Weekend Debate: Putting a price on fun

I decide that im going to buy it, when i find something interesting in the trailers, that keeps me hooked to the game and i say to myself “Hey this looks fun. Il check the next trailers if they gonna keep it up with showing more fun stuff, or destroy the trailers with some boring stuff”. If a developer have shown enough of interessting/fun stuff in the trailers. Then i decide to buy the game.

I try to look at the amount of hours I can get out of a game against it’s price. I think that’s why I love RPGs so much considering how many hours I can get out of them.

There are some good smartphone games but they never manage to hold me for long.

I think that a lot of people expect more for less nowadays and are too quick to jump from game to game. I like to get as much out of each game as I can because that’s how you are going to get the most value for your money.

If i get fun out of it, it’s worth the money. End of

As long its gameplay is great. For example borderlands 2 has really got me hooked for the time being and i think its worth more than the 50 dollars. If theres not a demo i can play i judge by gameplay videos. Even though its has maybe 2 hours of gameplay i would still be willing to pay if it were 2 good and fun hours

I’m currently in gymnasium, where I am studying 7 hours a day, and I spend 2-3 hours a day on homework (Sometimes much more), and I play Badminton 2 hours, twice a week.

I really don’t have much spare time on my hands. And since I live at home, and don’t have many expenses, I currently have about 4000€.

So money really isn’t a problem for me, time is. The only real value in a game, to me, is quality. I bought Uncharted 3 at release, and even though the single player mode only took me about 6 hours to complete, I was happy with my purchase, because I really enjoyed the game!

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like a game that provides quantity as well, as long as it’s good. I’ve spent well over 60 hours on Skyrim, and well over 400 hours on Kingdom Hearts 2, and I enjoyed those games just as much.

Still, the quality of the game is by far the most important aspect to me. – When you don’t have much time, you gotta make every moment count. I actually think the same thing can be said for life in general.

Before buying the game, I usually read/listen to game critics (not reviewers) as they focus on the flaws of the game. So if a game looks like fun, but isn’t from a series I love (like MGS, Final Fantasy or Dead Space to name a few) and doesn’t have a demo to try out, it will have to wait for its turn.

But if I buy a game, two factors let me decide if the game is “worth the money”.

First of all, is it fun. I don’t care if the game is an epic 30-hour tale or an 8-hour ‘interactive action movie’. If I had fun and wanted to play it again, it was worth the money.

The other factor then…well, I like to feel, that the game has been made with its players in mind. I hate when we are treated like walking ATMs. We’ve paid for the game, so give us a complete product or a proper expansion. That’s why I wait for the GOTY or complete editions. Thanks to companies that sell season passes or plot-important DLCs, buying a ‘vanilla’ game is not worth it. It’s better to wait for a bundle.

For me, it’s about the experience that it delivers. The Project Zero games are some of my all time favourite games, and the most recent one for Wii took me seven or eight hours to finish. Even though it was only that long, the experience justified it. The same applies to a greater extent to Journey. £10 and it took me less than two hours, but it was justified by the experience.

Comparatively, Final Fantasy XIII is a huge game, but one which I did not enjoy and was therefore not worth my money.

Basically, the core experience that a videogame contains it much more important to me than the volume of game-time there is.

Of course, games like Persona 3 tick all the boxes.

I play alot of smartphone games, the amount of time I have spent playing monster dash and jetpack joyride is scary.also me and my daughter play angry birds, taking turns and talking tactics. I would never pay ps3 game prices for smartphone games as even though I have invested alot of time into them it tends to be in short bursts, and due to lack of real quality and not much in the sense of story I cant justify a high price tag. Good games for when your short on time, in the bath, or visiting your gran

I think the production value is the most immediate factor that comes in to play when deciding monetary value. To take your own example, Darksiders is vey cleary a much bigger production than Super Crate Box, so I feel okay with it having a bigger price tag.

Precedent is probably the second major factor. Each platform has it’s accepted softare price ranges. PC and Wii are cheaper than PS3 and 360. PSN and XBLA are cheaper than retail but higher than mobile. But Playstation Mobile is drifting somewhere in between the PSN and mobile price ranges, so you get a negative reaction.

