What's a fair price for a PC game

Uridium

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OK we've all done it.....(even whiter than white me)...... downloaded a dodgy copy of something leaked early or that's outrageously overpriced telling yourself you'll buy it if it's good.

Console games have to be overpriced in order to make up the loss on the discounted hardware. (Nintendo excepted). But what would you say is a fair price for a PC game?

PC gaming is different - Game publishers know that we have spent many hundreds of ££'s to run a fast system to play the game so PC game prices have always been lower.
With many retailers heavily discounting games at launch most games are pretty good value IMO.

Personally I'd say £20 for a boxed product and £15 for a digital download would be incentive enough to stop quite a lot of the downloaders.

Would you download all your games digitally for a discounted product with no DRM?
 
£17.99 for the Retail is a fair price, but they should make the download the same price, that way it gives an incentive for people to buy the boxed version since it is the same price, and well those who like downloads will get that...

I paid £15 for Unreal T 3 which I think is a fair price from gamestation as it's not a proper game just online really and will only play it once in a while

As for that dodgy game it wasn't that Söldner-X? I hope you like upsclaed games.....:)
 
To be honest, given the cost of making titles these days, I consider anything less than £30 to be a 'fair' price. If I can get it for circa £20 though I am delighted. I mean a game normally gives at least 8hrs enjoyment which equates to around the length of three movies: so £30 puts it on a cost parallel with DVD IMHO.

I do think downloaders are a serious concern though - they are seriously harming the industry. Look at the likes of Assassin's Creed being delayed on the PC for piracy reasons as an example. Furthermore as developers seek (and fail) to curtial such measures it is legitimate customers who suffer (e.g. the DRM on Bioshock).
 
To be honest, given the cost of making titles these days, I consider anything less than £30 to be a 'fair' price. If I can get it for circa £20 though I am delighted. I mean a game normally gives at least 8hrs enjoyment which equates to around the length of three movies: so £30 puts it on a cost parallel with DVD IMHO.

I do think downloaders are a serious concern though - they are seriously harming the industry. Look at the likes of Assassin's Creed being delayed on the PC for piracy reasons as an example. Furthermore as developers seek (and fail) to curtial such measures it is legitimate customers who suffer (e.g. the DRM on Bioshock).

and Bioshock is still playable despite its DRM due to the work of "the scene" :rolleyes: in fact it's easier to get a pirate copy working than a bought proper copy

as long as there is DRM and security, it will be broken. Delaying Assassins Creed due to piracy is nonsense. Hex'ing a file is easy to coders and doing it to circumvent copy protection is always going a happen, if people want to pirate things they will, simple as. They are only harming themselves by delaying the release, but with the benefit of being able to fall back on the excuse of piracy they will get away with it.

I'm generally of the opinion that if games (and the same applies to music) were 'better' overall, then more people would buy them. For all the quality games that are released, there are a whole lot more shocking things that make it to the market, many games people have bought and the disc has ended up in the bin, either due to bugs or just the fact that the game was really really disappointing. Do these people deserve the money just because they threw a game together half-assed? (similarly, musicians shouldn't get paid if they are untalented, just because their record label can chuck money at radio stations)

I've recently downloaded a few games through Steam (Bioshock included), at quite a fair price for the most part, especially their bundles, but when you see new games such as COD4 on there for $69 (the best part of £35), i think twice about paying that much for what is essentially a download, no box, no manual, no disc, and the hope that the Steam server is always going to be up
 
I think £20 - £30 is reasonable
 
Delaying Assassins Creed due to piracy is nonsense. Hex'ing a file is easy to coders and doing it to circumvent copy protection is always going a happen, if people want to pirate things they will, simple as.
Indeed. However the reasoning has been by delaying the PC release they are delaying the pirating - and therefore the console editions get a pirate free period.

