Do you think next-gen game prices are going to rise or stay the same?

D

Dan The Man

Well-Known Member
Full GL Member
Credits
6,771
The next generation is nearly upon us. For the past two generations the prices of games were the same (59.99 USD) and was wondering if you guys think there will be a price increase for next gen games or will they remain the same as last gen?

Personally, I think they will stay the same but wouldn't be surprised to see a $10 increase.
 
Well I guess it depends on the time and people buying it..
 
No idea, how high demanding will it be. They might double there price. End of the day they want to make their money and rip us off. What's always the right price anyway. I mean they can say sell it for $50 each copy and yet they make $30 for a game that only cost them $20 to make.

WIth this world effected I seen so many doing free games, epic is doing it almost once a month or more.
 
Increasing price = less sales. Coronavirus should not have an impact on gaming, atleast not a negative one. Some may argue that current game prices are expensive, I reckon we keep it as it is, it's reasonable at the moment.
 
ARx182 said:
Increasing price = less sales. Coronavirus should not have an impact on gaming, atleast not a negative one. Some may argue that current game prices are expensive, I reckon we keep it as it is, it's reasonable at the moment.
Click to expand...

price wise no, but game release yes. We're going to see a gaming drought in the near future.
 
Demon_Skeith said:
price wise no, but game release yes. We're going to see a gaming drought in the near future.
Click to expand...

The slow and unreliable internet service providers in some countries can make game making slower. Video chat meetings, downloading and uploading large game files to a server can be very slow if the worker's home internet is slow and unreliable.

Using postal mail to send large files stored on a USB drive can also be slow depending on how fast postal mail is in a country, and if there is a lot of traffic jams or not.
 
Former Playstation Exec, Layden, commented on this:

The former exec reminisced when production budgets were roughly $1 million for even the largest games being made and also referred to a common theory that development costs double with each new generation of hardware.

“The problem with that model is it’s just not sustainable,” he said, explaining that the current generation has seen the cost of development reach up to $150 million. “I don’t think that, in the next generation, you can take those numbers and multiply them by two and think that you can grow. I think the industry as a whole needs to sit back and go, ‘Alright, what are we building? What’s the audience’s expectation? What is the best way to get our story across, and say what we need to say? It’s hard for every adventure game to shoot for the 50 to 60-hour gameplay milestone, because that’s gonna be so much more expensive to achieve. And in the end you may close some interesting creators and their stories out of the market if that’s the kind of threshold they have to meet… We have to reevaluate that.”

Layden also continued on discussing how the price of games has continued to stay where they are at now for quite some time. He stated: “It’s been $59.99 since I started in this business, but the cost of games has gone up ten times. If you don’t have elasticity on the price-point, but you have huge volatility on the cost line, the model becomes more difficult. I think this generation is going to see those two imperatives collide.”

He did discuss a possible solution; a return of shorter game lengths. Personally, as I get older, I have less and less time to complete these gargantuan titles. Layden has that same issue and believes shorter experiences will allow gamers to complete more titles as well as could give players tighter and more compelling stories.

“So how can we look at that and say: Is there another answer? Instead of spending five years making an 80-hour game, what does three years and a 15-hour game look like? What would be the cost around that? Is that a full-throated experience?

“Personally, as an older gamer… I would welcome a return to the 12 to 15 hour [AAA] game. I would finish more games, first of all, and just like a well-edited piece of literature or a movie, looking at the discipline around that could give us tighter, more compelling content.

“It’s something I’d like to see a return to in this business.”
 
though 15 hours is too short for rpgs.
 
Hard to say really. Hopefully, they will stay at the same price. I honestly wouldn't mind shorter games especially since with the majority of games I play, the multiplayer is more important for me.
 
Grungie said:
I think we need to go back to having 20-30 hour RPG’s as a standard instead of 60-100. I miss when games like Grandia and Dragon Quest VII were outliers, not the standard.
Click to expand...
Couldn't agree more with this. It was nice to be able to say to someone I have finished 'Blue Dragon' like you have earnt it!
 
Read this from gamesindustry biz:

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, IDG President and CEO Yoshio Osaki says that game pricing has remained flat since 2005, whereas TV and movie pricing has increased significantly.

"The last time that next-gen launch software pricing went up was in 2005 and 2006, when it went from $49.99 to $59.99 at the start of the Xbox 360 and PS3 generation," he says.

"During that time, the costs and prices in other affiliated verticals have gone up."

Osaki says that next-gen console game production costs have increased by 200% to 300%, depending on the IP, studio and genre, but the prices have remained at $59.99. Meanwhile, cinema ticket prices have risen 39%, Netflix subscription costs have gone up 100%, and Cable TV packages have risen by 105%.

"Even with the increase to $69.99 for next-gen, that price increase from 2005 to 2020 next-gen is only up 17%, far lower than the other comparisons. While the cost of development and publishing have gone up, and pricing in other entertainment verticals has also gone up substantially, next-gen software pricing has not reflected these increases. $59.99 to $69.99 does not even cover these other cost increases completely, but does move it more in the proper direction."

He continues: "IDG works with all major game publishers, and our channel checks indicate that other publishers are also exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises, for the same reasons outlined above.
 
I think there is a chance that game prices will be more affordable like $40 to buy the game because of the Coronavirus outbreak causing people to earn less money, or no money if they lost their job because their workplace closed down because they have fewer customers during the Coronavirus causing a drop in buyers.
 
There is like 0% chance of them ever going down to $40, to be honest. Even with the Coronavirus outbreak, there will still be people out there willing to pay the normal price for games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top