Last and perhaps controversially least comes percieved play value or play time. I think the many people would put this first just don’t realise how big an effect the first two are having on their decisions. I might wait until a PS3 games is £20 before buying because it seems short or low on content, but £20 is still more than I’d spend for a game on any other platform, and it’s acceptable because of the first two factors.

In my opinion i would never pay even £15 for a puzzle game because they are short and are typically easy, were as i would be happy to pay more than £40 for an open world game like Fallout or Skyrim simply because it can provide 100+ hours of game-play and you can replay it in different ways with endless possibility’s. I think Call of duty is worth about £30 because it’s really the same game year after year but it has lots of multiplayer activity. Games i would definetly pay £40 would be the Last of Us, Watch Dogs and Beyond two souls because of their unique gameplay. There is no price on fun because if it’s what you like you will buy it no matter what price, if you dont like it you wont buy it.

I used to buy lots of the big AAA games at launch as well as many PSN titles but 2011 really changed things for me.
It was the year that TOO MANY GOOD GAMES were released ! As a result many loved devs were forced to close shop
Even if you have lots of time and money still no way of playing them all.

Now i have less time and money so value is most important! re play value especially.
Multiplayer and or leaderboards is what keeps a game going
Cross buy is a good incentive for ps3/vita owners possibly not that great as far as profits go ?
This seems like a apropriate time to thank sony for the diverse library of games on offer even if they aren’t as profitable as mindless re iterations of what has been done before.

Hmm Tokyo Jungle for £0.00 you say? Well the game looks interesting but I’m not sure if it’ll be worth the money.

Tell you what, give me a fiver and I’ll take a voucher off your hands, how’s that .

motorstorm rc has to be the best buy ever !

I know what you mean Fred about the Super Crate Box game.I’ve had the same thing with angry birds i must have played 50 hours of that game and now with the facebook angry birds i can’t stop playing,competing against my friends is great fun(even though I always win)haha
It make you wonder are these the games of the future there isn’t one game i have on ps3 that I’ve played 50 hours or more on.I think games of the future will probably be games you play for 20 minutes at a time but be incredibly fun.Now i better get back to my angry birds.

to start off with deciding whether a game is worth the money depends on not just how many collective hours it can steal from you but about how the time felt. for example a small game like angry birds could easily steal untold almost limitless hours from you but unlike say, retail games or high quality download titles it would feel wasted and just taken from some bored 15 minutes here and there. to decide whether a game is worth the higher price is about both whether you would go out of your way to play it and how much you enjoy the time you put aside. like when i first got metal gear solid 4 and was really into it i would take aside time from watching tv or speed through other tasks so i could play it more and after i had completed it every year or so i would find myself going back to the same because of this it became worth the 40 pounds but on the other hand with minis like the impossible game i would play them only from absolute boredom or to kill small amounts of time collectively all my minis cost a quarter of metal gear solid and have been used twice as much but i wouldn’t pay even close to that for them because i wouldn’t play them instead of anything

I honestly don’t think any AAA, big launch title is worth £40. Or any new game for that matter.

I think the smartphone market and web games take off because they offer fun (not as much as some AAA titles – Borderlands 2 for example) and are cheap. Simple as. Were they priced higher, they wouldn’t sell.

I always like to compare the game industry with the movie industry. The budgets nowadays are similar, as is the number of people working on the product and the time invested. Yet you’re arverage blu-ray is half the price of a new game release.

One would argue that the film only provides 2-3 hours of entertainment, where a game could offer countless hours – however that would be to disregard the extras that most movies come with now… Much more to see.

So – bottom line – no game to me is worth a £40 value. I always buy in the sale and ultimately enjoy my product just as much.

I don’t decide how much it’s worth – if it’s on sale for £20 or so – I will usually buy.

The greatest problem with mobile games and their pricing is it’s inconsistency across platforms. A lot of the moaning originates from here with the same games on iPhone costing 69p, on Android often £1.39 (or free with ads) or on PlayStation’s minis for £2.99! Had they all the same price (even if it was all £2.99) then most gamers would feel they were getting their money’s worth. As it stands some obviously feel they’re getting ripped off – there’s no platform equality.

