EA 'theoretically' interested in raising game prices for next gen - Polidicks

[QUOTE=wulfe8857;39729780]I don't understand the point this graph is trying to make. It looks more like games have gotten cheaper based on inflation.[/QUOTE] They have.

[QUOTE=milkandcooki;39730099]gee i wonder what this means [editline]26th February 2013[/editline] oh what does this mean too? i have no idea i can't read.[/QUOTE] It's called PR back-peddling.

[QUOTE='[Seed Eater];39729919']There's already a massive price hike as is. The fact that distributors like Steam and Amazon can have 50 and 75% off sales and there's still a profit in it for both the distributor and the producer is testament to that fact. Before, it took far more resources and hours for NES, SNES, SEGA games to be produced, manufactured, programmed from near scratch, shipped, marketed, and all that. Now, you just throw some video up on youtube, make a game off an existing engine, and throw it onto some servers and tah dah, the whole thing is out there to the existing market. There's a reason why prices were more, adjusted, than they are now. That being said, the cost of living is higher and wages are lower now than then also. I've gone without alot of games because of the price lately- I can't see paying 60$ for a game that now more than ever has a high chance of being crap. But I don't have much of a choice. I either have to wait for a major sale, or I have to shell out. There is no lower competitor like there is in any other market. If you want a better deal on a car, go to a different dealer. Go to a different grocery store if you want cheaper food. Shop around for a specific electronic product. But games are all priced the same across the board. That's not because of legitimate demand or adjusted cost, that's because they can get away with it and do.[/QUOTE] Uhhhhhhh, do you really think all it takes to make a game today amounts to "Now, you just throw some video up on youtube, make a game off an existing engine, and throw it onto some servers and tah dah, the whole thing is out there to the existing market"? Because that's the most naive and retarded bullshit I've heard for a long time. Do you actually think that designing a level for Half Life was more complex than making a level for modern games like CoD or CS:GO? Do you actually think that making Mario's model in Super Mario 64 was less time consuming than the models in Spec Ops the Line? Do you really believe that making a complex physics engine and the amount of scripting involved in making GTA IV's Liberty City feel lifelike was less taxing than Frogger? Stop it with the rose tinted glasses

Good thing the best games are often indie games nowadays. [editline]26th February 2013[/editline] Or F2P

[QUOTE=koeniginator;39729270]I don't see a problem with increasing game prices if it's suitable for inflation/manufacturing costs also games have always been pretty expensive [t]http://i.imgur.com/GaQ8Pi2.jpg[/t] [url]http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/10/an-inconvenient-truth-game-prices-have-come-down-with-time/[/url][/QUOTE] Most kids I know of back then rarely bought games, I usually played the new games at a friends house or rented them.

[QUOTE=TheFilmSlacker;39730432]Makes no difference to me. I don't buy games from EA anymore and you shouldn't either.[/QUOTE] why shouldn't I? they're a publisher that publishes games I like. i shouldn't be able to buy games i want because john ravioli or whoever doesn't know how to not act like a fucking moron?

[QUOTE=TheFilmSlacker;39730432]Makes no difference to me. I don't buy games from EA anymore and you shouldn't either.[/QUOTE] why shouldn't I buy games I like?

[QUOTE=Raidyr;39730498]why shouldn't I buy games I like?[/QUOTE] because an evil wicth power grows larger when you buy a game you like buy a game you don't like her powers will fail !

I don't buy EA games because I don't agree with their business practices.

[QUOTE=Zephyrs;39729279]Australia has practically double the minimum wage. I realize you guys get screwed on some stuff, but it's nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be.[/QUOTE] I hate when people say this because I don't think you realise how retardedly high the cost of living is here compared to America. I mean you have these enormous Walmarts and such where you can go and buy huge quantities of whatever the fuck you want for pennies, meanwhile we have to fork out probably several times what you do for a smaller quantity of X. I mean, I guess the plus side there is that we can't really afford to get as unhealthy as a lot of Americans are, but on the flip side if you're working a low wage job/are occupied with tertiary education/have some other commitments that will impact the amount of time you can work it can be hard to make enough money from work to even afford an acceptable amount of food (that isn't McDonalds or something else bad for you). On top of that we have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for internet services that usually come with frustratingly low data caps, housing isn't exactly cheap, petrol is ridiculously expensive compared to America, etc, etc, etc. Sure, we get paid more than you, but we get fucked over on everything else. And at the end of the day if we want to come home, crash on the couch and play a game to chill out it's probably gonna cost us about [I]$100 - $120[/I].

[QUOTE=sltungle;39730891]I mean, I guess the plus side there is that we can't really afford to get as unhealthy as a lot of Americans are[/QUOTE] where did that come from.

