Is the general gaming community price stupid?

T

TexanWolv

CAG Veteran
I don't often post on the boards but with some extra cash in my pocket I couldnt help taking a closer look at the deals forum. I must say I'm disappointed in the lack of decent gaming deals that I see. In fact, I was quite disappointed in the holiday deals. To take even a step further....I find my self more and more disappointed in video game deals in general.

I find myself asking....Does the general public just buy games at retail price without thinking about finding a good deal? I'm 26 and I know when I was a kid I didnt research prices....But at the time you did not have the internet as it is today with sites like CAG and other gamer community sites. Are people or perhaps more importantly, parents, just happily buying games at regular retail price?

I was in a GameStop the other day and noticed the "Buy (insert game) and get the guide for 10% off!"....Are you kidding me? Do deals like this really entice people to make a purchase? Are the purchases caused by this really off-setting the cost of creating the advertisement print and store signs? I feel like we see deals like this more common all the time now. I can't help but feel there are some extremely dumb people out there getting excited over such pathetic deals or else we wouldnt see things like that.

I also happened to stop by my local Fry's this past weekend to see if they had any good deals. I'm not really sure why I did because I rarely ever see anything worth grabbing at Fry's anymore. When I was in college Fry's could always be counted on to find something worth playing at a good price....But now their shelves are filled with the same terrible offers as other stores.

Look, I don't know what the profit margin is on a game...I've been told in the past that it is not much...But I would really like to get an idea if anybody knows that information. One of the things I simply don't understand is....arent the stores competing with each other? Why do some stores (Target) have merchandise sitting on the shelves at full price after months of that game being out when another store may have that same game $20 less. Part of me wonders if these stores really don't pay much attention to the gaming industry other than throwing together half-arse deal pages to throw into their Sunday advertisement.

I know this post is a rant...But thats what I felt I needed after looking around since before Christmas for decent deals.

Anyway...Happy New Year and blast away.

Cheers,
TW
 
I think the two biggest changes in retail that you're noticing are:

1) We're at a different point the console cycle.

2) Wii is taking up a all of PS2's old shelf space.

Retailers, developers and publishers aren't really making a ton of money on games outside of a few major hits. Look at what's happened with THQ, EA, Ensemble, Free Radical, Circuit City, etc.

As far as what happens at different stores there are a whole lot of variables that come into play. The numbers are also very hard to explain because there are very large expenses that you're paying for throughout the supply chain that get allocated down to a unit level. In general the reason some stores will discount games sooner is that it cost them more to borrow money or they don't have as much credit available. Generally stores that have large discounts are employing strategies that aren't profitable long term.

I would also counter that $60 is still a bargain for the amount of entertainment you can get from a game. It usually ends up costing me $40+ for a two hour movie date with my wife ($20/hour). New DVD/blu-rays cost ~$20 and at most I'll watch them five times ($4/hour) She's currently playing Saints Row 2 as I type this and we've got over 50 hours in the game. By the time its done we'll have paid $1/hour and would be able to get $20-$30 back if we decide to sell it.

And that $60 goes to support jobs at a console maker, shipping company, retailer, disc factory, developer, print shop and more. There are literally thousands of jobs supported by that purchase. If the average purchase price dropped just 10% all of those jobs would go away.
 
While I think GameStop's deals hardly qualify as deals, there were good deals during the Christmas 2008 season---especially from Target and Amazon. Both retailers offered a lot of good, new games for around 40 bones or less. I find it hard to complain about that price point.
 
Guess the deals are bad because the developers aren't making enough money

Which is crap since they use it all up hiring people to make the games look good but forget to hire the guy that makes them fun...
 
I know we're all cheap asses, but 60 clams for a new title is a steal considering that during the NES heyday games were 50 bucks whether they were new, old, or just plain crappy(Robocop I'm looking at you). From what I remember, NES games didn't decrease in price.

That's probably why I had two cartridges when I was a kid. I'm honestly amazed that for all the R&D put into games now the price has only increased by 10 bucks.

As for the holiday season, I managed to grab Oblivion, Banjo 2, CODWAW for thirty bucks each.
Add to that GHWT and two guitars for 60 bucks and The Simpsons Game for 10!! This Christmas I felt like I made out like a bandit!
 
If you couldn't fnd any deals this holiday season you are blind. Bio shock for 5 bucks on steam? GTA 4 for 15 bucks?

Advertised deals have gone down but I think gaming going mainstream is to blame. How many people buy madden or the new gears of war for full price? Tons.

