Game prices

[Oerwinde]

higher prices in international markets could be explained by adding increased distribution costs due to duties on the import of the products, as well as additional marketing and localization costs for each market. Also, I believe sometimes 3rd party distributors are used for international publication, which could also drive up prices. Though honestly, I would think all that would result in more like a 5-10 dollar increase in price, not 20-30.

[SteveThaiBinh]

There's an underlying problem here, but the dollar is extremely weak at the moment and this may be making the problem look bigger than it actually is. Tax rates may also be a factor in the differing prices.

 

I would hope that digital distribution will help to level prices across the world, although there are several sites that won't allow you to buy on-line outside a certain geographical area. Nevertheless, economic theory says that the easier you make it to buy your product, the more units you will sell.

[Pidesco]

Perhaps people could start posting American online stores here, that ship internationally.

 

 

Like Purplus.

[Pidesco]

Play Asia.

 

 

CD Universe

Edited November 24, 2007 by Pidesco

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

First the amount of

[Pidesco]

Then what happens in services like Steam, then? Because the games on Steam cost the same as at a regular store. Even Valve games are priced the same.

[Tale]

Then what happens in services like Steam, then? Because the games on Steam cost the same as at a regular store. Even Valve games are priced the same.

Because Valve wants to avoid what happened to 3DFX. Direct2Drive is just the same. They have to sell at prices according to agreements with the publishers. Publishers don't want to upset retail outlets, which are still the primary avenue of sales, who will understock units in response. Competitive pricing from a platform that can undercut any price at all only pisses off the retail chains. It's unfair to them and they won't deal with it.

Edited November 24, 2007 by Tale

[Pidesco]

I realize that. What I'm wondering about is who's getting the money from these online sales. If I buy Orange Box from Steam, am I giving more money to Valve that if I buy it from the local store?

[Tale]

I realize that. What I'm wondering about is who's getting the money from these online sales. If I buy Orange Box from Steam, am I giving more money to Valve that if I buy it from the local store?

Yes. If you buy a VALVe game over Steam, 100% of it goes to VALVe. They just have to deal with bandwidth and server costs.

 

I'm not clear on how it works out for other companies, though. id once made the complaint that they wouldn't use Steam because using Steam means they'd get less profit than from a retail outlet. However, their catalog is on Steam now!

Edited November 24, 2007 by Tale

[Pidesco]

The publisher doesn't get any money?

[Tale]

The publisher doesn't get any money?

VALVe self-publishes for the PC. EA is only a distributor.

 

As for other companies, I again can't say. For much the same reason. I used to hear bad things about VALVe's royalty setup, maybe that's been fixed. And hopefully games don't have the new media issues that is upsetting writers in the US.

Edited November 24, 2007 by Tale

[Morgoth]

The publisher doesn't get any money?

Valve is the publisher of all their own games. EA "only" handles retail distribution.

[Noceur]

Volourn: Look, I'm not defending myself here (as I buy my games. Heck, I bet the whole European economy rest SOLELY on my (granted pale) shoulders). I'm saying these people with questionable morals certainly won't be discouraged to pirate if the prices are high. On the contrary, they will most likely be encouraged to pirate. Heck, stick it to the man right? Raise the prices of MY games? Wether or not you or I will sweat it out and buy less games (but still buy em) is not the point here, I believe. It is about the effect of high prices on piracy. If you're not a pirate yourself, you can't apply your logic or morals to them, you can only speculate on what you think they'll do or not.

 

Still, your stalwart opinion is noted and agreed with. Games is not food. It's entertainment, a luxury.

 

ps. sorry if I don't make sense, I'm taking a break from a party. (or rather, a partay, for us rich people, spending bucks on games like other people do on bread and butter. Bwahaha. Yes, dare I say Bwahaha? I laugh in your face, poor people!)

[WITHTEETH]

How costly could it be for developers to start selling a their own games online? The biggest issue they would have to worry about would be piracy prevention right? I don't know what im really talking about but it seems they are letting themselves get raped by the big dogs that aren't really needed anymore.

Edited November 24, 2007 by WITHTEETH

[Tale]

How costly could it be for developers to start selling a their own games online? The biggest issue they would have to worry about would be piracy prevention.

