I agree for the most part, though it's not a blanket pricing option across all games. Given the development costs involved and the amount of enjoyment I get out of games, I'm happy to pay £70 for a top tier game. I paid full price for Demon's Souls remake on launch day and it's been worth every penny.
Kagey K
Banned
It's the way I've always looked at games.
Dollar to hour value.
I made a big post about it a few years ago.
It's why I usually buy big Rpgs but rent front my library short 8-10 hour games.
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This is assuming movie ticket prices are fair to begin with also...
killatopak
Member
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NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
It's a fair way to look at it.
But then, how do you explain most gamers - enthusiasts especially - happily waiting a few months for the latest AAA to drop in price, and seeing things like Mario Kart(a game that can offer hundreds, or thousands, of hours of gameplay) hold its price for years as highway robbery?
But then, how do you explain most gamers - enthusiasts especially - happily waiting a few months for the latest AAA to drop in price, and seeing things like Mario Kart(a game that can offer hundreds, or thousands, of hours of gameplay) hold its price for years as highway robbery?
Balducci30
Member
No it's not a fair way to look at games prices. They are different mediums. You're going to a movie theater. There's a lot of differences here
Gen.Grievous
Member
Games have barely increased in price over the years but their scope and development cost have increased tenfold. If you don't like paying 70 bucks for a game you don't have to. But complaining about it makes zero sense to me.
DelireMan7
Member
BigBooper
Member
It's not a good or relevant comparison. You can also spend $20 to buy a basketball that gives you years of entertainment.
Compare it to other games for the best comparison. Time alone is not enough to make your value judgements though. There's some games that can have you grinding the same repeated content for dozens of hours.
Compare it to other games for the best comparison. Time alone is not enough to make your value judgements though. There's some games that can have you grinding the same repeated content for dozens of hours.
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xrnzaaas
Member
It's the traditional cinemas that are too expensive for what they offer. Often you have to suffer watching a 30 minute+ ad segment before the move or sitting close to at least a few shitheads from the audience. It's just not worth it. Buying a big screen tv or even a projector isn't incredibly expensive these days and you can have a similar experience in your home (not counting Imax screenings), especially with services like Disney+ with a vast catalogue for one monthly payment.
As for games, I don't count how many € I'm paying for one hour of content. Some games are worth 70€ even if they offer 10 hours or less, some aren't worth your time even if they're 100+ hours long.
As for games, I don't count how many € I'm paying for one hour of content. Some games are worth 70€ even if they offer 10 hours or less, some aren't worth your time even if they're 100+ hours long.
odhiex
Member
I mostly bought games on sales, but there are few games that I felt worthy getting them full price at launch (although sometimes they disappointed me lol).
This is pretty much my justification in buying games.
Kenpachii
Member
Yeah, I get what you are saying. I think he lead with the movie thing as a form of entertainment.
But the real point he was trying to get at is the second part, the dollar per hour argument.
Is a $70 game worth the price if you were "entertained" for 70 hours. $1 per hour.
Let's just say you were only "entertained" for 35 hours on the game, is $2 per hour worth it?
This has me looking at things differently. I must have spent 200 hours in Genshin Impact. I bought something for $5 to tip the developers because I felt they deserve a tip entertaining me for 200 hours(still playing btw). That's $0.03 an hour
That's how i think ( not the movie part as movies are different form of entertainment.
My cutoff point is 50 cents a hour, its more expensive i have no interest.
Games also need to provide me atleast 100 hours of game hours for me to be interested in them.
For example while people bitch at ac games being to long, i wouldn't buy it if it wasn't long.
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mxbison
Member
That is the bare minimum though. You can just download a free game on your phone.
If youre comparing it to AAA games on a next gen console, you'd also have to factor in expensive basketball shoes, clothes, maybe a team membership fee etc.
Sintoid
Member
Actually Cats is the first movie with "patched" Computer graphics...
