Are Video Game Price Cuts Coming?

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With the economy being what it is, why hasn’t the video game industry lowered its prices? The Xbox 360 has reaped the benefits of cost cuts but the games are still the same price. Sony and Nintendo couldn’t care less about lowering prices, even when they are being beat over the head with lower revenue or outright losses. What do you think, are across-the-board price cuts coming or will it be business as usual?

Sony's PlayStation 3, the costliest of the bunch, still sells for $400. Nintendo hasn't lowered the $250 tag on the Wii since its 2006 launch — an extreme rarity for an industry that relies on regular price cuts to broaden its audience. Despite the bad earnings results Thursday, Sony and Nintendo both reaffirmed their forecasts for the year.
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When the titles sit gathering dust in the cases, they will be forced to.
 
One of the best things I liked best about the PS2 over the Xbox was the number of games they were selling for cheap, there was a huge selection of games for just $10. The Xbox was selling the "Classics" for $20 and they had nowhere near the selection.

Now PS3 classics are selling for $30, most other games are selling for $60 and theres almost nothing selling for between the 2 price points.

Xbox 360 games are selling for lower prices for new released games, I have seen some new releases for $40 and less, and the "Classics" are going for $20

Seems that Microsoft and Sony have swapped pricing policies.

If I had bought my PS3 for anything other than for watching Bluray movies I would have not bought it. Sense consoles often sell for a loss and the manufacturer plans to make the money back on game sells then this may be why sony is hurting so bad, they simply are not selling enough games to make up for the loss as alot of the buyers did not buy it as a gameing console but as a bluray player.

IIRC In order for Microsoft to break a profit on the first Xbox they had to sell at least 10 new games for each console.

I think the only thing that Sony can do to make the PS3 work is to drop the prices on PS3 games and make the PS3 a "Gaming" console, not a Media portal.
 
I tell you what, I have a Wii and Xbox 360 but where have I been spending all my gaming money lately, the PC. That's right, my HTPC that cost me about $350 to build, sports 2GB ram, a dual core AMD X2, a Lite Blu-Ray drive and a ATI HD 4830 plays games that generally look better than my 360. Sure that is more than a 360, but I use it to play my movies and a lot more, but the kicker is how cheap PC games are in comparison for the same titles for the PS3 or 360. If you are willing to wait a couple months deals are pretty solid and even new releases are a better deal by as much as 50% sometimes (example the new Ghostbusters).
 
Ghostbusters was cheaper because it has no multi-player whereas the console versions do. They will do everything in their power to make sure tht console game prices never go below $60.
 
Isn't gonna happen at all. These companies are way too greedy. The masses are used to paying $60for the games. Hell, I actually budget for buying games because of the cost. I am actually skipping Madden to get COD:MW2.
These companies aren't realizing that people like me are doing this. I would pick both up if they were in the $40 range. Special Editions? Come on, I could care less about a chotchkie and a developer diary. Make a good game i'll play and recommend to a friend.
 
Hell I think they should do this all around, 60$ each for top of the line games is rather harsh considering few games offer more than 20 hours of gameplay unless you replay it 5 time. I just wonder if prices were cut to say $40 would that drop piracy rates at all or would people not care and continue downloading illegally at the same rate?
 
They would rather weather poor short term sales, than start a trend of deflation inside the game market that could be difficult to reverse.
That, and with the cost of developing, producing, marketing, and distributing game titles remaining flat or continuing to rise it would not make financial sense to cut pricing, unless they are in a liquidation scenario.

DLC is definitely one way to bolster income, and producing slightly fewer titles and spacing releases further apart to reduce cross competition are others.
 
cthulhuiscool said:
Hell I think they should do this all around, 60$ each for top of the line games is rather harsh considering few games offer more than 20 hours of gameplay unless you replay it 5 time. I just wonder if prices were cut to say $40 would that drop piracy rates at all or would people not care and continue downloading illegally at the same rate?
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People who pirate, pretty much always pirate. If they have gone to the trouble and expense of modding their console, some going so far as having both a modded and legit console, you can bet they are going to pirate pretty much everything except on line multi player games.
 
It'll never happen because the consoles rely on the game price to subsidize the loss taken on hardware.
 
