Game Price Drops Question

M

monash65

CAGiversary!
General question for everyone, is it just me or in the last 1-2 yrs have some big games been dropping by pretty big amounts within a matter of months, like 50% or more? Some examples I can think of are Fear 3 and LA Noire, both games came out at full price in the first half of last year but within about 7 months were available at different places for $20-$25. Resistance 3 and Dead Island came out about Sept 2011, but I got both recently from Amazon for about $30, and it wasn't even BF sales day or Cyber Monday. So has this been happening for a long time and I just didn't notice? And what is the reason that some of these big games aren't staying at the full price level? It seems like it's getting so you only have to wait a few months to get a much better price on fairly recent hot titles. And that's not even taking into account all the usual CAGish behaviour to save even more. :)
 
I've also noticed this. I'm sure games dropped in price a lot in previous years, but it seems like that statement is even more so true this year. LA Noire, Rage, FEAR 3, Dead Island, and a bunch of others were all fairly good games that dropped in price extremely quickly. It's crazy to think that a game that hasn't even been out for a year could be had for $12-$15 from pretty much any retailer.
 
I think the rapid price drops have to do with so many bigger name titles coming out within the span of the past year.

You had Uncharted 3, Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare 3, Saint's Row 3 and so on and they all released within the past year.

So in order to compete with each other, I guess some companies were dropping their games quicker than usual. Of course, it could also have been to spur further sales if their sales were becoming stagnant. Unfortunately in such a crowded release year some titles may end up being completely forgotten about and not get the sales they would have if the publishers had waited.
 
Companies are very focused on getting returns on their investment quickly, so they tend to over stuff the channel. After the first couple months they've made the lions share of sales and keeping excess items in inventory costs money in storage and more importantly taxes so they drop the price to remove excess inventory and then stuff the channel with the next game in the queue. The cycle has increased in speed more recently as the hype surrounding new releases ensures that last month's hit is long forgotten.

It's the same reason DVDs can often be found a couple months after release heavily discounted. The entertainment industry knows the majority of sales are in the first couple months and people in general aren't patient enough to wait for the inevitable price drops.

Also certain companies such as Disney and Nintendo don't follow this strategy which is why Mario Kart for the Wii still costs $50.
 
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I think you also have to factor in:

1. the economy... need to prompt people to spend
2. dropping prices probably has some effect on deterring used game sales
3. some of the games, such as LA Noire, were dropping to make way for GOTY/Complete editions (which then also dropped fairly quickly)
 
boy and remember when we all flipped out about games costing $60 this generation? looks like that price point was untenable after all
 
[quote name='ElwoodCuse']boy and remember when we all flipped out about games costing $60 this generation? looks like that price point was untenable after all[/QUOTE]

Tell that to Activision.
 
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