The future of gaming

Love Cowboy

Active member
So I was reading this article today, and I had some interesting thoughts. You can read it for yourself here:

http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/why-end-60-video-game-near-181412574.html

It's basically talking about how console games cost way too much these days, and it asks the question of whether game companies really need to charge that much or not. It also discusses how the prices are causing these companies to lose market share to cheap smartphone games and the like. As I read it, I started thinking about the Great Videogame Crash of 1983. Could the console games market crash again? (click here if you don't know the history)

One thing we have going for us now, unlike then, is a core of serious gamers more than willing to keep paying the price for quality games, despite the emergence of cheap alternatives. Nonetheless, there is still a large portion of that group that frequently turn to used games to help lessen their gaming costs, and as we all have heard, the game companies have been playing around with the idea of crushing the used market to increase their profits.

Will the game companies come to their senses and lower prices? What effect will it have on the market? Will YOU keep buying $60 games even after used games are no longer an option? Is the end of used games a total deal-breaker for you? What if they proceeded with the used games lock-out but lowered prices? Would that be an acceptable compromise for you? What do you think?
 
I think the comparison of Angry birds to MW3 was irrelevant because I see Angry bird as a game to kill time and it's accessible anywhere if you're on the go so $1 is a reasonable price vs MW3 which is a game that people play on a daily basis for more reasons to just kill time, some play competitive, some play for fun and the fact that you can play with friends online is another thing to take note of.

The whole no more used game is ridiculous also. I shouldn't have to pay another $60 for a brand new game if my original copy screws up.
 
I think it has some good things in it but it's mostly uninformed. For example it says gamers are going towards cheap mobile games (which is pretty much only true for the most casual of gamers who aren't even interested in gaming enough to buy a console/gaming rig). Also if you account for inflation games have generally gone done significantly for the most part. Although I do believe something big will probably happen in the industry sometime within this decade I don't believe it will be very close to how the article describes it.
 
Here's my opinion. I remember a time when when you payed $60, you actually got a game that worked. A game that was enjoyable. It was called the 1990s.

Somewhere along the line something went wrong.
 
I think the comparison of Angry birds to MW3 was irrelevant because I see Angry bird as a game to kill time and it's accessible anywhere if you're on the go so $1 is a reasonable price vs MW3 which is a game that people play on a daily basis for more reasons to just kill time, some play competitive, some play for fun and the fact that you can play with friends online is another thing to take note of.

The whole no more used game is ridiculous also. I shouldn't have to pay another $60 for a brand new game if my original copy screws up.

I read the same article. What is the point in making games so expensive compared to movies and audio CDs? The whole gaming industry is the most expensive type of entertainment, and it shows with it's large price gap.
 
Will YOU keep buying $60 games even after used games are no longer an option?
Is the end of used games a total deal-breaker for you?
What if they proceeded with the used games lock-out but lowered prices?
Would that be an acceptable compromise for you?
What do you think?



Used games no longer an option means no more \ very little next-gen games for me.
98% of what I buy is used.
Very rarely when a new game comes in will I pre-order \ buy new, unless it's MK or Metal Gear Solid.
The only viable option is to do the $10 online pass.
If they go through with not allowing used games to be played, then I'll just wait a year until the game goes for $25, brand new on amazon.com.

It makes no sense for me to spend $60 on a game which MAY or MAY NOT be good.
F**K that bull-shit.
 
60 dollars is so much money for a damn game already. I remember back in the day when I got Burnout 3 for ps2 for 50 and I HARDLY got brand-new games so this no used game thing will destroy me.

Why get a new 60 dollars game when I can go to gamestop and get like 5 games with the same amount of money?

I love that :mad:
 
60 dollars is so much money for a damn game already. I remember back in the day when I got Burnout 3 for ps2 for 50 and I HARDLY got brand-new games so this no used game thing will destroy me.

Why get a new 60 dollars game when I can go to gamestop and get like 5 games with the same amount of money?