I can't say I care all that much; I like to wait 6 months or more to buy a game after it's out. On PC, that usually gets you at least one expansion, on the 360 it gets you a $30 game brand new.
 
I haven't paid $60 for a game in years. If you don't buy into the hype that they are selling, and just be patient, you can find them for more than half the price. SF4 was just selling this week for $20. Wasn't out that long ago. I catch deals at Target all of the time. They seem to clearance out a lot of games every week. I saw Prince Of Persia this week for $20 for PS3. Hell I could have gotten that game for my PC for less than $7, and played it with AA enabled, and use my wireless 360 controller. There isn't a game, or any games for that matter, that I have to have as soon as it comes out. If we all used this attitude to our game buying, they would be forced to drop the prices.
 
Price cuts are what will sell games to us older folks, but as long as parents and kids with disposable income cave in, expect no cuts.

I bought SF4 for $19.99 at Gamestop yesterday. And that price is everywhere for the new title, yet the used is $34.99? Weird, huh?
 
They don't really need to cut the initial selling price of games that badly, not at the record speed at which everything gets cut to $40 or hits the bargain bin. Hell, Street Fighter 4, one of the best games this year, just hit $20 at Gamestop. Its presumably to squash what little thunder King Of Fighters XII has on its launch day, but it isn't unusual either, great games like Dead Space and Bioshock dropped after only being out for a few months.

Think Prototype is too much at $60? Don't worry, it'll be cheap soon enough. :) Unless its a flagship Nintendo game (Mario/Metroid/Zelda seem to be the only games to hold their value a year later) just wait a few weeks and the price will drop like a rock.
 
Unfortunately, companies like Activision are trying to drive prices UP, on PC at least. They're trying to charge 60 dollars for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2...
 
Microsoft must be making a decent amount of money of Live.. they can lower their prices for games and get more people to sign up for live.

Which Sony isn't doing what so ever.
 
i buy 1 or 2 full retail priced games a year, the rest are all either in the 20-30 range or ridiculously cheap like mirrors edge i got for 6 bux or 15 bux for mass effect several months ago.. all you need is patience and you can have all the cheap games you want :)
 
Actually, it appears that most games are selling for more money these days; after Activision announced its price hikes, other publishers are reportedly doing the same thing.
 
sear said:
Actually, it appears that most games are selling for more money these days; after Activision announced its price hikes, other publishers are reportedly doing the same thing.
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Which is weird. You'd think other publishers would wait and see how gamers take it before also raising their prices.

If higher prices actually makes em start releasing games through out the year instead of backloading em all in Q4 then I'd be fine with it.
 
Yea, I wouldn't expect price cuts. No need to really.. new games for the PS2 come out right around the $35 range.. they used to come out for $50 not too long ago, so as things get more outdated, they become cheaper, but the newer you get, the more expensive they get (such as PS2 titles originally being $50 at release, but the PS3 and X360 are $60 a piece at release).

Simple solution? Don't rush out to get new games.. wait for them to fall in the bargain bins a few weeks later.
 
I can't do it, if I'm interested I GOTTA have it on release date. I'm sure alot of people share my failing. :p
 
I used to think like that.. but I can't justify spending $60 on rehashes. And that's what most games boil down to anymore.. just a new look, slightly new feel, but in essence the same end result. This is especially true in sports titles.. they're rarely even rehashed anymore, rather they're just roster updates. :(
 
Kahoona said:
Unfortunately, companies like Activision are trying to drive prices UP, on PC at least. They're trying to charge 60 dollars for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2...
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And seeing as how I wasn't impressed with MW1, I guess I'll be waiting till its bargain bin, if I pick it up at all.
 
even when they are being beat over the head with lower revenue or outright losses.
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Nintendo still has a license to print money even after the drop in sales. They make money on both hardware and software.

Sony and Microsoft have to sell their games at a profit to make up for selling the hardware at a loss. Cutting software cost COULD increase those losses.

Note I say could, because printing more supply is cheap(disks/packaging/shipping), at some point dropping price doesn't result in an equal gain in sales not to mention the diminished perception of cheaper products among other factors.
 
