Cliff ‘CliffyB’ Bleszinski, he of Unreal and Gears of War fame, and a man more 90’s America than The Offspring, recently spoke out about the cost of videogames. Despite working on a huge title in PC-exclusive shooter LawBreakers, CliffyB reckons modern full-priced $60 games are far too expensive. In fact, he reckons the standard price should be in the “$20-40’ range”.
The ex-Epic designer sits at an odd juncture with his own LawBreakers. Originally announced as a free-to-play (F2P) title, Bleszinski recently abandoned these plans in favour of a fixed price. This will include all the base content and any future maps and characters. The only extra payments will be for cosmetic items. You can bet your bottom dollar though that despite these figures thrown about, LawBreakers is sure to come in at the top-end and be $40.
Now obviously every customer would prefer it if games were cheaper. Pay $20 a pop and we could all be playing three times as many games. The people benefitting out of the current prices are development studios and, primarily, publishers. Fork out $60 per game and it soon adds up for consumers.
Instead of asking whether you would prefer cheaper games though, I’m going to raise the point of whether you think games are worth the standard $60 price tag. I’m talking your big budget, AAA release; is there enough there to justify paying $60 for each game, in comparison to a $27 Minecraft or F2P DOTA 2? Should high profile games be cheaper if they’re shorter? If so, should a massive game like The Witcher 3 perhaps cost more than $60?
Get voting in the poll and let us know what you think below!
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PC Specs
30$ is a decent price for a game, they're still going to make profit, and the players will be happy. Look at lawbreakers!
PC Specs
If you then read an article like "Community Made Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch Tackles Hundreds Of Bugs Before Bethesda Can"..
Perhaps there's just something wrong with the term/label "AAA".
PC Specs
For $60 I can buy two LOGITECH GAMEPADS. Normally I wait for price drops and then plays the song "b*tch better have my money"
PC Specs
Once upon a time, absolutely. But nowadays there are very few games that feel complete enough to justify $60. In the age where microtransactions and season passes are the norm, I think $60 is no longer representative of what one receives.
PC Specs
The price is right. As long as the 3 main groups:
spoiled teens, uninformed parents, players who go crazy about certain titles
The day the market changes, the prices also change... ALWAYS for the worse.
PC Specs
People are buying doesn't matter how costly it is. So, why would publishers sell it cheaper. They know it will still be sold.
Don't buy just after release , don't pay for in-game transactions, dlcs. I hate it when people pay for DLCs and useless stuffs in-game. ( It makes me laugh harder but sad too )
PC Specs
Games like uncharted 4, and gta v are worth 60$. It's gotta have either a good story, or lots of fun things to do. Preferably both, which is what gta v did. tho the price of gta v should have already dropped for the pc to about 30$.
PC Specs
some games yes. but most of them no
games like the witcher 3 or skyrim or gta v they Deserve 60$ not because of their budget .because of that this games coming after many years and become a masterpiece .
but games like COD or BF etc... no they dont worth even 40$ .must be 20$ because its same game that you play last year with another theme and dev's spaming dlc :|
PC Specs
nope just nope not in my country, no, nope , nada , ne :D
PC Specs
After playing these new featureless AAA titles, NO! Some games aren't even worth the data space they take up, let alone paying $60 for them!
PC Specs
I think some indie games are worth more than these AAA titles! I'd choose Enter the Gungeon and Ark Survival Evovled over any EA and Ubi game any day!
PC Specs
I'd have way more fun with ARK if you didn't need a quantum computer to actually run the damn thing.
PC Specs
"Some games aren't even worth the data space they take up" LMFAO this is brilliant, you just won quote of the day pal! :D
PC Specs
I agree xD
PC Specs
bring back the 45$ price point dammit!
PC Specs
Absolutely not, unless you make thousands of dollars a month. The standard price should be in the $20-$40 range and the ones with all the dlc and crap should be priced at $60.
PC Specs
It is fine for someone that lives in western Europe or north America and makes something like 2000$ a month. For everyone else (90% of the world population)-it is NOT
PC Specs
In fact,games should standardly be sold at CliffyB said: 20-40$
60$ should be the price of those ultimate editions (with all the paid DLCs and bunch more sh*t)
PC Specs
I'm from Europe make about 1800$ a month, and do I think 60$ is fair? YesNo. Because of our economy right now, compared to 1 and a half year ago, we now pay 17$ more than what we used to. Each dollar is now 1.36$. But hey, there is a lot of places to buy games. You can go ahead and buy it on steam for 60$ or another place for 30$. Its up to you :)
PC Specs
I live in America, and the average gamer here doesn't make that much, because our corporate overlords are telling us $7.75 an hour is to high as it is now!
PC Specs
you need to know that a living wage/minimum wage is for living not for gaming, you need to understand that. Many people still choose to think living wage allows them to have the most expensive clothing, technology like the newest phones, television, computers, cars and entertainment like our hobby which is gaming. In reality if you are getting minimum wage you should be investing your money not in gaming but in yourself for your education which is a guaranteed out of minimum wage. This is coming from a U.S Citizen whom is a immigrant from Salvador Legally. I lived off of living wage years and spent my money not on gaming but in college now I have a BA working on my Masters in computer science and striving to get my History Degree
PC Specs
Also a lot of jobs won't hire full-time sooooo yeeeeaaah… there's that issue to deal with! Which is why we mostly game on pc, which can also be used for work:
PC Specs
You get fee's, tho? Anyway, wages tell you nothing. I make €2600 GROSS (+varying sum between 100 and 300) which equals 3k USD, but that netts me only 1800 EUR (or 2k USD).