And yes, a movie can be a shit and no patch will ever improve your experience
bob_mugabe
Banned
This is not a smart analogy. With streaming services, watching a movie at home costs much less than 10 bucks. When you go the cinema, you pay for the whole experience, technology and staff included. You could make a fairer comparison if high end arcade games were still a thing.
M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Why do we need white knight companies so hard.
They have record sales, record profits and they need to increase the price? Yeah make sense.
Also platform holder setting the price, so other will follow suit is really fucking bad practice, if it would be MS, there would be pitchforks everywhere (and rightly so).
I am not going to get to the 70USD, 80EUR argument, because I would gladly pay 70bucks, but that's not what it is in EU and again Sony set the scene. Sony games are 100USD here and from 80USD last gen, it's quite a jump.
And like other said even poorer games are going cost this much. My mental state is that if it cost 2000CZK, it's no longer some pocket expense.
Some post are like "oh my gawd, let me pay moar", is this some Stockholm Syndrome.
They have record sales, record profits and they need to increase the price? Yeah make sense.
Also platform holder setting the price, so other will follow suit is really fucking bad practice, if it would be MS, there would be pitchforks everywhere (and rightly so).
I am not going to get to the 70USD, 80EUR argument, because I would gladly pay 70bucks, but that's not what it is in EU and again Sony set the scene. Sony games are 100USD here and from 80USD last gen, it's quite a jump.
And like other said even poorer games are going cost this much. My mental state is that if it cost 2000CZK, it's no longer some pocket expense.
Some post are like "oh my gawd, let me pay moar", is this some Stockholm Syndrome.
Kupfer
Member
While dollar per hour is a solid calculation and also a good indicator to justify the price, I find this calculation stupid though.
I'd rather play a 10h game with a good story, few lengths and exciting characters ($7 per h) than a 300h ($0.23 per h) grindfest that gives me nothing but long playtime. But that's probably also because my time is now not necessarily scarce, but personally too valuable to me for games without any added value or depth.
If I pay $70 for two people in a restaurant, I don't think that I would have gotten 10 times the food at the next burger joint for that $70. What matters to me is the quality of the food and, above all, the quality of the time spend while eating.
I'd rather play a 10h game with a good story, few lengths and exciting characters ($7 per h) than a 300h ($0.23 per h) grindfest that gives me nothing but long playtime. But that's probably also because my time is now not necessarily scarce, but personally too valuable to me for games without any added value or depth.
If I pay $70 for two people in a restaurant, I don't think that I would have gotten 10 times the food at the next burger joint for that $70. What matters to me is the quality of the food and, above all, the quality of the time spend while eating.
CherryFalls
Banned
How many of those hours are you experiencing something new rather then a repeated task/mechanic, side quest, having to travel, or just padding? A game is way more stretched out than a movie.
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bbeach123
Member
I'm one of these people who can not play game without "the grind" . I like mhw , I could spend 200 hours fighting monster to get my characters 5% stronger , and enjoy every minute of it .
But without the "getting stronger" part , I easily getting bored after maybe 10 hours . It just feel meaningless playing without the reward .
But without the "getting stronger" part , I easily getting bored after maybe 10 hours . It just feel meaningless playing without the reward .
strange headache
Banned
Not a good comparison as pleasure is intrinsically incommensurable.
What's better, spending a day at the beach or go skiing?
1 hour of one entertainment does not necessary equal 1 hour of another entertainment.
I'd gladly spend 9 bucks to go watch a good movie with a couple of friends, than pay a fiver for a badly padded grindy 40h RPG.
What's better, spending a day at the beach or go skiing?
1 hour of one entertainment does not necessary equal 1 hour of another entertainment.
I'd gladly spend 9 bucks to go watch a good movie with a couple of friends, than pay a fiver for a badly padded grindy 40h RPG.
