MSNBC:Top video games may soon cost more

[UrbanFuturistic]

Well, at some point this is to be expected (inflation alone dictates that the cost of products rises over time) but I also wonder of some game houses won't absorb the costs more by using more middleware and building more extensive code libraries that can be more easily adapted for new games (artificial intelligence being a prime candidate or this)? Asides from this, as the game market continues to grow this in itself should offset higher production costs with more sales.

Take, as a loose comparison, the CGFX industry; 15 years ago hardly anyone could afford digital effects and the standard was mediocre at best... then along came the effects in Terminator 2 which marked a watershed in what was achievable and now even a modestly budgeted production or a TV Serial (such as Buffy) can afford high quality CG.

On a personal basis, I wouldn't have been caught dead playing computer games a few years back but now I'm quite getting into Splinter Cell, Timesplitters 2 and Primal :eek: so if I'm playing such games then they must be getting a bit more appealing to 'the masses'

regards, Paul

[tjnyc]

I would like to see what these rises in development cost are? Faster and better hardware are cheaper now than there were and the cost of software hasn't increased from what I have seen from Game Engines to 3D Apps, some have gone down in price than what there were. So what is this rise in cost? Is it the rising market cost for developers, artists and analysts in the game industry? How about operation cost?

I also know of some game companies that out source development to Europe and Asia to reduce cost. Game companies in Korea have sprung up alot in the last few years and they get alot of development from aboard.

What about the continue rising cost for producing music? We haven't seen a call to hike up prices, but then again the RIAA has been overpricing CDs and screwing the consumer for years.

I just don't buy it. I think it is more like the big publishers and industry giants are not making as much profit due to their cost and the fact that they can't screw over a development studio with bad contracts like they use to, than from the actual development companies who actually produce the games. I don't see the actual development companies seeing alot of this price hike going to them.

Also, it will hurt smaller companies or startups from selling there 1 or 2 games as more people will be less willing to buy a $60 game.

Just MHO but I don't see the speculative 20% price hike as a good thing.

[Shade01]

Well, if the average price of games does go up another $10 bucks, you can bet even more companies will fail than before. It should lead to an industry shakeout where the huge companies that can afford to absorb a loss or two will be the only ones that survive. When games start looking like movies, as the PS3 and Xbox2 will probably get pretty close, you can expect the typical game budget to start looking like a movie budget.

[heavyness]

saw this coming, since i bought the original 8-bit Zelda for the same price as Zelda : Wind Waker. bad timing, a lot articles and stories of people saying games are to easy today. with that in the back of people's head, they might not want to pay that extra $10.


i say you pay per hour. if they say the game will take 40 hrs to beat, you pay $40. hehe...jk

[PhilOsirus]

Sorry but this article is probably very wrong. Game prices have remained very low when you compare the amount of money it cost to make them. An average Final Fantasy title costs 40 million to make, yet the old Nintendo or Super Nintendo, even FFVII on the original Playstation didn't come close to such costly productions. But it can only cost that much when the company knows it will sell millions, therefore they can keep a reasonable price. The distrubution of the product, unlike cars for exemple, is merely a CD with a casing and a booklet. And they now make a lot of money on related products, from strategy guides, toys, publicity with Coca-Cola and what not.

It's like saying that because Celine Dion's album cost more to procude than her previous ones that the price will be higher.

And so far companies like Sony are planning to reduce the prices of upcoming games as much as they can, and add to that the constant re-release of games that are only a few months old at less than $24.99.

[Invader Zim]

No not Celine Dion!!
Aaarrrgggghhhh!! :scream:

[UrbanFuturistic]

Hmmm, just wondered where this thread had got to...

Originally posted by tjnyc
I would like to see what these rises in development cost are? Lessee... you mean apart from the extensive development of better and faster assembly microcoded game engines, the higher definition game models, increasingly intelligent AI, story, high res modelling and texturing (with an increasing number of layers for each texture to incorporate such things as real-time bump, spec, reflection and fresnel maps), the development of story, characters, scenarios and all such things that are necessary to sell a game in an increasingly sophisticated market that is no longer happy with a 16x16 256 colour sprite for a character and text only dialogue?

Sorry, haven't the faintest :p

regards, Paul

[bentllama]

Originally posted by Shade01
you can expect the typical game budget to start looking like a movie budget.

it is already there in alot of cases...

[PhilOsirus]

And yet some of those games are re-released at at least half the price after a while. That article was writen once more by another clueless journalist with some clueless "analyst".

Oh and let's not forget, movies don't cost a buck more than they used to, even with all the epxenses AND all the additions made to the DVDs compared to the old just-put-the-movie-on-tape and sell.