The biggest issue they would have to worry about is sales. If the game doesn't get on shelves in a store, then most gamers won't even know it exists.

[Noceur]

How costly could it be for developers to start selling a their own games online? The biggest issue they would have to worry about would be piracy prevention.

The biggest issue they would have to worry about is sales. If the game doesn't get on shelves in a store, then most gamers won't even know it exists.

 

Agreed. I think Valve's got it made, since they've got both steam and games in stores. That means they'll get some bucks from the gamers who buys in stores, and a whole lotta dough from the dudes that purchase online (via steam).

 

I think it's a viable alternative (go both ways) until people are more accustomed to digital purchases. The question is how happy a publisher is to let the developer publish their games online. I believe there was some legal quarrel between Valve and its publisher at the time of Half-life 2's release.

 

I wonder how well Telltale games / Sam and Max is doing? They only release the whole season in stores (after it's done) right? By the way, Season one was well spent money, I tell ya. Loved Reality 2.0.

[Tigranes]

It's difficult for a developer company to hire its own people and start publishing themselves, especially because if you're trying to get some good marketing out, then that costs a lot of money. Definitely, if you're making your first game, there's really no hope. Digital Downloads offered from their own website (i.e. Paradox)? Sure, but that's only going to get word of mouth and stumble-upon sales. I think what we can hope for, rather, is big successful developers taking on the role of publisher as well from a more understanding pov - companies with higher revenue and nous such as Bioware and Blizzard.

 

Anyway, while the bad dollar does make the problem seem worse atm, it's definitely not new. I've complained about this for well nigh 7 years, ever since the 13-year-old-me found out just how much the cost difference is between here (NZ) and USA or even Europe. Add to that, that in those days, the delay between releases was up to 10 weeks, even for triple-A titles!

 

Your links are pretty cool Tale, thanks - I'll check them out.

[skuld1]

<Deleted by Gorth as inappropriate for innocent ears>

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't everyone in Sweden just not buy the overpriced games and make the same point?

 

In your example, I don't see why the pirating is necessary.

Edited November 25, 2007 by Gorth
The quoted post no longer exists (for a reason)

[Gorth]

Lets get one thing straight:

 

This thread is living on the edge as it is. A couple of posters are behaving in ways that is generally not tolerated on a game developers forums (you know who you are). Any further attempts to encourage piracy, brag about piracy committed or similar will have unfortunate consequences.

 

It should be possible to do price comparisons and suggest countermeasures to price gouging without joining (dis)organised crime

 

Edit: Thread pruned, edited, cleaned up, made... well. Lets see if it was worth the effort.

[Hell Kitty]

No matter the reason people give for pirating games, because they cost too much, a form of protest, no demo, they want to decide if the developer deserves their money, unless they are also willing to steal physical copies then it's all a load of bull. People pirate games because it's a crime they can get away with.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I just ordered The Orange Box off Best Buy's webstore for $25, so, yeah, $5 per game isn't that bad (even if I already had HL2 and Episode I).

[Qwerty the Sir]

I tend to deal with the high prices by being very picky of what games I want and the fact that there's a bunch of games that I have still waiting to be played (Half-Life and everything beyond it and Age of Empires III and everything beyond it), makes me delay buying games until they drop $10 to $20 in price in most cases.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I tend to deal with the high prices by being very picky of what games I want and the fact that there's a bunch of games that I have still waiting to be played (Half-Life and everything beyond it and Age of Empires III and everything beyond it), makes me delay buying games until they drop $10 to $20 in price in most cases.

 

I also use that system, unless its a game that I have wanted ever since it was announced -NWN2 or TSL, for instance- or a highly-praised expansion pack. Although, ironically, I have yet to buy MotB...

[Sand]

Why? Its a good expansion.

[Qwerty the Sir]

I also use that system, unless its a game that I have wanted ever since it was announced -NWN2 or TSL, for instance- or a highly-praised expansion pack. Although, ironically, I have yet to buy MotB...

 

Yeah, I pick up games I look forward to usually in the first week as well, and like you I've had to delay picking up Masks of the Betrayer. I just don't have time to play it at the moment. I'll probably pick it up when I get Spore. Until then, just watch videos and read reviews and walkthroughs.