Plus now that games start at 60 bucks the stores want use to belive that 30 bucks for a year old game is a deal.
 
The deals today are alot better than when we were growing up. I remember that a game would almost never go on sale ad if it did it would be maybe $5 here or there. Like you said, now adays we have the internet and deal sites were we can compare and stores compete for our money. We have it good now. Only problem is that we can only spend if we have a job and with the economy the way it is, it makes it harder since there's not much discrecionary imcome anymore.
 
I think the answer is yes, the general public buys games at full price without thinking much about it. The average parent who buys games for their children has no idea a site like CAG exists. There's so much hype for games now that more serious gamers are looking forward to games months and even years in advance, so by the time a highly anticipated game comes out, they don't want to wait any longer to play it. And for casual gamers who only buy a couple games a year, it's not worth the time to search for deals.

I don't think Gamestop is trying to sell games with that deal. I think they're trying to sell guides. My guess is that the profit margin on guides is so high that even by offering them for 10% off, they still make plenty of money on it. And it's something, which is better than nothing for someone who would pay full price at another store anyway.

I know a lot of people (myself included to some extent) complained about the increase in price from $50 to $60 this generation. But really, it's not bad. That $60 you pay now if you buy a game new is actually less than the $50 back in the NES days if you figure in inflation. And relative to other forms of entertainment, the cost per hour of entertainment you get is pretty good.

I don't know, being able to buy an item one year after it comes out for half the price seems like a pretty good deal to me. How many other items are there out there drop that much, that quickly.

Personally, I found plenty of deals this holiday season. I got every game I wanted to pick up, and none for more than $20. The only one I failed to get was Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, but that was because TRU sold out the day before my free shipping code was valid.
 
You're not going to fight the stupidity of the average consumer, nor are you going to best the lack of willpower among them and other consumers.

Take care of yourself: pay what you *want* to pay for a game. I paid $29 for PS3 Dead Space the other day from another CAG. I was willing to wait on it. I wasn't willing to pay $60 for it.

I bought Bioshock PS3 for $30 shipped the other day. Same reason. Some might even think that's too expensive. But I digress.

I also paid $38 for Fallout 3 360.

I'd like to play Resistance 2 and Left 4 Dead as well; but I'll wait until they hit prices I'm willing to pay.

The MSRP sucks, but if you have willpower, then there's nothing bad at all about this setup. Have patience, and buy a copy from another CAG, on Amazon from a reseller, on eBay, or elsewhere for the price *you* want.

Long story short: if the price sucks, then have the patience to wait until the game is available for what you want to pay for it. I feel quite sad for those who can't do that.
 
Depends, I did not mind spending 60 bucks on Tales Of Vesperia.

Gears of War 2, however I felt ripped off paying 50$ for the collectors edition. I beat it twice in less than half the time it took me to beat Vesperia.

Although, the Steel Book in the gears 2 CE is so awesome. @_@
 
Thinking about it more....

I still agree that the general gaming public is stupid.

Secondly, I also don't think $60 is a lot of money if you have a game like Fallout 3. However, games that don't provide a solid 40 hours of gameplay (not including online) should never be priced that high.

My frustration is not so much directed at the game makers...But more at the retailers. I don't understand why we see competition between stores for every other item out there....except for video games. Even when it comes to other electronics, you have healthy competition and different deals to wet your appetite. With video games it seems stores are typically happy to just sit on their inventory and sell what they sell rather than try and bring in new customers or push out older inventory with clearances of older games or good deals on newer ones.

I don't know....Maybe I am just on the wrong end here as I often see people on this site excited over $5 off a game or over a deal where they get a free t-shirt or a bobblehead. I feel like I fit in between the hardcore, plays anything they can get their hands on, "Sweet...DS Ponies for $8!!!".....and the general consumer that is happy to shell out money for games that often take 15-25 hours to complete.
 
There's a difference between us and the the general gaming community. We both come in knowing what we're looking for when we enter the store. For us more often than not, it's for a specific deal, for them it's because they generally want the latest game now.

I guess our tastes differ since I think Fry's is pretty aggressive with their pricing. They're certainly better than Wal-Mart and Best Buy (their extremely rare clearances aside).

No matter how much I like to bitch about pricing nowadays, it is infinitely better now than it was 10-15 years ago. Remember how much those damn SNES and N64 cartridges cost? There's a reason why only the hardcore got to play FFVI and Chrono Trigger.
 
