$60 USD not enough for Devs anymore?

The cost to develop a game has increased exponentially over the years. First we had $10 increase in the cost of our AAA titles. Then we had DLC to add extra revenue for devs. Then microtransactions stores and collector editions pre order bonus'. Now we're seeing sections of games being completely removed and sold as Day One DLC to compensate for the cost of developing a game. Recently there's been a huge influx in "complete package" game releases sold at $80-$150 or season passes that make you commit to an additional $20-$50. This is especially painful for countries outside the USA. Canada is already paying $69.99+13% sales tax ($80) for games that are sold with day one DLC. Is this due to the cost of developing a game to increase or are developers just being greedy?

Don't buy 60$ launch games,problem solved

Its a business plain and simple. You wouldn't turn away extra revenue in any business you had,

Evolve 100 Dollar Multi Monster omg 3 monsters 100's of dollars of value right?

did you know with starcraft 1 you get 3 campaigns, unlimited free multiplayer, ladders, stats, 1000's of custom maps including games like evolve where you can play as 1000's of monsters and hunters

EVOLVE 100 MONSTER dollars 3 monsters the value train has arrived

Not sure why you compare both

Games are much cheaper than they have ever been. Just get a gaming PC and never buy at launch. It's really a golden era.

The developers can charge piece meal if they want as it's their product. It's up to each individual consumer to do the research on the available products and make up their own minds to buy or not.

Case in point, I'm not buying Evolve as it's an online competitive game that will have lots of DLC. On the flip side of the coin, Uncharted is my favorite series and I plan to buy the collectors edition and most DLC for Uncharted 4 (excluding retarded multiplayer items).

Prices of the products will drop. GOTY versions will release. Do some research, have some restraint and practice patience.

I don't know because I don't work in the industry. However, since all products and services have increased their prices in the past few years, everything costs more than it used to 5, 10 years ago, I don't see why videogames should be immune to this kind of inflation.

$60 is too much. Get rid of the used game market for starters.

u were saying

$60 is more than enough, the costs have increased but so does the demand for games, specially now that most games are launched in multiple platforms, that is just an excuse for devs wanting to charge more and craptastic games that want to win a lot by doing nothing.

@ghostwarrior786 said:

u were saying

If you factor in inflation as well there's no way around it...dollar for dollar games are cheaper than they've ever been. Couple that fact with (well, if you are a PC gamer at least) Steam sales and other deals on digital sites there has never been a time in history where gamer's dollars went further.

were you around during the nes- snes days? some games cost $70-80

Sadly it dosent seem enough to some devs like Bungie, just look at their game Destiny a game with almost no worthwhile content, no story mode like it was promised to have, heavily focused on grinding, lottery like loot system, recycled weapons and overpriced DLC that can be finished in an hour. Bad devs like that im worried will make other devs believe this is how things are supposed to be like

People still pay $60 for games?

yes and they were complete games no dlc BS most games were 44.99 in CDN $60 is equal to the inflation rate anything more is just being greedy if it's day one dlc. A game that costs 59.99 and has $20 worth of dlc on day one (this assumes that they cut part of the game to get more revenue) is ~10% more than what the inflation for 1992-2015 suggests the game should be. Now we're seeing $100 game packages and seasons passes that far exceed what inflation suggests we should be paying for a game.

Unless you're in the gaming business, we don't really know how the budget of a game and the price of games are selected. One thing for sure is that game prices have been around the same price for over a decade now. So $60 at MSRP today is not that bad compared to other years when they were more. Also I'm guessing the used game market and digital market affects how these games are priced. At the end of the day, a good game is a good game and if people like good games they will buy it. If the devs make bad games and people don't buy them that company will eventually go bankrupt and close down. I'm guessing when these devs make games, they want that game to have longevity so might as well try to monetize it so that company can continue making games. I think devs are in a learning process and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. Also gamers are consumers and some are smarter consumers than others. There are so many deals and ways to get games and subscriptions at discounted prices and sometimes all you need is patience.

In 1973 my father purchased me my first console, a Magnavox Odyssey, how much is $200 1972 dollars in 2015 dollars ? the answer is around $ 1100 2015 US dollars, so shelling out 350-400 dollars in a console or 60 dollars in a game isn´t THAT terrible.

I'm waiting for the Evolve 100 monsters for 3 dollars edition.

they go on sale in 2 months post release

@ghostwarrior786 said:

u were saying

I was going to say about 16-bit era prices... But this picture says it much better.

if youre stuck on consoles, probably. Even if it does goes on sale, its laughably higher than something like steam, amazon, humble bundle, etc.

It's not "extra" revenue anymore, it's necessary revenue. Like, there are some companies that are so fucking on the edge that if they don't sell their game well AND make a ton of dlc they will actually go bankrupt.

@MonsieurX: "Don't buy 60$ launch games,problem solved"

Don't remember the last time I paid full price for a game.

I could of sworn I just bought a bunch of console games on Amazon for less than $20, new. Hell, some were less than $10.

