Opinion: Gaming At All Costs

Are games here cheaper than overseas, given whatever the exchange rate happens to be from time to time? As usual in SA, is it a lack of competitive pricing that gets our goat too? I'm not a console gamer and on the PC side of things I'm usually quite content to wait for the bargain bin pricing, with the exception of peer pressure twisting my arm from time to time :p
 
Yeah I would generally have to agree with what was mentioned in this article. I have in the past gotten pretty upset at pricing until I stood back, and looked carefully at the whole situation.

I think people just get too used to a standard of living that when something changes they fight it - We are all guilty of this to some degree. In the past I HAD to own a game at release. I HAD to have all of the hyped titles. But the fact is I seldom finished any, or actually got any value for money. I was just being greedy!

I am sure many gamers out there suffer from this. They have to buy all the hyped titles at release, then play them for a measly hour or two, then move onto something else. Sometimes people will even own games they have not even played once, and I wonder if that makes any sense really?

With the times we are in at the present, most peoples standards will have to drop, and like I mentioned earlier, that will cause people to overly complain, ESPECIALLY the kinds people I spoke about in the previous paragraph. This is an understandable reaction, but people must think a little harder on the situation at hand.

The fact is we all now need to prioritize. Like was mentioned in the article - going out for a weekend night can easily set a person back close on R1000, while for that price you could gain many hours of pleasure with the correct choice in games. I am not saying go out, but people can't always have their cake and eat it.

However I would like to say that there will be publishers / developers / retailers looking to sell products for more than they are worth, but this is where looking at value for money comes in.
 
Opinion posts can be so controversial.

I don't mind paying for a game that's good and I want, but there are some that can always wait, and I do wait and take the chance when a sale is on.

But the one thing which does scream daylight robbery is the price of console games.Average PC game is about R350, and an xbox, lets just say R500ish (more close to R600 though).

PC you can get:
Free downloadable content
Patches
The support for PC is much higher than a console.
Testing for a PC can be higher (does it work at min/max specs, different drivers etc etc)
Anti-Piracy costs
Sales lost to piracy would raise the price (as the publishers would argue)

As you can see, the costs to maintain a PC game can be much much higher than the cost of maintaining a console game. Which begs the question - why is the PC version so much cheaper if there is so much overhead on it? (or are Sony/Microsoft really asking so much in 'commission' on each sale?).
 
Good article and I agree completely. I don't like the price of new games so I tend to play older games. There are big advantages to that:

1) The game is cheaper
2) A game that was good a year ago is still a good game
3) PC games are usually patched a year later and plays much better
4) PC upgrading can be done at a lower cost

There are times to buy games new though. For instance when it's a multiplayer game, otherwise if you get in too late then you are behind in tactics or people may move on to a new game to play.
 
I remember when I was over in England I was at a store, had some change in my pocket, and was undecided as to buying a bite to eat or buy Guild Wars..

However in my time over there I noticed the Console games were not that much more expensive than the PC games (at least for new titles). Where most console games fetch for around £39.99 for the latest titles, the same PC titles usually go for £34.99, and all the "month old" PC games drop rapidly to £29.99 and lower.

At £40 a game (console) this puts them around R525 each, so taking shipping, import tax etc into consideration, are we REALLY getting screwed? I dont think so. I think the article really levels the playing field, when you look at gaming as a hobby, relative to other peoples entertainment expenses I think you can justify the costs.
 
Obviously there are other costs when buying games in SA. Import costs etc. But when my uncle in Toronto was complaining about paying $60 (Canadian) for Street Fighter 4, I had to laugh.

$60(Canadian) = R450

How come we're paying R800?

EDIT:

I realized that my uncle complained a while ago about the SF4 price so I thought I'd check online at the store he buys from to see what the price is now.

Street Fighter IV........ $50(Canadian)

Basically they're paying R370 at the current exchange rate. I thought I'd go and have a look what BT Games was asking now. R465 now?

So in Canada they went from $60 to $50, while we went from R800 (at launch) to R465 now?