More to the topic at hand value and worth can only be determined by how an individual views that game. Personally I don’t enjoy RTS games so I’d never pay full price for one, nor would I pay full price for a beat-em-up. I’d quite happily pay over the odds for an RPG because they’re my favourite genre and the same goes for most games that pique my interest.

It really comes down to how much you want something. People always are willing to pay more when it’s something they’re interested in and less when they’re not.

There are certain developers that consistently deliver great games, and therefore you trust that the games they put out will be worth the money.
No matter what a team like Naughty dog does, I’m going to buy. After 4 great Crash games, 4 Jak games and 3 Uncharted games, its a sure fire thing.

For games from smaller indie developers, this website is great. Its a level playing field. Previews for niche games have a tendency to get less coverage on some of the bigger multi-platform websites. Most don’t get any. Reading blog posts directly from the developers allows you to get a closer look at the process of developing games. You can also clearly see the passion they have for their product, which makes me more likely to buy their games.

As well as this, certain games have a crossover effect in that aspects of them tie into non-gaming interests. In example – Rob Zombie’s music being featured in Twisted Metal = instant buy .
Explosive car combat and heavy metal? That’s probably the greatest combination to ever happen, EVER!

Oh yeah my other point was that there are so many good games out that i didn’t get to play at launch on sale with all dlc for 1/3 the price of the latest shiny new “must buy” 9/10 game.

Australia gets shafted with retail prices as well as psn prices,our dollar is stronger than the greenback yet we pay much more.
Unless you wait for the price to drop and it wont be long till that happens eg fallout new vegas ultimate ed for $30 instead of buying it at launch for $90 then spending another $60+ on dlc.
Patience is the way to maximise you gaming dollar

A demo is a good way of seeing if it is worth the money but sometimes dont help. As in the case of Driver SF and Need 4 Speed The Run i hated the demo’s but when i brought the full game when it came down in price i wish i got on day one.
I play a mobile game called Wrestling Revolution which is pretty cheap to buy and i think it is better then the WWE games better gameplay yet every year i spend £40 on the newest WWE game hoping the gameplay will change.

I pay for the experiance, not for the time that I play a game.
A simpel, addictive game for 50 cents can be fun and I could play it casualy for many hours but it doesn’t have a story, voiceacters, setpeaces and a group of 200+ peeps working on it. It’s worth 50 cents and the small group that made it can get a decent income from it. On the other had we have games like Uncharted, a 10 hour sp rollercoaster ride that costed a lot to make. I’ll play it at least 4 time and love to go back to it in the future like a good movie or book. The simple game gets replaced quick by the next fun thing that costs 50 cent.

Here are some questions that i often ask myself

Should games try to move more units at a lower price or less at a higher price ?
I am sure Rayman origins would have sold much better at a lower price people cant seem to hand over the full price for a 2d platformer

Is putting DLC on the disc for people to pay to unlock cheating consumers ?
Capcom have lost the trust in many gamers including myself SFIV was ridiculous with the different versions

Are vita games too expensive ?
I only buy them on sale

It’s not an easy answer for me.

You can say I put games in 4 categories: Day one buy, promotion grab, bargain opportunity, no chance I’ll ever play this so don’t bother.

When I’m playing the game, I sometimes regret the money I paid because it seemed something it’s not.
But sometimes there’s that game “haunts” me, I’m really having such a blast, that when I’m not playing, I want to be playing, and I think about possible solutions to that particular part I got stuck or I started elaborating theories of what’s going on, or what is going to happpen.
That for me is the mark of a truly amazing game that’s worth what I paid for and perhaps even more.

When I deem a game value for money it is because it has met my two criteria: Overall Feel and Lasting Appeal.

Overall Feel refers to the key parts of the game that make it whole. It has to sell me on the Story, World, Characters, Music and most of all the Gameplay. A demo or gameplay walkthrough video is what convinces me if it meets it.

Lasting Appeal is how many hours of play the game offers. This goes back to the Quantity vs Quality Weekend Debate where I stood firmly on the Quantity side of the fence. A Long Game always meets this criteria, shorter games are a harder sell.

