New games worth $60?

[Hazel-Rah]

I know video-games in this generation cost $10 more because production costs have gone up, correct me if I'm wrong but that's why Lorne Lanning left the industry, but have video-games improved that much since the previous generation?

All I know is that latley I've been blowing through games at an incredible pace, I don't think any developer is truly going to utilize the space a Blu-Ray discs offers either, I've played through PS3 games that could fit on a Floppy.

So besides graphics and sound have video-games improved that much since the last generation??

[OANST]

Let me just say this. I paid 50 dollars for Mega Man 2 when it came out in 1988. Since then the price of making video games has risen dramatically. And yet, this is the first increase we have really seen in the price of games. True, there have been other attempts, such as the Neo Geo's outrageous prices for games, but this is the first time that a reasonable increase has been put in place. I see no problem with it and actually expected it two generations ago.

[Nate]

I don't think any developer is truly going to utilize the space a Blu-Ray discs offers either

From what I've heard, 360 games aren't yet filling up the DVDs.

[Strike Witch]

Try over here where they've been 90 and 100 dollars.

I only ever buy RPGs for my 360 now, and only then ones I've researched to be long enough.

[OANST]

They really do take advantage of the Australians, don't they?

[Strike Witch]

God yes.

And you can't complain else they'll send the Cassowaries after you.

[Leto]

Fallout 3 cost $140. Average new games are $120 these days. Fuck you guys.

Cunts.

[Nate]

Well, as of this precise moment, $100AUD is $65USD. Still, it was absurd six months ago when the exchange rate was almost 1:1. Basically, the publishers will charge however much people are prepared to pay. Australians have been conditioned to believe that $100 is a fair price for a new game so, suckers that we are, we'll pay it.


The more absurd thing to my mind is that Nintendo DS games that are five years old are still being sold at more or less full price. Second hand ones often only have 5-10 dollars knocked off the price. And you can never find any of the good ones in between all the Pony Advendures and Nintendogs shit. Which is why I still haven't played any Pheonix Wright.

[OANST]

Fallout 3 cost $140. Average new games are $120 these days. Fuck you guys.

Cunts.

It's good to be an American. Also the king.

[moxco]

New Games should never cost anymore than 80 bucks (AUD).

Yeah I know what your saying Nate about those bloody DS games. I've haven't even got Mario Kart yet because I'm not willing to pay $60 for a preowned game (yes you can't get it new anymore) thats been out for three years.

Don't belive me then look at this: http://www.ebgames.com.au/DS/product.cfm?ID=3488 (hey it's on special for 47 bucks! Still a rip-off)

[Strike Witch]

Well, as of this precise moment, $100AUD is $65USD. Still, it was absurd six months ago when the exchange rate was almost 1:1. Basically, the publishers will charge however much people are prepared to pay. Australians have been conditioned to believe that $100 is a fair price for a new game so, suckers that we are, we'll pay it.


The more absurd thing to my mind is that Nintendo DS games that are five years old are still being sold at more or less full price. Second hand ones often only have 5-10 dollars knocked off the price. And you can never find any of the good ones in between all the Pony Advendures and Nintendogs shit. Which is why I still haven't played any Pheonix Wright.

They had a good sale at the Local EB a few days ago, managed to get an 80 buck game for 35 dollars. The pricing was really random, but I got lucky. Also Phoenix Wright was there for 40 bucks?

[Hazel-Rah]

WTF?! Man, I had no idea games were that expensive in Australia. I couldn't imagine paying like $80 USD for Fallout 3, honestly I thought games used to be cheaper than they were, like I remember new PS1 games being $40 USD same goes for Dreamcast games. But N64 games were expensive, I bought an N64 when PS2 came out so I got the games cheap. But they were like $60 back then, I can't remember how much Genesis and SNES games were since my parents were still buying me games at the time but I always thought they were cheap like $20 new but if an NES game new was $50 they had to be more.

I usually buy games used, like you could get some PS2 games here for as low as $5USD, video-games take forever to go down in price here to though.

Yeah Nate, I don't think games need the space Blu-Ray offers just yet, I mean I can only think of one game on 360 that requires more than 1 DVD and that's Lost Odyssey but nobody likes that game anyway. They say MGS4 couldn't fit on a single DVD but I have more than a sneaking suspicion that Konami is working on a 360 port as we speak. I was hoping Final Fantasy XIII would've taken advantage of Blu-Ray's space but seeing as how it's also coming out for 360 it probably won't, and if that game doesn't I doubt any game will in this generation.

[Havoc]

Since when is everyone here an authority on how much space a game takes up on a disc? DVD's only have 8GB to give and if you consider that many PC games are already getting close to 6 or even 7 GB, I think the end for the DVD is pretty much in sight. I recently installed Assassins Creed on my 360 and that alone took about 6GB.

I've seen some of the games on the PS3 and some of them look downright awsome. You must not underestimate how much of a difference it can make to just improve the graphics. Games aren't HD quality yet but the only thing that kept developers from leaping into this was the size constraint of the DVD. The upcoming years you'll see that blu-ray discs will become the next standard for consoles (which should be fun, Microsoft fanboys are going to kill themselfs XD) and developers finally get to play around with high def stuff.

Also, as for MGS4, it has over 10 hours of cutscenes, those alone wouldn't even fit on a DVD.

[Hobo]

Since when is everyone here an authority on how much space a game takes up on a disc? DVD's only have 8GB to give and if you consider that many PC games are already getting close to 6 or even 7 GB, I think the end for the DVD is pretty much in sight. I recently installed Assassins Creed on my 360 and that alone took about 6GB.