The general gaming public buys far fewer games than people who hang out on CAG. Because of this, they don't mind paying $60 for a new game rather than waiting out a deal to save $15. They may only buy four games all year, as opposed to four games a month (or more). Time is money, and while many here don't likely clip coupons for the grocery store because saving a total of $5 isn't seen as worth their time, for others it certainly is.
 
I dont see the number of hours as a huge factor. I don't have any problem if a good game only last 12-15 hours. Games like Castlevania, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid are around that range and they are well worth the money.
 
[quote name='TexanWolv']My frustration is not so much directed at the game makers...But more at the retailers. I don't understand why we see competition between stores for every other item out there....except for video games. [/quote]
Video games are low-margin items, which means there's less room for discounting.

Still, I picked up a number of recently released games for $40 ($60 MSRP) during December, so the deals are still out there.
 
[quote name='62t']I dont see the number of hours as a huge factor. I don't have any problem if a good game only last 12-15 hours. Games like Castlevania, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid are around that range and they are well worth the money.[/quote]

I completely agree. I am willing to pay full price for better games, rather than longer games.
 
Definitely.

1. Most people don't buy as many games as those of us here to.
2. Most don't check for deals, not everyone goes to CAG, Slick Deals, Fat Wallet etc.
3. It's easier to play higher prices if you're just buying a couple games a year.

[quote name='ihadFG']I completely agree. I am willing to pay full price for better games, rather than longer games.[/QUOTE]

Agreeed. Especially since I dump most games on Goozex. So that $60 game is turned into $50 of goozex points regardless of how long it is (assuming I trade it before it drops in value). Though I buy very few games at $60 anymore since I can just wait and get them off Goozex.

Also, I'd say I actually prefer shorter games. I'm playing and loving Oblivion now (63 hours into it the past 2-3 months) but I can only play a long game like that once or twice a year. I get sucked in and burnt out and on my busy schedule it's hard to get through them. Working in Acacademia I can generally do one around winter break and one in the summer. Otherwise I like shorter games that I can get through in a couple of lazy weekends where I'm not just working all weekend. And sometimes in summer/winter I'd rather play through several shorter games versus one long one etc.
 
[quote name='ihadFG']I completely agree. I am willing to pay full price for better games, rather than longer games.[/quote]

to an extent i agree.
for me it's all about replay value. a great 10-20 hour game that i can replay 100 times is great. shmups where great for this but the genre seems to have a bad case of cancer and the cough is not getting any better.
 
Yeah, I think its fair to say the general gaming community is price stupid, but then so is the general consumer.

This past Christmas, I was talking to my sisters who both bought their sons a few video games for gifts. They were complaining about the price and saying that they wished they could have gotten them more games but they were so expensive. But that's only because they payed retail for the games and didn't shop for bargains and never even considered buying anything online (where we CAGs know many video game non-clearance bargains exist.) I even E-mailed them both to check out the Black Friday video game ads for Amazon and other sites, where I KNOW they could have saved money on some of the games they bought for full retail.

But its like this with friends of mine too. They don't shop for bargains. They just pay retail just assuming that the game is the same price everywhere, and they never look at Sunday video game ads for new releases to see where the deals are either.

Lord knows I've tried to educate my family and friends on where the deals are. I thought many of the deals this year were pretty good and included a lot of the new releases.
 
I think many game forum posters are too young to remember paying $89.99 for Super Nintendo or Genesis games.

Additionally, the game industry doesn't do a good enough job explaining how much game development and marketing/distribution/manufacturing/licensing costs really are. So many people are convinced it costs X publisher a $1 to print and DVD and therefore there is $58.99 profit in a new game sale.
 
Very few games back then cost that much. The majority were $50. I think the most expensive one I got was $70 for Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES.

But it's kind of moot, I'd never pay that for a game now and I haven't paid the full $60 for a game yet. Games just aren't worth it to many any more, I'd rather put the money in savings and in other hobbies, social outings etc. To others they really love games and they are worth $60 or more to play and collect. I enjoy them, but would rather get them cheap or on Goozex months later most of the time.
 
God, I hate when people bring up, "I REMEMBER WHEN SNES/SEGA GAMES WERE $80." Who cares? That was 15 years ago! This is a different economy, there's more competition, more crap games, more developers making games, ect.
 
I'm willing to pay full price for certain games, but I'll still look for deals on them, such as if when Amazon was giving ten dollars giftcards for preorders, that's good as cash for me since I shop there a lot. Or I'll wait till it's $40 or less if it's been out for more than a month.

