Why are PC Gamers paying $60 now?

It all started when Activision had the audacity to start charging $60 for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2.

[GSpartan777]

Same reason console gamers are paying $60 and same reason we paid $15 to see Avatar. It costs money to make games and developers have to get paid for the hard work they do. Again it's simple, you either take it or leave and go cry about it or pirate it like this news is trying to give people a reason to.

[NOOBKILLA]

I think it is because simplicity of downloading and playing a PC game. Heck all you need is uTorrent and Daemon Tools and your set. I wouldn't be suprised if devs start doing digital download only for their PC games. If they don't PC games will continue being the same price as console games.

[evrfighter]

uhhh

nobody I know has paid $60 for a pc game including me. nobody I know still hasn't bought mw2 for the pc either lol.

I keep my friends well informed.

Valve knows just how much midweek/weekend madness 50%-75% off drive sales. This won't become a standard

[JsonHenry]

This is another case of being dumbed down thanks to consoles. :)

[RagTagBnd445]

You are wrong, microsoft and sony gets the last 10$, on pc such fees don't exits, why the cheaper games. BTW, i have not paid more than normal for my games yet, here in europe there has not been higher prices yet.

[Rowsdower]

buys games thats why PC games cost 60.00

[STK026]

I find it funny to see the numbers of people commenting this article, claiming it's normal since games are more expensive to produce now than they were a few years back, or that there's no reason as to why PC games should be less expensive than console games; completely ignoring the fact that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are taking around 10$ off each game sold on their system, something Microsoft (considering Windows is the most used OS used for modern gaming) doesn't do on PC.

So really, if Activision of any other publisher for that matter, can make profit out of a game they sell 60$ on a console, 10$ going directly to the console maker, why do they need to sell it 60$ on PC, if not by greed?

But in the end, the most ridiculous thing is the fact that, assuming ActiBlizzard makes three limited editions, some people will end up paying 300$ to play the "complete" StarCraft 2 (the first limited edition is priced at 100$, others are likely to be priced in a similar way). The last time I was something nearly as expensive, it was Steel Battalion.

Edit :
@below, I believe Assassin'S Creed 2 is 60$ as well. I just hope this doesn't become some kind of trend, as StarCraft 2 standard edition will be 60$ too.

[Motion]

Exactly as other people have said, consoles have a $10 licensing fee added to the price of the title, as where PC's have no such fee being an open platform. When a standard pc game is marked up to $60 its just the publisher being greedy. Though in all fairness, the ONLY non-special edition game I've seen with this price tag is MW2.

PS. Geno, you have no clue what you're talking about.

[sikbeta]

This is Real? as far as I know Prices didn't change...

[champ21]

Well if console gamers have a problem paying the extra 10-15usd per game. They should take it up with Microsoft or Sony, since that share goes directly to them.

Pc being a free platform doesnt have those royalties.

Hence complaining about paying more and getting a inferior version is a moot point.

BTW its not hard getting a PC and being free of paying royalities. You dont have to stick to console gaming if you have such a problem paying the extra money.

Edit: before some console gamer comes up saying it costs 2000usd to make a PC. Out perfoming a console would only cost you a 500usd PC. Getting a more powerful machine is just your choice its not required.

I personally game on a machine that runs 5760*1080p (6x the current 720hd standard), its not required its my choice.

[BRG9000]

PC games have cost $50 for decades, despite inflation causing dollars to be worth 40-50% less in that period. This was going to happen sometime.

We will see games cost $100 for standard editions in our lifetime. That's just how inflation works.

EDIT: Got my percents backwards. Things cost 40-50% more on average, so money is worth more like 30% less. Still, this $10 increase doesn't even cover inflation.

EDIT 2: SPLINTER CELL SPOILER JACKASS BELOW ME. Scroll down at your own peril.

[Rowsdower]

they all use steam

[FragGen]

You think the extra money is going to DEVELOPERS? That's so naive it's actually cute.

They're $60 because PUBLISHERS (i.e. folks like Activision) have determined that's what the market will bear, IF they choose to make the terms for studios better and IF the studio's management decide to share their good fortune and IF the going rate for industry talent goes up, then Johnny Programmer will get a couple $$/wk raise or modest bonus next year.

Much of it's going to be paid out straight to Bobby Kotick's bonus, I'd wager.