I've seen some of the games on the PS3 and some of them look downright awsome. You must not underestimate how much of a difference it can make to just improve the graphics. Games aren't HD quality yet but the only thing that kept developers from leaping into this was the size constraint of the DVD. The upcoming years you'll see that blu-ray discs will become the next standard for consoles (which should be fun, Microsoft fanboys are going to kill themselfs XD) and developers finally get to play around with high def stuff.

Also, as for MGS4, it has over 10 hours of cutscenes, those alone wouldn't even fit on a DVD.

Since when are you an authority on how much space a game takes up on a disc?

7/8 GB still leaves 1/8 of the material unused. And that's quite a fucking lot.

Also; I wouldn't bet on Blu-ray taking off as much as you think. Wouldn't suprise me is optical media was phased ut in the next 15 years and downloads become the norm. (Which should be fun, Sony fanboys are going to kill themselves XD)

[Leto]

Pretty much every Xbox 360 game I have legitimately ripped to my hard drive via NXE has been 5-6gb (Oblivion, Fallout and Left 4 Dead). That still does leave a large portion unused. What you must note about MGS4's cutscenes is that they are played real time in the games engine, and as such, there is not a need for large uncompressed video files that would fill up a DVD. The information stored is animation keyframes, textures and (what will take up most of the space) music and sound effects.

So pretty much fail Havoc.

[Havoc]

They have an ingame cutscene of 90 minutes? I thought it was completely rendered. What a fail.

And 1 GB isn't much anymore these days, not enough for the transfer to HD-like quality games.

[Mac Sirloin]

And 1 GB isn't much anymore these days, not enough for the transfer to HD-like quality games.

Alien Hominid HD is 54 MB, and that game is FUCKING BEAUTIFUL with HD.

[Havoc]

Lol are you kidding XD.

[Hobo]

And 1 GB isn't much anymore these days, not enough for the transfer to HD-like quality games.

It's proportional, don't you understand that. 1GB IS a lot when it's only one out of eight?

[Hazel-Rah]

Downloading entire games wouldn't be that bad, it would cut production costs for developers and it would benefit the environment, but what if something happens to your hard disk? Besides games take up a lot of space on the hard drive as it is could you imagine how much next gen games will take up?

I just can't believe how many save files could fit on an 8MB memory card on PS2, and I never used all the space on the Xbox hard drive so do HD graphics really take up that much more space.

Oh and isn't MGS4 the first game to feature uncompressed sound?

[Leto]

Where the hell did you hear that? Excuse my rudeness, but from someone who works primarily with audio that's just completely ludicrous.

You mean every sound sample was a .WAV/.FLAC or something similar?

linx pls.

[Havoc]

Downloading entire games wouldn't be that bad, it would cut production costs for developers and it would benefit the environment, but what if something happens to your hard disk? Besides games take up a lot of space on the hard drive as it is could you imagine how much next gen games will take up?

I just can't believe how many save files could fit on an 8MB memory card on PS2, and I never used all the space on the Xbox hard drive so do HD graphics really take up that much more space.

Oh and isn't MGS4 the first game to feature uncompressed sound?

Downloading games might be something for the future, but not in the next 5 years. Online consoles are a luxury at the moment, not a standard. Fast internet connections are a luxury, not a standard (but quickly rising).
And I doubt it would cut any production costs. The pressing of 1 disc costs about 10 cents and takes 2 seconds. What would be saved on at least is the distribution costs, which should take about a buck or 10 off the retail price.

[Leto]

I hate the idea of a future like that. I don't want to pay for something that doesn't physically exist.

[Hobo]

And I doubt it would cut any production costs. The pressing of 1 disc costs about 10 cents and takes 2 seconds. What would be saved on at least is the distribution costs, which should take about a buck or 10 off the retail price.

Warehouses, production, staff, disc errors, shipping. These cost money too.

[Wings of Fire]

And lets not forget the thousands of jobs lost by the media retail industry .

[Nate]

Also the retailers take a cut on top of the price of the game.

[Venks]

We've been paying for how much space is used on disks!? Dang all this time I thought it was for the fun games!.

All the money I've wasted on unused space! I demand game developers begin to fill that unused space with stuff! Random sounds, pictures, movies, what ever! I don't care how stuffing unneeded content to fill that space effects the game! I want my money's worth!

Better yet I'll just buy disks instead of games and fill them to the top with pictures I downloaded from 4chan. That'll show them! Who's with me!?

Edit: OMG GUYS! I just found this hard drive that can store up to 80 GB for the price of $55! That's the same as a new game, but the amount of space I can fill with stuff doesn't even compare! I'll never need to buy a game again!

[Havoc]

Also the retailers take a cut on top of the price of the game.

Yea that can go up to almost 100%. I've seen some distributer prices once which were half of what the retailer sold it for in their store. It's ridiculous.

[Mac Sirloin]

Yea that can go up to almost 100%. I've seen some distributer prices once which were half of what the retailer sold it for in their store. It's ridiculous.

This is fucking bullshit.

Working in retail for seasonal this year taught me something, and that's that stores make fuck-all on games. We had a 3-4$ profit on 60 dollar games. The Xbox 360 turns them a profit of 15$. Distributors make a profit because that's what they do. They distribute. Other stores depend on them, therein they can charge whatever the fuck they want. Thus, retailers have to raise their prices to get that money back.

[Leto]

Truth. 100% profit is a fucking stupid thing to assume.