You can call that alot, but abduct 1k rent + car and .. well, you get the jest.
It's but a matter of considering one thing above another. Sometimes 60$ is worth it, other times even 10$ is too much.
PC Specs
Malbhet I didn't say that average games makes that much,only that it is fair for someone that makes that much.
PC Specs
MEsA I agree. I only buy games if I can find them somewhere for 40$ or less. I,as a 17 year old,simply don't have money to pay 60$ for a game (plus it's not 60$ in Europe,but 60 euros which is more). If I had your salary I would be a god in my country,but I know it's not a lot in Norway because everything is super-expensive there. I remember watching some video where 2 Norwegians came here in Serbia as tourists and went to the restaurant. They were stunned when they heard that beer here costs 1.5 euros instead of 10 euros they pay there.Then they bought a beer for everybody in restaurant because it was so cheap for them.
PC Specs
Fair if you get a finished game with good optimizations
PC Specs
games prices haven't really gone up in a long time compared to everything else in life so I'm not complaining and plus there are sales all over so just wait. got witcher 3 for 30 CAD 7 months after it came out.
PC Specs
I misclicked the vote, anyway to undo the vote ?
PC Specs
you'll need a petrol can and a lighter if you clicked YES. XD
PC Specs
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!
PC Specs
It really depends on how much content does a game have. Between fallout 4 and The Order 1886. Both games were released with a 60 or more dollar price tag. And the content between those 2 games are split by a lot. It should be 30-60$ IMO.
PC Specs
sadly It might increase and the reason why it might increase more than 60 is the Minimum wage increase in the United States. 1. Minimum Wage increases from 10 to 15 ( 5 dollars more ) 2. Businesses need to pay their workers if its minimum wage at 15$ 3. Small businesses ( Indie games ) and also Huge Businesses ( AAA developers such as EA for example) 3. If workers pay is 15 and everyone else gets 15 dollars of minimum wage it would make dollar weaker meaning products (might) raise in price to pay for the cost of workers having higher pay for the minimum wage. It sucks since I see AAA games as a 30-40 anything above I still see as a rip off ( which in truth is at times rude to the hard working game developers). This is one reason why I believe prices will get higher. Before our wages were
PC Specs
lesser because the dollar was worth more and now since its inflation we will be seeing higher costing games of AAA. technically it should have been higher ever since the U.S made it 10 dollars an hour for minimum wage but because Developers knew it could harm business they stayed at 40-60 dollar range. but since we are going to 15 dollars well we just made the dollar be worth less (if people choose to save the money instead of what it was meant to spend it). I believe if we were still at the 7-8 dollar an hour games should have been around 40-50 but since the 10 minimum wage you will see games costing 60 dollars, now with 15/hour we might see higher increase or games at 60-70 which say (DLC included or the packages were you get "Free DLC" for a higher cost) hopefully people get what i mean
PC Specs
video of minimum wage just saying that about the cost of games might increase since people need to understand that our dollar is become worth less than the past few years meaning increasing the wage would just increase the prices to fix this problem. The only companies that can survive this is Walmart
PC Specs
If you disagree I want to see your opinion also in a form of a comment. Give me your reason of why games should be cheaper (especially AAA games)
PC Specs
30$ is more than fair. anything beyond that i can't afford and have never bought.
PC Specs
I find 60 dollars in general pretty high for a videogame. Even for those who say it has always been this price, it's also known that videogames always were an expensive luxury product. I wish there would be more competition lowering prices.
PC Specs
Relatives of Bill gates voted 'Yes'
PC Specs
Actually i think there should be no Standard price for AAA games
Games which have been in devolepment for longer tend to have more content and they should be 60$ and some like FC:Primal whose devolepment cost was negligible compared to Ubi;s budget should be 25$ or so
PC Specs
GTA V too
PC Specs
I think it shouldn't be less than 100 for pc games given how everybody and their mother got a 1000$ worth pc...so ya, if a game requiers an expencive pc it would be logical the game itself should be expensive...premium pc gaming ftw...
PC Specs
We have a winner for the dumbest comment lol:D
PC Specs
Hmmm....... BTW What is he trying to tell????
PC Specs
We hve a 1000$ pc?!!! I didnt know that. I mean seriously coz im not an American. But does the average gamer on GD hve a 1000$ pc? That is my question
PC Specs
you are oficially the most disliked person i have met on gd. you need to chill dude :)
PC Specs
He probably gets a keg of beer if he reaches 100 downvotes or something. Nobody is this retarded.
PC Specs
Thank you everyone...the dream of -90 finaly came true :D
PC Specs
LMFAO:D
PC Specs
hahahah some of these comments
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with his amount of downvotes he wont be able to post many places for a little bit until his rep improves just letting all know what happens when someone reaches -10