4 ms·

Here's a solution no one seems to consider: make video games cheaper. $50-$60 is an outrageously high price for a game, especially when most of them are of forg

by samd 17y ago

Here's a solution no one seems to consider: make video games cheaper. $50-$60 is an outrageously high price for a game, especially when most of them are of forgettable quality. The people over at Valve/Steam have been saying the same thing, and they would know, they see the sales numbers; cutting prices for their weekend deals greatly increase sales. If companies brought game prices down to a reasonable level, say $20-$30, I bet a significant amount of piraters would start buying games. The music industry is struggling to learn the same lesson, but iTunes and streaming services have shown that making content accessible and cheap means people stop pirating.

gommm 17y ago
Maybe, but on the other hand, on the app store where games are really inexpensive there is still a lot of piracy and a lot of developers can't make end meet because their price is too low... So, I'm not convinced that making video games cheaper is the answer...
- samd 17y ago
  Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents.
  - rick888 17y ago
    "Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents." But what he said disproves your point. Even if something is 99 cents, it will still be cracked. What makes you think they will pay $30? The community is filled with excuse after excuse to justify piracy. Many people have even said that the industry needs to find a "new business model". I think this article shows that they already have: Software as a service. Piracy will eventually drive all software in this direction.
  - benologist 17y ago
    Somehow I think if they dropped it to $25 the same people will argue that $25 is too much and $10 is the most anyone should be reasonably expected to pay. People still argue that $1 is too much for music, like somehow in teh internets that dollar is worth 100x more than the real world where it gets you close to nothing.
  - gommm 17y ago
    Yes, but that's not my only point, the other problem is that piracy is as widespread it seems for 3$ iphone games than for 50$ games... So the argument that lowering prices reduces the number of pirates seems a little bit optimistic to me. OT: For rick888, below: it seems that all your comments are marked as dead... which is a pity because from reading your past comments I can't figure why you'd be banned... You should try to contact pg over that.
robryan 17y ago
The question is though would they make up the difference on the volume, it really depends on the game. Games with the latest graphics and massive game worlds that take years to make do need to sell at a certain price to turn a decent profit. Selling everything around $30 would probably mean games would have to make do with smaller development budgets.
- samd 17y ago
  Steam said that when companies cut prices in half sales went up hundreds to thousands of percent. That's in dollars, not volume either. Sure some of the increased sales come from people who don't want to pass up the deal, but still, the numbers are compelling.

by samd 17y ago

gommm 17y ago

Maybe, but on the other hand, on the app store where games are really inexpensive there is still a lot of piracy and a lot of developers can't make end meet because their price is too low... So, I'm not convinced that making video games cheaper is the answer...

samd 17y ago
Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents.
- rick888 17y ago
  "Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents." But what he said disproves your point. Even if something is 99 cents, it will still be cracked. What makes you think they will pay $30? The community is filled with excuse after excuse to justify piracy. Many people have even said that the industry needs to find a "new business model". I think this article shows that they already have: Software as a service. Piracy will eventually drive all software in this direction.
- benologist 17y ago
  Somehow I think if they dropped it to $25 the same people will argue that $25 is too much and $10 is the most anyone should be reasonably expected to pay. People still argue that $1 is too much for music, like somehow in teh internets that dollar is worth 100x more than the real world where it gets you close to nothing.
- gommm 17y ago
  Yes, but that's not my only point, the other problem is that piracy is as widespread it seems for 3$ iphone games than for 50$ games... So the argument that lowering prices reduces the number of pirates seems a little bit optimistic to me. OT: For rick888, below: it seems that all your comments are marked as dead... which is a pity because from reading your past comments I can't figure why you'd be banned... You should try to contact pg over that.

robryan 17y ago

The question is though would they make up the difference on the volume, it really depends on the game. Games with the latest graphics and massive game worlds that take years to make do need to sell at a certain price to turn a decent profit. Selling everything around $30 would probably mean games would have to make do with smaller development budgets.

samd 17y ago
Steam said that when companies cut prices in half sales went up hundreds to thousands of percent. That's in dollars, not volume either. Sure some of the increased sales come from people who don't want to pass up the deal, but still, the numbers are compelling.