Slashdot Mirror
EA Boss Says Games Too Expensive
EA's John Riccitiello has been shaking things up at EA lately, with everything from layoffs to the purchase of BioWare. Now he's suggesting the company take some really drastic measures: make their games less expensive. "Riccitiello says the $31 billion gaming industry will suffer if it doesn't start to reevaluate its business model. Game executives at Sony, Microsoft and Activision must answer some tough questions in the coming years, like how long they can expect consumers to pay $59 for a video game. Riccitiello predicts the model will be obsolete in the next decade. 'In the next five years, we're all going to have to deal with this. In China, they're giving games away for free,' he says. 'People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt.' As more publishers transition to making games for online distribution, Riccitiello says he expects EA will experiment with different pricing models."
If this is an excuse to release crappier games, count me out. These things are expensive to make and I'd rather own 3 or 4 good games that have been invested in than 10 games that were just pounded out by some off-shore devs.
Yes, I'm sure some troll with mod points will kill my karma by me stating the obvious.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
And stripping online support of expensive games to force them to buy new versions is a worse tactic. Pot kettle EA!
I only shop for games in the bargain bins. The most I've ever paid for a game was $10. And I save the cost of having to upgrade my machine every, what, six months.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Interestingly the NBA & NHL both allow multiple game franchises and probably each is better for it.
EA can afford to distrib their games for less because they just recycle the same crap from last year with a new badge and a few small incremental improvements rather than developing NEW games.
game publishers? I won't spend $60 on a game. I won't spend $40 on a game. You'd be hard pressed to get me to spend $25 to play a game that has a storyline, because it's wasted money after the story is complete. I'll buy used games for far cheaper (if at all) if I'm looking to kill some time. I'm about as casual a gamer as you'll ever find, but the ever rising price of consoles and games means you've lost me as a customer. I bought a PS2 and an Xbox, both of which are gathering dust. I may break them out once a month (or far less frequently in the summer) but don't count on it. I've considered buying a Wii because it's almost affordable, but there's not a whole ton of games for it. Consider this, I would LOVE to be able to buy a console that had games priced between $15 to $20. I don't really give a squat about the graphics, I want to be entertained. You'll have a customer for life if you make that happen, as I'll be able to justify buying a game or two a week. I realize you'd be hard pressed to put out that many quality titles, so chapterize them. Break the content up over a few games and I'll buy 'em one piece at a time, but don't make them updates, each would have to be a standalone title I'd be able to pick up and play for a few hours. At those prices you'd be competing with movies, and have my attention for at least twice as long.
1. Release games in increment bundles - you buy basic version and get expansions or pay extra for online content.
Pro: Better revenue stream for game producers. Bug fixes easier to release.
Con: Consumers feel, rightfully, that they're getting ripped off.
2. Release games with in-game ads and product placements - signs in game and t-shirt logos and decals and maybe songs and optional extras are from adversiers.
Pro: Better revenue stream for game producers. Targeted ads from game registration.
Con: Consumers may feel they are oversold.
Note: If done only to level of real world or fantasy world normal experience, without flashing vids and noisy ads, this has higher buy in from consumers and doesn't feel bad to them.
3. Release games at lower cost and take money from CEO/exec pay while not stiffing game developers.
Pro: Investors in game producing firm get same return. Developers feel not as ripped off. Games cheaper.
Con: Fantasy. Game execs will never do this and will fix things so this never happens. Better off shooting the execs dead to practice marksmanship skills for in-game experience.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
With SNES games costing sometimes $70 when they were launched (I have no clue what NES games cost when they were released), I'm surprised video games are as "cheap" as they are. Sure, some games have a rediculously high price now, like Guitar Hero and Rock Band come to mind. But there, you're also paying for new hardware, which doesn't cost *that* much more than a typical controller, and given that they're made in smaller quantities and require more materials, it makes sense that they cost more than a typical controller.
If games cost $60-$70 for the SNES, if video games were subject to inflation, and given a modest 3% inflation rate, they would be costing between $93.48 and $109.06. Yes, I know that not all games cost $60-70 back fifteen years ago, but some very popular ones did.
The consultant solution:
1) Look at the development costs and segment by skills required.
2) Identify those skill that can be done elsewhere for less (art, coding for example)
3) Offshore those jobs
4) Pay CEO big bonus for saving money
5) Decide to ride the gravy train as long as you can with expensive games
6) Bail out of the company stock when it become obvious you are going to start losing money
7) CEO gets new job at another company for more money
8) Consultant pockets hefty fees
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
In those terms, my purchase of the Core Three D&D manuals was the best entertainment investment of my life.
... but at least there are no subscription fees.
At ~$80 for the whole package, I've had *years* of fun playing in co-op mode with my friends, every encounter was fresh, the quests were challenging and unexpected, and the monster AI dynamically adapted to my tactics.
Of course, there's the significant lag time of looking up the rules
Surprised they're so 'cheap' now?
Move to the EU.