[Invader Zim]

Another reason why games are so expensive is PIRACY. (insert echo ;))

Who here buys all the games they play??

If everyone bought games instead of copying, downloading them from the internet or having modchips. The sales figure would be a lot higher thus making the price of the games drop. I don't know by how much, but I'm certain it would make a difference.

[phatlip]

well if that happens that gives me more reason not to buy games. I used to play a shitload of games back in the days as they were cool and very fun to play but now....i mean come on, the games coming out now are crap...more crap than ever!!. The funny thing its the gameplay and gamedesign is what they should be working on more than anything and that doesnt cost much at all. its all about looks and how cool does that look when you do that. If it benefits the gameplay then so be it but i havent seen that incorparated yet. I feel sorry for new born gamers who will never have the experience to taste what it is like when graphics were a bonus but gameplay came first.

i never really thought i would sell my consoles ( as i bought everyone for the last 20 years) but it looks like i am going to. I love this industry to death and hurts me to see it going this way. Been forecasting this for the last few years and something is going to happen cause gamers cannot be fed the same bullshit over and over again. They will realise this and come to their senses.

Working in this industry has opened my mind to being more consturcted in making games more fun which leaves me hardly anytime to play them, but i still love checking out new titles but cant handle the hefty price tag.

Only AAA will get my money and they are an extinct species.

[greekdish]

I dont think Piracy is that much of an issue nowadays with online gaming being a huge chunk of the market. You cant have a pirated version of the game because if the main online server catches 2 serial numbers on two locations, it bans the serial number, then you have to go out and buy a new game just for the serial. Ive also stated many times in other forums that piracy isnt stealing money from anyone....the idiots who are pirating would never ever pay for these games anyhow....so what money is being lost?? These software companies arent losing any physical CD's so they arent losing capital. The whole RIAA shenanigans are just a bunch of greedy execs who arent happy with their Ferrari's. Piracy is a figment of these execs imagination, and anyone who believes Piracy is really stealing money from these companies is a lunatic. Sorry, my opinion.

Games arent costing that much more to create either....one only needs to look at the success of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory to see how much thunder that game stole from the retail version. Its free for anyone to download and play, and as a hardcore Wolf player, its a ghost town nowadays in the old Wolf servers. :surprised

[raz-0]

gee, in the middle of a bunch of cg artists, and nobody seems to realise what is going to cost more, primarily, is art content.

we have skilled low poly modelers, and high poly. Both of which are going to have to learn new skills for the polygon counts of the newset engines coming up. Then there are the pixel shaders. That means people developing and opimising shader code. The first is an increased cost as larger, more, and more labor intensive art assets are required. The second are new costs that didn't really exist before. And the time to make and play test maps goes up a lot with the high polygon counts of newer engines.

[dmeyer]

Originally posted by Invader Zim


Who here buys all the games they play??


I do. :shrug:

[Neil]

Originally posted by odubtaig
the higher definition game models, increasingly intelligent AI, story, high res modelling and texturing (with an increasing number of layers for each texture to incorporate such things as real-time bump, spec, reflection and fresnel maps), the development of story, characters, scenarios and all such things that are necessary to sell a game in an increasingly sophisticated market that is no longer happy with a 16x16 256 colour sprite for a character and text only dialogue?

Sorry, haven't the faintest :p

regards, Paul [/B]

That's not exactly a break through concept. It's the same ideas for the last 10 years increased. Modeling a guy in 300 polys is not that much different than modeling him in 1000 polys. And yes, you still have to texture both of them. Same process there too.
Voiced dialogue is not a new concept by any means either.
A good story = required lots of money!? Huh, i don't get that one.
The point is that they just don't do it b/c they don't wanna take the time to do it and would rather turn around another game really fast and make some quick $$. Just look how many movie scripts are written everyday, and how many unemployeed writers there are out there.

I will pay good $$ and always will pay good money, for GOOD games! I look for 2 things mainly when buying games
1. Is it play time gonna be long enough to justify the price?
My friend bought Zone of Enders 2, great game, but only has a play time of like 10 hrs. There are so many other good games out there that are just too quick and you are not getting your money worth.
2. Does it have good replayability?
Games should be fun to play through more than once, or pick up when bored and just have fun (like any Mario game or games like GTA).

Don't try to complain that these games need to cost more b/c they are costing more... they bring it upon themselves!!
How much of the budget for the Matrix game went into just getting the Matrix permission and license? While it still sucked in teh end, and I thoroughly enjoyed Dead to Rights and Syphon Filter when they were far less to make.

You guys/gals compare it to Hollywood saying that you need a huge budge to make a great movie. Well there are countless example of this not being true either. Original ideas and being creative will always prosper over big budgets.

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