The one thing that does sound significantly cheaper over here is phone plans (not that I'm on a plan - I use prepaid top-ups myself because I don't like the idea of owing money that I might not have if for some reason I stop having an income) - apparently in the US you guys get shafted on phone plans because there's not much competition, whereas over here they sound more affordable. [editline]27th February 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Raidyr;39730907]where did that come from.[/QUOTE] Well when you can buy kilograms of food for next to no money it's easy to imagine why there's such a large incidence of obesity in a country like America. If you can't buy as much, you can't get as ridiculously unhealthy. Although, like I said, on the flipside you might wind up experiencing malnutrition because you can't eat ENOUGH if food is too expensive. [editline]27th February 2013[/editline] Wow, actually, USA petrol prices have gone up a fair bit since I last checked. It used to be HALF the cost of petrol in Australia, but now it's more like 66%. Heh. I guess you ARE getting shafted in America now :v: [url]http://www.kshitij.com/research/petrol.shtml[/url]

For a while California was paying more for gas than Hawaii. California has tons of refineries and gas is transported by truck. Hawaii has no refineries and fuel needs to be transported by boat. Yet they paid more. The biggest insult was that the state responded to citizen complaints about the blatant price gouging and launched an investigation into the state's oil companies, and came back and had the sheer gall to say they couldn't find any evidence of price gouging or anti-consumer practices. So yes, we are getting shafted with no way out.

Two words fuck you!

[QUOTE=sltungle;39730891]I mean, I guess the plus side there is that we can't really afford to get as unhealthy as a lot of Americans are[/QUOTE] Poverty is strongly correlated to poor health and Australia has an obesity rate of 21.7%, the 6th highest in the world. If you really were more hard pressed than Americans are you'd be less healthy. Fact is, the average quality of life in Australia is significantly higher than in the United States and Australians are going to have an easier time making ends meet overall.

[QUOTE=janky;39729142]Sigh. I remember when games were $50[/QUOTE] They were still $60 on the Sega Genesis, and that was the early 90's. That was when $60 had more spending power than it does now. And even still, I can't see games costing more than $60. Game prices have a glass ceiling and $60 has always buckled it... EA raising prices beyond that? Given the quality that they give us? No. Fuck No. Hell No. That Gif of Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis here.

I'm so sure these are connected [t]http://i.imgur.com/q7eVjJ4.png[/t]

This is why I always wait for Steam sales or buy from CD key sites. I never pay more than $40 for a game.

EA no, quite a few AAA games that come out here are 100 dollars already :(.

It's like EA is trying to run themselves into the ground. If anything, they will lose income and piracy will rise along with their game prices.

Can't wait for BF4 to get released. Oh man, it's gonna be the best game ever!

You guys need to understand development costs are constantly rising. I don't know what kind of profit they're making on the current prices though.

For fuck sake, EA. Just stop existing please.

[QUOTE=Jocke;39731535]Can't wait for BF4 to get released. Oh man, it's gonna be the best game ever![/QUOTE] It will be a mediocre codified mess just like its predecessor.

[QUOTE=SGI Onyx;39731584]It will be a mediocre codified mess just like its predecessor.[/QUOTE] lol because BF3 wasn't anywhere near Call of Duty. It plays completely different.

[QUOTE=laserguided;39731602]lol because BF3 wasn't anywhere near Call of Duty. It plays completely different.[/QUOTE] And yet is absolutely nothing like the classic (read good) Battlefield games. You can't tell me they didn't take any ~inspiration~ from COD, they were after the same playerbase.

[QUOTE=SGI Onyx;39731607]And yet is absolutely nothing like the classic (read good) Battlefield games.[/QUOTE] So different = call of duty? Battlefield 2's infantry combat sucked. Battlefield 3's infantry combat is great.

Making infantry combat and netcode not terrible = making it like Call of Duty, apparently.

Man, I just realized that we gamers are stingy assholes. I'm not agreeing with EA at all at this issue, I'm just pointing it out. If you get 60hrs out of a game (Which isn't that uncommon), you're paying less than a dollar per hour of game time. That's one of the cheapest forms of entertainment there is. Compare that with movies, which come down to about $5-$10 per hour. And yet you'll still find a ton of people who will refuse to buy a game unless it goes on at least 50% off on steam, knowing full well that they'll get a shitload of game time out of it. Once again, I don't agree with EA, but we're assholes.

[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;39731824]Man, I just realized that we gamers are stingy assholes. I'm not agreeing with EA at all at this issue, I'm just pointing it out. If you get 60hrs out of a game (Which isn't that uncommon), you're paying less than a dollar per hour of game time. That's one of the cheapest forms of entertainment there is. Compare that with movies, which come down to about $5-$10 per hour. And yet you'll still find a ton of people who will refuse to buy a game unless it goes on at least 50% off on steam, knowing full well that they'll get a shitload of game time out of it. Once again, I don't agree with EA, but we're assholes.[/QUOTE] Pretty much this. Games used to cost a lot more then this for consoles like the NES, and SNES, and suddenly when EA does it it becomes a horrible business practice from the anti-christ of gaming.