Ultimately, you get what you pay for, that is all.

Hey, kids are idiots, what are you gonna do about it? I remember when I was a kid I broke a lot of things too, that's just what happens when you're young and curious and you don't know how the world works.

I'm a firm believer of spanking children. Just like how you never learn not to touch something hot until you get burned, you never learn manners until you get smacked

Well, when it comes to PC game prices being different than console games, think about how many copies of a game can be sold in each respective market. The total revenue possible a game can make in any market depends on how many machines are out there that can play them. While pretty much everyone owns a computer, there are much smaller numbers in terms of console ownership. So, since they can sell more PC titles (theoretically) they can lower the price for the consumer and still turn a healthy profit. Which is why they do that.

Surprisingly, it doesn't really have to do with how much work goes into a game that determines its production cost, but rather, the amount of people it takes to do that work. Let's say it takes about 438k man-hours to make a AAA title that sells on XBox 360 for $60. That basically equates to 50 people working 8 hours a day for 3 years. Let's say each person works for $30 an hour, or about 57.6k a year. That means it'll cost approximately 13.14 mil to develop that title, which means it's gotta sell 219k copies to break even. It'll almost always be after this point (unless the game is very bad or perhaps very good) that they'll start lowering the price.

If you could do the same amount of work with half as many people, then games wouldn't cost so darned much to produce. Have you ever looked at the credits section of your favorite games? Everyone's got all these specialties now, which simply didn't exist back in the day. If you're wondering why games cost so much nowadays, that's the real reason, overhead costs. And the worst part is, it's not even the developer's fault. They need that many people nowadays because their investors pressure them to finish their games as quickly as possible.

And for the record, if you truly love video games with a passion, never buy used. The developers never see the money made by used purchases, and developers need that money in order to make better games. So that they can take bigger risks and stop making shovelware to little children and the like in order to pay the bills.

interesting, no one's ever dc'ed on me during ranked matches before. It must be because I beat most people down in less than 10 seconds per round. :)

I told my parents that I was interested in video game development (I really am) and that the xbox 360 offers the microsoft xna launcher, which allows you to program and create games using your 360 in tandem with your pc. As soon as I said that, my parents immediately offered to cover the cost of my elite.

Of course, it also helped that at the time, I had saved up enough money for a premium and a few games... so I wasn't exactly planning on freeloading but since my parents wanted to have a hand in helping me develop my interests and possible future career they were more than happy to support me.

and then of course I could use that money I saved to actually buy that 1-year membership for microsoft xna, which is like 100 bucks a year~

I think a lot of these suggestions for mature games are nice, but at the same time, I'm pretty sure they don't qualify for this poster's definition of "mature".

I think I know what you're talking about, and just about the only game that even trys to go that route is Dementium: The Ward. Correction, the only kinda decent game.

Did you know that major chains like Walmart have policies against selling m-rated ds games in their stores? Doesn't make sense, right? Well, that might be a pretty good reason why there aren't more mature games for the ds.

(btw I know the above fact because I work with the company that did pr for Gamecock)

that's just the thing though... i was sniffing all the different parts of it before I realized the entire tin reeked of marker. Old habit of mine, because you know that new game smell goes away oh so quickly.

I know I'm weird, okay? but what if it was some kid instead of me, hmm? I'm pretty sure something's wrong because my head's been numb for the past half hour and right now i'm starting to get a throbbing headache. Heck, I didn't even start playing the game yet

I swear to god if i lost brain cells i'm gonna sue someone's ass~

Hi everyone,

So I was really excited, getting the Soul Calibur IV Premium edition today. Call me a sucker for special editions of games, but it just happens to be my thing.

Anyway, two things that are really annoying me, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

1) So there's a tournament bracket card in the premium edition, right? Well, it looks like they added a little black marker for it too... the problem is that the marker has no cap, and has long since dried out. I'm particularly concerned because I, along with many others, enjoy that new game smell, similar to the liking of the new car smell, and I'm terribly worried that I just inhaled a huge whiff of permanent marker. In fact, I could not identify the source of the smell until I reached all the way into the bottom of the collector's tin, where the said marker was hiding under the included t-shirt.

2) I pre-ordered this game at Gamestop, where they advertised we'd get a free keychain if we pre-ordered it. However, when I asked for the keychain after making the pre-order, the clerk insisted that the keychain was included in the collector's tin. I am looking through the tin thoroughly and see no evidence of this keychain.

So seriously, wtf?!? Can someone help me with this issue? And if you guys are having the same problem, please post your angst as well!