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The developer of the award-winning Elder Scrolls series may be staring irony in the face, but does it have a point?
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The developer of the award-winning Elder Scrolls series may be staring irony in the face, but does it have a point?
Compared with the £45 games of old, a typical £28 for a new, epic, PC game these days is fantastic value, or you don't mind waiting (the games don't go off or anything!) bargains are even better with sales.
The CE is a way to allow fans to increase their market power - without them games will be produced for the lowest common denominator - but if a minority are willing to pay more to gain equivalence then they'll be listened to more carefully.
The Basic Editions should be lower in price, i think that is what he is getting at, CE/SE/LE can be priced appropriately taking into consideration what they include.
How does $150 work out as £130, shouldn't it be more like £90-95?
I am not going to pay 20 quid for 4-5 hours play (That isn't even an evenings enjoyment). Got to love how 40 for 10-15 get you more game for your money. So what they are saying is they want to charge even more for games.
It really annoys me the way games are feeling incomplete these days, rush it out the door / fix it later... no content... fine we will sell you more later. The burn off period were it goes from premium to budget is getting smaller and smaller. I shall continue to wait 6 months after release before buying "new" games...
The UK price includes VAT. Still, should be more like £110 or so, though compared to the EU price it's about right, so maybe some cost for EU logistics, given they're an american company.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh
I'm all for cheaper entry price and then DLC, if you like the game buy more until you're bored of it... extra zones, new missions, new units etc.
Of course some games are better value than others, the Total War series has endless replay. Steam clocks me at 340 hours for Empire, and 120 and counting for Shogun II.
Thats why I usually wait for sales/budget editions on the PC. I'm happy to wait and pay £5 on steam/amazon/play in a years time for a single player game (this is especially true for me as I rarely complete games so £30 is too much in most cases). Only exception for this is Battlefield (due to online gaming) and Mass effect however this time i might wait for ME3 - I got 2 on pre-order and it dropped to half price on PC with two months!
It also seems these days that every new release on steam gets a you a free item on TF2, its no longer feeling special any more.
I'm not. I expect to buy a game that stand on it's own, and that's the basis on which I've bought Elder Scrolls releases for years.Quote:
Originally Posted by kingpotnoodle
What I'm not going to do is join what amounts to a subscription model, where you don't know what it's going to cost you going in, and where they dribble bits of money out of you in small increments. I'm not going to be a cash cow that's going to volunteer to be milked, and that'd how I see that model. I might, or might not, buy expansion packs but I'm not interested in buying half a game and then paying for the rest as DLC. If TES goes that way, they lose me.
As for value, I don't see that "Collectors Edition" as being aimed at gamers. It's aimed at collectors, or gamers that are also collectors. Would I pay £40 for a good game? Yes, and have done for a very long time. Would I pay even £5 extra for a model of a dragon, an art book and a "making of" CD? Would I hell. Because I'm not a collector, not of that kind of stuff anyway.
But good games have always been expensive, and I remember paying £30 or more back in the late '70s, for games for an Apple II. That price, given earnings back then and inflation since, makes £40 for a good game now look positively like a bargain. We have seen the real-terms price of so many things come down over the years, and in the high-tech arena, come down a LOT, that we come to expect more and more for our money all the time. In many areas (though not so much tech products), my bet is that that party is now over.
Been doing that for ages. Unless you feel a driving need to be playing the latest game as it comes out, perhaps because of playing others online, that strategy saves a huge amount of money.Quote:
Originally Posted by cheesemp
I always "try before I buy", some think it's wrong but as you cannot take games back any more and say "its crap", they have forced our hands. When you can pay £40 for a game and you hate it after 5 minutes, yet you cannot return it for a refund or replace it for another title? It's hardly surprising that so many games get shovelled out unfinished, untested and uncared for.
The recent surge of DLC does not help either. Take Black Ops for instance.....its the same COD engine that's been used for a while, different maps, different skins, killstreaks renamed. It's still near top-whack price even though we have been slapped around with MW3 trailers for months.....the map packs have had 1 measly discount on them since they were released....
In fact on steam now it costs:
BO £39.99
ACP £11.49
ECP £11.49
FSCP £11.49
Total = £74.49
What does each pack add? 3 multiplayer maps and a zombie map....a number of the maps being from previous COD games!
It's a joke and then you look at stuff like this and you realise just how much they are trying to take punters for a ride. I just find it amazing that Bethesda can make it sound like they are different at all, they have greedy shareholders who always want to see a phat quarter, I guess a $150 CE will go some way to placating those shareholders.
£40 is a lot for most games. There are a select few that I would (and have) paid that much for - including StarCraft II for example (actually that was a bit more as i got the collectors edition).
I tend to work like this - if its a game that I am really looking forward to, then I will generally be buying it on PC and as such won't be paying more than £30 for it. Typically it will cost me £20-£25 (buying retail copies - i don't go in for the overpriced digital versions). Otherwise I might pick it up for my PS3 - but here I won't usually buy it new, as I think £40-£45 is a complete rip off for a console game, especially when DLC will be released shortly after for another £10, but I'll pick up a pre-owned copy for £20-£25 again. The exception is for the big ones like COD (which I get on console for the MP experience, and because it's not a "serious" game like BF3)
It's a fair price as far as I am concerned, and publishers do it time and time again on the PC (almost every new PC game can be had for under £30)..so it can be done.