The problem is the mainstream, compared to my brother, I'll wait and look for these deals. He'll just go and buy games at full price and complain about it. He bought Midnight Club LA for full price two days before the sale at Best Buy, and never price matched it to get back his $20, and he goes there two or three times a week. He'll buy a ton of games and not actually play them. Like the rest of America, the general gaming community is no different, there is a reason the average household debt is around 10k, it's the indifference towards fiscal responsibility.
 
[quote name='Artie Lange']God, I hate when people bring up, "I REMEMBER WHEN SNES/SEGA GAMES WERE $80." Who cares? That was 15 years ago! This is a different economy, there's more competition, more crap games, more developers making games, ect.[/quote]

I know this is CheapAssGamer and all, but I hate it when people bitch about price...

There's more inflation now too. Games are MUCH cheaper than they used to be. The PS1 era of new releases for $40 was the exception. Most everything cost more today than it used to, games have been priced relatively the same for nearly two decades.

Most Wii games are $50 or less upon release. And the Wii is the best selling console. So a major software eco-system in the US is supporting the $50 price point.

The Six Dollar Burger is almost $6 now at Carl's Jr/Hardees, so clearly inflation is out of hand. Thankfully this economy has given us $2/gallon gas again so you can save an extra $10-30 filling up and afford $60 games.
 
[quote name='Artie Lange'] Who cares? That was 15 years ago! This is a different economy, there's more competition, more crap games, more developers making games, ect.[/quote]

Excluding the crap games comment, all those things you just mentioned have led to more good games at better prices.
 
[quote name='SNAKE EYES EX']I think many game forum posters are too young to remember paying $89.99 for Super Nintendo or Genesis games[/quote]


I wholeheartedly agree. I paid 70 dollars for Street Fighter II (for the Super Nintendo) from a local retail chain when it first released, and 85 dollars for GoldenEye 64 (for the Nintendo 64, duh) after I fought through an absurdly-crowded KB Toys.
 
[quote name='elwood731']while many here don't likely clip coupons for the grocery store because saving a total of $5 isn't seen as worth their time, for others it certainly is.[/quote]

They just don't know what they're doing! When my gf and I shop with coupons we've often saved $30-40 on a $60 bill.

I haven't yet paid $60 for a new game, and I rarely pay $50. I'll sometimes spend $40 if it's a game I really want, but I feel most comfortable paying $30 for a game. I can usually wait on games I want until I can find a deal that seems good to me, and I've only ever bought one game on its release date (WoW).

The next game I intend to pay full price for, and be there at its release, is Mass Effect 2. I can't wait!
 
Well, if anything, these are some of the best prices we've ever seen. I think everyone gets warped becasue, towards the end of the last system cycle, you could buy a new system with reasonably new games cheap (if you missed one) and for a couple hundred bucks, have whole new experiences. We'll be back to that in probably 2 years, but we aren't quite there.

Still, games drop so quickly these days. Mass Effect was mentioned, but that was a huge game, what, a year ago? Now, you can grab it for under $20. 10 years ago, that game would still be $50. Games didn't drop in price, they either stayed high or disappered.

Now, it's unusual for a game to keep its price after 6 months. Between that and buy 2 get 1 free sales, it's entirely possible to get 3 huge games from 6 months ago for $60 or so (or $20 a game). Those are nuts.

Sure, new games can be hard to find sales (though, you can find some off for $5-$10 off, which is 10-20% savings. It is rare in anything for a brand new item to offer you 20% savings right away (maybe DVD's, but that would be it).

So, yeah, for new games, a large segment of the population will pay whole price. Though, I'm not sure that's really all that shocking. If I'm going to buy 2-3 games a year (which might be average among the non gaming public that buys games). I may not really care. I can just go to Gamestop/Best Buy, pay $60, I know they have my Madden, GTA, whatever, and go home. Why risk standing in line somewhere to hope to save $10, when I'll drop that as a tip at the bar next month anyway?

These things are much bigger deal to gamers who do this week in and week out than to others. To get yourself in a mindset, find a hobby that you do occasionally, but not very often, and see how you handle it? Most non readers just bought Harry Potter - Deathly Hallows when it came out, didn't make a concerted effort to get a deal, just bought it and was happy.
 
Yes. It's like any other product though, most people don't want to make even a minimal effort to find the best deal, they just go to the nearest retail store and pay whatever they're asking. I was just in a Barnes & Noble marveling at all of the CDs for $18.99 and DVDs for $29.99. Who still pays full MSRP for CDs and DVDs when Amazon has been around for like a decade, right? Well, apparently a lot of people do.
 