I'm generally of the opinion that if games (and the same applies to music) were 'better' overall, then more people would buy them. For all the quality games that are released, there are a whole lot more shocking things that make it to the market, many games people have bought and the disc has ended up in the bin, either due to bugs or just the fact that the game was really really disappointing. Do these people deserve the money just because they threw a game together half-assed? (similarly, musicians shouldn't get paid if they are untalented, just because their record label can chuck money at radio stations)
I'm sorry but that's not really on. The product isn't good enough to pay for but it worth stealing? The developers are making things people want: the fact is though the market is unevenly skewed towards those who are prepared to steal it versus those who will pay.
 
I'm not really saying it's on, rather that is what happens, i don't condone piracy at all, however...

I don't think software piracy is as big a deal to big business as people make out (hence the tar brushing it gets in tagging it along with funding for drug-dealing terrorists)

I like to think that things that are worth buying will be bought and enjoyed by the masses and the company is successful, and companies who churn out rubbish don't get away with it. The fact is that developers aren't making things that people want, they're grasping at ideas that people might like, touching them up with new fancy graphics techniques, and expecting no-one to notice that gameplay and storyline have gone out the window

Kind of like an evolutionary process.....

BUT - i don't think it goes that far. I don't think piracy is such a widespread thing as people like to make out, and it doesn't hurt the industry as a whole.

The reasoning behind delaying Assassins Creed is also ridiculous - console games will be pirated regardless of their PC counterpart being available
 
Entirely depends on the quality of the game for me. I payed £17.99 for ET:QW, but I would have easily payed more (£30 max).

And contrary to popular believe I'm not the warez monkey people think I am :p. I mean I haven't even played Crysis nor Bioshock. 1) Because my rig is no where near good enough 2) Games like that should be bought to support the developers.
 
I only ever download things that I wouldn't buy so in fairness it's not actually affecting sales as I'd never have paid money for it in the first place. (unless it was <£5 maybe :)
 
Piracy will always be around no matter what they try to do to stop it. I like buying the original of games and having them in my collection and when it comes to pc games this doesnt cost too much. I do hate buying console games, especially if the game is multi format. The reason why i hate it is -

- Console games are way too expensive £50 RRP (online for £40)
- Usually worst graphics than pc version
- Chargeable online service for 360
- Less content in console version, ie no free mods etc

Basically I find console game prices a rip off, especially for the younger generation who play these games. I remember getting excited at xmas as I would ask everyone for games. I used to get about 15 games. Games used to cost £10 in the shops and £6 mail order. This is a far more reasonable price especially for kids. I cant imagine kids getting 15 games at xmas, in fact I doubt there would be 15 games worth buying at one time.

IMO the £20 mark is about right for a game, if you take inflation into account. The games industry has never been so popular as it is today. When I was into gaming about 25 years ago, you would never see a game for sale in a supermarket or a game advert on tv. It was all done from specialists shops and mail order. The cheapest you could buy a game for was £1.99 from codemasters.

IMO the games industry makes too much money with their high prices, remakes of the same game for more cash (FiFa 2;005-2006-2007, GRAW 1, 2 plus addon etc). Yes their out lay is more but their prices are 5 times what it should be and their customer base is infinitely bigger.

I have also noticed there is a monopoly of the games market with only a few big companies who control the market (EA games, Eidos, Ubisoft). Gone are the day of smaller companies. Also what ever happened to the likes of US GOLD, Ocean, System 3 etc. When it comes to the likes of EA they spend most of their time remaking the same game to be released every year.

Need for Speed
Fifa
NHL
Sims
Burnout
Tiger Woods
Battlefield

They do produce some good innovative games but these are becoming few and far between.

Another nasty trick some game houses employ is a lack of a demo. If you want to buy a song you can at least hear it first. If you want to buy a coat you can try it on and see how it fits you etc. Some games dont have demos out at release so how can you try it to see if your cash is being well spent.

I like buying games but I do hate buying rubbish games that just sit on my shelf a gathering dust. I also dont like paying more than I should for console games, IMO they should be the same price or cheaper than pc games as they have less too them and are inferior in so many ways.

Would you pay more for a ford Fiesta than you would a Mercedes A class?

:)
 
Depends on the game really.
I'm more than willing to spend £30 for CoD4 as IMO its a brilliant game. Same with Orange Box (hell, I'd pay £20 just for portal).