I don't think I've ever paid more than £30 for a game, and that includes many new releases. £40 is too much, let alone £130!
Ah yes, the VAT, £20 for logistics is extreme though, don't you think? :undecidedQuote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
I remember basic versions of n64 games being £55, I still only get games when they drop to around £30 though, purely because I'm rarely in a big rush to buy a game
Pricing should read - $149.99 (US), €149.99 (Europe), £129.99 (UK) and A$199.99 (Australia).
It's also not helped by the fact that there will indeed be no demo for Skyrim, making that decision to part with your cash somewhat more difficult.
For me, it's makes it much easier. No demo, no ability to "taste" the game, then no parting with cash. Period.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zap
Not when you also take into account market sizes/bearing prices. We're quite used to paying up to 100% on stuff from the states, £20 is hardly unusual.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh
I thought you said you'd bought previous TES games? The only one with a demo was Daggerfall if I remember correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Only because a friend had them. A friend that's since moved too far away to get to very often.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Its more likely a bit of extra profit. Logistics might cost £1 but not £20 when you consider stock is shifted around in containers (Container fee divided by a lot of units)Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Yeah I quite like the demo via friend approach, still, you might be able to find someone in your near vicinity/social circle that will be playing Skyrim.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
As opposed to a cut in profit for the US market? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh
Logistics isn't really just shipping costs, it's more local personnel costs - marketeers, retail, lawyers, other localisation costs etc. Wages in the UK are high, which contributes both to actual cost and market-bearing pricing.
Surely all that is covered in the unit/box price already, all they are doing is shipping from their warehouse to either their UK warehouse or direct to retailers warehouses.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
Which is why box prices are higher in the UK, yes :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh
All technology products usually reach around $1=£1 parity after market size, transport, property costs, taxes, etc., are accounted for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yosh
Sadly, with a couple of exceptions, I'm not aware of anyone near in my social circle that plays computer games much less TES, and that couple are more into flight sims and racing games, etc, not fantasy/RPG.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
I will quite happily purchase Skyrim and spend many many hours telling you how awesome it is (assuming it is indeed awesome as promised)Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
With regards to the article, it would be nice if games could reach a new, lower price point but the only way this could realistically happen is if they shifted more units of a particular title. It could be argued that the sheer number of new releases each month is actually increasing the price of games per unit, rather than decreasing them as the development costs tend to remain fairly static.
Of course, with regards to the collectors editions, you're paying for the statue, as any regular visitor to Forbidden Planet will tell you, those resin pieces cost a lot of money, usually due to their low production run. It's annoying, I'd pay a bit extra for a couple of in-game items, or some nifty piece like a cloth map, or a lunchbox or small desktop statue (the Fallout 3 Collectors edition is one of the best I've seen recently)
Skyrim will be awesome, of that there is no doubt in my mind whatsoever, however it will be awesome around 6 months after release when they have patched all the holes and gamebreaking issues.
I will never buy a Bethseda game immediately it comes out, I will buy them, but after Fallout : NV, I really do not want to get stung again.
I cant remember the last time i bought a game and felt truly happy with it. I no longer get that sense of worth, i find damn near all these games incredibly over priced to begin with and then they push out DLC.
For instance i still feel cheated with my purchase of Black Ops on 360, though it still gets a lot of play the game cost me £37 on release and within the space of a few months i saw 2 map packs out. And the worse thing is, as more and more people buy those map packs my ability to play the game online diminishes. I bought one map pack and couldnt feel more mugged off when the exact same day just hours later they released news of the next one.
The exception to any of my recent game purchases within probably the last 2 years would be Starcraft 2, the game felt well polished, well supported and continues to see hours and hours of play. Also there limited edition didnt cost me a kidney, coming in at £50 pre-ordered i am still very content and appreciated the extras included.
Just wish more developers would cotton on to what gaming is about: Producing the best game possible, showing off and fun. Not overpriced endless crap.
I am still waiting for Starcraft 2 to drop in price. Yes, there are a lot of very content buyers. But even if I were to swallow the argument that the game is so epic that it should be seen as the first of a trilogy than a third of a whole game, it's still an expensive year old game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
And as for DLC, I have to say some companies are really milking it. I can live having to pay the same price for Super Street Fight IV: Arcade Edition as someone who has never bought Street Fighter IV. But look at the DLC for it: http://store.steampowered.com/app/45760/
I won't buy a single one of them unless they make a complete package by the time I buy it. And if they don't, I'll hold my purchase until the game is dirt cheap and I'll just ignore the DLCs.
Actually, the link you provided shows the *good* side of DLC, the side where you can buy optional extras that really don't make a blind bit of difference to the gameplay, nor stop you from taking part in any of the action. Costume packs and minipets are the ideal form of DLC, you buy them if you like them and ignore them if you don't.Quote:
Originally Posted by TooNice
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I have my copy of Skyrym on pre-order basd on the strenth of the previous 2 eldar scrolls games and the bargain pre-order in the hexus forums.
I agree dlc shouldnt be game breaking stuff like map packs as it excludes non payers from playing and enjoying there games. Unfortunatly its a good money spinner for the companies so its going to continue :(
Dragon, book and DVD very nice but £120 no thanks .
I got Oblivion GOTY for £10 that is the best value you could hope for with a game, the collectors edition is useless unless you're a complete geek. No in-game content but a making of DVD and a toy dragon. Maps are fine and different artwork or covers would have been better. Poster of something would have been better.