Game console price cut needed, says Activivision CEO. How about games?

[RenegadeRocks]

Games are very pricey at this point of time. I can't even tell my family the price of a game ! I can buy it only coz I earn.

 

[fallguy]

I'd also like to point out that while games have risen from $40 to $60 since 1985. The consumer price index has risen 102% over that time. Had games been inline with that they would be about $81. So games are pretty cheap really. The hardware is also relatively cheaper as well. $400 for a console is not that expensive IMO. That's $7 per month for the life of a console. Pocket change. I spend more on cappacino's in two days than that.

Quoted again, because some people cant grasp the simple fact, that game prices have not risen like most every thing else.

 

[Rangers]

So I wonder if we'll see 69.99 the default on NEXT (PS4/XBox3) gen consoles?

Hey it seems possible..I bet people would pay it.

 

[fallguy]

People payed $79.99 for N64 games almost 12 years ago, sure they would pay $69.99 today.

 

[dobwal]

If the cost of goods goes up as a result of the dropping dollar value, than the percentage of disposable income that a game represents is increasing. That is, if Joe P. has £100 per week to spend on 'stuff' and that includes £90 of shopping, a £40 game is a month's labour. If the cost of shopping increases to £100 per week due to the exchange rate, that £40 game becomes impossibly expensive. So it's not tied to salary particular, but buying power. As a real example, the price of petrol in the UK is galloping up at an insane rate. People are spending a few hundred pounds more each year on fuel then they were last year. Thus the price of games is going up in relative terms of how much money people have to spend on things they'd enjoy.

I don't know about Europe but in the US.

Unless you are a child or in college, the cost of a game is relatively a drop in the bucket of your disposable income (after all expenses and bill have been paid) for your average gamer. This is why software sales have been resilent against a sagging US economy. A game in the US is about the same as a full tank of gas or a couple's night out. $60.00 doesn't go far in terms of entertainment and gamers are looked at as better investments because they provide way more hours than your average entertainment product.

Plus, the higher than normal point of entry for 360 and the PS3 due to console cost has a weed out effect. There is not alot of people who would have trouble buying a $60.00 game here or there but no trouble investing in a $400-$500 console. Furthermore, the average age of a gamer has gone up over the years which means the average gamer of today tends to have more disposable income than average gamer of yesterday.

People here tend to forget the effect that credit cards tend to have on one's purchasing power at any given time. Your average american consumer has a feracious appetite for debt and financing $60.00 dollars over a few months to a few years makes it easy to maintain a pace that would unaffordable to you if you just used your monthly disposable income.