CliffyB On Next-Gen Game Pricing

[hal]

Cliff Bleszinski echoes comment made earlier this year by Mark Rein, stating that game prices are "just too high". He has this to say in MTV's article on Xbox 360 game prices:

"What other entertainment medium that's mass market is at $60 a pop?" said Cliff Bleszinski, lead designer at developer Epic's 360 title "Gears of War," due next year. "If video game pricing continues to go up, we will crash."

Meanwhile, an Electronic Arts spokesperson defends the pricing:

"We believe that premium titles command premium pricing," said EA spokesperson Tammy Schachter when asked why EA's first-run 360 titles were selling for $10 more than the company's first-run titles for Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. "These are deep, rich, complex games."

 

[Hans Oberlander]

I think the rate at which games are selling is absolutely rediculous.

 

[Phopojijo]

I think the rate at which games are selling is absolutely rediculous.

Then again what other entertainment medium takes a 150-200$ hit on the sale of each playback device (VCR/DVD) like console makers do.

 

[Jackal]

Not much. Considering everyone pretty much has a Xbox or PS2 to watch DVDs on.

And who is to say that Madden 06' is a "premium" title. Could the same be said for Frame City Killer? It's hardly complex comparied to currnet video games too. Better graphics? Yes. Better game play? Not really.

You command your video games to cost more because you make crappy games and your sales proffit is dropping. This isn't the way to make up for it.

50$ is enough for a video game. Charging 60$+ won't even get me to look at the box cover to see why it's so expenisive.

 

[]-UnderTOW-[]

"We believe that premium titles command premium pricing... These are deep, rich, complex games."

This coming from EA! EA's philosophy to game development is "Make them mediocre and make more of them". Get ****ed, EA
The last game EA released that is worth buying is NFS: Most Wanted, and that was for the PC version. What justifies paying extra for the EXACT same game on the X360?

 

[SanitysEdge]

"We believe that premium titles command premium pricing," said EA spokesperson Tammy Schachter when asked why EA's first-run 360 titles were selling for $10 more than the company's first-run titles for Xbox, PS2 and GameCube. "These are deep, rich, complex games."

Ok, by that phliosophy EA should be selling games for $10 each.

 

[Iron Archer]

EA's rationale is BS. PC gamers are used to paying out the arse to upgrade just to be able to play games, which for the most part have remained the same price . There are so many dev tools that make programming these "rich" experiences easier, practically eliminating jobs altogether. If EA is so worried about cost, then maybe they should stop making the same game for 6 platforms, but they're not, they just see an opportunity to charge someone more for a game that can be made without as much regard for polygon conservation (ie, making a game work w/ the hardware). I would argue that it's easier to make a game that has powerful hardware behind it rather than a handicapped system that needs to be optimized to work half-decent.

 

[devilShadow]

l"These are deep, rich, complex games."

. . .Sans any of the features or gameplay modes from their Xbox or PS2 counterparts.

 

[Plumb_Drumb]

Uh, EA are cutting features on almost every 360 version of all their games.
How is that deep and complex?

I hereby exclude any future EA game from my library.
________
Laguna Heights Condo

 

[DeathBooger]

Every time the next-gen consoles come out the game prices raise, this isn't anything new at all. They charge that much because they know people will pay that much. They won't charge that much for PC games because they know no one will ever buy them and they're a lot easier to get illegally.

 

[DeathBooger]

Uh, EA are cutting features on almost every 360 version of all their games.
How is that deep and complex?

I hereby exclude any future EA game from my library.

EA = Walmart of video games minus the great pricing, they crap out so many titles each year it's ridiculous, they're all buggy and terrible, but people love them because they can be Tiger Woods on their TV.

 

[Plumb_Drumb]

god help me, I'm even going to avoid FN:R3 because of this retarded statement of theirs.
________
SeleneStar live

 

[Dean Avanti]

$60, well in the UK full high street retail its like 30 quid for a PC game, some are 35, so we are talking around $60 to $70.
console game must be 40 quid, so like $80.
way too much make the game half as long and half the cost to buy as quite frankly by halfway im board of most games by that time.

 

[anaemic]

its pretty ****ed up,
is a game 4 times more expensive to produce than a film ?
then why does it cost 4 times as much ?

 

[KeithZG]

They cost 4 times as much so they can have at least 4x the profit margin! Simple, really. They've managed to get people to pay this much for the games, so they do. It's pretty much elementary capitalism (especially the way it is practised in our modern, corporate way) to charge the consumer as much as is possible. They've gotten quite good at convincing people that it's justified; but kudos to CliffyB for going out and saying that this latest little shove by the industry just doesn't pass! I have to say, I really respect him for saying stuff like that. Three cheers for Epic actually having outspoken employees instead of merely a cynically-lying marketing department (*cough*EA*cough*).

 

[SirYawnalot]

"We believe that premium titles command premium pricing"

I believe that my face is a premium sight, and therefore people should pay me money in order to see it.
Is my statement any less intelligent than his? No (if by a debatable margin)! Is he getting his way? Yes!

I honestly think I would buy more "premium" games if they were cheaper (I haven't bothered with FEAR or the entire NFS series, for example, because of an unsufficient price:interest ratio), and I'm sure more people see my face now than they would if I charged for it.
Go Cliffy, says I. And not just because I'm a stingy bastard.

 

[livingtarget]

I can't even remember the last game I paid full price for. I ain't stupid, i'll wait till the next gen consoles come out and buy up all the stuff people want to get rid of from the 'old' gen.

 

[Desp2/ROG]

This is true... If the prices are lower sales would go up imo. Thus it would be the same at the end... And if EA is worried about other costs... Make the cases simple with less costy material.

 

[OICW]

Here we already pay $100-110 Australian, or roughly $60-70 US for most new games, both PC and console. I'd hate to be whacked with even more price hikes.

 

[ImaCarrot]

Another way to cut costs would be to stop having 30 or so liscensed tracks in each and every sports game. It was cool at first, but now it's just getting annoying.

I hereby exclude any future EA game from my library.

I said that after the whole NFL exclusive deal they signed awhile back, I'm glad the 2k sports series (can't remember the developer name) did the same thing with the MLB as a slap to EA's face. I didn't see the 2k deal as an obvious attempt to corner the market (which they pretty much already had anyway) and as an excuse to make crappier games, I saw it as an attempt to stop the inevitable. EA is going to try and get exclusive rights to anything it can.

I like Cliffy B more and more every day, I hope I get a job there (epic games) soon so I can tell him so in person!

Carrot