EB Games has Xbox 360 games for $60!

[ColtCrazy]

Guess the title says it all. All the games they have listed are $59.99! So, assuming the system will be around $300, you'd drop $500 easy if you got that, a couple of games, and maybe a couple of accessories. :eek:

[Anthony]

if the games are gonna be $10 more expensive, i don't see the need to pay for XBox Live (Gold). this is just silly, can't they give you free online gaming in exchange for higher priced games? :confused:

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm not surprised by this news.

[ColtCrazy]

if the games are gonna be $10 more expensive, i don't see the need to pay for XBox Live (Gold). this is just silly, can't they give you free online gaming in exchange for higher priced games? :confused:

It makes too much sense to do it that way :rolleyes: There is a note at the bottom that says the prices are subject to change...but they didn't just come up with this number out of thin air did they?

I know it's $10, but this might push back my buying date for the new system. I have to save enough as it is to spend $50 on a game!

[Daimyo]

There was a time NES/SNES games creeped upwards of $70 for some titles. People willing to pay $300 for the latest, greatest console probably won't flinch at $10 more for a game.

[Anthony]

it has nothing to do about being able to afford this (i can). it's about justifying the price, getting the most value for your money.

[sterlingice]

There was a time NES/SNES games creeped upwards of $70 for some titles. People willing to pay $300 for the latest, greatest console probably won't flinch at $10 more for a game.
Yeah, I remember FF3 was $70-$75.

That said, just because presell info is on a retail site doesn't mean it's true. It could be true, but it could also just be speculation. Hell, Sony could be paying EB to put them at $60 to drum up some anti-hype on Microsoft. We don't know.

SI

[stevew]

Yeah, I remember FF3 was $70-$75.

That said, just because presell info is on a retail site doesn't mean it's true. It could be true, but it could also just be speculation. Hell, Sony could be paying EB to put them at $60 to drum up some anti-hype on Microsoft. We don't know.

SI

I thought drumming up the anti-hype on microsoft was your job :)

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I don't see the point of paying 59-70 for games. I cant even afford gym membership anymore.

[SackAttack]

Anybody who's surprised by this hasn't been paying attention to the "collector's edition" games that have been released recently.

Those are nothing more than a trial balloon designed to see if the public will pay $60+ for a game.

[sooner333]

I think I paid around $60-70 or some ridiculous amount for NFL Blitz on N64 when it first came out.

[Coder]

$60 games will only work to increase piracy.. no one's going to pay $60 "on a whim"... Console games should really have lower prices than PC-games since demos are far less common, so people should be encouraged to buy games rather than intimidated by the prices.

Console games have cost $60-80 in Sweden for a long time, while PC games have gone from around $40 to $60 since EB Games came in and bought up our largest Games-store chain.

[sterlingice]

I thought drumming up the anti-hype on microsoft was your job :)
Ssh... don't tell ;)

Aside from a couple of snide comments, I think my Microsoft preshow review in the E3 thread were pretty evenhanded.

SI

[SackAttack]

$60 games will only work to increase piracy.. no one's going to pay $60 "on a whim"... Console games should really have lower prices than PC-games since demos are far less common, so people should be encouraged to buy games rather than intimidated by the prices.

One of the potential upshots of including hard drives in consoles is that demo distribution may become a more common thing. That being the case, it may be that good games will sell well at $60, while games of lesser quality will sort themselves into various strata...kinda like how it happens now, actually.

The difference is that there's potential for a sleeper title to become a windfall with demo distribution + $59.99 price point.

I think worst case what happens is that the people who have always been gamers will continue to game - the junkie needs his fix, you know.

The people who didn't game during the 8 and 16-bit eras because games were $70-$100 as a matter of routine will probably find other things to do with the money. When the technology becomes less expensive and prices fall again, they'll come back. It's a cycle.

[Bee]

That's $10 cheaper than I had been told the new games would cost by a friend who runs a game review site.

