Can $60 Games Survive?

donniebaseball23 writes "Game budgets continue to rise with each successive console generation, and with the Wii U launching later this year, the industry is on the cusp of yet another costly transition. Publishers have been regularly charging $60 for games this generation, but that model simply cannot survive, Nexon America CEO Daniel Kim said in an interview. 'I think at some point the console makers have to make a decision about how closed or open they're going to be to the different models that are going to be emerging,' Kim remarked. 'Today it's free-to-play, and I'm convinced that that one is going to continue to flourish and expand into other genres and other categories, but there may be something else completely and entirely different that comes out that again changes the industry.' He cautioned, 'If your mind is just set on keeping the current model of buy a game for $60, play for 40 hours, buy another game for $60, play for 40 hours, that model I think is eventually going to change. It's going to have to change.'"

Comments

$60 games? Luxury!

[JackCorbae]

$60 Games? I'd LOVE to see the price drop to $60 games. Most new PC Titles in Australia debut at between $89 and $99. The collectors edition of .. .Dragon Age I think it was, was $109. $60 games ... luxury.

Re:$60 games? Luxury!

[Anonymous Coward]

And the AU$ is worth more than a US$ at the current exchange rate.

Re:$60 games? Luxury!

[Anonymous Coward]

And console games are regularly $120. Ten years ago, when the exchange rate was at $US0.50 - $US0.60, it made sense. it was the US price + a little overhead for the distance + exchange rate. now we're at $US1.05ish and have been for a long time without sign of dropping there's no excuse for $120. If it's $60 in the USA, it should be $60 in Australia, or maybe $65 to account for extra logistical costs.

Re:$60 games? Luxury!

[Anonymous Coward]

Opportunistic profiteering. It used to be exchange rate, but the Australian dollar has doubled in value since the $100 price was set, but the price of games has never come down in response.

Either the distributor or the publisher is pocketing the windfall, I guarantee neither the developer nor the retailer is getting any of it. If the retailer was, then competition would have brought the price down.

Re:$60 games? Luxury!

[fiziko]

That works in the extreme southern trim only. The U.S. border is an 8 hour drive from here, IF I'm speeding, and it's two tanks of gas, each at the cost of a game. Vancouver, Toronto, etc. can do that. Much of the country can't.

Re:$60 games? Luxury!

[sortius_nod]

Which is what drives us Aussies nuts! We know that the games are not worth what we pay, there's no justification to pay almost double US prices in some cases (some PS3 games release at $120... that's 1/3 the cost of a console). I refuse to pay full price for games here. It's either hit up a torrent site or wait until they drop to a reasonable price on Steam.

Mass Effect 3 is $80

[rsilvergun]

Yeah, you can buy it for $60, but there's a chunk of pretty critical zero day DLC. Heck, Super Street Fighter II was $70 in 1995, and Phantasy Star was $80 in '84. But then again those were both commercial failures in the States...

For those with long memories

[AdamHaun]

Don't forget inflation when complaining about game prices.

$60 in 2010 adjusted using the unskilled wage as an index via MeasuringWorth.com:

2005: $55.30
2000: $48.60
1995: $41.00
1990: $35.30
1985: $30.40

The CPI-based results are within $1-2 of this, if you're curious. I tried to dig up some old game prices for comparison, but this information seems hard to find. Anyone know a good source?

Re:HotS

[Dr Herbert West]

mod parent +insightful, please. Articulate and succinct.