New video games no longer cost $60

Adam Kharatian writes, You’ve likely read articles in the past filled to the brink with tears of writers desperately pleading for a unanimous boycott of titles featuring paid downloadable content upon release. This isn’t one of those. It is simply a summary and analysis of how the standard business model for game releases has changed over the past few years. We won’t go into specifics and numbers, but instead explain the general mindset of publishers with the exception of a select few still struggling to fight the delusion of gamers “wanting” to pay more for games. At this point, $60 is what you pay for bare bones, what was once called a demo.

[KryptoniteTail]

I wouldn't go so far as to say we are paying for demos but it's getting there.

[esemce]

Yes why sell a complete game for $60 when you can charge that with 30% ripped out to be sold as dlc later on for a further 20-40$. Easy money.

[iSuperSaiyanGod]

You know you don't have to buy dlc right?

[Hoffmann]

You know that people like complete games, right?

[iSuperSaiyanGod]

Personally I have no problem paying for dlc . Don't like it don't buy it . Or get a good job so you can afford it with out thinking about it . As long as the game works it's complete in my book . Times are changing & people need to understand that .

[SegaGamer]

You don't seem to get it iSuperSaiyanGod. We know we don't have to buy it, but the fact is that most DLC shouldn't even be DLC. What they are doing is making a game, taking bits out of those games and then selling it to us bit by bit. How can you not see anything wrong with that ?

It's not as simple as just saying "get a job" either. Even with a job people can't keep buying brand new games with all of this DLC, it's a ridiculous amount of money they are asking for.

Over here in the UK it costs £50-£55 for a new game. Add all of the DLC and a lot of games will end up costing around £75-80 for a complete game, it's ridiculous.

The greed these days is taking the fun out of gaming.

[joab777]

It's partly our fault. We demand that prices aren't raised, that we won't pay alot for a console, and we get what we get, publishers being more creative. Couple that with increased competition and opportunities for gouging galore, and walla...!

[cleft5]

The only fault that belongs to us is that we buy overpriced or unreasonably priced games and dlc. Look at how much content is in The Witcher 3, which is only $53 if you preorder it now. Now look at how much content is in The Order 1886, a game that I actually like, which is priced at $60. The fact that people are willing to buy both of those games at close to the same price tag is the problem.

When people get tired of being overcharged for games, like they did in the 1980s, we will see all of this absurd overpriced DLC go away and games that don't deserve to be $60 won't be priced at $60. Will that happen now or tomorrow, probably not. That day is a long ways off, but if things keep going the way they are going now, it will happen sooner than we think.

[Grap]

The Witcher 3 is at 50$ if you have The Witcher 2 or 1.

[Baka-akaB]

That's a load of BS . There is nothing more creative about selling a bunch of outfits at 2-4 dollars each ... Nor a meager 2-3 map packs at 6 to 9 dollars .

The creative part is making up a bunch of costs to justify dlc for contents that's already produced , or would usually be free

[IanTH]

This is a question regarding walla...I've seen this many times. Is this some internet accepted variant of "voila"? Or just the phonetic spelling. Not judging or hating or whatever, just legitimately curious.

OT: I suppose you could say new games don't cost 60 bucks if you use Best Buy Gamers Club, but otherwise they don't cost 60 if you wait a bit. Which is what I do. Do both, Gamers Club and wait, and prices can be fantastic.

[ShaunCameron]

Publishers being creative? If anything, publishers are trying to find new streams of revenue to compensate for the rising development costs and stagnant prices.

[TheNemesis501]

bloodborne came with no day one DLC so there you go.

[Tapani]

Yup, and it was very complete. Just a bit of polishing needs to be done via patches, but that's ok. Such an endless, good game!!

About the DLC, now, I don't have a lot of money, never did, but I can always save $80-100 for extremely good game content. I don't mind buying Souls games at launch for PS3, a month later on PC, plus it's DLC package and now again a DX11 update. I spent $150 in a year's time, and I do not regret it the least. Then again, I would never pay for a Horse Armor.

In my mind, DLC is great when it's done right. When it's done wrong, it's horrifying and should be intervened by both us, the gamers, and legal entities.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Such as Evolve -_-

[ziggurcat]

actually, it had messenger hat DLC.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

one game doesn't change anything

[ironfist92]

I dont understand this "$60" thing.

Because where I live, brand new released games dont sell for $60, nor does it in the rest of the world but America.

So why do people keep saying games cost $60 if its just for a single country?