[Raiders Army]

$59.99 < $60

I never really understood the appeal of putting gas at $2.199 per gallon. Essentially you're paying $2.20, except if you buy 10 gallons, and then you save a penny (which you could take from the "take a penny/save a penny" tray. I guess psychologically people see the price of gas is still less than $2.20 so it's a "good deal".

[Anthony]

all this does is make it less likely for me to purchase many games. rather than buying the A+++ titles PLUS taking a flier on a game i heard good things about, i would probably just stick to the premier games. also, the way i buy games is i always trade them in to pick up newer games. i don't ever pay full price. at any given time i only have 2-3 console games. i don't believe in having a "library" of games. i have a short attention span so i usually don't finish the games i get, i essentially "rent" the games i buy for indefinite periods, with the exception being sports games since i like having games that i could play with my friends.

[albionmoonlight]

As Quik has pointed out, once you decide to invest countless hours of your life and 400-800 dollars (depending on if you get one or two systems) on consoles--it's hard to see how $10 is going to make much of a difference.

I like grilling. I find that it is worth the time that I put into it, and the money that I have spent on it. If the price of charcoal goes up 20%, I am still going to grill. My decision to participate in the hobby is not so tenuious that a slight price increase will cause me to abandon it.

Same thing with the NFL. People back home are bitching because the price of season tickets went up $100. But if you were already willing to block out 8 Sundays for football, pay for tickets, fight traffic, pay for parking, buy concessions, and get some team gear to wear--how is $100 really that big of a deal for you? Was your decision to invest a large amount of time and money into the entertainment really that close to being a toss up?

I see gaming the same way.

[cartman]

This also could be reflecting the increase in license fees that the software developers have to pay to Microsoft/Sony per title. As has been mentioned in other threads, the actual consoles themselves are going to be sold at a loss, because each title sold has a piece of the price going back to the manufacturer. Since the new consoles are going to cost a lot more to manufacture than the current versions, I could see an increase in the per title license fee.

[JonInMiddleGA]

It seems to me that pricing like this (and the reaction to it) is a sign that some of us just aren't the target audience for a lot of these titles. I suspect the number of us who will walk away from games/systems are outweighed by those who will basically pay whatever pricetag they put on them just to say they have the games (or whatever).

[stevew]

I never paid full price for hardly anything this generation, and i doubt i will next one either. If it means im playing Madden 2007, instead of 2008 like everyone else is, so beit. 50-60 is way too much for me right now, but i can always go for a 20 dollar deal. I don't mind waiting at all.

[Anthony]

It seems to me that pricing like this (and the reaction to it) is a sign that some of us just aren't the target audience for a lot of these titles. I suspect the number of us who will walk away from games/systems are outweighed by those who will basically pay whatever pricetag they put on them just to say they have the games (or whatever).

i agree Jon.

but faced with that info - shouldn't they make it easier to get (and stay) into gaming?i've went from being a hardcore gamer to a casual one in both senses - i don't devote countless hours to gaming and i'm more selective of the games i purchase due to me not wanting to have games take up that much of my leisure time.

like i said, i'm all about value. if i'm faced with 2 products of the same kind from the same company, one from 2004 and one from 2005, with the one from '05 being $10 more, i want to see what more the '05 product is offering that would necessitate it being $10 more (other than the "newness" factor). that's what a savvy buyer does - they don't automatically assume that just because something costs more that it's actually better.