But when it comes to some others (a good example is gears of war which was out a year earlier on console), then I think £20 is a fair price.
 
Buying a game should be straight forward at a reasonable price. I could have a hooky version of UT3 here and might play it (although as easily might not) as it wouldn't have cost any more than the blank disc but if it's a reasonable price I'm more likely to buy it

I have looked locally for UT3 and haven't seen it below £29.99 for example - it's almost alway less online - and can be as much as £39.99 in a shop :eek:

Personally I will be looking to buy games when they are under the £20 level (as I've just done with Company of Heroes gold edition no less :thumbsup:)
 
I have looked locally for UT3 and haven't seen it below £29.99 for example

Gamestation have it on sale for 15 quid at the mo :)

Personally, I am fairly ambivalent about piracy. I too don't believe that it damages the industry as much as it likes to make out. What is more damaging is crappy remakes and yearly releases of mediocre update titles.

People will pay for quality titles, that is shown in the sales. There is a small portion of the population that will pirate everything and anything and most probably never even load half of it up. However, I think that most people pay for at least 50% of what they play.

Technically if you lend it to a mate then you have cost the industry a sale, don't see anyone getting in arms about people lending games out.
 
Reason I stopped playing console games..

- Graphics not as good, Bad AA, limited resolution
- Can't customise control
- Long load times
- Need disc in drive to play
- LOUD!!!!!!
- No 5.1 Analogue Audio Output
- Poor Video output options., i.e No 16x10 Monitor suppport, need to shell out for new Screen, can't use existing PC Display Effectively..
- Poor system performance/updates, takes ages to fix something on the system or add support for it
- Cannot service the machine yourself, cannot open and clean without loosing warranty

Price might be an issue for some of you, but not for me, I have access to any console game, they don't cost me anything, yet i'd rather play the game on the pc and hence having to pay for it...

If the game does not come on the pc, then I wil play on console, Indiana Jones is the only game for the Time being I will be using the console for, although no release date yet..
 
you need the disc in the drive for more single player pc games to play unless you get a no-cd crack
 
you need the disc in the drive for more single player pc games to play unless you get a no-cd crack

Actually for alot of the newer games you don't need a cd or the crack..eg Halo 2, Shadowrun, UT3, the rest use the no-cd crack, although last time I checked there wasn't one for The Witcher, care to find me one?

Even with the disc in the drive it is not used, as the whole game runs off the HD, just there for security measures, unlike on consoles where the data is streamed off the disc...
 
don't really think linking to cracks is allowed mate :suicide:
 
the last 3 games I bought all need the disc in; the witcher, cod4 and crysis

but a no-cd patch exists for all of those. There is no such thing for a console
 
I only ever download things that I wouldn't buy so in fairness it's not actually affecting sales as I'd never have paid money for it in the first place. (unless it was <£5 maybe :)

you've lost me on this comment i'm afraid....

....if you wouldn't consider buying it then why download it :confused:
 
the last 3 games I bought all need the disc in; the witcher, cod4 and crysis

Hands up on this one, Afraid to say i always download a no-cd hack for my games. Nothing i detest more than having to digg the disc back out everytime i play a game.

I want to install the game and never touch the disc again until if/when i have to do a future re-install.
 
but a no-cd patch exists for all of those. There is no such thing for a console

I never said a no cd didn't exsist for them. The whole point was the orginal poster I replied to said you don't need a disc in to play them when in fact you do unless you download a no cd crack!

you've lost me on this comment i'm afraid....

....if you wouldn't consider buying it then why download it

As downloading costs me nothing where as buying it does. I'm not going to spend £30ish on a game thats not that good but i'll download it as I don't end up paying £30 for something crap.
 
Hands up on this one, Afraid to say i always download a no-cd hack for my games. Nothing i detest more than having to digg the disc back out everytime i play a game.

I want to install the game and never touch the disc again until if/when i have to do a future re-install.

I went through a period of taking an image of the game disc when I install it, and keeping this on my External HDD. So I've got the disc if I need it, but I don't have to look after the disc and dig it out :smashin:

I always use no-cd cracks too
 

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