Music Banter - View Single Post - What Game Are You Playing Right Now?
View Single Post
Old 04-18-2012, 10:28 AM   #4666 (permalink)
LoathsomePete
Cardboard Box Realtor
 
LoathsomePete's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Hobb's End
Posts: 7,648
Default

I can't remember where I heard the argument, but someone made a suggestion of having tier-priced games, where the popular hits like Call of Duty and Gears of War should cost $60, but lesser known games should cost less, to entice potential buyers. Basically, people are always going to buy the big AAA games regardless of whether it costs $60 or $30, however unfamiliar IP with a $60 price tag is definitely going to turn away potential buyers, especially if the game has a metacritic score lower than 80.

This has worked on me plenty of times, I remember buying Indigo Prophecy (2005) for PS2 back in 2005 because the box art looked interesting and it was priced at $20. I take it home and while there was a bit of a learning curve, it still remains one of the more memorable games I've ever played. Same thing with Deadly Premonition (2010), a game that was released with the price of $20 and managed to find a pretty nice cult fan base and managed to be more faithful to the Twin Peaks source material than Alan Wake (2010), which was released around the same time.

Ultimately though I don't think there will be much of a price difference until there's a dedicated store for downloadable console games like what we have with Steam. In a way it's kind of strange how it's been 8-years since Steam's come out and yet CD's are still the main medium for console gaming despite all the current generation consoles having a large online focus.
LoathsomePete is offline   Reply With Quote