14 DAY TRIAL // Maybe it was due to last year's “economic discomfort” that publishers felt, but game prices have been steadily rising and have made themselves all snug and comfortable around the $60 price. The old days when big titles were priced at around 40$ and the shier ones had a launch price of $25-$30 are all but gone, but it doesn't mean that games have gotten significantly better or that they offer more. If anything, the fact that games have started to become a casual hobby should have helped drop the price, as the market and sale numbers increased, but it didn't. However, some people in the business think that game prices will soon start to go back to what they once were.
Game Informer had a chance to talk to EA Canada senior producer Jason DeLong and the topic of game prices was one of the things that popped up in the conversation. “Games are getting more expensive, and times are tough, and it’s getting harder to purchase every game you want. So, how can we keep people playing and offer them more but not have to make them break the bank to do it? It’s going to be an interesting creative problem for us to solve,” said DeLong.
Unfortunately, it looks like the solution the EA Canada's senior producer sees for cheaper games is a very misleading one. As he sees it, DLCs and episodic content are what games will start heading towards. “I think that we’re going to start to see – maybe not in the next year, but in the near future – games go down the route of smaller up-front experiences and lower prices at the beginning," DeLong stated, "and then the ability to extend the game through episodic material or future feature material. I think that’s a direction we’re probably heading in.”
So, while game prices are dropping, the fact that the actual sum of money invested in a game won't shrink, but actually increase, isn't that comforting at all. While the price we'll have to accommodate in order to get a release title will drop, and will be able to feel better about ourselves about not spending more on our personal little hobby than we do on general family expenses, the fact that this release title will be a lesser experience will slowly drive us away from games.
The actual amount of money spent won't drop, and our wallets will tell us this very quickly and the first impression of an unfinished game that these cheaper titles will give us will become the general view of the entire game. DLCs should be additional content brought to the full game, once fans have had a hands-on experience with the game and offered some feedback, not planned beforehand and later released for profit.