[paradigmfellow]

American centricism. The lack of a critical thinking and multiple perspective curriculum causes this.

[Concertoine]

Or the writer is american, and is writing for an american audience. At this point america's the biggest market for games.

[SilentNegotiator]

Or, you know, maybe an American media site shouldn't feel the need to cater to non-Americans.

Besides, the point of this article is about the added/expected costs of DLC on top of base price. Replace the prices with whatever the hell it is where you are and you have the exact same point to the article; games have become way more expensive than the base price.

[ironfist92]

Given the replies here, you're right about that...

Its like they refuse to acknowledge other people's existance.

[paradigmfellow]

@ironfist92 It is a shame. This is coming from an American. The US used to be the envy of education. Now, that title belongs to Finland and we continue to slide.

[Allsystemgamer]

Yup. 74.99 here in Canada and its bull. Have to work 12hours at minimum wage (taxes) to buy ONE game. 12 hours is half a pay week for many minimum workers. That's a lot of money considering how much everything else costs here. My phone bill alone is $110/month. That doesn't include food and necessities.

You have to be careful when buying games here now and it's rumoured to be going up again -_-

[Nio-Nai]

Got two comments mixed up and replied to the wrong one first.

My bad.

[Unoriginalplayer]

Good thing you didn't own a Neo Geo system back in the day....try shelling out $400 bucks for a game.

[ShaunCameron]

Because the author is American and he was talking to the American audience who live in America which happens to be the biggest and most important market on Earth.

[donwel]

You think $60 is bad, try paying what we in the UK have been paying fr games. £50-£55 a game works out at approximately $75-$80. Rip of central over here mate

[Nwah]

Don't Aussies pay around $120 for new games? Why are games more expensive in countries outside of the US?

[Grap]

Taxes

[WPX]

You should see the prices in Brazil, the cost of games there is astronomical.

[Allsystemgamer]

That's what we pay here in Canada. I feel your pain.

[Nio-Nai]

Was editing comments and now I ended up mixing them up.

Forget what I wrote.

[SegaGamer]

I agree donwel. Then you have the DLC on top and the cost is just ridiculous. I have had enough to be honest, i can't afford to buy brand new games and DLC.

I'm buying all of my games used now.

[MegaRay]

I just buy my games in sales (and flash sales). I have a big library so I dont mind waiting a little more.

[Bass_fisherman]

Bloodhorne, MGS5 and FF15 are the only games in this gen that deserve full price from me with no second thoughts.

[Kingdomcome247]

My list looks a little different, but I know what you mean. Some games are just guaranteed in my book. I'd add The Witcher 3 and Arkham Knight to that list. ROTTR, Quantum Break and UC4 will be purchased by me without a bit of hesitation as well.

[Bass_fisherman]

I used to pay full price for alot of games last gen but some of those ended up being boring after some days its not like those games were bad but mostly because there wasnt nothing really interesting to do in those games after you finish them and the trophy system didnt do much help its the games themselves need to encorage players to come back.

[Shadow Man]

Full digital downloads should not be $60 since is not a physical copy.

[JasonKCK]

They don't even try and justify it, they just do it.

[Spotie]

I think somebody HAS said it's due to not wanting to alienate brick and mortar stores. Undercut them too much, they stop carrying your stuff, people can't buy your stuff as easily. Yes, the internet is nice, but walking into a store is still, by far, the most popular way to buy console games.

Seems like a fairly decent justification, to me.

[VJGenova]

I agree completely and I consistently vote with my wallet by NOT buying those games day 1. The only exception I've made in recent memory was the stick of truth. I had to have it!

Games that I did buy because they weren't $60 on pc at launch include:

1. LOTF - $49.99
2. The Witcher 3 -$47.99
3. Tomb Raider - $49.99
4. Thief - $44.99
5. Dark Souls 2 - $49.99

Waiting even a couple months and you can get the games much cheaper. I didn't Far Cry 4 at launch because it wad $60 and I saw it on sale a couple months later for $30. I did pick up the Evil Within for $20, 2 months after launch. It also was $60 at launch.

[RiPPn]

With Best Buys Gamers Club Unlocked, all new games are $48 and even far better if you wait a month.

[SilentNegotiator]

I really have to look into the BestBuy thing. I hear a lot of good things about it.

[Swiggins]

I bought into it when I purchased my PS4 through them and in just a year it already completely payed for itself and more. It's staggering to think how quickly the savings mount up.

