PC gamers are stingy bastards

And publishers are greedy.

You know what's really stifling the industry? Releasing crappy games is. Put out decent games, and I'll pay more for them. Years ago I used to pay full price for games, no questions asked. I bought Unreal, NOLF, Red Alert 2 and more, all with no discount attached to them.

As long as there are sales, I'll buy games during them to save money, especially if it's a game I'm interested in but has gotten mixed reviews, which is often the case nowadays. And people tend to buy games cheaper because they have to factor in the cost of DLC, season passes and other stuff that publishers want to charge us for, plus the cost of data to download and update games, because not all of us have access to an uncapped line. I personally only buy GOTY editions of games I really want, and I try my hardest to buy them in physical and not digital form.

The industry is changing, and so my spending habits have changed as well, and that is in no small part due to the rough economic times we face today. Besides, I'm certain that most people locally aren't earning the figures the average gamer in the US is.
 
Could go either way. Publishers may find the PC market less attractive, OR, they realize that too stand out among the huge selection and ensure people pay full price, they need to focus on quality. I think something similar is going to happen to the console market eventually as well.
 
I used to buy most games new that I have some form of interest in when the price point was still at around R330 for a new game. With the R/$ and a lot of publishers pricing the new releases at $60, I simply refuse to buy at that price. So at the moment, unless it is a game I'm really looking forward to like Witcher, Dragon Age or Batman, I'm waiting for the specials.

The DLC don't bother me as much with most games since I usually don't even bother with playing it with the exception of Bioware games. I'll only really go for it if released some time after the game release which might "inspire" me to give the game another go or if it adds to the story.
 
only games i buy new are blizzard games. for the simple reason i know i will reply them lots of times. and have lots of multilayer fun.
 
ViperGTI said:
I used to buy most games new that I have some form of interest in when the price point was still at around R330 for a new game. With the R/$ and a lot of publishers pricing the new releases at $60, I simply refuse to buy at that price. So at the moment, unless it is a game I'm really looking forward to like Witcher, Dragon Age or Batman, I'm waiting for the specials.
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Hear hear! I only buy Multiplayer/Coop focused games on release if my friends were also getting them.
Else I wait for the bundled or GOTY edition for the full game. :D

I hope publishers don't decide to increase the release price further to help with their "stifling sales figures".
It'll be like asking the people who pay their electricity bill to foot all the illegal connec... oh wait. :wtf:
 
I don't think the argument is over the quality of games coming out. I think it is the fact that PC gaming has become the mecca of gaming specials.

If we take a step back to a few years ago, games came out and we had to buy them at full retail price if we wanted to play it. Then Valve created Steam and changed the way in which PC gaming is done. The Steam platform got traction due to not only the number titles available for purchase, but the fact that they started providing special pricing on certain games. And we flocked to the service, which in turn made the publishers embrace Steam even more, which created more variety and choice of games on the service, which made that even more people joined. And so the cycle continued.

Now, other 3rd party companies are joining in the bandwagon of providing PC gamers more choice and value; companies like GOG, Humble Bundle, Origin etc. To get more people to join the services, they held specials on various games and pulled a fair few people onto their platforms.

This perpetuated a market where a PC game will very seldom stay the same price as it's launch price. We as PC gamers have become so accustomed to services like Steam and GOG that has specials every now and then, that we buy more and more games that we didn't really want, but had to get because it's on special. I know I've bought a couple of games just because they were really cheap.

This pressures companies to ensure that they must provide specials on games that will draw people in, because there are so many alternatives that, if one company can't give you the deal you want, chances are there is someone that will. As a PC game buyer, you have such a big choice of retailers that you have the luxury of buying somewhere with the best special

The console market doesn't have this. There is no 3rd party app/service/platform that provides the same value as what Steam or GOG can give, thus your only choices are to buy your games from brick-and-mortar store or from the Microsoft/Sony online stores. Here you will find no big push for specials as on PC, because the number of retailers and retail channels are much less than on PC. Hence why there are a lot less specials on console than on PC

This trend changes the mindset of the consumer/gamer of each platform. PC gamers are so used to specials, that we have no problem waiting for a game to go on special before buying. Console gamers doesn't have that luxury, because the market is not geared towards specials as much as PC gaming is.

