Console gamers love to pay more for their games. I was walking into EBGames yesterday and looking at Spider-Man 3. Same goes for Superman Returns and a few other cross-platforms “average” games.
On the other hand Overlord is looking above-average, but they are a ‘much’ smaller release title, according to EBGames. I had to go into the store specifically just to reserve a copy (regardless of which platform I wanted to reserve it for).
With that being said, hell yeah I’m paying $20 less for the better version.
Weird, I thought it was more because half of PC gamers are elitist and won’t buy a game that’s on a console (controls, interface, whatever) and the other half own the console and would rather sit on the couch and play it on the big screen.
The first trend occurs because console ports are often, or even usually, done badly. Trust me, I’ve tried a lot of them. The second trend I can’t see as a huge issue, though some people give that reasoning. I mean, I sit a lot closer to my monitor than I do to my living room TV, so the effective difference is minor. Plus, monitors have always been better displays; TVs have caught up only recently and only for a minority.
If somebody wants to pay $20 more to play the same game at a lower resolution and with inferior controls just because now they can do it on a couch, well hell, go right ahead.
I guess it wasn’t in this thread, so I’ll point out again that console games have a much higher resale value. So it’s on “$20 more” if you never ever plan to get rid of it.
Typically the price difference between PC & console versions is $10; sometimes it’s $20; once in a while, it’s even $30 (e.g., Spider-man 3). Also note price disparities between X360 / PS3 games (usually $60) and the last-gen (usually only PS2 now) versions ($40 or $50).
Some of it is due to licensing fees: I don’t know how much they are now, but I thought for new games it was ~$12 the last two generations. Some of it is a question of what the average MSRP for a particular platform is: PC, Wii, and last-gen consoles usually don’t go above $50; while X360 and PS3 pegged $60 as the new standard price-point. Some of it is due to perceived value: the X360 and PS3 are more high-end, so their versions are seen as “better” and therefore worth more (at least by the manufacturer, if not necessarily the consumer), which is independent of how much it costs to produce; in much the same way, say, CDs were more expensive than audio tapes and DVDs were more expensive than VHS tapes. Finally, of course, the publishers and developers will tell you that next-gen game development is more expensive while the install base is smaller, so they need to price games higher to defray costs.
Maybe you guys can straighten me out, but it seems like unless you already have a Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for your pc you are going to spend the same amount for the game in any case. The receiver costs $19.99. I’m running Vista if it matters, and yes I know you can play with the mouse/keyboard combo but that was awful in the demo.
Weak argument. I just sold a bunch of 360 games on Ebay this week. Chromehounds and PDZ went for $8. Crackdown and Dead Rising went for $23-$25 (the same as Red Steel went for). Gears and R6V went for $36 each, but this differential in resale values should only be a significant consideration for people who earn like, minimum wage.
Personally I’ve all but stopped buying PC games in stores, unless it’s for a game I just can’t wait for, like MTW2. Otherwise, I’ve gotten probably ten of my last twelve purchases on Gogamer.com, when the titles pop up in their 48hour madness sales for huge savings. On average I’ve saved something like 50%. Just recently I picked up Gun and Godfather for $5 each… Sure, everyone else’s long done with them, but I was still working through Stalker (for 15% off, 35$) and Resident Evil 4 (25% off, $20) so what do I care!
Did we not just talk about this in a different thread… you can buy a 360 wired controller for HALF the price of a wireless controller+wireless adapter. Plus, you don’t need to buy a controller to play Overlord.
So no, you aren’t going to spend the same amount of money.
I just finished with the demo of Overlord. It’s pretty good, with quite off-beat humour. It certainly doesn’t feel like a budget title at all and I am certainly going to grab a copy once it’s released.
Just for clarity, it was never my intention to suggest Overlord was budgetware. I did say Codemaster’s PC pricing SUGGESTED budgetware status, and for ME PERSONALLY who likes long, involved games with a ton of replay value the demo of Overlord seem to suggested a “Fable” like game.
On another note, do bargain PC game priced indicate that PC gaming is d0med or in a great place for those with the hardware? I’m really trying to see if there is an industry wide phenomenon at play in this simple case study. Spider Man 3 and others say yes. Thanks for the replies.
