Single-player action games...only get them from the bargain bin?

[James]

We should all be thankful that games are cheaper now than they've been in almost 30 years!

Well, no. The last generation had games selling with an RRP of £30 for most of that period. I think the PS2 was RRP £40 for only one year, maybe two, after its release. The Xbox 360's RRP was £50 on release and dropped to £40 a year after.

[Tan]

We should all be thankful that games are cheaper now than they've been in almost 30 years!

Well, no. The last generation had games selling with an RRP of £30 for most of that period. I think the PS2 was RRP £40 for only one year, maybe two, after its release. The Xbox 360's RRP was £50 on release and dropped to £40 a year after.

Here they've dropped between $10-30 on average for new titles in the last couple of years. $49.99 or $59.99 games nowadays are quite common. PSP and DS games are a lot cheaper too. Xbox/GameCube/PS2 games cost as high as $79.99, N64/PS1 could be anything from $40-80, SNES games cost as high as $80 fifteen years ago, NES/SMS games were $50 twenty years ago, others as high as $90. That doesn't include the extra $10 for LEs or CEs. PC games are all over the place, some higher, some a lot lower.

Depends on where you live I guess.

[Cobra]

Australia hasn't seen too much of a change. I remember Mega Drive games costing around $100 when released. Although admittedly back then it did feel like money well spent for a lot of those games, Phantasy Star IV in particular I remember thinking this.

The 360 is still around that price mark, Wii depends, a lot do hit that pricemark but you do get cheaper ones two. PS2 is around $50 a new game now, and PS3 is above the $100 mark each new release.

[Sirgin]

Comparing this generation with the previous generation, I must say games have become slightly more expensive here in Belgium. A new release PS2 game used to be €59.99, €63.99 maximum. (€59.99 was definitely more commonplace than prices above €60 though)

With the Xbox 360 and PS3 a new release usually is €64.99 - €69.99. Some drop fairly fast to a more acceptable €59.99, yet others seem to cling onto their release price for months on end (MGS4 being a good example...).

But I agree with Tan that gaming hasn't become more expensive in the long run. Although my memories of this era are much more vague, I remember SNES games being 3000.00BEF (Belgium Francs) which translates to roughly €75. Even without taking into account inflation, games definitely became cheaper overal.

[Kimoosabi]

Tan is definitely right for Canada at least, here it is quite common to find games for $10-$30 brand new only a year after their release. Depends on the title obviously, some of the AAA titles stay expensive longer. Makes it very hard to pay full price for any game.

[Shimra]

Heh, I bought Donkey Kong Country 3 for $64 back in 2nd grade. I do not regret it at all because I played it all the time, beat it numerous times, and loved every second of it.

Whatever happened to those days? Getting one game and playing it over and over and over without the need to go out and buy tons of other games?

[Sirgin]

Whatever happened to those days? Getting one game and playing it over and over and over without the need to go out and buy tons of other games?

We got greedy.

That, and our attention spans got smaller and smaller.

[phoenix1967]

Whatever happened to those days? Getting one game and playing it over and over and over without the need to go out and buy tons of other games?

We got greedy.

That, and our attention spans got smaller and smaller.

That, and games started coming out much more frequently. So there's a LOT more to choose from. Instead of seeing a new game come out once a month or so, they're coming out every week nowadays!

[Haoie]

Less interaction means less human hassle.

And I can't stand foulmouthed teens, for the record.

[NayusDante]

I'm beginning to think that the current pricing model is hurting innovation.

Think about back in the day. Say the standard game price is $50, and you're making an action game. Since "action game" had a much tighter definition back in the 80s and 90s, your development costs went into making the game more creative in terms of content. $50 pays for manufacturing as well as decent development.

Today, when the price has reached $60US for a new title, with the people used to $50, they're going to expect to enjoy that $60 game. However, the easiest way to make someone happy with your game is to make it similar to something that they've played before. Most "action games" today are slower and more focused on the cinematic elements, and you see a ton of the same thing getting marked down. If a developer is going to do something remotely different, they'll probably lower the price (Katamari for example). In terms of pricing, the Madden effect can now be applied to much more. Using movies as an example, look at how quickly the "action movies" drop in price. This is one of the prices of today's large audience, greedy producers, and the global economy. The economy is going to push this movement if it continues to get worse.

I like to call this effect "the 51% theory." Why would a studio spend serious money on an original concept, when average sales of a given media format only go so high? Instead, they can produce several products for the same budget, inundating the market with products that only go a little bit beyond acceptability. Now we're left with something great every once in a while, then a ton of painfully average content. It's hard to label things "really bad" now, because everything is just so painfully average. I personally use 51% as my description of choice, but most game reviewers will use "75%," which essentially means the same thing. I just feel that being average is a BAD thing when it comes to media, not a good thing.

[Tondog]

Know where the innovation today is? Downloadable titles.

[NayusDante]

Know where the innovation today is? Downloadable titles.

I can't argue that fact. However, it seems that with the innovative downloadable titles, their innovation is all they have. It seems that you can have either innovation or story, but not both.

[Tondog]

What about Mirror's Edge or Dead Space? Those are pretty innovative and have stories.

[Sirgin]

What about Mirror's Edge or Dead Space? Those are pretty innovative and have stories.

He was talking about downloadable titles, the games you mention are both non-downloadable so you'll have to come up with something else to proove him wrong.

[phoenix1967]

Braid is the best example I can think of. However that's only 1 title among hundreds out there as DLC.