Video games overpriced?

Okay, so you thought the price of console games where steep now. Wait until you get Gran Turismo HD for the PS3. The game is going to ship with no cars or tracks, with content being available online for "Micro transactions". If you want all of the available content, appearently you're expected to pay more than $370 USD in the best (read: cheapest) case.

Still think the PS3 pricetag is ridiculous? Compared to a 400 dollar videogame, I bet a 600 dollar console to play it on is starting to look pretty good right about now.

Source?

I think there are enough brats on this planet who succesfully nag their parents until they get this game. And those marketeers know that..

Damn, I've always wanted to make a racing game like that and they've beaten me to it! I don't think it's really that big a deal when WoW and other MMORPG's cost $50 and then $15 a month.

ANyone even remotely interested in a game like Grand Turismo is an idiot and doesn't deserve any better.

*me crushes Jim T*

...

*goes off to play Test Drive Unlimited*

I think it relys on the game. There are games which are worth more and games which are worth less. I dislike the tendency like i already said on the other thread with premium/normal content games and i also don't welcome Episodes after all.

It looks like games for the PS3 are going to be too expensive as i don't expect to see this much games where i would have the feeling that it's worth the money to me.

I still would buy games which don't feature high tech only and instead come with depth and a soul. Most of the games aren't worth the €50 in my opinion. I have absolutely no problem paying €50 for a Ultima but i do have a problem paying this amount for a tech demo like Fear...

And again if the gfx takes up so much time then cut it down. Concentrate on eye candy which is easy to do and invest the ressources into gameplay, story, whatever is needed for the certain game. Geometry Wars or Gridwars II was a great example for such a game. A bloom shader really doesn't take you this long to do, make AA available and it looks really nice. Hey and i still would buy games like Tetris, Chips Challenge, Spelunker,... ;O)

According to the latest news it will ship with 2 tracks and 30 cars. Given that it's essentially GT4 in higher resolution (plus a GT5 preview), I wonder just how many people are interested... Probably a lot, but it still makes me wonder.


http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=67787

Welcome to the third place! I'm not sure I would classify £2.25 as a microtransaction...

Oh well, I guess that ends my collection of GT games then. FF13 better not be crippled like that. Or, actually, it should be, then I have absolutely no reason at all to get a PS3. That would save me a lot of money.

The stated numbers do sound pretty high, but I haven't found EuroGamer very reliable at the best of times, let alone a translation of a japanese article. It's probably inevitable that we'll see more of this kind of thing. We're already seeing "Gold Editions" of games where you pay another £5 for a couple of game objects. I don't like it, and I probably wouldn't pay for it, but then it doesn't normally happen in games I play.

I am happy enough to pay a small amount like that for something a little extra, but a game that relies on pay-to-play content (excluding the MMO genres) I hope do very poorly.

That said, I know there are some games out there that have been doing that sort of thing and doing well enough... but anything doing that with a big brand name attached to it I will stay away from forever.

I wonder how big of a game modding community that sort of ridiculousness would create?

Something tells me they would not be very supportive of it since it could destroy sales of just about all the official game content...

I don't trust Eurogamer in this case, but I'm going to assume they are pretty close to reality.

This is another reason why more open-ended games that support content created by players - like Spore - are a good thing.
It's also why simplistic games (like lots of Nintendo's stuff) with smaller budgets will probably be coming back in style. (Especially if it involves strong openness to modifications!)

On the other hand, I'm glad that linear story-based games are popular, because as long as episodic games don't become too common they won't be able to do that with them.
I guess the problem this all exposes is the fad of excessive content. The full GT HD probably has an acre of content, but some other games like Toribash and Wii sports (from the looks of it) are doing just fine with hardly anything.