Part 1

Well I’m an “old” multiplatform gamer. I buy more games than I can dare to play, with the side effect that I barely ever play games right at release. Instead I pick a title from my backlog that I currently have the mood for.

Few exceptions this year are for example: Crusader Kings 2, Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2 and soon enough Football Manager 2013.

That I bought D3 … gosh, we all make mistakes.
I got Borderlands 2 for 16€, that was so cheap that it didn’t really matter. Crusader Kings 2 was worth every penny with more than 240 hours in, according to Steam. Football Manager should be even worse.

So I buy full price when I have the 100% certainty that a title will give me plenty of joy over a very long period of time or if it wouldn’t make sense to wait as every friend is playing a title right now (Guild Wars 2).

For pretty much everything else there are price limits, depending on the game’s platform. I won’t buy Journey for example before it drops to 5-6€. I know that I will like it and that it is a great game. But why pay more than necessary when I wouldn’t play it anytime soon? Heck, I haven’t even touched Uncharted 2 yet.

Part 2

The funny thing is that I sometimes make purchase of surprising quality. Space Pirates and Zombies (SPAZ) was such a game, that I got for 2,50€. The game deserved so much more as I recognized soon enough, so I decided to gift several copies away to thank the developers.

So the end of my story, I prefer to support many developers a bit instead of few developers a lot. Exceptions are those with a proven track record of high quality entertainment. And if I have the impression that someone deserves a bigger reward I’m willed to grant it afterwards.

Tough question. If you would ask it 1-2 years ago, I would probably say that I decide if a game is “worth the money” by a mix of different factors such as:
- Do I like the franchise (positive experiences in the past)
- Is this game interesting (that’s a very subjective factor as anyone finds something else interesting)
- How long is it/replayability value (I’ve put both into the same point as they don’t necessarily need to occur together).

However, you’re asking this question now and these days the answer is very sad. Now I actually consider DLC as a strong factor

If a game has tons of DLC on launch, I’ll refuse to buy it. NO GAME IS WORTH SELLING IT IN PARTS … and, if I may add, planning to do so ahead with “at-launch-DLC” is just an insult to the gamer/customer and I’m willing to wait for a “complete” edition even if it’s 1-2 years rather than get milked by the greedy devs.

In answer to the TITLE of this blog post rather than the question asked itself, i cannot put a price on my Gaming. It truly is PRICELESS to me. Having spent the last 12 Years of my Life with my Girlfriend, maybe a month ago out of the blue i was told it was all over and that was that.

The ONLY thing that has and still IS helping me through it is my PlayStation 3, PS Vita and my Gaming.
So, again, gaming to me has always been important but now it really is priceless. Because it just helps me forget how Im feelng.

Id be lost without it.

I usually dont think of the price when it comes to games. If there is a game that I really want, I get it no matter what the price is or how other people view it.

Oh, forgot to mention Tales of Graces f as an example for the “I desperately want to see more from this developer / more games from this genre”.

Just ordered it because great JRPGs need and deserve any possible support. Of course I’d much rather prefer the ability to spread a better taste for games among other players, would be cheaper for myself.

The price we’re willing to pay for a game has nothing to do with how much fun a game is or how long it is. Is this year’s Call Of Duty more fun or longer than last year’s? No, or not enough to explain the difference in price when they appear next to each other on shop shelves. There’s a vast back catalogue of fun games and long games which most of us haven’t exhausted, but we buy new expensive games regardless – I can think of 3 reasons.

1. Novelty, could be a new experience or some more impressive graphics, but it has to be something we haven’t seen before.

2. Currency, especially with multiplayer games where the crowd follows new releases and you want to matchmake. See also annual sports franchises.

3. Nostalgia, something that makes us feel young again. Homage, fanservice, or remakes of things we liked in the past.

As far as PSN goes, I would also check the price of the game on disk before buying….

Answer’s actually very straightforward and probably stands for anything; value is judged by expectation. Your target expectation is set leading up to the purchase and if it no less than meets your expectations, it’s value for money. Obviously, the higher a title exceeds your expectation, the higher the value. I don’t see any reason a consumer would shell out expecting a poor product.