Here in Ireland, the average video game for a next generation system is 70. That's $101, almost twice the price of the average game in the US. The way I see it, instead of these executives worrying about getting Americans to spend $49 or $39 on games, why not figure out some way to get prices and release dates in the EU to less ridiculous levels? Higher taxation is a factor, true, but the average EU citizen has less spending power than the average US citizen, yet still buys a comparable amount of entertainment products. If you gave them a little more value for once, you may reap rewards greater than you would giving Americans an extra $10
(PS - I split my time between both the EU and the US, so I'm not just some grumpy European. But when people complain about prices in America such as gas, etc, I just laugh. The US is like a fantasy world when it comes to prices thanks to it being on the backs of low minimum wages and outsourcing etc)
Yup...
and you should charge for support. No, wait a minute ...
I have excellent Karma and I am not afraid to Troll it.
If you do the math, those peripherals actually cost less than a new controller. For example, I recently purchased Guitar Hero III for Xbox 360 for $90 (+ tax). If you assume the game by itself would be the usual $60, that means the wireless Les Paul guitar controller is only $30. A wireless controller from Microsoft costs around $40. Similarly with Rock Band, the bundle price for guitar + drums + mic + game is going to be $170. If you take the $60 game out of the equation, you're left with $110 for three peripherals. IMHO the breakdown for that is most likely $20 mic, $30 guitar, and $60 drums (the drums are actually very high quality for a toy). Factoring out the drums, you're paying list price or less for the other components.
You're comparing apples to oranges. The SNES games that cost $60+ were that expensive because of the cartridge technology. They were using bigger memory chips (SF2, Finaly Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger). When consoles moved away from cartridges, games dropped in price significantly. Final Fantasy VII was only $50 (IIRC) even thought it was bigger than FF6, because the CD format was significantly cheaper to produce (also, some of the cost moved elsewhere, since you purchased separate memory cards rather than having on-cartridge writable memory+battery). That's not to say that games shouldn't adjust for inflation, but you can't use the SNES as a starting point because it was not disk-based.
Have you considered downloadable games? I purchased a PS3 this summer because of the PS3 games, and was surprised about the downloadable games you can purchase at low cost from the PlayStation Network store. My fave right now is Super Rub-a-Dub - I'm 35, but I love this game. But I tell people I got it for my wife. :-)
Seriously, we will sometimes play this game for a few hours at a time. Lots of fun! Most fun you can have for only $7.
They have a ton of other games on PSN that are about the same cost. Very cheap, and fun! Especially for a casual gamer like you.
And I know it's an oldie, but Spyro the Dragon just appeared for sale on PSN. I bought my copy! Yeah, it's a PS1 game, but the PS3 upscales it really well - looks great on my 40" HD TV. You can play it on PS3 or PSP, and it's only $6. And it's still lots of fun!
Keep in mind though that Euro prices have VAT (that's sales tax for those unfamiliar with it) built IN to the price, and VAT can easily be 20% of the game's price or more. US prices are all quoted without tax. Some states add 5% to what you see, some add 7%, and some add zero.
I believe they also follow that model in Sweden
Between the falling angel and the rising ape
> People who benefit from the current model will need to embrace a new revenue model, or wait for others to disrupt.
... more ... more ... That would be a great new revenue model -- for EA. It's only the same model used by drug dealers :)
It's far more insidious than that. This is EA, the company known for (among other things) taking things that used to be standard features -- stripping them out -- then trying to sell them to you via micropayments. That is a "new revenue model". Sell the game cheap. Only it isn't the whole game. Most of the cool parts aren't there. Then you get nickeled and dimed to death buying the game that was supposed to be the game you just bought. Getting in is so easy, then you need more
Or how about charging people annual fees? Instead of 'buying' the game, you're only ever renting it. Want to put 150 hours on Disgaea 7? Well, gee, that gets kind of expensive. You should have played the 30 free hours that come with it, then bought the next one. Duh!
I for one do NOT welcome our new revenue model overlords. Call me crazy, but I'll stick with the devil I know. Here is my money -- now get out of my face and let me play *my* game. I have no interest in playing a "lower" price to be allowed to rent from you. You don't get to tell me how many times I can install the game, you don't get to tell me the game's not allowed to run because I haven't paid my subscription. And take those in-game ads and shove em where the sun don't shine (anyplace in your corporate headquarters should do fine, I suspect, what with all the blood-sucking vampires working out of the facility). *
* -- Note the presence of a teensy bit of exaggeration. In-game ads make sense in some instances -- but if I ever have to eat a Whopper to heal in Final Fantasy, I'll have to break out the can o' whup-ass.
Uh, no. You still get multiplayer (even a games browser!) with Games for Windows Live games for free, the paid subscription only gets you things like Halo's skill-based matchmaking system. For free, you still get: Friends List, Text Chat, Voice Chat, Multiplayer, Game Server Browser, Updates, and so on.
Or, if you don't believe me, check out this page.
According to MS, the free subscription gives you a Gamertag, Profile, Gamerscore (single player achievements only), Text and Voice chat, Friends List, and PC only multiplayer including Games Browser. Paying gets you Skill-based Matchmaking, Multiplayer achievements, and cross-platform (PC/Xbox360) gameplay.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".