Quote:
Originally Posted by LoathsomePete
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.
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yeah, i agree, not every game that comes out on store shelves should be the full $60. really if you had the choice of going with a franchise you loved the previous installments of versus an unknown game which you may not really like, most of the time you'll go for the former.
As for digital distribution becoming the main method for games, it's coming. It's just that things like technology and internet speeds aren't there yet. When that happens, we'll see DD in more of a mainstream light.