Price of a Game?

[PointOfViewGun]

The gaming industry has a wide variety of games out there. Some follow a story. Some focus on online gaming. Some are sandbox games. Etc. These games often have similar prices (though they vary from country to country; lets focus on dollar prices now). From a Total War perspective, most games were priced at 60$ with few saga games priced at 45$.

With each new game coming up price always gets criticized and we have many people passing judgment on that. I'm interested in how anyone justifies any number they put forth; whether its the actual price of the game or something they thought out of scratch.

The question; what is the right price for a game?

[Dismounted Feudal Knight]

It's subjective of course and I doubt anyone's rationale of how much is too much goes beyond their relative idea based on what they've paid before and comparing similar games. At the end of the day it's worth what people pay. I know if I dislike a game's price then I can likely undercut it eventually by sales. For example despite having a slashed price from the mainline already I'm not sure I buy the Saga titles for their full price. On the other hand if I had to rebuy Medieval 2 it would be worth the full price of a mainline title and despite my cheap attitude, much more: purely based on my having put too many hours into the game and its influence in my earlier years.

Some software that people buy is worthless to me because I understand and use free passion projects that have a great ethos and are more trustworthy than their premium versions ever will be, and so are invaluable. But for what I'm involved in that doesn't typically apply to video games outside of indie projects. The value of software in general is an interesting EMM-suited tangent, but the underlying relativity is the same. People come up with entirely different ways to look at these things to the point they follow their own moral code. The only 'glue' is the common understanding of similar options ie, AAA in the 60, begrudgingly 70 dollar range, or smaller games in the 15-30 range, cheaper games having relative prices being pulled down by just as good free options, what have you. I know the price range is broader than that but personally I don't humor games with an asking price above 60 with rare exception, I have better things to do and enough of a backlog anyway.

People may complain about Saga in particular because it comes off to them as a glorified kingdoms campaign or old style expansion in scope and offering, or it 'feels' too small to be worth more than half a mainline title. Any of these attitudes I don't see as objectively wrong, of course you can use your own understanding to argue otherwise. Any of them will bring down the perceived value. Either way the question is what people are willing to tolerate and if CA can get away with it all things considered. To me it seems Saga titles are thinly tolerated. Complaints on the mainline titles exist but from what I see pertain more towards how the offering is implemented rather than the offering being present, and people seem more understanding towards the price when the critique is the former (quality of experience) vs the latter (available content/gameplay). This is all from the player perspective, which is really what companies need to appeal to since they don't need the PR of being seen as making thoroughly overpriced games relative to the games people are most likely to compare them to for value. On the other hand it would be silly to massively undercut. So there you have it.

[PikeStance]

I think games are generally priced fairly well. The only exception will be the annual updated games. I think they are a little pricey for very little or inconsistent further development of the game. However, if you are into these sports games, then that is your cross the bear. I use to buy them biannually or I buy the older version when the newer one comes out. You generally can grab a 50% discount. The only stuff that is a bit overpriced are DLCs. But, there are frequent sales, and generally sales price them fairly. (ignoring quality of the DLC, LOL).

I also play Combat Flight Simulator (IL 2) and those games/ additional content run North of 75 - 85 USD. However, the quality and detail is exceptional and the developers are super responsive to feedback.

I haven't seen any huge price increases. if anything, it is probably the industry least impacted by Covid.