Topic: Why are video games priced so high?

@BAMozzy: I wasn't really talking that much about how the consumer values a game, but rather how a company will price its games. I touched on it a couple of posts ago, but applying it to Fifa and FFXV, a game will be sold by a company at the price they will calculate as the sweet spot for number of sales at any given cost (e.g. selling a game at $60 and expecting 3 million sales is still more profitable than setting it at $40 for 4 million sales or $80 for 2 million sales). A budget will also be set on this analysis so the game 'should' be profitable. I never said that a company could charge anything for a game based on its expenditure, in the second paragraph of post 32 (and slightly less clearly at the end of my first post 17) I made it clear that I wasn't saying a company could charge anything based on production costs, so I'm not sure why you are making the point in the 5th paragraph or why you are even asking me about how much FFXV should cost. I'm thinking maybe you've misunderstood my posts so far as you've replied to me with some of the things I've already said? Keeping it simple my basic points have been:

*Games are more expensive than films partially because they have a smaller audience.
*Inflation is a poor reason to justify the price of a game.
*A games length does not and should not justify its price.
*The cost of a game is set to make the company the greatest possible return.
*Games should be cheaper.
*Digital is expensive on consoles because they need high street stores.
*The current accepted business model for games is hurting smaller companies.

I might have forgot something in that list and some of the points link with each other, but I think it covers most things I've said. As an aside I also think that the cost of the Fifa license is probably pretty (astronomically) high so there might not be as much of a discrepancy between the production cost of the two titles (also Fifa is likely a much more expensive game on the marketing side since it advertises constantly through most of the football season).

I disagree about the small film/big film analogy though, smaller films tend not to get cinema releases, often cost a lot less to buy on DVD/Blu-ray/Digital or just come straight to TV for free. Gaming also works the same way, smaller games release cheaper, drop in price quicker and often don't get physical releases. In both cases you are basically comparing big releases to indies and we know indies are usually much cheaper.

For all those that think Digital will replace Physical in the very near future 77% still prefer Physical Disks!

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/opinion-the-games-industry-s-b...

I can't see Sony or MS abandoning the disc drive and risk upsetting such a large portion of gamers. Not only would it be detrimental from a gaming perspective but also from a functionality perspective. Consoles would lose the ability to play CD's, DVD's, Blurays and in the case of the XB1s, 4k HDR Blurays too. As the recent outcry ober the PS4 Pro's omission of a 4k HDR Bluray player also proved quite disappointing for a lot of people who were expecting this feature.