Why don't games depreciate anymore?
 

I am sick of going to the store and seeing EVERY game marked at $50. These games don't deserve this price, and I think they are there to intimidate and fool the gaming ignorant (parents, mostly). There are a few 2+ year old games that get marked down to $30, but thats just rediculous. I saw an ad on TV this week for Warcraft 3. The game has been out for almost a year. Why advertise now? I for one am pissed off that most games are cheaper the release week (usually $10 or 20+ off that week only) than a year later. They do this to bait gamers into buying the game before non-industry, subjective reviews can be found. Its a deterrent from buying.
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Just check half.com, games there drop in price fast. You can get plenty of good games for $30 or so.

Are you talking about PC strictly? Since it seems console games drop in price (even Nintendo, which previously always stayed high, probably due in part to the previous cartridge media) fairly well. Especially with the Greatest Hits, Platinum, etc lineups.

I agree with you Roquer. I've seen the same thing looking at console games only. I don't know about PC games, but I have also seen 2 year old games still priced at $50.00. I also agree that it's to take advantage of parents and uninformed gamers. I don't understand why, because the industry knows the average gamer is growing up, and I think the average age is around 28 now, so why don't they think adults will be more cost conscious when game shopping?

On a related note, the in-store used market is being controlled by the likes of EB and other major retailers who sell used games. Here in the K.C. suburbs, in the playstation - N64 era, I could name about 7-8 independent game stores all within a few minutes drive from me, but now there's only one - and it's a local chain with arond 6 stores. I hate the way EB just takes a used game, drops $5.00 off the new price and slaps it on the shelf. I never shopped there at all, but now it's one of my only options for used games outside of Ebay.

In short, I agree with your rant. Rant on.

they got's to get paid

I would not buy a used game for $5 off, especially when I can use Best Buy coupons and get the same price for a new game.

The local stores drop off more likely due to WalMart & Best Buy than EB.

Personally I can't stand EB or FuncoLand. Their customer service in my opinion is very bad...

I guess I don't get it. I haven't been paying $50 for games. Look at the deals posted here lately. Sam's Club, Best Buy and others have had great prices on new games. If the "uninformed" people have to pay $50 to allow me to pick up games for $20, because I spend some time here so be it. That's the beauty of a capitalistic society.

saving 50 bucks every time i need to buy a game does bother me but i look for the deal i got time crisis 2 with guncon for 44 bucks and i got tribes aerial assault for 19.99 and all the greatest hits are 19.99. i get some good prices but other games it pisses me off.

Games don't depreciate at their selling price because millions of people are still willing to pay $50 for the game, plus it costs more and more money nowadays to make games. The technology they're using to create games like NFL 2K3 or Splinter Cell is much more advanced and expensive than the dinky program used to create the classic, Pong. Somebody's got to pay for it and unfortunately it's us.

It seems to me the only games that don't depreciate (console and PC) are the big hits. The MSRP on Halo, for instance, is still $50 (although you can get it new for much less on sale).

The way I see it, developers try to recoup their development costs by setting the MSRP at $40-$50 and getting those who must have the game, when released, pay for it. The developers figured this is the price ceiling for most gamers. These prices were probably set as far back as the Atari 2600. Carts were more expensive and although CDs and DVDs are cheaper, development costs have gone up.

As for the games not dropping after years on the shelf, they probably think since there are gamers buying new systems everyday, they can get away with keeping the prices up on more popular games as long as they can, can't explain on the less popular ones.

You're right, jw2299, it is the less informed who will pay the higher prices. After spending $40-$50 a game during the 16-bit and part of the 32-bit era, I decided no game was worth that much and wait for them to drop to $30 or below. The most expensive game I bought for the X-Box so far was $22.99, and GC $9.99. It took my experience of paying regular prices for me to change my purchasing habits.

I also think there are parents out there who just want to please their kids and are willing to pay $50 to keep them happy/occupied for a time. $50 is not much to keep kids busy, hopefully for a few weeks.

As for paying $5 less for a used title, I don't know why people will do this but there are. Personally, I'll pay the extra $5 to get new game. If you look carefully at EB, there are used titles priced higher than their new titles on the shelf too. I think this may have happened with Buffy during their $9.99 sale. You could pay $9.99 for a new Buffy or have the privilege of paying a higher price for a used copy.

Re: Why don't games depreciate anymore?
 

For PC games shop at www.gogamer.com for their unbeatable prices. For consolel you have to go to ebay. Reason console games don't drop in price is that the console owner wants their royalties. Console games only drop in price when the console owner permits it.

FYI, back in the day $29.99 was the norm for Intellivision titles, and $34.99 for the premium titles. Same with the Colecovison and Atari 5200 titles.

Games didn't start going up until the days of the Sega Master System, where you would pay $40 for their larger-capacity carts.