IMHO

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And to add something, Are publishers actually surprised people are buying games on special rather than the full price?! Really?! Isn't that like the purpose of a special; to draw in new customer/clients?
 
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We live in a world where pretty much everything is being commodiitsed, so it means great value for the consumer but is not sustainable over the long run.
 
czc said:
They do have second hand sales though. Which I'm sure they dislike.
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True. I'll admit, it's not like console games NEVER go on special, it's just not as frequent as on PC. Like the article said, we assume something will go on special only a few weeks after launch. On console, you can expect game prices to depreciate as per normal, but you are not guaranteed a special, nor second hand availability of that particular game. So reluctantly, you have to buy the game at full price.
 
I see kevin is stepping on master race toes again.

However I'm sure if consoles had steam summer sales then they would follow the same trend.
 
ViperGTI said:
I used to buy most games new that I have some form of interest in when the price point was still at around R330 for a new game. With the R/$ and a lot of publishers pricing the new releases at $60, I simply refuse to buy at that price. So at the moment, unless it is a game I'm really looking forward to like Witcher, Dragon Age or Batman, I'm waiting for the specials.

The DLC don't bother me as much with most games since I usually don't even bother with playing it with the exception of Bioware games. I'll only really go for it if released some time after the game release which might "inspire" me to give the game another go or if it adds to the story.
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I second this, its highly unlikely that i will purchases at more than R250 unless its new and I really want it, Its interesting to note how indie gaming turned into bundles over the last few years and even of AAA publishers ,look at the ea bundle humble had amongst others.

There was definitely a shift in the marketing of games digitally over the last 2-3 years.
 
The latest NDP Group survey of US PC gamers has revealed that half of all the Master Race wait for a game to go on special before buying it.
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They forgot about the part where you get all the billion 1.99$ DLCs in a GOTY edition.
 
Buying games as they're released just to sit in my backlog? No thanks. By the time I will get to them they'll be on special and I'll be able to get even more games for the price of one on release :D.
 
I honestly don't see a problem with all these specials - if anything, they are brilliant for the industry. Most of the games that go for stpid special prices a la Summer Sale/Humble Bundle are old games that aren't going to sell at basically any price. I remember reading an article on how gaming was tougher than books, movies, music and comics in that the vast majority of the profit is made in the first week/month of the game - as the game gets older, it get proportionally less attractive simple becuase so much new stuff is coming out and (in the case of single player games) it's already finished.

There are few games that I would play a second and third time - but there are a heck of a lot of movies, books, songs (esp. music) and comics that I will re-read/watch from time to time.

I actually love how gaming has embraced online distribution and created whole new ways of getting cash from consumers (particularly Humble Bundle - that is awesome) - an most importantly, keeping those same consumers happy.

One of the best studios that does this is Paradox - I will waited for EU4 to go on sale and got it for around 6 dollars. Once my hectic work period finishes in the next month or so, I'm plumping down at least 20-30 dollars for DLC that will actually improve the game experience far beyond a "new weapon skin" or something like that. Hell - I get a lot of the DLC changes in EU4 anyway.

tl;dr finance people talking out their asses. Gaming is being brought to gamers by gamers and Steam, Humble bundle and Paradox (that's for me personally though) are leading the way.
 
Its not that I am stingy.... its about the backlog.

Back in the day with good games being few and far in-between I paid full price to have something to play. Forward to today where I have over 200 games in my Steam/Origin/Uplay inventory that I have not even installed let alone play. This did not stop me from buying games, for this the industry can be glad as we could just stop buying and they will see 0 income from people like me.

So what ends up happening is that I see games on sales that I might like to play someday and I pick up the deal if I have the cash that in turn extends the list of games I have to get to.

edit: On that note: I just added DMC, Remember Me and Lost planet to my list..... Thanx Gabe, because of you I recon I need a gap year or three just so I can stop being "stingy"
 
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Yeah, Steam is both a blessigg and a curse for developers and publishers. GabeN will soon rule the PC gaming market, if he doesn't secretly do already. Games in my backlog often only get played for a couple of minutes to test them out - even good games like the Metro series.
 
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