Friday Soapbox - Game Prices - what is your limit?

[MattyP]

So earlier in the year picked up a PS5. Lovely bit of kit, the DualSense is a small wonder and gives and additional level of immersion - Astrobot's Playground suitably demonstrates its capabilities.

So I get around to software. Here is the pinch. I'm finding the £70 pricing of first party stuff hard to swallow. Just not sure if they are worth it. The price isn't sitting well with me at all.

Managed to get a play on the new Ratchet and Clank on it. Its a good game, stunning audio/visuals however the game? Not so sure. Is there £70 worth of value there?! I know its a personal thing and everyone has a different point at which things get "too expensive" but just looking at he prices of games these days its scary. Some packs say of CoD/FIFA etc etc on the stores are coming upto £100 a shot.

Then every time I buy a game these days it never seems "complete" there are 3/4 different tiers of the game - base, premium, collectors etc. I know its largely digital "fluff" but it still doesn't deter from the feeling you are buying half of a product!  Looking at my most recent buy, Hot Wheels Unleashed there the following editions:-

Standard Edition - £40
Collectors Edition - £55
Ultimate Stunt Edition - £70

Additionally it continues there are two "season passes planned at - £25 each ( £70 version includes both passes of which only one is available at the moment). What I actually feel I have bought is the skeleton of the game the bare bones... (probably not the case but its how I feel). Even R-Type Final 2 has DLC these days!  R-TYPE!!!

I know relatively speaking you get a lot entertainment per hour out of games but where are you at? Do you like the way the industry is going? Are games too expensive? Are they relatively cheap to what they were?

Lots of change but guessing they are just working out ways of capitalising on investments and creating eco-systems these days. Perhaps all this enables to continue to enjoy your favourite game? And of course almost keep you in there as a captive audience. Maybe everyone is happy with all this!    So perhaps its me who is behind the times and is a stingy old git?! Should just drag my Wii/360 with their associated pile of disks and get rid of all my the latest gaming kit I have and stay back there....   

[Isaac]

Everyone on the forum who isn't a PS5 gamer just has Game Pass and is drowning in games to play for their subscription, and this whole £70 dilemma seems like it's coming from another planet.

[MattyP]

9 minutes ago, Isaac said:

Everyone on the forum who isn't a PS5 gamer just has Game Pass and is drowning in games to play for their subscription, and this whole £70 dilemma seems like it's coming from another planet.

I was going to mention GamePass in the above....  I think this has become more apparent since picking up a PS5 earlier in the year and spending some time on that platform.

 

Whether long term GamePass is good or bad for gaming who knows. Probably another question perhaps.

 

However I can see what MS might have as a strategy... give the base game away for "free" on GamePass and then those who want a richer experience or enjoying the game can invest more into it. Much the way Epic does with Fortnite etc. Ultimately this is the way I see gaming going. I get that.

 

I mean even Nintendo could adopt this approach.. build a Mario base game then sell new levels/worlds etc into it. Some degree I'm surprised they haven't capitalised more on Odyssey for example.

 

Not sure where Sony are at though. I was given the prompt for DLC for Ratchet and Clank... considering the base game was £70.... hmm.... 

[moosegrinder]

My limit is a lot less than it used to be, but not really because of price. I suspect like a lot of people on here I can generally buy a game if I want it and it's an obscenely fortunate position to be in but there's 2 factors to why I don't just buy any game I fancy any more:
 

1) Time. There just isn't enough. I can never justify buying yet another fucking game, no matter how cheap or expensive, that I'm not going to get round to playing for weeks, months or at all. I've held off so many games simply because I know my gaming mindset won't allow me to just down tools on whatever my brain is obsessed with at the moment and fuck off and play something. This doesn't mean I wont buy anything if the rule of "If you have to think about it you don't want it" comes into play (Death's Door was £4 on Eneba and I was like YOINK! That was 2 weeks ago. I have not played it yet) but I'm good at just going "Nah, I'm ok ta." See Hot Wheels Unleashed.