Also Battlefield 2, which is a messy base to begin with but the developers somehow got it into their heads that it would be sane to build expansion packs for it.
Presumably they work, but the main menu scared me away from the original BF 2 to begin with; I hate to imagine what it would act like with any extra content installed.
Besides, all this adds is new maps, weapons and vehicles.
Just about every Half-Life 2 mod I've played (CS:S, Dystopia, etc.) has the ability to automatically download some perfectly fine unofficial maps and other content.



Before I drift any more off base... The golden rule I was intending to poke at is: Just because I see more doesn't mean I play more.

I mostly wait for software to end up in the bargain bin and don't play subscription games(*). So this sounds like another great reason for me to buy the wii.

(*) - only exception being my kids play Toon Town.

That's the same with cd's and dvd's. Buy them now, and expect to pay for it. Wait a year and buy the original, cheap(er)! (optionally you could play the warez-version in the first year :P)

Actually, my Indiana Jones DVD box dropped E10 in price after only a few months already!

And what also pisses me off is that one year you buy a movie for E20..E30 euro, and next year suddenly they release an ultimate version with more extras, newly remastered etc. etc. The Alien quadr*some* set springs to mind..

I get the feeling Microsoft have won me over this time.

I've become totally addicted to Test Drive Unlimited (thrown the controller a few times already!).

I see no reason to fork out for a PS3, i see no reason to fork out £40 for what is essentially a DEMO of the game which you purchase little bits of. It's a game not a business application!

(Oracle license anyone? $$,$$$!)

Even Nintendo have been less attractive to me the last few weeks (Not because of my X360, but because of features theyre now removing etc...)

But Sony can suck my cheese flavoured whatsits. I wonder how much George Freeman will get for this.

I get the same feeling. It seems that every week I get a new reason not to get the PS3.

> I get the feeling Microsoft have won me over this time.

Won you over because Sony and Nintendo aren't impressing you. Yeah that sounds about right, Microsoft win as default. Don't worry though, Microsoft will soon disappoint you in some way, like they always do. The reality check will kick in at some point so hold no fear.

What's wrong if they did a better job with the xbox360 than the others for some? Bash them just because it's M$?

Like I just forked out £420 and have to pay for Live!?

true.

seriously, ive not even looked at the PS3, never owned a PS2. the x360 was on the off chance i'd be able to dev for it... I will prob get a nintendo, but its not as "WOW" as it once was.

I'd have to say though that computer games are cheap and great value for money these days. I can remember paying 35-45 pounds for brand new mega drive games over 10 years ago, 60-70 for import SNES games, Games these days are averaging around 30 pounds. Slightly cheaper even now than back then, and that doesn't include the heavily extended time and money spent on creating the game, and also the rate of 10 years worth of inflation.

I actually agree with that statement, if you think of it that way.

Hey, you only appeared in this thread after i mentioned cheese. hmmm!

Games now also tend to have way more content than they did 10 years ago.
I fear they may be stretching a bit farther than they can bare lately, though.

Well, the way to consider the cost of a game should be initial_investment/hours_play ie. $70/200 this is 35 cents per hour. Can you find a nanny for this price? Also cost is somewhat reduced, because kids can exchange games and even have a few warez titles among their collection.

They cant legally call it a game if it ships with no cars and no tracks. Someone will sue them.

No. But I can't find many games with anywhere close to 200 hours of gameplay. Only exceptions in recent memory are probably Dawn of War and Civilization IV. A game like DOOM3 certainly has nowhere near the same ammount of game time as Civ4, although it's much more expensive.

Cool! I'll get my lawyer onto Ubisoft and force them to hand over some of their Prince of Persia profits - there are no cars or tracks in the whole series! ;)

That's so stupid its BRILLIANT! :)

There is the slight issue that POP isn't a racer.

No tracks, no cars and no racing? Ho! Ho! It just gets better and better. I'll take Ubisoft for everything they've got.

They'll regret the day they thought they could get away with releasing Prince of Persia without these basic legally required elements - because this gameplayer won't lay down for the big corporations any more!