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nkarafo
Member
Don't forget how there's enough extra profit around to make Bobby Kottick and other CEOs literally billionaires.
Also, OP, the most time i have ever spent with a game is DOOM. From 1994 until today, with the modern engines and the countless free mods... I must have spent thousands of hours.
Same thing with some movies. I watch my favorite movies tons of times. I don't even know. At least 50 times each by now. I'm talking about the physical copies i own.
Value has nothing to do with how much time each person spends. Unless you are renting something.
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ZehDon
Member
Terrible comparison. Movies are passively consumed - trying to compare dollar to dollar with an interactive medium is silly. You need different standards for each medium to be fair to each release.
For me, at the standard price of AUD$100.00, I generally expect around 20 hours of enjoyable entertainment from a game. How a game reaches that count is up to the game; if the multiplayer is great, I'll sink lots of time in to it, if the single player stuff is really really good I'll re-play it on different difficulty levels or try and 100% it - so the game may only need 10 hours of excellent content to hit my requirement. If it just has 20 hours of unrepeated content, so be it. In any case, 20 hours is average (I'll accept less if its much higher quality, like Doom 2016). Miles Morales was AUD$125.00 and takes approximately 17 hours to fully finish. So, it wouldn't meet my criteria at AUD$100.00 let alone being 25% more expensive. If Sony wants to charge AUD$125.00, my expectations go up accordingly. I want amazing games that are 25% higher quality, or I want 25% more in the box. Charging more money for less game that also reviews less favourably with fans just isn't going to cut it.
Instead of trying desperately to justify Sony's increased game prices yourself, perhaps you should ask yourself what has Sony itself done to justify its increased game prices. I'm drawing a blank - perhaps you've got a better idea? If you're happy to pay more for less, I don't doubt Sony will be happy to have your business. Myself, I prefer companies working hard to get my money... because I certainly work hard enough to earn it that I'm not voluntarily going to hand more of it over out of some pathetic "loyalist" console war nonsense.
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KungFucius
King Snowflake
This poster clearly is not a PC gamer with the upgrade bug.
Movies are 10-20 bucks in the theater per person. The theater has great sound, nice seats and a hug screen. At home you can rent one for 5 bucks for the entire family. Cheaper if not recent and more expensive if still in the theater. Disney charged 30 bucks which for my family is about 4 bucks per person per hour. I would use something in this range as a comparison instead of taking the extreme case of a theater movie that includes the experience.
So movies at home are 1-4 bucks per person per hour or ~ 2-15 bucks per person per hour solo.
Games are different. Only one person can play at a time, there is no equivalent of a theater experience, and you have to buy special, expensive hardware to have the ability to play them. Also not every hour is worth it. Games have bullshit filler content that is more of a waste of time than valuable activity. The cost per hour of a PS5 game needs to be taken together with the cost of the system and accessories over the life of the system. If you play 10 games on the PS5 over 400 hours you spent 700+500 + tax. In my case that would be 1290. That is $3.25 per hour this gen compared to $2.75 for the same case last gen. Sure you can wait and get games a little cheaper, but overall it is not a better deal than movies and most people are done with games in less than 40 hours. Its also much worse if you have multiple platforms to get the exclusives, but gets better in cost per hour if you get more games, it goes to 2.49 per hour for twenty 40 hour games at full price.
For PC gamers who upgrade frequently the cost can get crazy. Selling used hardware helps mitigate to some extent, but when a GPU alone costs 800 or 1500 you are probably spending 400 or so every 2 years to upgrade that and another 500 or so to upgrade CPU/Mobo/Ram every 4 years at a minimum if you resell. Obviously not every PC gamer is like that, but I blew over 2k in the last year's craze to upgrade though I did get about 500 for old hardware. A modest estimate would be 1600 for the base PC with decent GPU with 400 in upgrades over a console generation. Games are cheaper on PC so the calculation for 10 40 hour games at full price would be 2000+ 600 -> $6.50, 20 games -> $4 .00
I am assuming that the TV you have would have been there anyways, though in many cases gamers get better TVs than they would otherwise get.
