4 ms·

They may have gotten cheaper if you count it like that, but standard SNES games were not riddled with bugs on release day. (On PC at least) it's quite common f

by adamors 12y ago

They may have gotten cheaper if you count it like that, but standard SNES games were not riddled with bugs on release day. (On PC at least) it's quite common for a AAA game to launch riddled with bugs. Recently it was Watch_Dogs which costs 60€ on Steam, yet it has a lot of performance issues, the publishers client has connectivity problems etc.

rayiner 12y ago
So the problem is not that $60 is insane for a game, but rather that games these days are crap?
- tibbon 12y ago
  I personally don't think the average quality has decreased much. I remember tons of absolutely terrible NES games.
- adamors 12y ago
  Crap at launch at least. After a year most bugs get ironed out but ironically, the price drops as well.
  - mhurron 12y ago
    With very, very few exceptions, I don't buy games until the price drops. Usually I don't consider them until they drop below $40. $60 is too much for a game.
- Goronmon 12y ago
  So the problem is not that $60 is insane for a game, but rather that games these days are crap? I think it's more that when releasing any given game, you aren't just trying to sell people on "Our game is worth $60." you also have to sell "You are better off spending $60 on our game than on all the other games you can currently buy for $60 or less." Plus, if games these days are crap, I don't even think there are words to describe the relative awfulness of the games I played in my childhood on the NES.
- venomsnake 12y ago
  AAA these days are crap. The majority of them. When you scale the team to a thousand people on 4 continents you are doomed to slide into mediocrity. Too many moving parts, too many demands to satisfy, too much content to be able to polish it effectively, budgets that don't allow innovation and risk taking. You know Assassin's Creed 3 in all of its boring shining. In the indie and mobile there are gems of pure brilliance for fraction of the price. The only AAA title so far this year that game me good value for money was Reaper of Souls, mostly because devs listened to the public and for a change made the right decisions.
  - com2kid 12y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law The majority of games have always been crap. Nothing is new. Rose tinted glasses mean we only remember the good games.
- Wohui 12y ago
  Games these days are insignificant experiences for people who've already played plenty of them. Taking Secret of Mana, that was surely the first game at all of its kind that I'd played. But I'd barely part with any money to buy an RPG today. Games today have a much harder job being original, and tend to be shameless in their lack of originality anyhow.
incision 12y ago
Coincidentally, the above-mentioned Secret of Mana is notorious for wacky NPC AI and pathfinding. Today, that could be handled with a patch and the lovely multiplayer could be enjoyed online. I don't doubt that the release of unfinished products is a real issue, but there are trade-offs in most things.
- tibbon 12y ago
  And FF III has a lot of weird bugs and glitches as well. I remember about half the games on PC I had in the 80's and 90's I just never could get working on my system or had really weird flaws/quirks (especially things that used a modem). Bugs certainly aren't new
  - chc 12y ago
    Bugs aren't new, but I sure run into them a lot more these days.
- meritt 12y ago
  Small plug for a modern game that's created very much in the style of SoM: http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/ http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/ In beta/pre-order now. Steam Greenlight. Small + very dedicated team.
moggflunkies 12y ago
Standard SNES games didn't do anything relative to todays games. Watch Dogs can be digitally downloaded, played in multi languages, with thousands of players, etc. All things that the SNES while more expensive couldn't do. If you apply your logic to the automotive world we should just stick with the single barrel carburetor V8 Chevrolets because, otherwise we just end up with BMW's iDrive issues and Prius throttle problems.
- chc 12y ago
  Downloading is just a delivery medium, a number of SNES games included more than one language, and you cannot meaningfully play Watch Dogs with thousands of players. (I mean, yes, thousands of people are playing the game simultaneously, but you don't concurrently interact with all of them. Most people are playing their own game, not playing with you. This is the same as SNES games.) So I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here.
  - moggflunkies 12y ago
    Replace Watch Dogs with any game you wish and the point still remains. In 1990 you had a game that was 1-2 players, 16 bit, no upgrades/updates in content or playability, no versatility in mediums, limited scope of possible actions within the game itself. In 2014 you can play with a number of players greater than 2, a few more colors, constant updates in content and playability, easy played on any number of platforms and a drastically increased set of possible actions within the game. You are frustratingly trying to explain that a narrow capability system with great stability is greater than a wide capability system with a decrease in stability. I will be driving a car that breaks down every couple months and you can continue to ride your skateboard everywhere.
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
    - Dylan16807 12y ago
      Most games are still 1-2 players. The ability to update a game later means that QA can be less thorough, this makes things cheaper. Versatility in mediums? Having the choice between download and DVD is much cheaper than any cartridge. Or wait you're talking about platforms? There have always been multiplatform games. And being multiplatform means you expand your audience perhaps 50% while using the same art assets and a lot of the same code; that doesn't make a game's price higher at all. The amount of code you can share keeps rising, too. So while games are prettier and more complicated, with art and animation getting crazily expensive, talking about convenience features like translations and downloads and patches is a red herring.
jiggy2011 12y ago
Back in the 90s PC games were full of bugs, even AAA games. There were a few exceptions like Doom etc but there were quite a few games I didn't finish because of bugs or corrupted saves. Alone in the dark 2 springs to mind. Games also often came on multiple CDs , scratch one CD and that's the end of the game.
macspoofing 12y ago
>They may have gotten cheaper if you count it like that, but standard SNES games were not riddled with bugs on release day. HA!