Cant tell when the last time was i bought game for my pc or my 360,in these tough times,thats the last thing on my mind 50-$60 just aint on the list of "tah do"
 
I'm starting to think Sony knows it's not going to make money on PS3, and they've known since the beginning. PS3 is not a game console. It's a Blu-Ray Trojan horse. Its purpose is to kill HD-DVD (accomplished), transition the market away from easily copied DVD, and drive revenue to Blu-Ray licensing and Sony's studios.

Stringer is all about the studios - he doesn't give 2 shits about electronics or gaming apart from how they can be used in support of the movie and music divisions.
 
PheonixChameleon said:
I used to think like that.. but I can't justify spending $60 on rehashes. And that's what most games boil down to anymore.. just a new look, slightly new feel, but in essence the same end result. This is especially true in sports titles.. they're rarely even rehashed anymore, rather they're just roster updates. :(
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EA is at least promising updating the PC version of Madden X to the xbox's level... Still, I'll do what I always do and wait for the price to reach something I consider affordable.

I really regret buying Fallout 3 at full price. Last game I bought at full price and was enormously happy about was Total War 2: Medieval. Total War 3: Empires is garbage...
 
Well, given the state of the economy and the pay cuts I've taken.... when adjusting my own finances what do you think I stopped buying? Video games. Maybe I'm not a super geek because I choose to eat and pay my mortgage over buying games.
 
Seriously the company should sell games much cheaper. Why you think there is more piracy, the prices are too high, lower them and the business will sell sky rocket high. Genious?
It's like saying why is Blu-Ray not selling as much, because the DVD's are still the cheapest, why spend more just for greater quality, drop down the prices for DVD's and then lower the blu-ray. VHS took forever to become cheaper, why wait so long? greedy people.
 
I wouldn't be suprised if Nintento reduced the price of the Wii to $199 by Christmas.
I also expect them to come out with an updated version next year, that has more built in memory and a controller with motion plus built in.
 
It's bad enough that Tiger Woods 2010 is $60, but this year it's a real nickle-and-diimer for content as well. Plus they left out some very popular courses that I bet they will offer as DLC later on. I've spent nearly $30 in DLC in TW already.

But they won't fix any bugs or anything like that. That would not be EA's way.

Isn't a big part of the cost of XBOX games the Microsoft Tax?
 
You'd think...

Same thing happened with soda. Last year Coke said "We're raising prices". Next day, Pepsi and all the others were like little children. "Me too Me too Me too!"

Anyone that doesn't think price fixing is alive and well in the US is seriously not watching.

Riftsaw said:
Which is weird. You'd think other publishers would wait and see how gamers take it before also raising their prices.

If higher prices actually makes em start releasing games through out the year instead of backloading em all in Q4 then I'd be fine with it.
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I won my 360 back in 2006 as a prize. So i didnt have any compulsion to buy any games for it so it sat for 6 months. So now I just wait 6 months after a game has come out and pick it up for a third of the price in the 2nd hand bins. If it doesnt work for me then its not such a hit and I clean up the case and trade it in at another store.
 
archevilangel said:
Sony and Microsoft have to sell their games at a profit to make up for selling the hardware at a loss. Cutting software cost COULD increase those losses.
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IIRC, Microsoft has been making a small profit off of 360 hardware for the last 1-2 years.
 
A price cut would do good. And nowadays it feels that many games don't really have that much content and playability that's worth it. I think you got more worth for your money in the past. :(
 
I've only paid full price for a few games in the last few years. Dawn of War 2 I bought at release but I had a $25 BB gift card. I've gotten more than my moneys worth out of it even at full price.

Far Cry 2 was a lesson I had waited a while to learn. Pre-ordered it and the multiplayer was a crapfest. The single player was decent but repetitive.

Paid full price for Left4Dead and while I think the game lacks content it allows me to play coop with my brother and some friends that makes it worthwhile.

Beyond that I've paid $15 or less for STALKER: SoC, STALKER: CS, Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, Bioshock, Mirror's Edge, Unreal Tournament 3 and some others I'm forgetting.

Now I just need Deadspace and Fallout 3 to drop to $15-$20 and I can't think of anything else I'm really looking forward to playing.

If Activision thinks I'm going to buy MW2 for $60 they can do as Cartman says and 'suck my balls'. I'll wait for it to drop in price or just skip it altogether.
 
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