[quote name='TheRaven'][quote name='Cornfedwb']If games really start coming out at $19.99 and $29.99 MSRPs and that becomes the expected price point.. the possibilty of an industry crash will become a reality, and very quickly.
If we won't buy games anymore for $49.99 then the games are going to have to become much less expensive to make (i.e. no cinematics, less testing, less time in development, poorer graphics, etc).. we aren't going to enjoy these low budget games they crank out to sell to us for $20, we are going to stop buying them.. and the spiral will continue till the industry crashes and burns.
So in summary, I consider it a very scary trend.[/quote]
That is not necessarily true at all. And not all games are going to drop to 20. ESPN Football and Outlaw 2 are updates to franchises already in place. Developers just upgrade the graphics some, throw in a few more modes and there's a nice sequel. They would be doing the exact asme work regardless if the game sells for 50 or 20 bucks. You can bet your Final Fantasies, your Halos and a lot of other games will still be churning out at 50. If a game can support a 50 dollar game price, then great. But not a lot of other games can, so why not come out of the gate with a 20 dollar price tag, grab people's attention and possibly make a splash. If sales rise significantly because of it, then its a good move.[/quote]
You apparently ignored my comment about 'if this becomes the expected price point'. I didn't say it was neccesarly a terrible thing, I just said it was scary. And remember, we purchased games for SNES and Genesis at $70-$80 a pop.. now $50 is the expected price.. it isn't unbelievable for the prices to get forced down again.