Are Video Games Too Expensive?

Many people would probably say that video games are becoming too expensive, I mean, they do cost $60.00 a piece. It doesn't help that our economy is in a poor condition at the moment. It is a combination of a currently poor economy and higher prices that are causing more and more people to start buying used games rather than buying them new. 

Gamestop is one company that has benefited from used game sales, because they get all the profit from the sales of  used games unlike for the sales of new games. The Wall Street Journal even had an article about Gamestop, stating that 42% of Gamestop's profits came from used game sales. In fact, it is estimated that Gamestop's revenue for their current fiscal year from used games alone is $2 billion which is $400 million more than their last fiscal year. 

This increase in used game sales has caused some changes in game companies selling strategies. Now, a lot of game companies offer an incentive to people who pre-order their game, such as a special in game weapon, vehicle, character, or multiplayer maps. There are also a lot more special editions of games now than there used to be. Special editions of games cost more than regular copies of the game and usually include some cool extras.

I think game companies will start pricing their games more competitively to stave off used game sales. They may even revert back to the price of $50.00 each, even though that is only $10.00 cheaper, I would feel a lot better paying $50.00 for a game than $60.00.  I think a better idea than that though, would be to have different prices based on the game. I can honestly say some games are worth $60.00, but there are many others that are not.  As an example, I will used the Madden football series produced by Electronic Arts. They release a new Madden game every year, so why should I pay $60.00 for a game that has only a few improvements from the previous years version, new Madden games should probably only cost somewhere between  $30.00-40.00.

The $60.00 price tag is probably a necessity however. Video game development has evolved from the Atari days where only one programmer was needed to make an entire game to the present where it takes not only programmers, but producers, game designers, artists, level designers, engineers, and testers. The cost of game development for current consoles is in the millions. Halo 3 cost $30 million to develop and another $10 million in advertising and GTA IV cost a total of about  $100 million in development and advertising. Even though the price of $60.00 seems high, it is understandable when you look at how much work actually goes into making a video game in the present, some games even have development times of over two years.