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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.]"
This will probably work and Sega will prove you can make bank and charge considerably less than the going rate for a game. After they rake in the beans from their mass quantity of sales the industry will go "[the sheep] are still willing to pay $50" and not change anything. Way to go Sega, keep fighting the good fight to stay afloat!
schild
editor, f13.net
i think it's amazing that competition is helping lower prices. video games have been really expensive for a long while. unfortunately i don't play sports titles.
Over here (Europe) EVERYTHING is 60(~US$70).
Only second hand crappy games would be $50. You'd have to dive deep into the bargin bin to get one for $19.99.
Some games are works of art, some are god awful pieces of software unfit for use. Not only that games are the same price across systems?! Why is the current system of price fixing in effect? Someone call the FCC! The FCC's european counterpart!
At least PC games have a good spread in price. I picked up C&C:Red Alert 2 for 7!!! Hot danm!
May the Maths Be with you!
...which is always Madden. I know the quality will be good, and know the gameplay. I bought NFL2k a few years ago, and while good, I still preferred Madden.
At the $20 price point, I will still purchase Madden, but now will ALSO purchase ESPN NFL, to see how I like it. At the $50 price point, I never would have tried this.
Kudos to Sega, for giving me a chance at their game!
"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." - Thomas Jefferson
heard about this yesterday and thought it was a great thing
eventually EA will cut prices on football games to $20 to combat this and plays will ask "well how come all sports game can't be $20?" then all sports games will have to be cut to $20. eventually people will go "well if sports games are $20 why can't all games be $20?" and then the world will be a better place. for you, and me. just wait and see.
Speaking of Xbox, that's really where these games stood above Madden, with the Xbox live play - with EA jumping onto Xbox Live next year, forget that advantage.
But at $19.99? Hell, I'd buy copies for my cross-country friends just so I can whoop their asses on Xbox Live. If Sega does this with their other sports games, their very-excellent NBA and NHL games could catch fire. The ESPN presentation elements is fantastic.
The Kingdom of Retarsia
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.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
The title is Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The official site is here. Also, it is a book, not a short story or an article. Either underline it or put it in italics - do not put it in quotes. And where's the question mark?
Now: I have yet to pick the book up. However, I do have a BA and an MA in English, which might explain it for you.
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.
holy crap, if you don't know what the word means don't bother replying.
Can already be pre-ordered at Gamestop for 20 bucks.
PS2
XBox