[champ21]

Console gamers hoping PC prices go upto 60usd, should think again.

If that does happen, Microsoft and Sony will shamelessly increase prices to 70usd next gen or maybe even this gen. Who knows.

Since both of them are in losses still, they need to recover the losses to justify new consoles.

The wise gamer would rather support the idea of 50usd games on the PC so prices on console games dont go up. Rather it would be wiser to jump ship and buy all multiplats on PC, no point whining about getting the inferior version.

[presto717]

When Starcraft 2 comes out for 60 bucks, I'll be getting it day 1. Heck I would pay if they charged even 80 bucks. People will pay equal to or below what they value something at. If the game of your dreams comes out on pc for 60 bucks, which one of you will tell me you wouldn't buy it? No point lying...

[champ21]

@presto

agreed, most of us probably will pick up SC2 day one even if its 60usd. Though remember blizzard games have an insanely long life.

This game will be played for years to game, hell even a decade.

Warcaft 3 is almost 10years old, i still play it was worth every penny.

I didnt pick up MW2 cause it was crap anyways, niether would i pick up any other game at 60usd.

I do fear though if Activisions way of milking their franchises makes way to blizzard, i wont be supporting that. I dont want to see SC5 in the next 4years.

[ColdFire]

If games cost $60 on PC, the publishers will want to make the same amount of money from console, due to the licensing fee, this means console games WILL go to $70. Stop celebrating at the potential loss of one of the reasons PC gaming is better, and start thinking outside the platform war, about how this affects you.

[Ocelot525]

in belgium i have to pay $70(€40) for PC games, $80(€75) for modern warfare 2

and $100 for new PS3 exclusives.

the game-shops know that the standard of living of average joe in europe is high and gamers pay the price :( , the 21% tax rate is also a big problem

so stop whining americans, u guys are already receiving games at budget prices.

[Millah]

I take it you didn't bother to read the article. PC games do not require the same licensing fees that consoles do, hence the reason why they have traditionally been cheaper on PC. The publishers, or actually just Activision are charging 60 dollars, not because they have to pay any additional licensing fees, but simply because they know they can get away with it. You're a straight dumb ass if you think this is helping the developers in any way.

This only helps those greedy low lifes at Activision pocket more money. It amazes me how these stupid executives never learn that taking advantage of your customer base, treating them like pawns, and milking things the way they do at Activision is never good for the long term and always turns around to bite them in the anus..

[sid4gamerfreak]

Uh Ive never bought a 60 dollar pc game and never will. In fact i wont give a cent to those filthy greedy developers.

The only games ive heard which cost 60 dollars for the pc is AC2 and MW2. And those are games hardly worth getting...

[xTruthx]

Don't worry I have over 300 friends on xfire, barely 20 play it

[-Alpha]

Is this a growing trend? I only know of MW2 that did it.

[tda-danny]

In Canada Capcom released both SS4 & RE5 at $60 as well.
They are the only PC games I've seen not priced at $49.95 though

[spektical]

why? because PC gamers are losing their bargaining power, especially by now buying basically fixed prices via download. I said it before and i'll say it again, Downloading is bad for the customeres bargaining power.

this especially happens when an extremely greedy company decides to jack up the price. - activision

[Pandamobile]

Activision are greedy, money grubbing whores, and Ubisoft is trying hard to be Activision.

I'll start getting worried when THQ and EA start charging $60.

[MexicanAppleThief]

Pandamobile: 'Activision are jews'

Is that allowed here?

[Pandamobile]

Fine, is that better?

[Rowsdower]

you have been reported for your vile stereotyping

next time choose your words better

[DORMIN]

and now be prepare to be charged $15 for some map DLC.

Sad thing is, it still managed to be one of the best selling on XBL already. Everyone be prepared to be paying more for DLC on all fronts.
-__-

[OtherWhiteMeat]

I think it's wise you edited your first comment,now I'll agree with you.

[Rowsdower]

can be a sad depressing place sometimes.

apparently you can get your account suspended for spamming, but throwing around ethnic stereotypes is fine here on N4G, quite disappointing.

also the fact that those speaking up against it are getting disagrees while those who are using the stereotypes are being agreed with.

[Pandamobile]

Calm down, buddy, it's not a big deal.