I could list my own preferences but these vary game to game hence the answer eg I expected Deus Ex:Human Revolution to be very stylish (I wasn’t wrong!) whereas I expected The Walking Dead to be sombre.

Playstation Plus is all i need,lots of great games and great discounts.Everybody should have it.

Any chance of a prize for the + plug

Hi Fred
Have you speak to the product manager about Sly demo? Answer me please :/

It’s quite simple really, if I reallocate enjoy playing the game and it keeps my attention to warrant fully playing it through to a conclusion then it’s worth the money, now with the cost of going to the cinema sitting at about £35 or more depending what you munch and slurp if a £40 or less game keeps me entertained for around 15-20 hours of play or much more in some cases then it makes it good value in my eyes.

Resident evil 6 on the other hand is not…….. It is extremely frustrating and will be traded in! Lol

I know in order to win a code I probably would have to write a long detailled answer, I could speak about playing time, genres, effort that was done to make a game, but in the end the truth is:

all these come into a decision to buy a game, but in the end I simply buy a game when I want it, mostly decided over the genre I just want to play next…

and when playing it I don’t really think about what I paid for it, if I have a bit more fun or less… the game needs to make me putting it in again and finshing it, help me forgetting the day job, the bills to pay and so… if it does so it was worth the money, if not i wasted some…

For me a huge factor is the developer behind the game, anything with Rockstar on the package and you know it will be top quality! From production values to story to game design and all the way to good quality content. For me a game has to be something I can dig deep into and has me coming back for more! I definitely prefer quality over quantity but why settle for one when you can have both?

I dearly wish I owned a Tardis. Then I could take the price whiners back to the late 70′s/ early 80′s when a console would cost the best part of a months wages and a game the best part of a weeks wages. Then I would leave them there to moan alone and unloved with no internet to vent their rage on.

This question of price is another what’s one man’s meat is another man’s poison question. The question of value is a simple equation of desirability of the game to the individual in relation to the available price. Short, cheap games are like junk food. Nice now and again but not all the time. £40 games need to be a great showpiece coupled with a reasonable longevity. Like a fine meal designed to be enjoyed, savoured & talked about in years to come.

Gamers today rejoice, don’t quibble. You’ve never had it so good. Or cheap.

I rarely have any money to purchase a game, so I take making my money’s worth seriously. I decide if the game’s worth it based on quantity, quality and franchise.

Quantity: The longer, the better. I’d rather purchase something that entertains me for a long time, instead of something 5 hours long.

Quality: Fuel is huge, known for having one of the largest gaming maps ever; however, it wouldn’t be fun for me; ICO is short, but it is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I’m willing to shell out more for ICO than for Fuel.

Franchise: I display bias towards certain franchises. i.e. Persona 4 Arena: I’m not good at fighting games, and despite it being awesome, it doesn’t fall under the categories above for me. However, I’m a fan of the SMT series, so I’m more than willing to pay full price for it. But, take BlazBlue, which is pretty much the same thing. I won’t be willing to pay the same for it.

As far as numbers go, I never pay more than 50€ – I don’t think most games are worth anything over that, and unfortunately, everything comes out here at 60€ or 70€. In my opinion, there are many overpriced games nowadays, though there are some gems that actually are worth much more than what they sell for.

Easy: how fun it is.

It is all fair and well saying: “that game was **** because it lasted six hours!”, but at the end of the day I’d rather play a game that is well structured and filled with memorable moments instead of a certain 100+ hour game that becomes frankly dull.

Call of Duty at £26/27 at a certain supermarket’s launch day promo is well worth the cash. Max Payne 3 at around 10 hours is also worth the cash because it is well structured.

But also value for money too, so those HD collections score an epic 11/10 from me – especially MGS, Sly, Jak and Ratchet.

