Games - escalating pricing

[dor_13]

I don't know whether people notice it, but lately the pricing for games has gone high.
It seems like they are testing us to see whether we buy it anyway.

For example, the price of "Battlefield™ 1 Standard Edition" on Origin is 60 euros.
The premium account that includes all additional packages (which are expected to exist, like in BF4 and BF3) would probably cost similar.
That's an overall of 120 euros for a single game.

The price of BF4 (Standard Edition) has gone up from about 5 euros to 20 euros on Origin.
That happened, I think, about after the beta of BF1 was released.

I understand that the game has quality, but it doesn't seem much different from BF3 or BF4 with regards to the physics / engine.
So why's the price? What is the work that was done which we pay for, except for designing new maps and weapons (skins) ?
News maps and skins are given with expansions packs too...
As far as I know, designing a map doesn't require a programmer, but it's a job done with a special software the was written for designing maps.

Similar thing about:

• 
  ■ "Dishonored 2" which costs 60 USD on Steam.
  ■ "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided" 60 USD on Steam.
  ■ "Far Cry Primal Standard Edition" 60 USD on Steam.
  ■ "Tom Clancy’s The Division™" 60 USD on Humble bundle.

I remember I bought BF3 for 50 euros.
Didn't buy BF4 and currently don't plan to buy BF1.
Buying BF4 now seems useless, since that all the player would move to BF1 and that will make BF4's servers empty.

 

[Barty1884]

There's the argument for development costs, graphics improvements etc, but ultimately it boils down to what people will pay.

$60 vs $50.
Say 1m sales (hypothetically). They'd need 1.2m to make the same money if sold at $50. Companies/Distributors will decide which is the most achievable and price it there.

The only way to impact pricing would be if people boycotted a game over pricing. It's unlikely you could get a boycott of a great enough size to be noticed.

It's a business after all.

You can look at almost any 'sequel' to a game - in a simple sense, even sports (FIFA, NBA etc) where graphics & roster updates are all that change year-on-year, but remain some of the best selling titles.

No sure what you're looking for here tbh, but as long as people will buy a game at $X price, it'll stay that way.

 

[DV79]

Steam and origin are pretty expensive, you can get cheaper on cdkeys.com
Ps not sure if I can recommend a website here, I just have good experiences with them

 

[Barty1884]

There are numerous sites selling 'cheap' keys. There have been reports of the keys being bought with stolen credit cards etc originally and been blacklisted as a result, so there's always a risk when buying from 'unofficial' sources. Not saying you can't, or that codes will be blacklisted, but it's an option.

 

[BradleyJames]

ive used greenman gaming a few times to get deals. i think i bought 2 copies of titanfall not too long after it came out for 14 bucks

 

[why_wolf]

Mostly its because they know they can charge people more for "Day 1" prices because they've been doing it for years and people keep paying. There's definitely no increased "improvement" to match the pricing and in terms of DLC its a pretty terrible ratio of what you get for what you pay. But until they get a strong push back, and not just people complaining about, but people actually stop buying the prices will stay high and go higher if they think they can get away with it.

Some sites sell cheaper keys and these are a mix of stolen keys, shady back room resells or simple retail sales logic of cheap prices to get you in the door so you'll spend more before you leave (what Steam did when it was up and coming).

 

[dor_13]

@DV79:
Thanks but I rather buy from "legitimate" sources..

--
That's a shame that a business treats its customers this way.
Reliability and integrity are of most importance to a business.

 

[Faux_Grey]

People are getting away with charging more and more for games because people are willing to pay that much at launch because of hype.

Look at No Mans sky, stupidly-priced, and lots of people bought it.
Look at BF4/3/battlefront, 3 months after launch, price came down to "average" levels.

Just devs trying to make back as much money as they can.
Developers, modellers, sound artists all those people can't just make a game without any reference points.
In line with BF1, these people would've had to go somewhere where they can find these antique weapons, vehicles, etc and actually use them in order to recreate it in-game.

I can't argue them making launch price high, because in few months time, everything will be on black friday digital sales anyway.