[jjesso1993]

I never have payed more for pc game than console game steam is the way i bought fallout 3 Game of the year and left 4 dead 2 the other day for £30 i think and bought just cause for £29.99 i think pc games are alot cheaper than console becuase your only paying the developers with consoles your paying the devs and sony or devs and micrsoft

Pandamobile should be well be banned i got banned for two days insulting labwarrior

[Vicophine]

It's only a matter of time. Goodnight, PC gamers last bastion of superiority.

[Demarco156]

thank you bobby kotick

[koehler83]

Because the amount of effort it takes to create games is a lot higher these days?

I don't understand how PC should be superior in quality and lower in price.

Does not compute.

[RagTagBnd445]

Because mircosoft and sony gets some of the money from each console game sold. Nothing like that exist on the pc.

[Pandamobile]

That $10 extra you pay on your games is a Microsoft/Sony tax.

It's a licensing fee the devs/publishers have to pay to Microsoft and Sony in order to make games for their platform.

PC, being an open platform, has no licensing fees to develop for.

Charging $60 for a PC game is just pure greed on the publisher's part.

[Charmers]

It has already been said that there is a reason why PC games are lower in price. A console game has a built in royalty fee, at least $10 of what you pay for your console game goes straight to Sony/Microsoft even if they had nothing to do with the game.

The PC version has no royalty fee and as such games on the PC should always be at least $10 cheaper than the console. What is going on here is price gouging, companies are doing this because they think they can get away with it.

I am quite happy to wait till games approach a more realistic price, I don't need to play uber shooter 7000 on day one.

EDIT - Oops I see I got beaten to it by nearly everyone, curse my slow typing.

[koehler83]

Then can we agree on the same quality at $10 cheaper?

If they just give you the Xbox version on PC at $50, is that sufficient?

[Charmers]

The benefits of playing the game on the PC are largely the result of the superior power of the PC NOT because developers have put extra work in. A developer doesn't need to do much addtional work for a PC to play the same game at a much higher resolution (and hence sharper picture).

There are also extra hidden costs with consoles beyond the royalty fee. A single development kit for either of the consoles can cost close to £1,000,000 and that is just ONE a developer will need several to do a game. On the other hand all you need to develop games on the PC is well a PC really and that comes no where near a million pounds.

The PC gets extra touches because they are cheap to put in the game and most of the extra touches simply rely on the power of the users PC. If a PC game had like double the game play then yeah you would have an argument but the extras a PC gets are minimal and get balanced out due to low development costs.

[evrfighter]

charmers says it best but just to repeat the point.

It isn't the developer that makes the pc version of the game dominate visually (DA and BC2 being the exception).

It's your pc that's doing all the work.

[koehler83]

So the answer is yes. You'll take the Xbox version, play it at whatever resolution your display will allow, let your graphics card handle additional AA and that's it. The UI will still be based on a dualstick controller layout. The graphic UI will still be the same resolution (maybe upscaled). And you get 5.1 sound.

If that's a fair deal, then you should approach the argument from that angle. Say Hey, give us the game, day-and-date as the consoles, as is for $50. We, as a community, will improve upon it from there. It might work.

[k3x]

I see that you're trying really hard, but you're still not making any sense. Just stop.

[Hey Its Me Again]

Despite its $60 price tag, somehow COD:MW2 sold more than any other PC game last year. Thanks to the horde of casual gamers who recently jumped on PC gaming and have no idea what they're doing by supporting this. Now as a result, this has given green signal to other publishers. Ubisoft is the first in line and charging $60 for Assassin's Creed II, a console port from LAST year. >_<

From what I've heard, console games have some "extra" licensing fees that have pushed developers to raise the costs. On PC, those fees don't exist. Also, over 50% of PC games are console ports these days and everyone knows how 360 is awfully similar to PC hardware in game development. Even if the port doesn't sell well on PC, they still manage to make some profits because of no development costs.

I'm glad some companies like Valve and BioWare have strong support for PC. Capcom and EA have improved their support as well. Nicely optimized ports with $40-50 price tags, AND they end up selling well. Other publishers need to learn from this.

[evrfighter]

In a sense we are partly to blame for the casuals jumping ship to the superior platform.

We were the ones that told them how easy and cheap it was to build a pc while posting tutorials on youtube.