Simple, a game is worth it’s money in a variety of ways, but i must say the biggest of these is after buying it, for instance RE6 on psn that it actually , you know works, or in my case (others to) it recognises that you are indeed the lawful owner, i ‘suppose’ once that aspect of a games value is either working correctly, OR a member of the store/blog team ‘bothers’ to reply to your enquiries and calls for help, then it’s just up to the individual to decide IF they enjoy, or think the game is value for money,.. btw Fred, on top of a games price ie £47.99 for RE6, how much ‘value’ would ‘You’ put on a ‘customer’ having both no sleep and then Having to go and do a days work ?. You Shouldn’t of Blanked ME…

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well to be honest it is worth it to me if the game is fresh and inspiring I like to see games challenge new concepts and ideas this inspires me to buy it as I know that the work is the developers love, determination and remain committed to provide a quality experience never mind other factors such as quantity as a good quality game can also have quality (Dark souls).

This can be seen in games like Flower which is a extreme of this case but generally as a rule of thumb games turn out good these games are not just shoveled out in a different package but original experiences which show a new vision and that’s what im after.

You, know this is quite a good question, I don’t find myself assigning a game to a price as I often know which games I want to purchase, but as you stated, many games that are great can be £2.40, they can be free and they can be 99p (The Impossible Game) I think price is more a marketing thing opposed to the quality of a game. Would I pay £40 for the walking dead? Of course i would, was such a great game! Was Terminator salvation worth £50 back in at launch, probably not!!

I guess it differs per person but that’s what’s great about prices! You have the choice to buy it now for x price or wait to purchase it at a price you think it is worth buying for!

I usually research a game, I catch a glimpse of it on a teaser trailer or by word of mouth and check some updates until release day. It all boggles down to how appealing the gameplay looks though, graphics don’t make the game. Originality is also a top factor, I’d much rather play something new and exciting than the next sequel.

First and foremost is the fun factor – a game can be hundreds of hours in length and have a multiplayer component but that won’t make the game worth buying unless its actually fun to play. This is a tricky thing because the game needs to be fun enough for you to want to actually pour doezens of hours into it. For example a game like Risen : Dark Waters has a tonne of content, but the gameplay is so unspired that you don’t have enough reason to want to see it to the end and explore all of its content. Whereas something along the lines of Skyrim or Mass Effect offers an engaging story with intuitive gameplay. When a game gives you enough of a reason to see it through to the end, then and only then is it worth the money. How much you pay for it however depends on the length. The aforementioned games like Skyrim would be worth full price because they offer enough bang for your buck, whereas a game such as Vanquish offers engaging gameplay but a very short campaign with little to do after does not give enough of a reason to purchase at full retail price on release.

At the end of the day however, the worth of a game is down to the gamer.

If a game drops near the £20 mark I will seriously consider buying it, but if I think the game will go cheaperI won’t buy it now but wait a little while longer. I love ME3 and would have happily paid the full price but when the internet decided the ending isn’t good I decided to wait for the price drop. Tokyo jungle is £9.99 but due to the strange nature of the game I doubt it will sell as well as other titles and the price will drop and then I’ll get it. I don’t care how much I pay unless I’m getting the best possible deals I’ll wait for tokyo jungle to go on sale and then decide if I want it. I wanted to get from dust but thought I’ll wait for the discount still waiting. I decide if the money is worth the game

As many have said in my opinion game-play and originality is what I look for most over graphics and high production values.
I would much rather spend £40 on a game and get 20 hours of great fun out of it than spend £5 and spend 40 hours or more having an ‘average’ time.
I don’t get why people moan about the price of games, especially the downloadable titles, take The Unfinished Swan for example, it is promising to be a highly original, well produced game that may not hold 50 hours of content but is all the better for it. I find it amazing that people on the blog post a couple of days ago were COMPLAINING at the £9.99 price tag, as I said then it is a sad state of affairs when people are unwilling to spend £10 on a new IP from a small studio start-up but are happy to throw down £40 for the next call of duty.
Got a bit of topic there but to be honest any game is worth its price tag if the customer is going to get fun out of it, some obviously more than others but even the most expensive games work out being very cheap compared to other entertainment experiences, for example a Cinema ticket cost about £10 nowadays’s for what, a two hour experience as opposed to the hours one typically gets out of a video-game.

I don’t decide what is worth my money, PS+ does

Well I do some hardcore research to see if the game makers are any good. The Quality of the game matters to me along with bugs, frame rate, and storyline. Not really care about online as I had and still got Playstation, Playstation 2 and really enjoyed both with no online.