WTF Games Industry Wants £70 Pricetags for AAA Games

In the wake of Modern Warfare 2 pricing controversy, industry legend Chris Deering questions current model for triple-A games
Industry stalwart Chris Deering has estimated that today's triple-A video games need to be priced at £70 – if the trade's current release cycle for 'blockbuster games' is to be maintained.
His comments come just two weeks after we revealed that Activision had raised the SRP of Modern Warfare 2 to £55.
Deering is once again acting as chairman of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, which this year takes place on Thursday, August 13th and Friday, August 14th.
At the event, industry luminaries such as Deering, Sony’s Ray Maguire, EA Sports’ Peter Moore and Eidos’ Ian Livingstone will discuss ‘the future of the blockbuster game’.
Former Sony Europe president Deering  – who is on the board of Codemasters and IGA, amongst others, told MCV this week:

“Before there can be as many successful blockbuster games as there were in the past, games have to be produced in a more efficient fashion.
“In order to price these games at a level where they would support an industry [as strongly as] they did ten years ago, they’d have to be sold at £70. But people just don’t have that kind of money, there’s a psychological glass ceiling.
“Consumers won’t spend more, but to write the game, publishers are having to spend more than ever before. That’s the key problem.”
MCV revealed that Activision had raised the trade price of Modern Warfare 2 by £10 to £55 a fortnight ago. The story has featured heavily in the national press this week.
Deering added: “The cost of development is ten times what it was for PS2, and more like 20 to 50 times more than on PSOne. Yet there are lots of things you can get for less than the relative value of paying 50p an hour for a very high end game.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/35209/Publ...g-says-Deering

And what about to contract a mortgage to buy a game?

Bank just denied me a loan for Halo: Reach. I'm so dissapointed.

They are asking for too much.

Smart move! Industry bitches about people buying used games so instead of lowering prices to attract new customers raise prices so even more people will wait to buy it second hand!

I won't be buying any game software ever again, there just to dark expensive.

Very smart move guys.

so this means that mw2 will be like 100 euro thats like half the dole wages they should be decreasing prices not increasing them perhaps now is the time to mod my xbox 360 to play backups if thats the case, AAA games should cost no more than 40 euro.

So long as the production value increases and quality in gaming improves (sorry wii) i see no problem paying 70$ for a good game. Granted i buy most of mine used unless they are my favorite types of games.

No offense but wii games should all cost 30$ or less new. Ps3 however is alot more hardware to code for, hence bigger production teams, and more impressive final product, 360 is not applicable because i have a pc already.

Just my thoughts

£70? Last I checked that was $115 USD.
Isn't that just plain stupid? Even Working Designs wasn't charging that much for huge over-packaged compilations, and I got a wristwatch and playing cards out of the last one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John Vattic

So long as the production value increases and quality in gaming improves (sorry wii) i see no problem paying 70$ for a good game. Granted i buy most of mine used unless they are my favorite types of games.

No offense but wii games should all cost 30$ or less new. Ps3 however is alot more hardware to code for, hence bigger production teams, and more impressive final product, 360 is not applicable because i have a pc already.

Just my thoughts

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$70 is overpriced unless you're a hardcore gamer. Let it be known that GBP 70 is not the same as USD 70 - dollars are around 1.5x the pound value, which, as Qmark pointed out, is roughly $115, which is overpriced EVEN IF you're a hardcore gamer.

And hey, since you feel like taking a stab at the Wii, why don't you do your research? The Wii actually DOES have AAA games. Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, etc. mean anything to you? If you think that the Wii has absolutely no quality games, you haven't been paying any attention at all. Sure, its quality-to-crap ratio is much higher than Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, but it's still got some quality games. That said, Wii games are less expensive than Xbox 360 or PS3 games anyhow.

The point I'm making here: $50~$60 has worked for quite a while now. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If a game has enough good qualities, $50~$60 will sell it just fine. It doesn't need to be $115 just because it's a good game, and it doesn't need to be $30 just because it's crap.