2) Being burned. The last Stupid Expensive Twatneck Edition of a game I bought was Borderlands 3's Ultimate Edition. The logic went "Well, I bought Borderlands 2 like 12 times, so I must LOVE Borderlands 3!" so went in for the season pass included edition. Massive mistake. Borderlands 3 was very much like Borderlands 2, but to the point where I wondered what had happened to the devs where they didn't seem to notice that 8 years had passed and the exact same mechanics and tired writing just wasn't very good any more. Or maybe I changed and didn't find their shtick amusing. Whichever, I've held off shit because of that.

I'm not going to bring up Game Pass as a factor really because despite it being the best thing since sliced bread it doesn't really play any role in whether I want to pay for a game. Mainly because of point 1 and if I think devs should be supported I'll support them. I also don't worry about something hitting Games Pass eventually also because of point 1. If I've got enough time to play it and I want to support the devs I'll feel justified in my purchase even if it appears for 'free' eventually.

[Darwock]

Speaking as someone who spends most of their free time playing games, I don’t actually buy a lot of games. My most played games this year are VF5 (which was free with my PSN subscription), Tetris Effect (which I bought three years ago) and Star Wars Squadrons (bought last year).

 

When there is something I really want, I’ll pay full whack and not flinch. I think I paid £70-80 for AC7 with the season pass etc, I paid similar for GT sport too - it got massively discounted eventually but that didn’t bother me, because I got a lot of mileage out of it and it’s not like I’m flinging cash at games every month.

 

I don’t have a PS5 of course, but if I did I wouldn’t be stressing about the cost of games as I wouldn’t be buying every game on the market.

[Strafe]

If it’s a AAA game that’s well reviewed I’ll generally pay it, not least because there are plenty of companies that sell for less than RRP. A £70 game usually translates to £62.85 or less at simply games. Value is relative but I had my money’s worth from the 3 big PS5 releases this year (returnal, r&c, deathloop) that’s for sure.

 

I am way more hesitant to pay for digital only games as I can’t sell the game on if it turns out to be trash/not my thing or even if I enjoy it but have no desire to hang onto it.

 

Gamepass is, of course, excellent value but big MS releases aside (when they actually come out 🤡), I don’t find much on there for me because they’re generally games I’ve either played on release or passed up on release. Once the big hitters start rolling in (FH5, Halo infinite), I’ll resubscribe.

 

I did resub to it for MS flight simulator and The Ascent but played little of the former because I didn’t really find it much fun and the latter was very average.

[gossi the dog]

My comfort zone for a new release is £35 for digital, £45 for physical. I've occasionally paid more than that - especially for versions with additional DLC, but above those prices I find it hard to justify the cost.

[Halo]

About £25 is the limit for anything I really want to play, about £15 for anything else. Generally anything over that doesn’t get bought.

[footle]

£20-£25 for an indie game that looks like it’ll really really appeal to me; £10-£15 if not.

 

big budget? it now has to really appeal or be in a gaming drought. So deathloop at £55 was fine; I feel a tad ripped off by R&C at whatever I paid for it.

[bradigor]

Pretty much everything I get is luckily through review codes now, with the odd bit of trading. 

 

I've not bought a full price title for myself  or kids outside of birthdays for quite sometime now. 

[Clipper]

Pleasantly surprised that noone has quoted prices of cartridge games in 1993 yet - that absolute irrelevant comparison used when discussing the current pricing market is always amusing/irritating.

 

I have gamepass and I buy games on Switch and PC and PS4 and retro formats (new releases of c64 games etc). Pricing is a tricky one for me and I don't have a definitive one rule for all at all.

 

For me it is like my love of buying films. I stream lots I like , I buy some cheap on bluray I want to keep, I spend more on some that are UHD to have the best version of my faves and I spend even more on films that are special to me (Dawn of the Dead UHD boxset). Games are similar and the price I pay is utterly dependent on my desire for it, it is as simple as that. None of the PS5 £70 games interest me enough to pay that, but to be honest that is true of most AAA experiences, I am just not the target market for that AAA stuff. If it were a AAA IP I have fond memories of I would pay £40 to play it - which sort of fits in with Nintendo first party releases on the Switch. But then if Jeff Minter releases a new game I buy it, pretty much regardless of the price, because I love his games. Indie stuff I prefer to pay less than £15 but will go above that for the right game - the trick with indie stuff I think is varying the pricepoints thru the games life so 5-10 years later you can still sell a fair few copies just by dropping to a new low price.

