BY ALEX BARNARD
Almost every week of the year a new video game is released into an already flooded market. At retail store, these games typically sell for $60, a price that often scares away many consumers. For many obscure or poorly marketed games, this price typically leads to diminishing sales. There will always be a few die-hard fans that are willing to purchase any game at $60, but for most of us gamers the price of a new retail game is simply too high to go rush out and purchase it, especially when we are uncertain about its quality or length.
The big games of the year be it a Halo, Call of Duty, or Grand Theft Auto can get away at charging $60 a piece. The key to these games success is their robust multiplayer options. Each of these games can typically be played for dozens of hours with friends and justification can be made for spending $60 for a product that can both entertain you and keep you interacting. However, these are the few games that are worth their value and offer more of an entertainment service rather than just a single experience.
Some games curse themselves by charging a $60 price tag at launch. Shadows of the Damned, a comedic horror game released last year from developer Grasshopper Manufacturer was admired by critics for its fun and fresh plot. However, despite all the warm critical reception, Shadows of the Damned sold extremely poorly: with only 24,000 units being sold in the first month. So what went wrong? Besides being poorly marketed the game simply wasn’t worth $60. This single player action game lasts about 8-10 hours (depending upon the skill level of the player) and with the game’s excellent humor being repeated verbatim in each play-through replay value is nonexistent. If the game was released at a cheaper price more people may of taken a risk of purchasing into this new franchise, and the game may of gained the word of mouth needed to make it a commercial success. While the game can now be found at a much more reasonable $30, it has missed its chance to attract positive attention at launch. The market is full of games in this same kind of a circumstance, and a lower price point could help them increase awareness, possibly turning them into successful franchises.
Occasionally you will see a retail game breaks away from the $60 standard and receives recognition because of it. Deadly Premonition, an obscure Japanese survival horror game that sends FBI Agent York to investigate the dead of a young woman in a small town, was released at the price of $20 in the United States. It quickly became the best selling video game on Amazon for a full week. While the game received both critical acclaim and criticism it also faced many strong issues. The graphics were downright ugly, the story closely resembled TV show Twin Peaks to the point where many gags were identical, and the game-play was a repetitive mess consisting of terrible controls and bland enemies. What made the game unique was its low price, which led to the game’s positive word of mouth online and eventually transformed Deadly Premonition into a cult classic video game.
The current $60 standard for retail video game releases is ridiculous. Developers and publishers are too worried that a lower price point makes their game appear “budget” or lacking in quality compared to full priced AAA games. Whether it’s a legitimate concern or maybe just arrogance, it’s difficult to validate that a short single-player game should be charged identically to games such as Call of Duty and Halo. It will take a highly successful and critically acclaimed game at a lower price to convince publishers a lower price can actually be beneficial, but without a change more and more games will turn into massive flops at launch. With your average iPhone game costing a dollar you have to ask yourself, would I have more enjoyment buying one console game or sixty unique iPhone games?