Thats a good point, Ryu. I can't tell you how many times I've been in Barnes & Noble CD/DVD section and thought "People buy these things for that price?" Hell...If you go down the street to Best Buy you can find a better deal on those things.
 
Just because someone isn't price sensitive doesn't mean they are "stupid." I have friends that like to go buy games on impulse and prefer not to burden themselves with research or extra driving.
 
I also want to add that that copy of Widget20x6 or whatever game you buy isn't the only purchase the studios are counting on. Analogous to how they sell you a system at break-even or loss price points because they want to profit off software sales, they can and may sell games at break-even or slight profit numbers because they want you to pay for add-ons via xbox et al.
 
i think people get stupid over ce or le versions of games. they always have and always will whether they think it will become valuable or because they want the extra crap they usually cram into them i havent seen one as of yet that was worth owning esecially not for full price. and the prices are getting ridiculous these days.
 
[quote name='safire']Just because someone isn't price sensitive doesn't mean they are "stupid." I have friends that like to go buy games on impulse and prefer not to burden themselves with research or extra driving.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='FloodsAreUponUS']Some people value time more then saving 5 dollars on madden 2009.[/QUOTE]

Definitely true. For a casual gamer that's only buying 2 or 3 games a year they really don't need to bother with searching for deals as they're not spending that much on games anyway.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']Still, games drop so quickly these days. Mass Effect was mentioned, but that was a huge game, what, a year ago? Now, you can grab it for under $20. 10 years ago, that game would still be $50. Games didn't drop in price, they either stayed high or disappered.

Now, it's unusual for a game to keep its price after 6 months. Between that and buy 2 get 1 free sales, it's entirely possible to get 3 huge games from 6 months ago for $60 or so (or $20 a game). Those are nuts.[/quote]

Odd, I've seen exactly the opposite of what you describe: game prices hardly drop at all. At least, in the realm of console games. PC games are always cheaper and do seem to drop in price for more quickly, but console games just seem to sit and stagnate for ages.

It's somewhat dependent on the popularity of the game. Halo 3 (2007), for example, is still $50-60 at Walmart. Mass Effect (2007) is $30-40. Gears of War (2006), $30.

You may be talking about online and/or used game prices, and of course those are cheaper, the further removed you are from the release date, but I bet the majority of game sales still take place in stores like Walmart and Best Buy where prices stay as high as they can as long as they can.

I don't usually complain about game prices because I'm patient enough to just play what I have and wait for a good deal to come along.
 
Yeah, but you just listed Mass Effect and Gears of War which are 50% or more down from their launch prices.

There are some games like Halo that take for ever to drop, or Nintendo first party games which take a super long time to drop in price, but most games are easily found for $30 or less 6 months to a year down the road.

And with sites like Goozex it's easy to spend hardly anything on games once you build up a base of a few thousand points and start requesting games, beating them and trading them back for the same amount of points.
 
True, but both those games have been out for a year or more. It's not surprising that popular games stay expensive longer, that's supply and demand for you. Just look at Call of Duty 4...still going for $59.99 after 8 months and a sequel.

Online sales are the way to go, for sure. I asked all my family to avoid buying me electronics/games and whatnot because none of them like to buy things online, and I didn't want them paying double what I could have gotten the item for. I hadn't heard of Goozex before this thread, so I'll be checking that out!
 
Even Call of Duty 4 has had a ton of sales, online and off. I bought it for $40 right after Christmas last year at Target. So even if they're aren't price drops there are ton of sales.

And most games drop in 6 months to a year which is fine. Unless it's an online game I don't give a shit about playing it at launch. It's just as fun down the road when it's cheaper.
 
I think there are alot of good deals out there. Just recently, for less than the price of two new retail games I bought:
Infinite Undiscovery: 19.99
Ninja Gaiden: 14.99
Assassin's Creed: 12.99
Eternal Sonata and Bully SE: 14.99
Condemned 2 and Mass Effect: 14.99
Frontlines and Dark Sector: 14.99

9 games, 7 of which are great, for less than $93
 
I see two type of people in the casual zone.

Teens to 20's- I see that these are the people who line up for GTA IV or Madden 2009. They don't care about prices, just as long as they get the game on launch so them and their buds can play. Have little to some sense about gaming, and will buy games that are good if they are hyped enough.

Parents- Know nothing about gaming, nor do they care about prices. I see these fucking idiots always in gamestop or wal mart crowing the isles with their 5 year olds who are screaming their asses off, buying games because they have a horsie on them or barbie on them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top