 

The nickle and diming of DLC in AAA fullprice (whether £70 or £50) is pretty rank in my opinion. I think if you charge AAA prices for your "experience" you need to think long and hard about why you are gouging your customers with more DLC. The answer is, of course, because people will pay and there is not enough profit in the world to satisfy the big AAA publishers.

 

I don't mind the F2P cosmetic model of Fortnite even though it seems odd to pay for pretty skins etc. just to play a third person shooter. Still not ideal but at least you didn't pay for the game upfront as well!

 

Loot boxes and all other types of gambling that is being forced on gamers (and kids lets face it) can fuck right off in the bin.

 

Enough rambling... TLDR; what I am willing to pay varies a lot and I am not sure I have a maximum price I wouldn't go above for something I truly loved.

[GamesGamesGames]

If I know something will be worth it, I'll pay the going rate on release. It's plenty offset by the majority of stuff that I choose to pick up months down the line and/or on PC.

 

Full price Returnal has been the best value I've had from any game I bought this year. Totally worth it.

[Fry Crayola]

I'm usually a few years behind the curve, and so I generally find it hard to justify spending £50+ on a new game, when there's something else highly rated that I haven't played, and probably already own.

 

It's not that I think £50 is too much, and I'd happily pay £70 for a game I really, really wanted. There just aren't very many of them.

[Majora]

Depends on the game. Nintendo could charge more than £70 for Breath of the Wild 2 and I'd probably pay it. I'd resent it but I'd pay it. If I'd paid £70 for the new Ratchet and Clank I would have a felt a bit ripped off but I wouldn't have had I paid it for The Last of Us 2. 

 

Too many variables. I have so many games to play on Gamepass now though that I only really buy the top-tier, must play games these days. Anything that was previously 'wait for a sale' territory generally doesn't get bought full stop anymore.

 

[Qazimod]

Lately I seem to have self-control over impulse buys but no self-control over day one purchases. So I'll go for weeks or even months without buying new games and then put down £45-50 for a Persona 5 Royal or a Neo: TWEWY. Although like @GamesGamesGames I'm often confident that these purchases are worth it.

 

I'm generally over special editions though. Unless I get extra content as a consequence of my desire for day one purchases (e.g. Yakuza: LaD and its "Day Ichi" steelbook edition.)

[Flanders]

I’ll happily pay £60-70 for something I know I’m definitely going to like and make time to play. £70 for Demon’s Souls PS5 was a no-brainer because I love Souls game and it was clearly the most super-swank version of that. I’ll happily pay full price for Horizon Far West as well because I loved the first one. 

 

I would really like to play Returnal but haven’t got it yet because there’s a chance I might be shit at it as I’m not great at arcade action and I can’t quite justify £70 on a maybe. I think £40 is the maximum for a maybe game.

[Couch Corpse]

I'm playing Hades on PC which I got on the Epic store for € 6.79, the value is there.

[Hitcher]

£40 for AAA title and <£30 for the rest.

 

GamePass and Argentinian game gifting covers the Series X and as a result I buy very few PS5 games.

[Gabe]

I wait until something is usually 75% off, purely because I already have too much stuff to play. I just don't therefore have any need to buy new and don't suffer from the FOMO of threads on here about the latest thing.

 

I can't even remember the last game I paid full price for (or even half price), but it was years ago.

 

It helps of course that I play almost exclusively on PC, so those kind of sales on titles are fairly frequent. 

[scoobysi]

There’s very few games I’ll buy on release as I generally have a huge backlog on PS especially due to PS Plus/Collection. I generally get a few games for Xmas too which keeps me going for a good few months.

 

I picked up R&C recently for £28 as new on eBay and will probably do the same for Returnal at some point so Sony have lost those sales as if they’d been £45ish I’d have bought both on release.

 

If something is going to or has released straight to GamePass I’ll just ignore it until it goes into a PS sale.

 

GT7 is probably the one game I will buy, digitally on release, so for about £62 but as that’s a game I’ll play for years it’s not an issue. I GameShare with my son too so we might end up splitting the cost as we did recently with FIFA.

