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Game Pricing Trends Examined
jvm writes "Over at Curmudgeon Gamer, there's a new article, 'A Preliminary Game Price Study', that tries to address the question 'How does the price of a $50 game drop after its release?'. Data, graphs and discussion are provided for almost fifty games across the three big consoles (PS2, Xbox, GameCube) over a span of nearly six months. Among other observations, two price drop periods are noted since the beginning of 2004, and for this data set it appears that Xbox games were discounted more on average than GameCube and PS2 games."
Actually, game software is on sale or return. When it gets to the end of it's shelf life, the retailers ask the publishers if they want to pick it up. Of course, the publishers don't want the stock back, so they either leave it (in which case the retailer tries to get shot of it in a bargain bin whilst making a bit of money back) or it is heavily discounted.
The food chain goes: Retailers-Publishers-Developers-Development Staff.
no, not the late 80's at all.
NES cartridges started out in '85 at the $30 price range.
Looking in old video game magazines (that every good geek should own), it looks as if new Atari 2600 carts came out at $30. When the 5200 was released, those games were priced around $35.
However by 1990, new NES games were in the $45 dollar price range. I haven't actually sat down and tallied up prices across the years, but it must be that the new cartridge prices slowly rose during the NES' lifespan.
I do remember paying what I thought was a high price for Super Mario Bros 3, but of course we all know it was worth it.
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
You point to Skies of Arcadia Legends for GameCube. Do you know its price history? For the sake of those that don't:
In the U.S., this game was released in a limited print run last year. It sold out at $50 within months, and shot up to around $85 max for unopened copies on eBay, because of its newfound scarcity. This is why you see $40 used copies. Two months ago, a reprint was issued, and all retailers (who had been out of stock for months) - including GameStop, Amazon.com, and outpost.com (notable among collectors for having sporadically restocked first-print versions over the course of weeks leading into last November), restocked new copies, selling it at its new retail price of $20-$25. Selling out and warranting a reprint implies exactly the opposite of your assessment of the market's readiness to accept GameCube RPGs, and sites have already started granting good scores to Tales of Symphonia.
If you want to point at a game that has devalued due to market pressures, look no further than Beyond Good & Evil for all three current consoles. It sank to $20 within a week or two, and the GameCube and Xbox versions promptly sold out at most retailers. The PS2 version is now the only remaining version that is commonly available, although scarcity has not caused the collectible value of any version of the game to rise.
If you want another example, ask Visual Concepts about what they think of Madden, then prepare to avoid a few punches to the face.
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy