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Do Video Games Cost Too Much?

Valve's Gabe Newell gave the keynote address at this year's Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain (DICE) Summit about the cost of games, the effect of piracy, and how to reach new players. Valve undertook an experiment recently to test how price affected the sales of their popular survival-horror FPS, Left 4 Dead. They Reduced the price by 50% on Steam, which "resulted in a 3000% increase in sales of the game, posting overall sales that beat the title's original launch performance." They also tested various other price drops over the holidays, seeing spikes in sales that corresponded well to the size of the discount. This will undoubtedly add to the speculation that game prices have risen too high for the current economic climate. G4TV ran a live blog of Newell's presentation, providing a few more details.

13 of 763 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    VALVe games are the only games I buy without even thinking it through.

    So you have a crush on Alyx? Admit it!

  2. Re:It's based on the game by clickclickdrone · · Score: 2, Funny

    >reminded me of counters strike
    When tiddly winks goes bad...

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
  3. Re:Yes by TheP4st · · Score: 5, Funny

    See, see, solid evidence that one download = one lost sale. If he had not been able to evaluate Spore he would have bought it. We got you now TPB.

    Mwahahaha, The plaintiffs in the TPB trial

    --
    "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
  4. Re:Yes by Cyanara · · Score: 5, Funny

    Until some bastard reveals that Bruce Willis was dead all along.

  5. Re:Yes they are... by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    Considering that a $200 million "film" can be obtained in DVD for USD$20 at most, I am sure that there is no way a Wii game should cost more than that... (currently 50 euro!)

    Considering that beer is 94% water, and water is free from the tap, there's no way a pint should cost three quid.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  6. Re:Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Feel free to take your own advice.

  7. Re:Yes by PotatoFarmer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Really? Well shit, Armageddon makes so much more sense now.

  8. Re:Yes they are... by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

    I would never put squid in my beer.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  9. Shrug by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 2, Funny

    You don't pay for the beer, you pay for the fact that you think you stand any chance picking up any girls in that bar. Surely hope, no matter how misplaced is worth three quid?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  10. Re:remarkably downloadable. by Ihmhi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Piracy on the whole

    I believe the term for that is "butt piracy".

  11. Re:Yes by ConanG · · Score: 4, Funny

    How do you know what movie he's talking about?

  12. Re:Yes by MightyYar · · Score: 1, Funny

    A better question is, how is it on my Netflix queue when I don't have Netflix?

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  13. Re:Impulse power! by trdrstv · · Score: 2, Funny

    It does? You run through all the dungeons and kill the boss at the end. If you like, run it all over again as a different class. That's not my idea of tremendous replay value. Perhaps you are talking about Diablo II?

    Maybe you're right. Maybe I am thinking of D2, since they did the "dungeon randomizer" and added online play.