 

I’d have bought Metroid Dread if released earlier in the year but have instead put it on my Xmas list.

 

Too many games, not enough time means there’s no need for me to buy on release, perhaps making an exception if it’s a favourite gaming series or something I know I’ll play for a long time etc.

[Alex W.]

I spent £70 (IIRC) on Death Stranding so I could get a steel book, £80 on Metroid Dread for an art book that wasn’t very good, bought Hades twice (digital and physical), and went full price on the Big Three Switch games, Goose Game, Donut County, LiS 2….

 

Otherwise I very grudgingly spent an average of £3 on every “important” game over the last 15 years.

 

I guess I’m saying the sky’s the limit if I’m invested but otherwise I’m basically not going to play something until it’s free on PSN.

[rafaqat]

Gamepass for pretty much 90% of my gaming.

 

Sony exclusives I buy a year or two after release or if someone is selling on forum for 20 quid or less. I MIGHT make an exception for Battlefield 2042 but will see how that does in the first few months after launch.

[Ry]

£45.

 

But I don't need to buy games due to Microsoft rewards and Game pass

[Clipper]

35 minutes ago, scoobysi said:

If something is going to or has released straight to GamePass I’ll just ignore it until it goes into a PS sale.

 

That's an interesting one I hadn't considered. So if a game is released on all platforms but is available as part of a sub on one of them you will wait to pay less? So you feel a game is "worth" less to you if it is available as part of a subscription service elsewhere?

 

Why is that?

[rafaqat]

4 minutes ago, Clipper said:

That's an interesting one I hadn't considered. So if a game is released on all platforms but is available as part of a sub on one of them you will wait to pay less? So you feel a game is "worth" less to you if it is available as part of a subscription service elsewhere?

 

Why is that?

 

I took it to mean that if it's gone straight to gamepass there's  a good chance it's coming to PSN so no point buying it full stop.

[Clipper]

1 minute ago, rafaqat said:

 

I took it to mean that if it's gone straight to gamepass there's  a good chance it's coming to PSN so no point buying it full stop.

oh I see I was confused as he said he was waiting for it to go to a PS sale which meant to me waiting for a lower price.

[scoobysi]

13 minutes ago, Clipper said:

That's an interesting one I hadn't considered. So if a game is released on all platforms but is available as part of a sub on one of them you will wait to pay less? So you feel a game is "worth" less to you if it is available as part of a subscription service elsewhere?

 

Why is that?

There’s plenty of other games to buy and if for whatever reason the Publisher/Developer has chosen to do a deal with GP and not PSN, rather than pay significantly more for that game just because I happen to have a different console, I’ll just wait. So yes I suppose I now put a lower value on those games.

[Clipper]

1 minute ago, scoobysi said:

There’s plenty of other games to buy and if for whatever reason the Publisher/Developer has chosen to do a deal with GP and not PSN, rather than pay significantly more for that game just because I happen to have a different console, I’ll just wait. So yes I suppose I now put a lower value on those games.

Thankyou... I was trying to think of a similar situation that I could relate to. THe only ones I came up with are more about timed exclusives but a couple fit the bill - Fall Guys was on psPlus on release. I don't have PSPlus but I do have a PS4 but I online game on the Xbox. When it comes out on Xbox I'll fork out full price for it even though it was on PSplus... not quite the same though. Rocket league was in a similar boat for me, but again I paid full price on Xbox I think.

 

It is an interesting one though as to how we perceive value for money when we know the game is available on a subscription service.

[Herbalizer]

 I think I paid £110 for the Edge of Darkness edition of Escape From Tarkov.  It wasn't all at once though as you can incrementally upgrade through the editions. I have 1400 hours in the game, so its money well spent.

[T Pot]

4 hours ago, Isaac said:

Everyone on the forum who isn't a PS5 gamer just has Game Pass and is drowning in games to play for their subscription, and this whole £70 dilemma seems like it's coming from another planet.

 

Pretty much this. I have bought 7 games this year. The only on that cost more than £9.99 was BF2042 due to come out soon. Game pass has pretty much killed the need for me to buy games these days.