Jeremy

Generally, games that stay at MSRP are for consoles. PC games all drop in price at some point, sometimes even within 2-3 months. It really comes down to economic end of it. If a game is priced at $50 and you can't keep them on the shelf for more than 3 days, why drop the price, despite being an "old" game? Conversely, if a game is dropped to $30, and they've still got 100 copies sitting there, the store will be more pressured to drop it some more to clear up invenotory and shelf space. Keeping mind, that if a store keeps a game at full price ($50), and it just sits on the shelf not moving; the store is losing money on a daily basis because they still have to cover overhead and operating costs. Sooner or later, a store will have to do something to "move" titles that does not sell.

PAL

Now, I'm not going to swear on my life about this, but I'm at least 90% certain that I paid $44.95 (or $44.99?) for Pac-Man for the 2600.

PC games do come down in price. NOLF 2 was $50 when it came out, I picked it up for $30 last night. I'm still waiting for WC3 to come down to $30 or less before I buy it, I refuse to spend $50 for a game.

My brother in 1982 or 83 bought Pac-Man for $55 US dollars and there was no GH back then same with Nes & Snes where games would be 50 bucks 3 or 4 years after release,its only getting better now but dont expect companys to make great games and release them at 20-30 bucks yet but its better now then it ever has & im talking about console not PC.

Could be some exceptions, with an over-demand title like Pac-Man when it was released. I never had a 2600 but remember the hysteria when it finally came home, it was on the news and everything.

I was paying $29.99 for my Intellivision games, but $34.99 for the better ones like Astrosmash and the Tron games. I remember when Atarisoft finally released Donkey Kong for the Intellivision I think that was around $37.99. These are TRU prices, BTW.

Maybe the Colecovision titles were between $34.99 and $39.99, but not much more than that. I think Turbo with the wheel was around $50 but I could be mistaken. Zaxxon was also a more expensive title. But I was paying $34.99 for titles like Miner 2049er, Popeye (my favorite) and Pitstop. As far as I can remember, the 5200 titles were priced similarly.

For the Sega Master System, I think Outrun and Space Harrier were $44.99 titles. Afterburner was a $50 title for what I remember. I paid $34.99 for Spy vs. Spy because it was on the card instead of a cart. Then for the Genesis, the first game I got was Forgotten Worlds, and I think that was $39.99.

Jeremy

Remember when some games came out for $69.99 or higher? Games like Virtua Racing for Genesis?

I think I remember Virtua Racing actually selling for $99.99, most expensive game I ever saw for the Genesis. Phantasy Star III came out at $74.99 I think.

Unless we're talking PC titles exclusively, whose speed of price declines is something I don't follow, I just don't see much truth to the thread's title. I've always thought videogame software to be a genre of product with some of the quickest price changes forced by supply and demand. [Leading the category would have to be gasoline/oil.]

Just look at the price difference betweeen Xbox Unreal Championship and Ghost Recon. UC, predicted to be the massive seller, is half its initial price after 3 and 1/2 months, while GR happily stays near the top of the sales charts at $50.


By the way, what really ushered in a new price point was the Sega Genesis. From the Atari 2600 through the Sega Master System, the price for "normal" games was $29.99. Looking back at the arrival of the Genesis, I'll always remember first seeing Tommy Lasorda Baseball running through its demo mode at Toys R Us, followed by the huge surprise discovered in the next aisle that the games had jumped $20, to a minimum of $49.99 (with many at $59.99).

And as always, when people talk about prices in years gone by, I always link to the following site to try to help easily put things into perspective. For example, a $30 Atari 2600 game in 1981 was the equivalent of $61.90 in 2001.

http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

I remember N64 games costing an ass load, paying $65+ for Super Mario Bros 3, and my parents paying $80 for an old Disney-based Sierra Adventure game about 17 years ago.

On that note, the games that sell well keep up their prices. There are a few that mystify me but it all makes sense. I mean, look at how quickly Dr. Muto, Haven, and Turok: Evolution dropped in price. Turok: Evolution isn't all that old and can be had new for $13.88 on the Gamecube - $19.99 on the PS2/Xbox.

The really crappy games tend to cost a good bit less within a short period of time, if you really don't want to pay it, just keep waiting, and hope. And then theres always Blockbuster sales - Buy 2 get 1 free and the 20% off sales rule :D

-Rich

Some games (like Blizzard's games) depreciate very very slowly. But most of the other PC titles go down real fast in 6 to 9 months (again, unless it is a blockbusters title that continue to sell well).

Basically, any game that continues to sell like hotcakes (like Halo), stores/companies don't have an incentive to mark it down. One of the major reasons that prices go down for ANYTHING is to spark the diminishing demand.

Me, I don't buy very many games as I used to for X-Box or Gamecube. If I get bored, sometimes I'll buy an N64 game used or something old like that.

I bought Virtua Fighter 2 for the Saturn new at Babbages for $79.99 when it first came out...

Jeremy

Books, CDs, DVDs and most other forms of media don't deteriorate rapidly either.

Games are very elastic item for me. Some stuff like Zelda, I'll happily pay $50, most games don't interest me until the $20-$30 range though.

I paid 79.99 for Street Fighter 2 for the SNES the day it came out.... it was worth every penny..