Plus it works ON TOP of sales, so last week I purchased BF: Hardline for a grand total of $30.

I'd recommend it to anybody who likes to buy games when they come out, before I mainly bought used but with the savings I've been able to get more and more games new.

[Wolfenstein51]

Gamer club unlocked is the best thing to happen in gaming in the last few years. I hope Best Buy beats everyone else in new game sales and maybe publishers will reduce the cost of new games. I personally think its crazy to pay 60 for a new game and I RARELY do. You can find a new game used within a week or less at Gamestop. I got COD Adv Warfare used on the day it was released (when they released the pre-order a day early - no joke). With the CAG birthday coupon, you can get a '"newer" used game for 40 bucks. Also, if you wait 2 - 4 weeks new games can drop to 40 and with GCU they drop to 32 bucks. Beat the games, teade them in, rinse and repeat. This is how I get to play everything under the sun.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

It's reports like this that make me glad Nintendo is slow to adapt.XD
I mean, yeah, sure, some of their games still offer DLC, but it's usually created and distributed well after the initial very full game is released, and the content included in most of the packs are very well worth their asking prices since they include quite a bit of stuff.

They always make sure that the base games are big enough to satisfy, meaning you can feel safe knowing you'll be well entertained just getting the base game for that $60, and they never (to my knowledge) cut out content originally intended for the base game to serve as DLC.

Mario Kart 8 and Hyrule Warriors are two great examples. Characters upon maps upon tracks upon modes, and free updates between them, like 200cc in MK and improvements to the shops and level caps in HW, that make the basic games nice and big even without DLC to pad them.

Nintendo still has a lot of modern things they need to adopt, but in this one instance, I hope they refuse to follow the growing trend in as many games as possible.XD

[Spotie]

Yeah, instead, Nintendo's games take years to drop in price, IF they drop at all.

Mario Kart on the Wii sold a billion copies, and three years later it was still full price. Nobody else does that, no matter how popular the game, especially when it's not rare.

Good job, Nintendo!

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Wow, one positive post and suddenly here you are, trying to downplay it.
Lest we forget that many third party games came out on the Wii U at full damned price despite coming out late and missing content?
Don't try to pretend that no one else is putting games out at unjustified prices, bud. Especially when most of Nintendo's games have been worth that $60 even before they started using DLC.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

You know why they dont down in price?
Because they are the least trade-in, most value and leggedng leg sellers.

[Spotie]

Are you talking about your comment as being the "one positive post?" Seems like a thinly veiled dig at everyone else while you glowingly praise Nintendo... and, as I've pointed out, while you ignore that they have their own ways of milking games.

I'm not trying to pretend anything, actually. At no point do I deny that any particular company is putting games out at unjustified prices, to use your words. But it's hard as hell to justify Mario Kart being full price two years after release.

And no, Otaku, your excuse doesn't even come close to explaining it. I saw stacks of copies of various Nintendo first party games in our back room in my time at GameStop.

And I don't even know what a leggedng leg seller is.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I'm not "digging at everyone else".
I'm refuting you, while you take the opportunity to spin my words so that it sounds like I was claiming to be the only one in here with a positive word to say, when what I was actually doing was pointing out your unfortunate habit of going out of your way to be the voice of snarky dissent, the instant you see anyone post something nice about them.
Especially in any thread where the habits of others aren't being, as you put it, "glowingly praised".
Their long-term main sales prices are justified by their replayability in most cases, and out of all the others, they're the ones doing DLC in the best way right now, offering most of that content in large amounts for reasonable prices, as in Mario Kart 8.

[Mithan]

I prefer to wait for a game to come down in cost before buying it. So you don't play it on day 1, who cares. There are plenty of other games to play.

There are a few exceptions like Bloodborne, GTA, Skyrim, etc that give you 50+ (or 100+) hours of gameplay, making it easily worth $60-80.

I picked up Tomb Raider 2013 (PS4) and Infamous Second Son for $20.

If a single player game doesn't offer me 25-50 hours at least, I will not purchase it. I can wait for the price to come down, nothing is that urgent to play for me.

[jaixvx]

I will just buy used games from now on...Fuck you publishers.

[oIITSBIIo]

I don't buy new games unless it's exceptional, like TW3 or Batman AK, and If I did I get it for 45$ maximum.

If the game is good but I'm not so excited about it I skip it until it gets cheaper.

GTA V price on PC is about 45$ but I'm not going to pay more than 25$ for it, and yeah I didn't play it on any platform at all.