5 ms·

Farewell to the $60 Video Game

11 points by afkqs 6y ago

thatguy0900 6y ago
It's been gone for a while, sure the "base" game may have stayed at 60 but every game has come with season passes and more expensive editions with more features for a long time.
draw_down 6y ago
Some games are also starting to include ads even after paying full price. So they’re getting more expensive, while getting worse in certain ways. Awesome.
ranguna 6y ago
Well yeah, aside from game studios and companies growing, there's also inflation. So yeah, this happens every other year or so.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
kevinventullo 6y ago
For an example of even stickier prices, see skateboard decks: https://www.vice.com/en/article/a34ede/why-have-skateboards-cost-dollar50-for-30-years https://www.vice.com/en/article/a34ede/why-have-skateboards-...
muro 6y ago
You can still get it much cheaper if you are ok waiting a few months.
theandrewbailey 6y ago
> Incredibly, Black Ops Cold War will cost $59.99 on the PS4 and Xbox One—the same price Call of Duty 2 retailed at in 2005. But on the next-gen consoles, the game will have a higher price point: $69.99. Better technology makes things cheaper. If it doesn't, that's a problem and we should be asking ourselves why.
- megameter 6y ago
  Better technology for gaming has simply raised the bar for how high game production values can become: https://www.raphkoster.com/2018/01/17/the-cost-of-games/ https://www.raphkoster.com/2018/01/17/the-cost-of-games/
fortyseven 6y ago
The closer you get to "$100 a game" the fewer sales you'll make. Personally, I'm already at the point where I'm feeling seriously shitty paying $60 for a new release. I have to weigh my personal desire for the content with the price, and often I've declined to pick something up. I'll wait for a sale. Justify a higher price all you want. At the end of the day, this is the argument my mind goes through. Jacking up that price just makes the argument with my wallet end that much sooner.
- jfengel 6y ago
  I'm curious about the anchoring of that. What are you weighing your personal desire against? What else would you do with that money? I don't game much, but I get the impression that a AAA game costs $60 and provides about 20-30 hours of entertainment. That's cheaper than a a movie theater and roughly on a par with a rental movie. It's more expensive than watching the streaming service you're already paying for, but would a streaming service have that much more content you want to watch? Or were you thinking of a completely different activity -- exercise, reading, etc? You seem to have a pretty firm idea of how you feel about it, so I'm curious. HN readers are often in fairly well-paid professions and even $60 is unlikely to be a serious cost, so I'm interested in how they go about making spending decisions.
beisner 6y ago
Idk, I would be happy to pay several hundred dollars each for a couple of the games I’ve played over the last few years. I sank like, 100+ hours each into The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild, and I paid maybe $25 and $60 for them respectively. Considering that’s 2-4 movie tickets, or 1-2 entrees at a Manhattan restaurant, the value per entertainment seems remarkably high even at $60/ game.

11 points by afkqs 6y ago

It's been gone for a while, sure the "base" game may have stayed at 60 but every game has come with season passes and more expensive editions with more features for a long time.

draw_down 6y ago

Some games are also starting to include ads even after paying full price. So they’re getting more expensive, while getting worse in certain ways. Awesome.

ranguna 6y ago

Well yeah, aside from game studios and companies growing, there's also inflation. So yeah, this happens every other year or so.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

kevinventullo 6y ago

For an example of even stickier prices, see skateboard decks: https://www.vice.com/en/article/a34ede/why-have-skateboards-cost-dollar50-for-30-years https://www.vice.com/en/article/a34ede/why-have-skateboards-...

muro 6y ago

You can still get it much cheaper if you are ok waiting a few months.

theandrewbailey 6y ago

> Incredibly, Black Ops Cold War will cost $59.99 on the PS4 and Xbox One—the same price Call of Duty 2 retailed at in 2005. But on the next-gen consoles, the game will have a higher price point: $69.99. Better technology makes things cheaper. If it doesn't, that's a problem and we should be asking ourselves why.

megameter 6y ago
Better technology for gaming has simply raised the bar for how high game production values can become: https://www.raphkoster.com/2018/01/17/the-cost-of-games/ https://www.raphkoster.com/2018/01/17/the-cost-of-games/

fortyseven 6y ago

The closer you get to "$100 a game" the fewer sales you'll make. Personally, I'm already at the point where I'm feeling seriously shitty paying $60 for a new release. I have to weigh my personal desire for the content with the price, and often I've declined to pick something up. I'll wait for a sale. Justify a higher price all you want. At the end of the day, this is the argument my mind goes through. Jacking up that price just makes the argument with my wallet end that much sooner.

jfengel 6y ago
I'm curious about the anchoring of that. What are you weighing your personal desire against? What else would you do with that money? I don't game much, but I get the impression that a AAA game costs $60 and provides about 20-30 hours of entertainment. That's cheaper than a a movie theater and roughly on a par with a rental movie. It's more expensive than watching the streaming service you're already paying for, but would a streaming service have that much more content you want to watch? Or were you thinking of a completely different activity -- exercise, reading, etc? You seem to have a pretty firm idea of how you feel about it, so I'm curious. HN readers are often in fairly well-paid professions and even $60 is unlikely to be a serious cost, so I'm interested in how they go about making spending decisions.

beisner 6y ago

Idk, I would be happy to pay several hundred dollars each for a couple of the games I’ve played over the last few years. I sank like, 100+ hours each into The Witcher 3 and Breath of the Wild, and I paid maybe $25 and $60 for them respectively. Considering that’s 2-4 movie tickets, or 1-2 entrees at a Manhattan restaurant, the value per entertainment seems remarkably high even at $60/ game.