I have PC, PS5 and Switch. That is basically 3500 in hardware to play games, 800 just to be able to play exclusives. It is definitely not a cheap hobby. I also do not play a lot of games each year. I am a busy parent. Over a 5 year period, I am probably looking at 20-30 full games with a few 2d metroidvanias and replaying some older games sprinkled in. So the HW cost alone is going to be about 4500 or $3.75 per hour. At least with PCs I get to spend a couple of hours putting it together.
Aion002
Member
There's the want, the need and the possibility.
Do I want to play that? Do I need to pay? Can I pay for it or am I willing to pay for that?
Some can justify paying 500+ usd on a console to play a game, while others can't, but are happy enough to shove thousands of dollars on a pc just to get their perfect graphics.
Everybody has a different perspective about prices... Are F2P games the ultimate bang for the buck? Since you don't need to spend a penny to play? That depends on the person, in the same way: is 1 kg of rice a better deal than eating in a good restaurant? Depends on who you're asking that.
Do I want to play that? Do I need to pay? Can I pay for it or am I willing to pay for that?
Some can justify paying 500+ usd on a console to play a game, while others can't, but are happy enough to shove thousands of dollars on a pc just to get their perfect graphics.
Everybody has a different perspective about prices... Are F2P games the ultimate bang for the buck? Since you don't need to spend a penny to play? That depends on the person, in the same way: is 1 kg of rice a better deal than eating in a good restaurant? Depends on who you're asking that.
LazyParrot
Member
If I don't get at least an hour per dollar out of a game, then I'm not buying it. That basically rules out all new non-indie releases aside from the lengthiest of RPGs, but I'm fine with that. I've got plenty of older games and indie titles to play while I wait for prices to come down.
Hell, on PC in particular there are so many ways to get free games these days that you can play for hundreds of hours without having to spend any money at all.
Hell, on PC in particular there are so many ways to get free games these days that you can play for hundreds of hours without having to spend any money at all.
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MastaKiiLA
Member
Where do you find $9 movies nowadays? I buy movies for $10 or less, but that's months after they hit home release. In theaters, $10 is the starting price.
But yeah, that's a valid way of analyzing the price. Games cost what they do because you can get hours of enjoyment from them, and they often have more replay value than movies. They don't age as well for me though. After the generation is over, I don't go back to old games.
But yeah, that's a valid way of analyzing the price. Games cost what they do because you can get hours of enjoyment from them, and they often have more replay value than movies. They don't age as well for me though. After the generation is over, I don't go back to old games.
vodka-bull
Member
Well comparing entertainment this way I'd suggest y'all better start reading books instead of playing games, the time/dollar ratio of books wipes the floor with games.
Guilty_AI
Member
eh, its bad comparing different types of entertainment like that.
I mean, even with other games, think about it like this: by your logic everyone should be playing Factorio -> $30 for hundreds or even thousands of hours of playtime.
Same also apply to games like Kerbal Space Program, Minecraft, Elite Dangerous, No Man's sky, some MP games or games with lots of community content.
My biggest problem with the $70 price tag is that the content that comes with these games just often isn't good enough to justify it. I already thought $60 didn't.
Dumb stories, watered down gameplay and loads of padded content, they're charging $70 for that more often than not.
I mean, even with other games, think about it like this: by your logic everyone should be playing Factorio -> $30 for hundreds or even thousands of hours of playtime.
Same also apply to games like Kerbal Space Program, Minecraft, Elite Dangerous, No Man's sky, some MP games or games with lots of community content.
My biggest problem with the $70 price tag is that the content that comes with these games just often isn't good enough to justify it. I already thought $60 didn't.
Dumb stories, watered down gameplay and loads of padded content, they're charging $70 for that more often than not.
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