I love that :mad:

I remember back when some brand new PS2 and Xbox games were 30 bucks. Miss those days :(
 
I remember back when some brand new PS2 and Xbox games were 30 bucks. Miss those days :(

One interesting thing that some of you younger folks might not realize though, is that prices have gone down before. You mention when PS2 games were 30 bucks, but I remember when some SNES games were hitting 70 bucks brand new. Now some of that may just be the natural cost decrease from going from cartridge to disk, but still... they didn't have to pass those savings on to us.
 
The way I see it, waiting for a game to drop down to $25 = paying $0.99 each for a few songs on iTunes.
Why spend $60 on a NEW game, when I can wait a little bit and get that same NEW game on amazon, for cheaper?
Why buy a CD full of songs, that I'm probably gonna hate, when I can buy a couple songs that I like @ $0.99
 
Another thing about game sompanies is that they have rushed some games. I mean just look at Soul Calibur V. They could've had stories for each characters but nooo... It all had to be about Patroklos.
 
Wasn't there a time when games (the 16-bit era at least) were $70+?....and that is not taking inflation into consideration. Despite the prices for necessities such as gas going up over the years, the price of video games (which is a luxury) have been stable for the most part. Americans don't even have it that bad in the grand scheme of things. Japanese consumers pay the equivalent of $70-80 range. Australian prices are quite ridiculous at 80-120 AUD, if I recall correctly. By the way, this is just a comparison with console games.

I remember back when some brand new PS2 and Xbox games were 30 bucks. Miss those days :(

While there were some games that were $30 from the start, most of the big releases were $60. The cheapest game I owned was Victorious Boxers 2: Fighting Spirit. It was only $10, shrink-wrapped. However, it's a also a game that few people would want or appreciate.

I read the same article. What is the point in making games so expensive compared to movies and audio CDs? The whole gaming industry is the most expensive type of entertainment, and it shows with it's large price gap.

Movie studios make money through splitting ticket tales with theaters, TV distribution, home releases and even merchandising. Movies also have a larger audience than video games do, thus they can spread out the cost over a larger group of people. In conclusion, they have more avenues to generate money over a longer period of time.

One thing I hate about the video game industry is how they let their games go to waste after the initial release. Popular movies like "Star Wars" or "The Godfather" have been released for VHS, Laserdic, DVD, and Bluy-ray. Yet, most video games are out of print once the new generation of console takes over. Perhaps part of the blame may have to do with the mentality of consumers (real or perceived) who just go for the latest thrill, but I really would like to see more retro games being put into circulation again.
 
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If Big Gaming actually goes through with the used game lockout or "always online" ******** (ever considered the RURAL POPULATION who either has to rely on satellite or dial-up, neither of which is compatible with online gaming? You know, the same population that's responsible for putting FOOD on your tables?), then I'm taking my business either to the Wii U (provided they don't do the same shit as Big Gaming), or to the Flea Market!
 
Another thing about game sompanies is that they have rushed some games. I mean just look at Soul Calibur V. They could've had stories for each characters but nooo... It all had to be about Patroklos.

As much as I love Patroklos. He still shouldn't have gotten all the spotlight he did. In fact, I was kinda upset at the fact that Mitsurugi or Raphael were not even mentioned in the story and they are my favorite characters from the Soul series.

We are in an age of commerce guys. Quantity is the new quality and that is unfortunate. Leave it the casuals to ruin everything...
 
Sometimes I think with the ever-increasing standards in presentation, the video game industry allowed itself to be taken over by big business. With budgets for AAA titles that can go for $10 million or more, the odds of are stacked against smaller developers to produce something similar within the same time frame. It doesn't help that much of the today's video game consumers are spoiled by the presentation of today's games, especially when it comes to graphics.
 
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Games' prices is the only thing that keeps me from buying a console. In my country a brand new game costs 70-90$. That's way too much for a video game.
 
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