WIRED - Hey, Here’s an Idea: Maybe Stop Preordering Videogames.
"Just to name one example, if you go to the Penny Arcade Expo convention in Seattle this weekend, Nintendo will be recruiting players visiting its booth to place a preorder for the new Pokemon games by offering “a collectable gift.” Today’s preorder campaigns start early and get flogged hard. Square Enix is promising Final Fantasy fans a boatload of physical and digital exclusive bonus items if they would only pay full price, sight unseen, for a game that’s spent 10 years in development hell. What could possibly go wrong?"
Bub wrote on Sep 1, 2016, 07:58:
I guess that's what happens from when you move from making games because you love them and want them to be great to moving to corporate 'lets only market to the masses' mindset, forget enthusiasts, lets just rope in as many clods as we can.
Bub wrote on Sep 1, 2016, 07:58:
I guess that's what happens from when you move from making games because you love them and want them to be great to moving to corporate 'lets only market to the masses' mindset, forget enthusiasts, lets just rope in as many clods as we can.
Bub wrote on Sep 1, 2016, 07:58:
I thought one of the most successful marketing methods was how the original Doom, Descent, and Duke Nukem basically gave out free copies of the full first several levels. That was confidence in their product and you knew when you paid for the full game what your were getting.
I guess that's what happens from when you move from making games because you love them and want them to be great to moving to corporate 'lets only market to the masses' mindset, forget enthusiasts, lets just rope in as many clods as we can.
Suppa7 wrote on Sep 1, 2016, 05:05:RedEye9 wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 17:18:
Take Half Life from the 1998 magazine archive mentioned earlier. 48.99 in chips-n-bits. Adjusted for http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ makes it over $70 today.
Can't believe the regular punters claiming they would just stealpirateit have not posted in this thread yet.
Games are getting cheaper, clueless old senile whiners are getting whinier.
I'm sorry to tell you but this is bad reasoning, the market for video games has expanded since the 1980's. So you can't compare costs directly without taking into account market size. AKA it could very well be that games WERE cheaper in the 80's vs the size of the market then, it's an illusion.
Also there's tonnes of new negative things today, games are released unfinished because with the expansion of the market the lower half of the bell curve in intelligence came online. AKA the people who pre-order games and are fucking irrational. The people who feed f2p games and online drm.
RedEye9 wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 17:18:
Take Half Life from the 1998 magazine archive mentioned earlier. 48.99 in chips-n-bits. Adjusted for http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ makes it over $70 today.
Can't believe the regular punters claiming they would just stealpirateit have not posted in this thread yet.
Games are getting cheaper, clueless old senile whiners are getting whinier.
Kxmode wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 19:11:Jivaro wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 13:41:
Now..season passes...those should burn in hell. Specifically the ones that don't detail completely what all of the promised DLC will include. But that's another discussion....
Are season passes preorders for DLC content?
Jivaro wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 13:41:
Now..season passes...those should burn in hell. Specifically the ones that don't detail completely what all of the promised DLC will include. But that's another discussion....
jdreyer wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 13:12:Tipsy McStagger wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 12:39:
I honestly believe that this will never stop. People are just too responsive to Hype.
Young, naive people are susceptible to hype. Oh, and Kxmode.
Beamer wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 15:18:Jivaro wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 15:02:
Weird, my memory says 20-25 years ago games were 40-50 bucks at launch. Doom 2 was $49.99 at Sam's Club, for example.
Pretty certain that, when I finally tracked down a copy of Jagged Alliance (it took calling about 10 stores), I ended up having to pay $60 for it, making my poor dad drive god knows how far to a place he knew would rip me off. But, having finished the demo, and knowing it was the only copy within miles...
We can prove this, though, right? CGW is archived online. At random, I chose September, 1997. This kind of cracks me up because this one has an editorial from someone saying video games need to grow up and stop marketing themselves solely at undersexed teenage boys, but regardless, Chips and Bits is on page 290. New releases seem to be $42 to $52 (for Red Baron II on CD, possibly the biggest disappointment I'd ever had gaming.) Starfleet Acadamy is $56. Starcraft is $46. Quake is $49. Quake 2 preorder is $52.
RedEye9 wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 17:18:
Take Half Life from the 1998 magazine archive mentioned earlier. 48.99 in chips-n-bits. Adjusted for http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ makes it over $70 today.
Can't believe the regular punters claiming they would just stealpirateit have not posted in this thread yet.
Games are getting cheaper, clueless old senile whiners are getting whinier.
jdreyer wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 16:55:Cutter wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 15:36:
Games are hella more expensive now - triple A at least. Even 3 years ago we were on par with the US now we pay $20 more a game. Over a 30% increase in price in just 3 years. And they wonder why we flock to G2A and the like.
LOL, you pull these stats out of your ass, and no wonder, they smell like it. Evidence or GTFO.
A AAA game was $50 at launch 15 years ago, as Beam just demonstrated. Today, they are $60, which is basically the same after adjusting for inflation.
Cutter wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 15:36:
Games are hella more expensive now - triple A at least. Even 3 years ago we were on par with the US now we pay $20 more a game. Over a 30% increase in price in just 3 years. And they wonder why we flock to G2A and the like.
Beamer wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 16:09:
You mention Arkham Knight. I can't remember, that was port issues, right?
Burrito of Peace wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 14:41:
So you have a larger pool to cash in on now than at any other time in history.
Creston wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 15:53:Avus wrote on Aug 31, 2016, 14:00:
I said this many times, pre-order games in the era digital distribution age is beyond stupid.
Even for a 25% discount? On a game that you know you'll get anyway, and are 99% sure you're going to love?
I mean, sure, I could have waited a week and then paid full price for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. I kind of liked having the 15 bucks off. That's pizza money! I also like being able to preload, as my internet, while not as slow as it used to be (when it would have taken me five days to download), would still take like 4-5 hours, which is time I can spend playing it instead.
Of course, then you get crap like Batman Arkham Knight...