Not taking into account digital sales on pc, console games are on average much cheaper on amazon. And even with digital sales, I want physical copy's, and there's no way I would buy physical copy's on PC because they're worthless. Granted so far this gen, physical copy's are starting to mean less due to all the bullshit dlc and ridiculous patch sizes, but I also haven't seen a game that's worth a damn this gen yet. Something tells me the games i'm looking forward to won't have this problem, heh.

This idea that games are just plain cheaper, or a better value on PC is laughable.

The problem is not increasing prices, but decreasing willingness to pay for IP. Free beer mentality everywhere. Thus, publishers are forced to offer some cheaped down versions of the complete game by removing content and selling it separately.

Games are more expensive to make than ever because of potential programming necessitated by graphics and game mechanics.

However, when people point this out I think they forget that gaming is a new phenomenon, and the base went from kids 20 years ago, to working adults with real income. Games are more expensive to create, but the whole gaming pie (potential customers) has never been bigger, and is growing by leaps and bounds.

Gaming now is a larger industry than movies AND music COMBINED. 24 billion a year, last I heard.

Heh, it's pretty damn rare that I buy games new nowadays. Especially since they are BD discs, used for me for the games I can wait on.

When some devs put more money on hair physics than other devs can make a whole great game on you start to wonder ya:P

Evolve is a perfect example of DLC done wrong. But hey if it's profitable.

The replies in here make me wonder if people here even read the OP anymore...

Development costs have gotten much, much higher and they'll only increase from here. Thankfully, the market for vidya has increased exponentially as well. It's rare for a AAA game to not be profitable. I think the $60 price tag will stay for the foreseeable future.

Are you sure? There won't be any competition for devs. They could price their games at any price and you would have to pay to play.

I know there have already been example of how games used to cost more, but I will drop a couple more here just to drive the point home.

@ristactionjakso: The used game market is a huge loss of profit to publishers. With it gone, they would be obliged to lower prices and retailers would be forced to provide more and better sales.

its not laughable at all, pc games are much cheaper than console games. If you know where to shop and how to shop the best price of a PC game will almost always be lower than the best price of a console game.

I do agree with you that most people don't realize there are good console deals to be had, but saying that games are not cheaper on PC is factually incorrect.

Meh, it is just greed.

Developers not satisfied with $60 games must be motivated by greed.

I still don't understand the fuss over the "game prices these days" argument. As a few posters have shown there were times when games cost more at MSRP then they do now and that's not considering inflation. I still remember paying $90 as a young one for NBA Jam and RPG's.

I had to work for that money and it made me appreciate things I had to work for.

Also remember that the games back then had no multiplayer and were also limited in content. I remember my parents paying $40 to $60 bucks for an NES game, I would beat it with some friends in a day, and you played that game over and over because you couldn't just go trade in.

Also the cost of making a game has risen and the devs don't see the whole $60 from the sale of a game. I don't know what percentage they get but its not the full $60. I think I remember it being said to be about 15% and the rest goes to things like the publisher, marketing and the consoles manufacturer.

This is simply my view of the MSRP argument. The whole DLC and season pass crap is another. I don't mind the add-ons and what not but a game that is shipped incomplete with the intentions of milking more money is BS. Sadly it's where it's all heading.

I haven't paid more than $40 on a game since 2011 and I game mainly on consoles.

Really ppl he was being sarcastic obv he knows ppl cough up $60

When gamers say PC games are expensive its code for steam sale as in typically a PC gamer has a larger library due to how cheap the games are.

You end up spending more compared to the 5-8 games you have on console.

Yes it is at $60 1 million copies should leave clean like $45 or $44 millions,if not more,many games this day sell 2 3 or even more million copies,even Dead Rising 3 was say to sell 1.7 million and that game didn't cost even close to $50 million i am sure.

Then there is the nickel and dime,developers having more than $100 in DLC already before the game is even launch,you get 30 hours from a game and from the complete DLC many times you don't get your money back,as some times they end up costing more than the game it self.

@tormentos:

Are you saying a dev makes $45 million on a million seller game?

Like I stated above, and could be off, the dev cut of a game sale is about 15%.

A million seller title is going to bring the dev roughly $10 million.

That is totally impossible dude.

@tormentos:

Remember the retailer gets a cut, the publisher, licensing for use on the system and marketing. Even if the dev got 30% of the MSRP a million seller would only get $18 million.

That's why with high dev costs these days and the pressure to have a blockbuster AAA title these companies are pushing DLC and extra crap to bring in more money while cutting back on dev costs by releasing a smaller/less complete game.

^ This.. picked up LBP3 for $36 two months after it's launch. Unless it's a truly "must have" game I'm not spending $60 on it (you can thank a gaming PC and steam for that :P ).

The secondhand games market are fucking devs over big time as games become more expensive to develop. They are at the point where they have to sell DLC to all the people that bought a used copy at Gamestop.

The all digital future is coming sooner rather than later. Maybe next gen...........

Don't see why not, people can pay for whatever they want.