Modern gaming, money fest?

Technology and Gaming
#1

So i’ve realised that some game companies are just spewing out games quite literally out of their arses, to name a few: Activision, THQ and EA. :frowning:

I’ve a few problems with modern sales tactics.

Starcraft 2 being sold in 3 parts.
I’m looking forward to SCII but i’ve only played the first one, i don’t know, 3 times? with three factions i don’t know who would be more fun, so i guess i’d better buy all three so i can play a deep story for each faction.

DLC.
pretty much i see it like devs couldn’t be bothered to put all of the content in the same release so you have to pay about 50p for a new gun or car. What happened to patching?

Generic series.
Westwood started something awesome. Then EA came in, made it slightly better looking, kept a few things origional to each universe, then implemented 3 factions and orbital bombardment powers to each universe.
I also feel like not very many new games have brought something really original to the table, like homeworld brought spaceships into a whole 3D field (forgive me if they weren’t the first to do so) and audiosurf brought putting your own music in a race track environment.

That’s how I feel, or am I just being cheap? I guess I can’t just find an awesome game for less then a tenner anymore.

#2

as technology advances it becomes more and more expensive to make games that meet the current standard, and publishers need to charge more and find ways to get more income from the product so they can afford to pay people to make them.

Fuck buying SC2 3 times, though.

#3

if it makes u feel better most of the people involved in the creation of videogames still have wildly unfulfilling lives

#4

true story

#5

If you’re buying the DLC, you probably like the game/developers enough to do so without getting upset.

#6

Yeah that makes me feel a bit better :slight_smile:
I just don’t want to pay £40 for a crappy game that’s the same as every other games but it’s more shiny.

#7

The preowned games market, which supplies all of my games on my meagre budget (Xbox 360 I’m afraid :stuck_out_tongue: ) is being actively targeted with EA’s project Ten Dollar. Started when I bought mass effect 2, a character and a couple of missions are locked out as DLC, for which you get a one-use code in a retail version.

OK, I can live with that, if the game’s good I can spend the tenner on DLC, and probably still end up with it cheaper than a retail version

Now they’ve gone a step further with the latest Tiger Woods game. But it second hand, and there’s no multiplayer whatsoever. Luckily for me, I a) don’t like golf, and b) don’t really play online, but EA are now effectively making you pay for something that should be there in the first place

They blame retailers undercutting each other with aggressive pricing policies in the second hand market, but have they stopped to consider why preowned games are so popular? Because £50 for a game is unaffordable, and a disgrace

Sorry for the long ranting post, the short version: Yes, they’re ripping us off big time

#8

they really aren’t ripping you off, it really does cost that much to produce modern games

#9

What about Guitar Hero? Fuck, they destroy the original plot with Rock Band, DJ Hero and so on … :frowning:

#10

Movies cost far more to make and they can be bought at much lower prices.

#11
  1. the market for movies is FAR larger than games so studios can make a profit with lower prices
  2. “buying” movies is a secondary market, most of the cash flow comes from box office sales
  3. New blu-rays seem to be $30-40 so not exactly “much” lower than a $50-60 game
#12

  1. That doesn’t give them the right to charge high prices for the game not to mention any monthly payments or DLC (saying “you don’t have to buy DLC” isn’t right as it could give others an advantage over you). Notice how the most expensive games have massive profits, the more they get the more they try to take from you by introducing stuff like DLC. Look at Call of Duty for example, they always supported the modding community for their custom maps and mods. Now they throw all that away to get controll over the servers so the only custom content you will recieve is that which you can PURCHASE through DLC. Business bad my ass, Call of Duty is among the most profitable games of all time and they’re just trying to squeeze every cent out of it (not to mention they hired multiple studios so they could shit another CoD game out every year)

  2. So?

  3. Hmm ok.

#13

  1. this isn’t complicated dude. income = price x sales. if the number of sales is higher, the price can be lower and you still earn the same amount of money.

  2. so… add the price to go see a movie in a theatre ($12) and the price of a new-release blu ray ($40) and you have the price of a game ($52). if you’re selling the same product twice, obviously the price can be lower and still make money.

#14

As with most modern companies, video game publishers and stock owned developers care more about stock holders then the consumers. If they can say hey we are making this much money because of it and stock goes up ya for them. Companies like EA, Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft and shit don’t care about gamers.

Valve is one of few bigger companies that don’t have stocks afaik and that’s why they are great. They have owners who have pride in their business and respect for gamers.

#15

That’s probably why everyone loves Valve, they represent what all gamestudios should be.

GABE NEWELL APPRECIATION VIDEO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw4rc3MKS9Y

#16

this is why valve is awesome.
And i don’t really care how much the game costs to make, i just want one that’s worth the money every once in a while.

#17

Actually its mostly the devs/service providers/publishers choice to charge for DLC. Just look at Burnout Paradise, it was a great game out of the box but they were persistent enough to give free graphical updates, new cars & modes to the point where you nearly recieved a whole new game over time. But EA is being a dick now so the free stuff got axed suddenly… but hey, the new NFS made by them looks like it will finally be good again since NFS:HP2.

#18

I seem to notice that when a game starts selling lots of copies (such as MW2) they up the price.

#19

mw2 probably cost over $20,000,000 to make. the publisher needs to recoup that cost. game publishing is a business, not a charity.

edit - i was off by a factor of ten, MW2 cost $200,000,000[/SIZE] to produce and distribute! and you’re bitching that they charged $50 for it???

#20

Yes because it sucked.

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