[TheIneffableBob]

I wouldn't be surprised if console games go to $70 and PC games go to $60. One reason is, as games get more complex in both art and design, dev teams need to be larger with more artists and programmers, and that consequently results in higher development costs.

[champ21]

all the games i have bought so far have cost me 39-49usd.

only game i am aware of that is 60usd is MW2. so if that equals to all pc games being 60usd.. then i dunno what to say.

@below

yep i know.. but its not even worth pick that game up.

bought so many games in march alone, none of them were 60usd. 1-2 releases @ 60 not equal to all games at 60usd.

[evrfighter]

Assassins creed 2 is also $60

[beqerel]

i cant believe someone is paying 60$ , even worse here in EU 60 euros , i payed 50 euros for BC2 caus its realy good game but for single play game its stupid to pay more than 20 e/$

[madara0sama]

If I can return back my game like console games then im all in for 60$. But I cant so this is retarded. Stupid ass greedy pigs Actifailson.

[Darkfiber]

Um, because people are greedy and want more money than they know what to do with.

[anonymouse111335]

Because most gamers are spoiled kids with their parents money.

I've never been able to buy every game I wanted as soon as I came out and people who can that's good, but when you rub it peoples faces it really pi$$es me off, I'm planning on getting a PC for gaming and such soon, but if they start pulling this crap whats the point.

They claim they're more expensive to create now, not entirely true people have just lost passion for it and hire more people, make bad marketing decisions, blame it on piracy, the publisher, the people saying video games make you more violent etc, they don't want to accept they have bad marketing at times, they're greedy and don't have passion for the games they create anymore.

That's why, and raising the price of games will only make more people pirate them, they can blame it all they want but they're the cause ultimately.

[Xfanboy]

This is the only real reason a PC gamer pays $60 for games & most of the time less $$!!!
http://www.direct2drive.com...

other than that who pays $60 for games?? console suckers!! lol!!

[mcgrawgamer]

acti started this 60 dollar crap with MW2 and ubi followed right along. The outcome?

MW2 having a free 2 play weekend on steam with the game being 15% off since bad company 2 is spanking dat @$$; and ubi claiming poor pc sales to piracy WITH their stupid DRM in place.

[Saryk]

I still haven’t bought MW2 and that is the only game that’s $60.00 (that I know about). But this weekend it is free multiplayer on Steam and a discount, still won’t buy it. However if games goes up to $60.00 I won’t buy them until they go one sale. I don’t have to be the first to play the game and I won’t support the price hike. And for the comment about tech and personnel being a lot higher these days is a crock of BS. Gaming these days is main stream and there is a larger audience since the Intellivision (which the games sold for $50.00 then). If they are concerned about the cost, then evolve and cut back cost. If they want me to pay X then it better be worth it. And I am not talking about 5 hours of game play; I want over 100+ hours of game play.

[TABSF]

This fool is not going to pay $60 or £40 for a PC game I'll just wait for a Steam sale and get it for $30 or £20

The reason Console games cost more is because there is to many middlemen

CONsoles Developer/Publisher - Platform Holder - Product Manufacturer - Distributor - Retailer - Gamer

PC (Disc based games) Developer/Publisher - Product Manufacturer - Distributor - Retailer - Gamer

PC (Digital Distribution) Developer/Publisher - DD platform - Gamer

There is no CON in PC

PC it only does everything

[M337ING]

Has anyone considered inflation as a possible cause?

[ReBurn]

Considering the US has been experiencing a period of deflation for the last year or so I doubt that's the cause. -0.34% in 2009. However, the first 2 months of 2010 have seen inflation, so I guess it's possible.

[ReBurn]

Because they will?

[Subzero200x]

why because these bastards want to rip you off, and there's always some excuse on why they do it.

[Gamer7l]

1.) Rampant piracy
2.) With the rising cost of games, it doesn't make sense to keep PC pricing so low. It doesn't cost any more to dev for 360 or even PS3.
3.) Why give PC gamers such a break anyway? There's no reason whatsoever....and never was.

[RagTagBnd445]

Omg, i said over and over again. The 10$ dollars on consoles goes to sony or microsoft, because they sell their consoles with a loss.

[kraze07]

I've never payed that much for a PC game.

[Vip3r]

Activision are greedy as ^&*(. COD4 is still over £25 in most shops.

This is why I almost kinda support pirated games. Why should people pay this level of money for a game?