by adamors 12y ago

rayiner 12y ago

So the problem is not that $60 is insane for a game, but rather that games these days are crap?

tibbon 12y ago
I personally don't think the average quality has decreased much. I remember tons of absolutely terrible NES games.
adamors 12y ago
Crap at launch at least. After a year most bugs get ironed out but ironically, the price drops as well.
- mhurron 12y ago
  With very, very few exceptions, I don't buy games until the price drops. Usually I don't consider them until they drop below $40. $60 is too much for a game.
Goronmon 12y ago
So the problem is not that $60 is insane for a game, but rather that games these days are crap? I think it's more that when releasing any given game, you aren't just trying to sell people on "Our game is worth $60." you also have to sell "You are better off spending $60 on our game than on all the other games you can currently buy for $60 or less." Plus, if games these days are crap, I don't even think there are words to describe the relative awfulness of the games I played in my childhood on the NES.
venomsnake 12y ago
AAA these days are crap. The majority of them. When you scale the team to a thousand people on 4 continents you are doomed to slide into mediocrity. Too many moving parts, too many demands to satisfy, too much content to be able to polish it effectively, budgets that don't allow innovation and risk taking. You know Assassin's Creed 3 in all of its boring shining. In the indie and mobile there are gems of pure brilliance for fraction of the price. The only AAA title so far this year that game me good value for money was Reaper of Souls, mostly because devs listened to the public and for a change made the right decisions.
- com2kid 12y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law The majority of games have always been crap. Nothing is new. Rose tinted glasses mean we only remember the good games.
Wohui 12y ago
Games these days are insignificant experiences for people who've already played plenty of them. Taking Secret of Mana, that was surely the first game at all of its kind that I'd played. But I'd barely part with any money to buy an RPG today. Games today have a much harder job being original, and tend to be shameless in their lack of originality anyhow.

incision 12y ago

Coincidentally, the above-mentioned Secret of Mana is notorious for wacky NPC AI and pathfinding. Today, that could be handled with a patch and the lovely multiplayer could be enjoyed online. I don't doubt that the release of unfinished products is a real issue, but there are trade-offs in most things.

tibbon 12y ago
And FF III has a lot of weird bugs and glitches as well. I remember about half the games on PC I had in the 80's and 90's I just never could get working on my system or had really weird flaws/quirks (especially things that used a modem). Bugs certainly aren't new
- chc 12y ago
  Bugs aren't new, but I sure run into them a lot more these days.
meritt 12y ago
Small plug for a modern game that's created very much in the style of SoM: http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/ http://www.secretsofgrindea.com/ In beta/pre-order now. Steam Greenlight. Small + very dedicated team.

moggflunkies 12y ago

Standard SNES games didn't do anything relative to todays games. Watch Dogs can be digitally downloaded, played in multi languages, with thousands of players, etc. All things that the SNES while more expensive couldn't do. If you apply your logic to the automotive world we should just stick with the single barrel carburetor V8 Chevrolets because, otherwise we just end up with BMW's iDrive issues and Prius throttle problems.

chc 12y ago
Downloading is just a delivery medium, a number of SNES games included more than one language, and you cannot meaningfully play Watch Dogs with thousands of players. (I mean, yes, thousands of people are playing the game simultaneously, but you don't concurrently interact with all of them. Most people are playing their own game, not playing with you. This is the same as SNES games.) So I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here.
- moggflunkies 12y ago
  Replace Watch Dogs with any game you wish and the point still remains. In 1990 you had a game that was 1-2 players, 16 bit, no upgrades/updates in content or playability, no versatility in mediums, limited scope of possible actions within the game itself. In 2014 you can play with a number of players greater than 2, a few more colors, constant updates in content and playability, easy played on any number of platforms and a drastically increased set of possible actions within the game. You are frustratingly trying to explain that a narrow capability system with great stability is greater than a wide capability system with a decrease in stability. I will be driving a car that breaks down every couple months and you can continue to ride your skateboard everywhere.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - Dylan16807 12y ago
    Most games are still 1-2 players. The ability to update a game later means that QA can be less thorough, this makes things cheaper. Versatility in mediums? Having the choice between download and DVD is much cheaper than any cartridge. Or wait you're talking about platforms? There have always been multiplatform games. And being multiplatform means you expand your audience perhaps 50% while using the same art assets and a lot of the same code; that doesn't make a game's price higher at all. The amount of code you can share keeps rising, too. So while games are prettier and more complicated, with art and animation getting crazily expensive, talking about convenience features like translations and downloads and patches is a red herring.

jiggy2011 12y ago

Back in the 90s PC games were full of bugs, even AAA games. There were a few exceptions like Doom etc but there were quite a few games I didn't finish because of bugs or corrupted saves. Alone in the dark 2 springs to mind. Games also often came on multiple CDs , scratch one CD and that's the end of the game.

macspoofing 12y ago

>They may have gotten cheaper if you count it like that, but standard SNES games were not riddled with bugs on release day. HA!