Is It Time We Finally Move Past $60 New Releases?

[ignition365]

Call of Duty is a special situation.  Activision is the reason for that situation, before the current CoD is released, Activision has already approved the next release a year in advance.  There is always work to be done at Activision.

LOL...I think Activision has at least the next six years of Call of Duty planned out and approved!  But they have three separate developers, all working on their own part of the series so each team has a three year period to make their title. 

But even then, Raven still makes quite a bit of the maps for Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward and Treyarch.  I guess those three teams stay busy, as soon as they finish with one game they start on the next.

lol I did undershoot on that "one year" remark, didn't I?

[gf78]

lol I did undershoot on that "one year" remark, didn't I?

Eh...just a little maybe.   

[Warmsignal]

Think I'm a unique case. Every time I spend $62 on a new release I badly regret it, unless it's a Nintendo title, usually. I recently bough Rodea on the Wii U. Someone may as well have held me up and robbed me.

I've never understood the economics of gaming, to be honest. Movies also have huge budgets, yet VHS, DVD, and Blue-Ray, and movie tickets are way cheaper than game prices. For example, if your game costs $60 a copy and you sold three hundred thousand copies, you just made 18 million dollars. I don't know, divide that by 100 staff, and everyone made 180,000 dollars. Maybe I'm way off, but that's a lot for a project you worked on for maybe 2 years. But even then, I'm sure not everyone gets a decent payoff, certain individuals probably reserve more of the profit for themselves than for those they employ. That's just my crude understanding of the games business. Maybe I'm completely off.
 
But as I've stated, many of these games that cost a fortune to make are not usually the ones that interest me. I really can't justify buying new games at $60 anymore. If game devs are not making a big enough profit margin, my suggestion is to spend less on making the game, because using an unprecedented amount of resources and technology does not in itself make a game better. I have more fun playing oldschool games than I do modern ones. This is why I wish the indie scene would come to retail. They make games on a small budget that are still good and fun to play.

I've got to lean the opposite way here. Rather than looking at what else we waste excessive amounts of money on to justify also doing it here, I'd rather look at what kinds of worthwhile purchases we can make for $80 - $100. I could think of better investments that would last you and get more use from than a single video game for that kind of money. Maybe not exclusively entertainment focused, but probably more essential and worth while than a game.

That's just where I stand, I'm not a champion of the video games industry. There is a limit to which I will support it. As much as I do like games, I'm not that gaga about them. Despite what my collection might suggest. 

[gf78]

Think I'm a unique case. Every time I spend $62 on a new release I badly regret it, unless it's a Nintendo title, usually. I recently bough Rodea on the Wii U. Someone may as well have held me up and robbed me.

I've never understood the economics of gaming, to be honest. Movies also have huge budgets, yet VHS, DVD, and Blue-Ray, and movie tickets are way cheaper than game prices. For example, if your game costs $60 a copy and you sold three hundred thousand copies, you just made 18 million dollars. I don't know, divide that by 100 staff, and everyone made 180,000 dollars. Maybe I'm way off, but that's a lot for a project you worked on for maybe 2 years. But even then, I'm sure not everyone gets a decent payoff, certain individuals probably reserve more of the profit for themselves than for those they employ. That's just my crude understanding of the games business. Maybe I'm completely off.
 
But as I've stated, many of these games that cost a fortune to make are not usually the ones that interest me. I really can't justify buying new games at $60 anymore. If game devs are not making a big enough profit margin, my suggestion is to spend less on making the game, because using an unprecedented amount of resources and technology does not in itself make a game better. I have more fun playing oldschool games than I do modern ones. This is why I wish the indie scene would come to retail. They make games on a small budget that are still good and fun to play.

I've got to lean the opposite way here. Rather than looking at what else we waste excessive amounts of money on to justify also doing it here, I'd rather look at what kinds of worthwhile purchases we can make for $80 - $100. I could think of better investments that would last you and get more use from than a single video game for that kind of money. Maybe not exclusively entertainment focused, but probably more essential and worth while than a game.

That's just where I stand, I'm not a champion of the video games industry. There is a limit to which I will support it. As much as I do like games, I'm not that gaga about them. Despite what my collection might suggest. 

I respect your opinion and where you are coming from.  I'm just viewing it from the standpoint of people that willingly shell out $25 for a 2-hour (average) Blu-Ray, but gripe their heads off at $60 for a game that you will give them infinitely more enjoyment.  Heck, even The Order 1886 which takes an average of 6 hours to complete is the same "bang for the buck" as a movie purchase.

But the one I really don't get?  Alcohol and cigarettes.  People will spend beejeezus amounts of cash on that crap, then penny pinch elsewhere.  To each their own I guess.   

[burningdoom]

^ We were just talking about that at work. We were trying to figure out a way to implement budgeting into our lessons (I work at a day program for disabled adults). Because we see clients talking about how their too broke to get clothes for job interview or to pay their phone bill, yet we see them buy food and junk all the time.

That turned into us talking about being in the grocery store and seeing the stuff you see left in the beer aisle and where people's priorities are. You see stuff like eggs, and toilet paper. And you know some guy was sitting there like, "Hmmm, I need this toilet paper. But I really want that beer...screw it!" lol

You have to wonder where people's priorities lie sometimes.