How much is too much for next-gen gaming?

With the Gamespot article on next-gen costs, would you seriously still be a gamer if game costs escalated to $80? Would you just rent everything? Dare I say, even some of the more illicit activities out there might be tempting for honest people? I thought the PS3 was already cutting it close with a $500 price point. Might as well get a computer, not a console. The dominance of Nintendo's Wii shows that we're at that breaking point. The cheaper casual console is killing the PS3 and 360.Is there REALLY anything to gain by once again leaping into the great beyond of next-gen consoles? ESPECIALLY with the economy the way it is now! With the exception of the blu-ray market, movies have become cheaper. Books are still cheaper than ever with used book stores. How does gaming seriously expect to compete with other entertainment mediums if it keeps going up, not down?

I don't think next-gen hardware will be more than $400 unless MS and Sony didn't learn their lesson, however and most likely software prices reach a $10 premium, it wouldn't affect me that much ($70), but $80 plus tax now that would seriously make me consider waiting for a price drop or rent a game I'm not totally sold on (I don't rent games but this price will make me consider it)It would affect my buying habits, probably buying around 5-8 games at full price a year. I think at $70 the industry will be alright just like this generation (somes SNES, N64 games cost $70-$80) without an economic crisis though; I could also see a huge boost in digital distribution taking off, that is if games distributed that way cost less than the physical copies. I expect harddrives with massive storage room, but fewer "full games" than this gen with an increase on arcade games due to developmets costs and risks involved.

With the Gamespot article on next-gen costs, would you seriously still be a gamer if game costs escalated to $80? Would you just rent everything? Dare I say, even some of the more illicit activities out there might be tempting for honest people? I thought the PS3 was already cutting it close with a $500 price point. Might as well get a computer, not a console. The dominance of Nintendo's Wii shows that we're at that breaking point. The cheaper casual console is killing the PS3 and 360.Is there REALLY anything to gain by once again leaping into the great beyond of next-gen consoles? ESPECIALLY with the economy the way it is now! With the exception of the blu-ray market, movies have become cheaper. Books are still cheaper than ever with used book stores. How does gaming seriously expect to compete with other entertainment mediums if it keeps going up, not down?

The__MCP

I game mostly on the PC and I don't think they would go up to $80 as they usually cost less. I remember when N64 games cost $120 here in Canada so $80 isn't a deal breaker for me. I think the costs can be lowered if more companies focus less on graphics and more on gameplay.

i think game companies will always try to keep game prices in the $40-$60 range...i am sure they have economic models in which they have analyzed price (and cost) vs. # of units sold, amongst other factors, and have concluded that this is the optimal price range for new games...games have been in this price range for years - back to NES days...maybe inflation will hit at some point...back in the day Neo Geo games were $100+ and we saw how that did...

that said, for me too much for a game would be more than $100, but at that price point i would for sure be much more selective about what i buy

for a new console, i would say more than $1000 is too much...although this is coming from someone who bought a ps3 and a sega saturn at launch

i think game companies will always try to keep game prices in the $40-$60 range...i am sure they have economic models in which they have analyzed price (and cost) vs. # of units sold, amongst other factors, and have concluded that this is the optimal price range for new games...games have been in this price range for years - back to NES days...maybe inflation will hit at some point...back in the day Neo Geo games were $100+ and we saw how that did...

that said, for me too much for a game would be more than $100, but at that price point i would for sure be much more selective about what i buy

for a new console, i would say more than $1000 is too much...although this is coming from someone who bought a ps3 and a sega saturn at launch

orion_52

I don't know where you live but in the N64 days a game cost me $80-120 at times here in Ontario, Canada. I would say froma round 1998-2000 ish.

You guys sound like 400$ consoles and 60$ games are a new thing!

[QUOTE="orion_52"]

i think game companies will always try to keep game prices in the $40-$60 range...i am sure they have economic models in which they have analyzed price (and cost) vs. # of units sold, amongst other factors, and have concluded that this is the optimal price range for new games...games have been in this price range for years - back to NES days...maybe inflation will hit at some point...back in the day Neo Geo games were $100+ and we saw how that did...

that said, for me too much for a game would be more than $100, but at that price point i would for sure be much more selective about what i buy

for a new console, i would say more than $1000 is too much...although this is coming from someone who bought a ps3 and a sega saturn at launch

PublicNuisance

I don't know where you live but in the N64 days a game cost me $80-120 at times here in Ontario, Canada. I would say froma round 1998-2000 ish.

california...yeah n64 games were more expensive due to the cartridge...same with snes...i remember street fighter was like $70...contrast that with ps1 which had new games for $40

Naturally I'd like games to be cheaper but I don't really have any problems with the current prices I pay, $70 Canadian. I'm usually satisfied with my purchases. Hopefully they won't go up another $10 next gen but if they did I'd still buy them just that I would obviously buy slightly fewer games.

As for the price of the consoles it also depends on how much they have that benefits me at the time but I would prefer they stay below the $500 range. Seeing how this gen has gone I firmly believe that next gen they'll launch at a $400 or lower pricetag.

california...yeah n64 games were more expensive due to the cartridge...same with snes...i remember street fighter was like $70...contrast that with ps1 which had new games for $40

orion_52

By the time I had bought my PS1 the prices had dropped on N64 so I never noticed. That could be one reason the N64 got beat that gen.

i do agree with something a previous poster said that the next gen systems will be like the gamecube to Wii change. next gen systems wont jump in hardware as much but rather it will just add more stuff to interact with games or whatever, who knows. but with the Wii selling so much compared to the ps3 and 360, you know they will try and copy it.

sad news for gamers who like cutting edge stuff but whatever, you always have your PC that you can upgrade every year with the best gpu.

i just hope they keep making final fantasy games so i can live to see Final Fantasy XXX lol, they are on XIV so i think theres hope.

This gen I've yet to buy a game at $60, and as long as DD keeps its fat ugly butt out of the way (aka being able to buy a game "used") I'll never have to buy a game at "new" prices.

At $80, I would definitely not buy new. I have a HUUUGE backlog of games that would easily last me over a year to go through, so I would play those.

I believe the future of gaming should be focused on gaming experiences, not whether you can render individual strands of hair.

I struggle to fork out $60 for a game as it is, so if games were to go up chances are I'd only buy something I was EXTREMELY hyped over... which there's only really one game that I can't wait for at the moment, so I'd probably be forced to retreat into a retro-used gaming period. The amount of money I'm going to spend on games isn't going to increase, it'll only decrease if I don't see it to be a worthy investment anymore.

i'd pay up to $100 dollars if a game like Final Fantasy XV was released and it had over 100 hours of gameplay. games that are really long or have high replay value are worth the money since at the end you would of spend less than a dollar per hour that you spent playing it.

If games goto $80, i'm only buying a Nintendo console. I have never played a Mario platformer or spin-off that I didn't love and I can play those games over and over and over again. I've loved every StarFox game that is about flying planes and I play them over and over and over again. I'd feel safe dropping $80 on that. Most Nintendo games are like that.

The only other developer that I could blind buy an $80 game from is Bio-Ware. Outside of that, nah. It'd be survival of the fittest.$80 would radically change the landscape. Rather than games selling the most when they first launch, it'll be like 6 months after launch when the price is finally affordable. If you think the used games market is bad now, wait until it becomes the only way buy games at a decent price.