Pro: Investors in game producing firm get same return. Developers feel not as ripped off. Games cheaper.
Con: Fantasy. Game execs will never do this and will fix things so this never happens. Better off shooting the execs dead to practice marksmanship skills for in-game experience.

Re:Three models of less expensive games

Or number 4. Create Good games where people will actually pre-order and stand in line until midnight when the game is to be released. That is why Nintendo always ends up ahead in games, magazines will poke fun at the Wii, DS, GBA and Gamecube for having a lack of games but yet most of the games that are First or second party titles end up being smash hits, think about Ocarina of Time, people were willing to pay $50 for that game, even look at the Wii and how most American stores are almost always sold out of it and sometimes even Wii points! People are willing to pay full price, just don't make mediocre games (such as Tiger Woods, Madden, etc.)

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Or number 4. Create Good games where people will actually pre-order and stand in line until midnight when the game is to be released.

More often then not that is "create good marketing" or "create good hype" not "create a good game".

So he's saying games should be immune to inflation

With SNES games costing sometimes $70 when they were launched (I have no clue what NES games cost when they were released), I'm surprised video games are as "cheap" as they are. Sure, some games have a rediculously high price now, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band come to mind. But there, you're also paying for new hardware, which doesn't cost *that* much more than a typical controller, and given that they're made in smaller quantities and require more materials, it makes sense that they cost more than a typical controller.

If games cost $60-$70 for the SNES, if video games were subject to inflation, and given a modest 3% inflation rate, they would be costing between $93.48 and $109.06. Yes, I know that not all games cost $60-70 back fifteen years ago, but some very popular ones did.

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Surprised they're so 'cheap' now?

Move to the EU.

Here in Ireland, the average video game for a next generation system is 70. That's $101, almost twice the price of the average game in the US. The way I see it, instead of these executives worrying about gett

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By the way, that's 70 Euros.

For some reason Slashdot didn't like the Euro sign and omitted it...

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Keep in mind though that Euro prices have VAT (that's sales tax for those unfamiliar with it) built IN to the price, and VAT can easily be 20% of the game's price or more. US prices are all quoted without tax. Some states add 5% to what you see, some add

Re:So he's saying games should be immune to inflat

Yes, it's all just a factor of inflation, there certianly aren't many other factors to consider, and you should always assume the prices you work with were not high and priced fairly.

Re:So he's saying games should be immune to inflat

Don't forget that at the time, games were stored on a more expensive rom format. Games are stored on optical media now, so yes, the price should drop

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Sure, some games have a rediculously high price now, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band come to mind. But there, you're also paying for new hardware, which doesn't cost *that* much more than a typical controller, and given that they're made in smaller quantiti

Re:So he's saying games should be immune to inflat

Back then, games were pretty far from their optimal price point because it was pretty much impossible to sell a good game for a good price. No, it had nothing to do with development costs, but with manufacturing costs.

A SNES era cartridge was created with

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Yes, SNES and N64 carts cost more to manufacture than Disc based games do. It wasn't just this though- nintendo had some pretty draconian royalty policies in place as well. New games could and did cost up to $30 more than comparable PS1 games back in the d

Business model

The consultant solution:

1) Look at the development costs and segment by skills required.
2) Identify those skill that can be done elsewhere for less (art, coding for example)
3) Offshore those jobs
4) Pay CEO big bonus for saving money
5) Decide to ride the gravy train as long as you can with expensive games
6) Bail out of the company stock when it become obvious you are going to start losing money
7) CEO gets new job at another company for more money
8) Consultant pockets hefty fees

on the contrary...

... whilst I don't like paying more than I have to, games are not necessarily too expensive, imho.

With the caveat on that, that it has to be a decent game.

Even a decent game with flaws - for example, Neverwinter Nights 2. Is it perfect? No. However

Game price point nearly constant?

OK, so I'll admit I have a cruddy memory, but haven't the games for big-name consoles--mostly--been priced at right around $50 since the NES was released? Major commercial PC games, I'm pretty sure, have come up in price--I can't remember any solid figures

Games should be free ...

and you should charge for support. No, wait a minute ...

Here's something...

Bad Idea + Throw lots of $$$$ at it = PROFIT!
Good Idea + Throw a little bit of $$$$ at it = MORE PROFIT!

Get it? Start with a good idea for a game, for a change. That way, you don't have to sink $50M into lighting effects and marketing, just to get people t

With that in mind....

SimCity Societies is coming out soon, and I think it looks nifty. So will they be charging me less than $50 for it, I wonder?

($50? whatever happened to the $30 game? Blah!)

Obviously, it's a trap

A gaming executive telling the booming games industry that it's overpricing games?

Ha ha!

This is a trap. He's up to something.

I believe the current pricing for games is accurate... you can compare it with movies, I think it's a very just analogy when you p

Free?

In China, they're giving games away for free

I believe they also follow that model in Sweden [thepiratebay.org] ;)

Re:Not all games worth the same price.

In those terms, my purchase of the Core Three D&D manuals was the best entertainment investment of my life.

At ~$80 for the whole package, I've had *years* of fun playing in co-op mode with my friends, every encounter was fresh, the quests were challenging and unexpected, and the monster AI dynamically adapted to my tactics.

Of course, there's the significant lag time of looking up the rules ... but at least there are no subscription fees.

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Uh, no. You still get multiplayer (even a games browser!) with Games for Windows Live games for free, the paid subscription only gets you things like Halo's skill-based matchmaking system. For free, you still get: Friends List, Text Chat, Voice Chat, Mul

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"I think some of the comments here are focusing too much on the fact that Mr. Riccitiello works for EA, and not focusing enough on the content of his statement. The fact that he works for EA has no immediate relevance to the content of his statement.."

"I