There have been too many complaints lately about the cost of
gaming. It’s understandable that someone would have reservations any time the
numerical price of their hobby goes up, but after so many years at a fixed
price it’s kind of hard to argue in favor of the consumer. The days where a new
AAA Playstation title was $40 are well behind us, although the costs of
developing a game have skyrocketed while buying the damn things has never been
cheaper. Today we fight the economy.
As a gamer I can understand how shelling out a higher number
of Dollars every year for a new game can seem like you’re getting a raw deal,
but you have to consider cost. This is a world where a game (Homefront by THQ)
can sell over a million copies and be deemed a failure that almost bankrupts a
company. In some cases maybe the game is just bad or the amount of money spent
on it was too much to recover. When Tomb Raider was released earlier this year
it sold over 3.4 million copies, was the second best selling game in the month
of March, and was loved by critics; it was deemed a commercial failure. No wonder
Square-Enix keeps rehashing Final Fantasy titles, they seem to make money no
matter what. The accountants at these companies need to get their act together
with better projections or at least more realistic sales figures. The end user
isn’t to blame for poor money handling, but in the end it will affect the price
we pay to cover previous losses.
Another argument can be made about the devaluation of the
games market in general. We have Steam sales and used game stores all across
the country that tends to coax the mental aspect of game purchasing. Every
season Steam has huge multi week sales where they sell off digital versions of
well known games at “so crazy you have to buy!” prices, we’re talking up to 90%
off in some cases. In the world of PC games this is a godsend to the gamers who
would rather wait a few months to nab a $60 at $30 instead. Going back to the
second paragraph, hopefully those company accountants projected higher volume
to make up for a lower price. While physical games are your property to with
what you please, used game sales do hurt the industry. None of the money you
spend goes back to the machine of publisher and developers that created it.
GameStop pushes trade ins and pre owned sales as they are almost completely
profit on their end, any situation where you can purchase new stock at a
reduced price with your current stock is a total win…it’s like trading someone
a quarter for a dollar. In the end the consumer pays a slightly lower price
(did you notice that gap has gotten smaller too?), but all of the profits are
kept in house. Some of that Xbox ONE DRM is starting to make a little more
sense, although they went about the wrong way in every aspect.
Lastly, let’s talk inflation. Everyone should know that
money from years ago is worth more than it is today. Costs of living have gone
up, the dollar has gone down, and Congress can’t really figure out what to do
with itself. The NES came out in 1985 and a new game cart was (for simplicity’s
sake) $50, that’s $108.51 in today’s money. Yeah, that’s your wireless bill.
The $40 Playstation games mentioned earlier in 1999 would equal $56.06 today at
a much lower cost of creation. Cartridge games with a save function are the
biggest shocks with Chrono Trigger (SNES) and Phantasy Star IV (GEN) released
at $80+ in 1995 which is $122.57 today! With the price of software being so
static over the last decade there’s no wonder the psychological conditioning
has people complaining about $60 games today. Inflation seems to be increasing
at an exponential rate and that’s bad for everybody.
There has never been a better time to be gamer. There are so
many options when it comes to purchasing what is wanted at a reasonable rate
compared to yesteryear. Support the studios you want to keep in business, but
still only pay what you think is the right price for what you want. Capitalism,
your money is your vote.
(All inflation data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
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