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Sega Goes Cheap to Battle EA in NFL Game Sales?
An anonymous reader writes "According to as yet unconfirmed reports on DealRush.com, Sega is going full force at EA's football market share by slashing their football game's price by 60% and only asking $19.99 this upcoming year, instead of the usual $49.99. EA, the current market leader in football games, outsells Sega's title, year after year, by a wide margin. This year Sega may have adopted a new strategy to hook them with price, and follow through with quality in an effort to increase sales. EA has yet to respond. ESPN NFL ships in August for Playstation 2 and Xbox. [A GameSpot report has a Visual Concepts spokesperson indicating there will be 'big announcements regarding the game soon', but there's no official word.]"
I'm not sure about that. I am really enthusiastic about Segas approach, but I think that the mass market will view this price point as a lack of quality "Sega's Sports game must suck or something, because it's less than half the Price of EA's!" (People are just dumb like that)
I hope that's not the case, but time will tell.
I hope this works. It sucks having to shell out $49.99 for a 'new' version of Madden that essentially contains only roster updates and maybe 1-2 small new features.
This may force EA to charge more competative prices for it's Madden series.
I love how you "have to shell out $49.99 for a 'new' version of Madden" If it sucks so bad, why don't you just keep playing Madden NFL 2004 for the rest of your days?
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Needless to say, developers slashing prices is a good thing. However, I'm worried how casual gamers might take this. The general public seems to have accepted the fact that games big cost $50. Only charging $20 could make Sega's games appear as though they are producing something less than a decent title. I know that I would generally be wary of something that costs 60% less than everything else on the market. This often indicates lower quality in a product.
Now, I sincerely hope this is not the case. I would love to see Sega thrive charging less for their games. But it would be a real shame if they didn't sell because they undercut too much, and consumers didn't realize the other games are overpriced...
--LordPixie
Let's face it, a lot of these games are still being bought by parents and grandparents for kids as gifts, bribes, etc... So slashing the price to the impulse buy level of $19.99 will play well with this crowd. And if the quality is up to previous titles, then for once low price won't mean some crappy knockoff of a hit title.
Way to go Sega! I may pick up a copy or two (my nephew would love this...). I hope that if successful, it will put some downward pressure on the prices of new releases. Still, for the amount of entertainment, compared to movies for example, game prices aren't too bad. But I still remember in my younger days, that a new game meant a lot of work and saving, so $19.99 could bring in a lot of new young gamers too.
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are games that people assume (rightly) suck
I don't know about Walmart, (there aren't many in the largish city where I live), but when the discount bins in many software stores I have seen are classics. Sure there are noname crap, but I've paid $10 (or less) this year for Black and White, Sam and Max Hit the Road, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, Day of the Tentacle, X-COM Ufo Denfense.
Case in point: my Girlfriend loves adventure games, but those aren't in style much anymore. When I pointed out that she could have all of the SCUMM-type games for like $50, she all of a sudden didn't mind going into the software store with me anymore. I admit, that some are a rare find, but cost, as a previous poster said, doesn't denote quality.
I find it wierd that people will wontonly spend money on lavishly priced items when cheap items are often better. Or that people spend 50K on a car they spend an hour in a day, yet still sleep on a crappy mattress or have a crappy chair at work. Sorry about the rant, but people need to think more about actual worth than price.
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The beauty of individual freedoms is that people are free to spend their money on what they like. Perhaps to you a nice car falls lower on the list of importance than a nice chair but for some people - this is reversed. The question is; why do you care? Why do you get so upset over this? Spend your money how you want to spend your money and let other people spends theirs how they want to spend it.
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What is the company doing that warrants the $50 price tag? More importantly, what needs to be changed? Updating rosters and adding expansion teams makes complete sense, as does throwing in any redesigned jerseys or uniforms.
Still...do we really need a brand new graphics engine every year? There's only so much that can be done, you know, and the changes in each console generation are usually relatively small. How about all of the modes that they've been throwing in? Owner? Coach? How about Popcorn Vendor mode? Sell buttery fresh goodness while watching the game as you walk around the stands! The games are just fine graphically and controlwise, and we've got all of the modes that we need: single game, multiplayer, season, playoffs, and practice are really all that a game must have. The others are nice but unneeded.
The only thing that I can think of that would warrant the $50 price tag is online play, and even that's not really worth it. The practice with sports games as of late seems to be discontinuing online gameplay shortly after the new game comes out, and Xbox Live is already $50 a year. Is a year of online football really worth an extra $50? I'd much prefer it if they offered free and continuous online play without any form of official support or leagues, but that's just a pipe dream...
I've got a feeling that Sega won't be losing much money from this. Tweak the graphics and modes if you must, but as long as it's got the basic modes and current rosters, it's got everything that's needed.
Goo goo g'joob.