$80 looks to be the standard now for new games which is ridiculous.
Yeah how dare they!
This discussion has come up before here, don't remember the thread though. Might have been last year's E3 or the new console thread.
Video games are one of the few thing that have substantially dropped in price over the years.
Looking back at 1996 and the prices of SNES games:
Illusion of Gaia: $95
Killer Instinct: $88
Earthbound: $90 (IIRC it was over $100 when it was released)
Super Punch Out $80
Mario Kart: $63, which was what, 3-4 years old by that point?
If video games followed inflation in Canada, new games would be over $130 today.
Not only that, but I find prices drop on games much faster than they ever used to, and you didn't have the big E3, boxing day, etc. sales on video games in the 90s at all, let alone to the scale they have now.
The fact that companies are making money hand over fist with micro-purchases and crappy little iPhone games, which one would think would either translate into standalone games either climbing in price or slowly vanishing, I'm fine paying sub-100 for something I can sink 100+ hours into.
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I'm aware of how expensive they used to be. It makes me feel guilty for getting my parents to buy me games like Vectorman for $100 and then barely play it. I still think $80 is too much especially with how companies handle pre-launch DLC and charge another $40 on a season pass for things that should already be in the game.
This discussion has come up before here, don't remember the thread though. Might have been last year's E3 or the new console thread.
Video games are one of the few thing that have substantially dropped in price over the years.
Looking back at 1996 and the prices of SNES games:
Illusion of Gaia: $95
Killer Instinct: $88
Earthbound: $90 (IIRC it was over $100 when it was released)
Super Punch Out $80
Mario Kart: $63, which was what, 3-4 years old by that point?
If video games followed inflation in Canada, new games would be over $130 today.
Not only that, but I find prices drop on games much faster than they ever used to, and you didn't have the big E3, boxing day, etc. sales on video games in the 90s at all, let alone to the scale they have now.
The fact that companies are making money hand over fist with micro-purchases and crappy little iPhone games, which one would think would either translate into standalone games either climbing in price or slowly vanishing, I'm fine paying sub-100 for something I can sink 100+ hours into.
It was also a lot more expensive to manufacture games on cartridges back then, compared to a cheap disc today. Especially most of the games you listed, which required a higher-end cartridge with more memory.
It was also a lot more expensive to manufacture games on cartridges back then, compared to a cheap disc today. Especially most of the games you listed, which required a higher-end cartridge with more memory.
It is more expensive to develop/publish/market games today than it was back then. Even taking that into consideration, alongside inflation - we're paying the same price for games today as we were 20 years ago (ignore the weak Canadian dollar).
Final Fantasy VII, the most expensive game ever when it was released, had a development budget of $45 million.
GTA V's development budget was $140 million.
The cost of manufacturing an SNES cart was roughly $12-$15. After shelling out that money for manufacturing, the costs were done.
The cost of manufacturing a modern blu-ray game is around $2 a disc. However, the cost AFTER manufacturing that disc goes on...and on...and on. Online server management/back-end support, patches to fix bugs, updates to re-balance gameplay, storage and bandwidth costs associated with all of this. So the gap between the cost of releasing a cartridge vs. releasing and supporting a modern game are not that different.
As mentioned earlier as well - thanks to digital distribution and big box retailers like Amazon, if you think the game is too expensive at launch, wait a few months and get it for half the price.
Last edited by ComixZone; 06-16-2015 at 10:33 AM.
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It is more expensive to develop/publish/market games today than it was back then. Even taking that into consideration, alongside inflation - we're paying the same price for games today as we were 20 years ago (ignore the weak Canadian dollar).
Final Fantasy VII, the most expensive game ever when it was released, had a development budget of $45 million.
GTA V's development budget was $140 million.
The cost of manufacturing an SNES cart was roughly $12-$15. After shelling out that money for manufacturing, the costs were done.
The cost of manufacturing a modern blu-ray game is around $2 a disc. However, the cost AFTER manufacturing that disc goes on...and on...and on. Online server management/back-end support, patches to fix bugs, updates to re-balance gameplay, storage and bandwidth costs associated with all of this. So the gap between the cost of releasing a cartridge vs. releasing and supporting a modern game are not that different.
As mentioned earlier as well - thanks to digital distribution and big box retailers like Amazon, if you think the game is too expensive at launch, wait a few months and get it for half the price.
I'm not arguing that point, but I highly doubt that EA's NHL development team grew enough in one year to warrant a 15% increase in price. You have to take into account all of the profit they make afterwards from HUT as well. Seems very greedy to me.
I'm not arguing that point, but I highly doubt that EA's NHL development team grew enough in one year to warrant a 15% increase in price. You have to take into account all of the profit they make afterwards from HUT as well. Seems very greedy to me.
It sure does. VERY greedy. They stand to make a lot of money of HUT this year too. I'm not happy about it at all.
I wonder how they calculate their Canadian prices? Games in the states now seem to be the standard $60 ($73CDN), so the $80 is higher than expected. At least they only seem to be penalizing early adopters. It still takes about the same amount of time to hit $40 as it used to (about 3 months).
NHL 15 was so, so, so bad that I was considering not buying the game this year for the first time since 2009. The price point just seals it for me. Even with 30% off at amazon, i can't justify it.
the NHL franchise lost me and in fact, created a situation where I'm not even interested in buying a video game system. Now, could you say, well MrCoffee, is that entirely to blame at NHL's feet or your general movement towards less playing of video games?
To which I'd say, #### you EA, yes, it's your general disdain for the franchise and its' fans to provide a meaningful addition to the franchise in multiple years. to take away features and reintroduce a few years later as new. To not even update your menus, your custom logos / jersey sets, to not include all the updates you could when you should have, to in general apply a planned obsolescence approach when your best strategy would have been to just make the best game year in year out, I could go on.
So thanks EA, you destroyed video games for me. I thought I'd take a year off, now it'll be 3 this year. Who knows, maybe I won't ever buy a NHL video game again. I shouldn't say never, but EA sure as #### deserves it. This thread still serves such a delicious and hilarious purpose to me of watching others sheer frustration at the NHL franchise. I hope and wish more fans follow suit and force true change for the franchise so that they finally do something worth buying.
I love reading people taking the time to justify on an online forum why they will never purchase and NHL game again. Some people are so dramatic. The NHL games are as fun as they've ever been
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I love reading people taking the time to justify on an online forum why they will never purchase and NHL game again. Some people are so dramatic. The NHL games are as fun as they've ever been
Exactly, its as fun as it has ever been, but not $20 more fun.
Console prices suck but I think the problem is people thinking they need to own every game that comes out. You either have the disposable income for your entertainment and purchase many games or you have to choose only one or two from many games. Its not like people never got burned by bad games in the past in fact they were harder to spot because you only had magazine reviews after the fact.
I haven't bought NHL in a few years now so I'm really looking forward to it.
While the price point certainly stings, it's a game I play literally all year long. An entire season with playoffs takes about 24 hours, so getting 3-4 seasons in puts it at almost 100 hours of entertainment. I feel I'll even get my money's worth at $80.
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While the price point certainly stings, it's a game I play literally all year long. An entire season with playoffs takes about 24 hours, so getting 3-4 seasons in puts it at almost 100 hours of entertainment. I feel I'll even get my money's worth at $80.
Same here, I find that I sit down to play a newer game that I have and I always find myself putting in NHL first just to get a quick online game in
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Yes, NHL 15 had modes missing and was generally an incomplete game but I'm over it now. I'm looking toward the future and hoping EA has improved on their previous shortcomings because this video has gotten me pretty hard excited.
