Let’s face facts here — games are fucking expensive in this day and age. $60 for a game has some either renting or looking for other ways to play the games that they want and love. THQ President, Brian Farrell, believes that games should start at a lower price in hopes of reaching more people.
In New York City at the BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment conference, Farrell told attendees,
It’s not [about] how high a price we can get [away with], but how many users we can get.
This is probably one of the first and only times you’ll hear something like this. He believes that selling games at a lower price would create more revenue for the more popular titles. While Farrell seems to be talking some sense, he then goes on to state what appears to be ulterior motives for selling new games at $40.
With a series of downloadable content so people can extend their experience, people might end up spending $129.99. We think this type of game monetization is going to work.
While DLC is always optional, it seems that their hope is to make up for that $20 cut on DLC. Makes sense, but let’s just hope that THQ starts to lead by example and cuts their games down to $40 apiece at launch. I for one would love to start saving some money when I buy games.
THQ: Games should be $40 [GamesRadar]
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If games where 40 bucks a piece i would definitely purchase more games it would make alot more sense to make it less rather than to keep games up there in prices especially collectors editions.
I like this idea. $60 for games is outrageous. $50 was alright.
I’ve always believed that a lower price leads to more sales and more net profit.
I would really love to see this happen because I always have some sort of trouble gathering up money for new games I have brought in the past.
on paper this sounds like but there is always a chance of somebody making bad games on purpose and try to get a point across they need more money to make great games
It makes sense, it lowers the entry point for a specific game and allows players who truly enjoyed it to continue playing for a smaller price, while those who simply didn’t enjoy it as much will move on to the next title.
$40 is a lot easier to swallow than $60. This business model will essentially just give players more of what they want for a small fee, which is completely reasonable.
Oh boy…You know Bobby Kotick and John Riccietello aren’t going to like this idea at all. I expect a reply from Bobby Kotick in the next few days explaining to us how it’s a bad idea to lower the price of games, and how it’s in the best interest of the consumer that games actually get bumped up $20 in price….wouldn’t surprise me.
On a serious note though, I see some good and some bad to this. The good is obvious, a cheaper game and the choice to buy additional DLC content later if I wanted. The bad, are we going to be delivered a watered down gaming experience because content that SHOULD be in the game, or is already on the disk but locked, is left out on purpose to drive DLC transactions?
On the surface it looks/sounds good though.
would be fucking great, but i don’t think it’ll happen
I would LOVE to see this, and would probably add up to more sale for them in the end. I think it is a win win situation, but then again I am sure all those market research groups would beg to differ.
I’m not gonna lie – I’ve contemplated asking my friends to torrent games for me, or even renting the game, then burning it onto a disc because of the fact that they are extremely expensive now. I never have, but the fact that I, and most likely many other people, should be a warning sign to a lot of developers out there
I think lowering the price of games would certainly help prevent piracy on some level. While it wouldn’t be a huge difference, there would be some drop in the amount of games being pirated.
I personally would just love to see games go down in price because I’m broke. $60 is a lot of money when you don’t have that much of it.
That’s what I meant. People who are broke (not to single anyone out) are often the people you, or at least me, hear about pirating games. It’s sad to hear, but it’s true.