Large Publishers Pointing to High Prices

Despite Mark Rein's recent statements to the contrary, GamesIndustry.biz has word that Activision, THQ, and Take Two are all indicating that they may be charging $59.99 for next gen titles. From the article: "This strategy is likely to see a two-tier structure emerging for game pricing, where premium titles command a premium price point of $59.99 or more, while less important games are sold for between $39.99 and $49.99 - much closer to the current price point."

Sounds about right

[vasqzr]

Compare $50 of todays dollars with $50 in 1990!

Anyone remember paying $60 or $70 for a NES/SNES new release? Granted, you were paying for larger ROM chips...

Look at the budgets of some of todays games. Millions of dollars. How much of a budget do you think Megan Man or Castlevania had?

They have to make the costs up somewhere.

We get rippped off over here already

[Andy_R]

Here in Britain, $60 US would practically be a price drop.

Gran Turismo 4 for PS2 has a recommended price of UKP39.99 ($76.9219 US) and the lowest shop price I found on launch day was £29.99 ($57.6761 US).

I wish I could get 'em that cheap here

[siljeal]

In Germany you pay roughly 55 Euros for new games, and even 59 Euros is not completely unheard of. That's $71.50 to $76 at the current rate. That's why I usually don't buy 'less important' titles and go straight for the gems.

Re:Sounds about right

[Anonymous Coward]

Compare $50 of todays dollars with $50 in 1990!

$50 in 1990 is now $74.

Look at the budgets of some of todays games. Millions of dollars. They have to make the costs up somewhere.

They make it up in sales. The market has grow a lot faster than inflation since 1990.

Re:Life Sucking Boredom

[chromaphobic]

I feel the exact same way. I'll pay $60 for a game if I feel I'm going to get $60 worth of entertainment out of it.

Half-Life 2 is a perfect example, according to X-Fire I've played HL2 for a total of 67 hours! Well worth the money I paid for it, and more.

On the other hand, there's a game like Call Of Duty. I paid $50 for it back in the day, and as great as the game is, I finished the SP campaign in FIVE hours. I'm not much into online multiplayer, and I've only found it worth one re-play, so I only got 10 hours (at best) of entertainment for my money. NOT worth it.

More and more, I just wait for the games to hit the bargain bin and buy them for $20-$30 instead. As games continue to rise in price I'm sure more and more people will do they same. Enough to make a difference? Probably not. :-(