changing prices (even if only by $10) causes me to reexamine things. for a hobby that is rapidly sliding down my list of priorities, now isn't really a good time to ask me to pay *more* for it. i really think the video game industry is gonna be in for a shock in about 5 years, if not sooner. i think there's a "baby boom generation" of video gamers, i consider anyone who's grown up with video games like NES, Genesis and PS1 to be in that generation. we're all in our 20's to 30's. as we get older and take on more real-life responsibilities (marriage and kids, etc) what once was something we *had* to have, *had* to do - video games - becomes less of a priority. we've seen video gaming in its infant stages, the 16 bit, 64 bit era, so these next-gen games are exciting to us because it's a vast improvement on a hobby we've devoted countless hours of our lives to. but eventually we all realize it's just colored boxes that when lumped together make a pretty picture, and we're not facing eveil aliens but rather a series of formulas that makes those colored boxes move in a certain way. we realize maybe playing ball with our kids might be a better use of our time. that sort of thing. i really think what the industry has been hanging its hat on for the last 10 years is the "if you liked [insert flagship game icon here], wait till you see the game running on our new processor/graphic chip" style of marketing, trying to draw in the baby boom video game generation by making it hard to leave video games because of all the innovations. but we're all gonna eventually really grow up, rather than just be teenagers at heart. there is a price where, even if you can afford it, you ask yourself "do i really want to pay x amount of money to continue with this hobby? is there anything else i could do with that money, or anything cheaper, that would bring me jsut as much joy?". i really think there's a market, an age-group actually, that exists where video games will cease to be a hobby and become something to walk away from.

which, to bring this full circle, means there is a finite price to how much you ask me to pay for a hobby. sure, $10 now doesn't phase me, heck, maybe $20 won't phase me, but there is a limit as to how much i'm willing to invest in this hobby.

[albionmoonlight]

i agree Jon.

i think there's a "baby boom generation" of video gamers, i consider anyone who's grown up with video games like NES, Genesis and PS1 to be in that generation. we're all in our 20's to 30's. as we get older and take on more real-life responsibilities (marriage and kids, etc) what once was something we *had* to have, *had* to do - video games - becomes less of a priority.
I agree.

[Anthony]

exactly. and just like the mass retirement of the real baby boom generation is likely to put a strain on our economy, the vast amounts of one-time hard core gamers who've grown up and decide with all the expenses that comes with getting on the next-gen console bus that it's a good time to drop the hobby will leave the industry with a huge void of revenue.

i envision with this likely exodus the current target age group - likely 8-35 year olds (or thereabouts, i'm not in marketing so i don't know what the target age-group of video games are) will shrink to something like 8-25.

[gstelmack]

This also could be reflecting the increase in license fees that the software developers have to pay to Microsoft/Sony per title. As has been mentioned in other threads, the actual consoles themselves are going to be sold at a loss, because each title sold has a piece of the price going back to the manufacturer. Since the new consoles are going to cost a lot more to manufacture than the current versions, I could see an increase in the per title license fee.
It could also be reflective of the fact that the budget required to produce a AAA title is going up faster than Moore's law...

[mhass]

I'll say this: For $60 they better have a grip on those freaking Dirty Disc Errors. The last 3 Xbox games I've purchased are worthless because of them.

[Daimyo]

Yeah, I remember FF3 was $70-$75.
FF2 and Chronotrigger too I think. They could have charged $100+ for those games and they still would have been among the best values in gaming history... :) (they went well over that on eBay before the releases)

[sterlingice]

FF2 and Chronotrigger too I think. They could have charged $100+ for those games and they still would have been among the best values in gaming history... :) (they went well over that on eBay before the releases)
I know I still have my copies of all 3 in my apartment :)

SI

[dubb93]

It could also be reflective of the fact that the budget required to produce a AAA title is going up faster than Moore's law...

DING DING DING, I've heard reports that the cost to develop a game on the PS3/XBOX 360 could be 50% more expensive to produce than current generation games and that they are very likely to pass a little of that onto the consumers.

I'll say this: For $60 they better have a grip on those freaking Dirty Disc Errors. The last 3 Xbox games I've purchased are worthless because of them.

Not sure if you're serious here of not but that "Dirty Disc Error" has nothing to do with the disc. Prehaps if you had a fluke disc here or there, yes, but the way you make it sound you need a new XBox. Your optical lense is bad.