Moral of the story: If you don't want to get ass raped by local games distributers..... wait a couple of months before buying a game. Jeez. :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
I Would not mind paying R500+ for a game like MW2, as I will be playing it for years online.

I wont be paying that for SP games though.
 
"It may be sobering to realise that the PS2 was the same price in 1995."

Don't you mean PS1? The PS2 came out in 2000.
 
fayainz said:
I remember when I was over in England I was at a store, had some change in my pocket, and was undecided as to buying a bite to eat or buy Guild Wars..

However in my time over there I noticed the Console games were not that much more expensive than the PC games (at least for new titles). Where most console games fetch for around £39.99 for the latest titles, the same PC titles usually go for £34.99, and all the "month old" PC games drop rapidly to £29.99 and lower.

At £40 a game (console) this puts them around R525 each, so taking shipping, import tax etc into consideration, are we REALLY getting screwed? I dont think so. I think the article really levels the playing field, when you look at gaming as a hobby, relative to other peoples entertainment expenses I think you can justify the costs.
Click to expand...

Yes we are. They are importing at cost or lower not at retail pricing. If I were to personally import a game at retail costs from the uk/us I would pay less for a console game than the local retailers price their games at.

PC games are priced correctly except for the odd game (Fear 2) but overall they are priced about right. Consoles games are overpriced by a long long way. In the US the console games are $10 dollars more expensive than the same pc game. That's about R100 difference not the crazy difference we see here.
 
U got a Point there Mappy. Paying more for a game with loads more Game time is viable. In My Case RPG's that last me months or years and Online FPS's like MW but for a SP game with 8 or 12 hours game time its worth waiting for Bargain bin or pre-played. I think in MW2's case i might wait a little bit just for the hype to die down.
 
I totally agree with everything in this article. Seriously, if R400-R700 is too much for you, find a cheaper hobby. It's that simple.
 
If its too expensive find a cheaper hobby...:/ do u like being ripped off?

All the above mentioned are fair points but my arguement points towards expense game prices in SA. How on earth can we buy an "import game" from shopto.net for half the price that we do in SA!??! ON RELEASE!!! Which is even sometimes earlier than in SA, that is my problem with expensive games, the SA distrubuters are bleeding us dry not the developers or publishers or even the consoles companies to subsidize their console sales. Games are doubled in price as soon as their sold in SA. I mean buying a game on release day and paying for postage lands up being up to R300 cheaper than getting it in a local shop...what a joke!

This added to the fact that shopto.net no longer ships to SA due to the postal service stealing everything under the sun, dare I say conspiracy by Ster Kinekor!!!
 
Strife said:
If its too expensive find a cheaper hobby...:/ do u like being ripped off?

All the above mentioned are fair points but my arguement points towards expense game prices in SA. How on earth can we buy an "import game" from shopto.net for half the price that we do in SA!??! ON RELEASE!!! Which is even sometimes earlier than in SA, that is my problem with expensive games, the SA distrubuters are bleeding us dry not the developers or publishers or even the consoles companies to subsidize their console sales. Games are doubled in price as soon as their sold in SA. I mean buying a game on release day and paying for postage lands up being up to R300 cheaper than getting it in a local shop...what a joke!

This added to the fact that shopto.net no longer ships to SA due to the postal service stealing everything under the sun, dare I say conspiracy by Ster Kinekor!!!
Click to expand...

Just a note, Shopto was more of Royal Mail problem.
Games ordered from London still go missing if you import you should know the risk at hand
 
Solidus said:
Just a note, Shopto was more of Royal Mail problem.
Games ordered from London still go missing if you import you should know the risk at hand
Click to expand...

Thats a bit of a gray area...why would they only stop shipping to SA if it was an issue with royal mail. Out of the 3 games I ordered from them I received one and after tracking them into SA they...well vanished!!

Just saying to me it seems more of an issue with SAPO than the Royal mail. My opinion use it dont use it...
 
I may have misunderstood this article, but I think the point that Rusty is trying to make is that paying a premium for luxury items is a choice we make and not one we should grumble about.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top