should pc games cost the same as console games ?

[Lydon]

That's a pretty myopic statement. Games take an average of 2-3 years to develop. That means employing a team of designers and developers for that time, and that team might be anything up to 200 people. Have you checked out the credit roll on GTA IV? Yeah. It's not exactly a "simple piece of software". It's a product with an enormous amount of work, time, people, and effort invested into it.

Games don't just magically happen. Don't expect them to have magical price tags either.

On top of that, developers don't set prices, publishers and distributors and retailers do. Rockstar made less than $4 on every GTA IV unit sold. Did you know that? Developers don't see much profit at all on retail games sales. To put this in perspective, the studio that did Shadow Complex literally made more money per game sold than Rockstar did with GTA IV, because of the way XBLA titles are handled.

I know exactly how games are developed However, to me as the end user they are still simple pieces of software that we are being overcharged for.

I find it amazing how developers in the past had the ability to charge far more reasonable prices compared to current developers in general. Let's use Rockstar as an example - with such a large development team they still managed to release a product that was an epic fail on the PC for many.

Rockstar, quite frankly, don't seem very efficient at all. Compared to the size of the development teams for some of my favourite games, Rockstar look absolutely pathetic. Therefore I don't feel sorry for them at all for their $4 profit margin.

Regardless, even R300 for a new console game is far from a "magical" price tag in my opinion. That is about half of what we are currently milked for. The fact that buying 5 new games costs the same as the actual physical hardware is just tragic.

[tpex]

Hellno! we PC gamers have to upgrade all the time, so that justifies the cheaper price, and piracy would increase if they cost more

[xXScarYXx]

I give up!
And what sucks for PC users is we can't trade our games in because of piracy!

[Voicy]

well thats the question

should pc games cost the same as console games ?

Yes - as long as the dev's cover our pc upgrade costs to run their PC titles the way they would run on consoles.

[xXScarYXx]

Yes - as long as the dev's cover our pc upgrade costs to run their PC titles the way they would run on consoles.

Haha wit ur riggs u aint gotta worry! Jus create more accidents!

[crazydude]

I give up!
And what sucks for PC users is we can't trade our games in because of piracy!

And get stuck with root kits, but the problems is that it's just too easy to pirate on PC.

[HANDsolo]

PC games cost about R300 for the past 15 odd years. E.g. I bought GTA 1 for R270 back in 1997. R270 back then was equivalent to R600 in real terms.

Price is subjective too. I think R600 is too much but R400 is a decent price for a console game. Some people think R400 is still too much.

Longevity of a title is also a deciding factor. I would spend R600 on Modern Warfare 2 because I know I will get 100+ hours multiplayer, I would spend R600 on PES2010 because I know I will get 100+ hours playing with my buddies. But, I wouldn't spend R600 on Batman Arkham Asylum because it only lasts 10 hours. That's R60 per hour. More expensive than R50 to watch a 2 hour movie.

[crazydude]

^^^

PC games seemed to have resisted price hikes really well compared to console games. Console AAA games went from R499 to R699 in a really short space of time.

[Raven Gold]

PC games shouldn't go up. Console games should just simply go away. Thats just me.

[Oculate]

question is would piracy really drop if pricing is 50% cheaper.

In 1 of the Asian countries... I think Taiwan, they lowered the price of original DVD's to below that of what the pirates were selling at - and stamped out DVD Piracy

I think it could work... there is just that factor of convenience when it comes to pirating games - Dodge the DRM, don't need to hunt for discs, usually comes with a keygen/serial number

Disclaimer: I don't support Piracy personally, this post doesn't approve it either