It's CRAZY how quickly games drop in price so soon after release these days.

kearneybobs

It might be the Christmas rush and all that but I'm astounded as to how quickly games are dropping in price so soon after launch. Saints Row the 3th, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed Rev, Battlefield3 Batman. They're all dropping down to the incredibly reasonable price of €25 or so. Some of these are flash deals, but most of the retailers seem to be doing it one after the other. The only one to REALLY buck this trend id Modern Warfare 3.

It's been happening quite a lot in recent years and has gotten crazy in the last couple of months. Is this an indication of the way games are going to be sold from now on.

A lot of these are DLC heavy games, possibly getting price reductions to increase the potential for DLC sales? Is this an attempt by the publishers to reduce trade ins by lowering prices but increasing 1st hand sales?

Dont get me wrong though, I LOVE a bargain. It's making me think that purchasing a game these days is about whether you want preorder DLC v's the cheaper prices/often partially gimped games.


I'm not complaining in the slightest, but I just think it's crazy. Anyone else?

Overheal

Its been thee model for years. I rarely ever buy anything at launch, for several reasons including the fact that launch prices are inflated; plus, hardware - you can buy newer hardware and play older/slightly older titles at their full tilt spec without sacrificing your left kidney for a $400 GPU. Launch day high-end gaming is far too expensive, just with anything of the sort. Cars, Movies, you name it. Everything gets cheaper with time if you dont mind it being a little aged.

jaykhunter

Yep, it's awesome. Launch is when most of the sales happen (that first 2 weeks) and after that you're looking at stragglers who haven't given in to the hype - so you gotta entice them in; and the only thing u have is dropping the price.

Think about brand new cars, as soon as you buy one at the dealership - as soon as it hits the road; ta-da! knock 20% off it's worth.

spix

Part of the reason is definitely down to competition between online retailers. So many people buy stuff online nowadays even a 1 euro difference in price could bring thousands of sales which you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Depends on how much money the retailer gets from the game of course, if they can get the games cheaper from the supplier after launch they will of course drop the price too.

its a pity places like gamesnash can't offer these kinds of prices

ShadowHearth

i skiped on good few things this year. january will be a great month to buy bargain for myself

still waiting for rage to be for 10eu on PC . i think its not that far away

johnny_ultimate

It tends to happen in-line with the console lifespan too. As the tech ages, there's less 'prestige' associated with the console. By the time the PS2 etc... reached their final sprint to the finish line, there were very few games being released at full price in the first place. As soon as a new console is released, you're pretty much guaranteed that the old 50-60 euro RRP will be put back in place for a year or two, before it drops back down to 44.99 or so. Indeed, until a year or two ago you'd be hard pressed to find a new 360 / PS3 game retailing for less than 60 euro, and the price drops were less significant.

The easiest solution? Unless you're dying to get your hands on a game (or unless that game is a first party Wii / CoD game) just wait a few weeks. The dividends are truly worth it.

spix

i got deus ex human revolution for 8 euro delivered off zavvi last week, it was on sale and had a 10 percent code too. to think i was going to get in at gamestop on launch !

Hogzy

LOL. MW3 is £25 on Amazon now on all platforms

EDIT: Sorry that bargain alerts thread actually linked to Battlefield.

Retr0gamer

I'm not complaining.

TiGeR KiNgS

'Price skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time. It allows the firm to recover its sunk costs quickly before competition steps in and lowers the market price'.

so not crazy at all.

Retr0gamer

A remember at the start of this generation that games would be much higher in price because of increased developer costs and a new release was 75-80 euros. Funnily enough the PC release of the same game was only 40 euros. Now that's some serious price scamming.

kearneybobs

TiGeR KiNgS wrote: »

'Price skimming is a pricing strategy in which a marketer sets a relatively high price for a product or service at first, then lowers the price over time. It allows the firm to recover its sunk costs quickly before competition steps in and lowers the market price'.

so not crazy at all.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

A remember at the start of this generation that games would be much higher in price because of increased developer costs and a new release was 75-80 euros. Funnily enough the PC release of the same game was only 40 euros. Now that's some serious price scamming.

Skimming...scamming.... same thing :pac:

I understand that there are business practices that invole the lowering of games prices of time but this has been happening so quickly after launch that it's kinda shocking (in a good way) to see Skyrim et al for €25. A game that is well capable of sustaining sales for a relatively long time and didnt really show sign in recent weeks of stopping, but then it gets dropped in price like that.

This sort of stuff used to happen way back when, but never on the time scale we are experiencing today. Never in 2006-2009 would we see these type of high calibre game drop in price SO quick. It just seems to be the trend these days.

Anyone else think it could also be down to the payoff between getting the games into as many hands as possible and trying to recoup some of that loss with DLC sales, in the process attempting to reduce trade ins. Or is it more so about the retailers vying for our monies?

Helix

games sell most of what they're going to sell within a few weeks of launch, after that it's usually just about clearing inventory and getting rid of what's left over

megaten

I think it's great. I've only ever paid full price for one xbox 360 game.

Shiminay

The nature of pre-launch promotion too means that it's media blitz for months before release to drive pre-sales and the first 2 weeks post launch and then you hear *nothing* about the game so the only incentive to buy from a shop is price and thinking "oh yea, I remember something about that being good and sure if it's only €25 I may as well."

Nody

I think DLCs play a big part of it as noted; players are not going to buy DLCs if they game don't have a following (esp. online games) and unlike boxes in stores DLC tend to be sold directly by the publisher only (i.e. no middle man and all profit goes to the publisher rather then at small margin to stores).

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

A remember at the start of this generation that games would be much higher in price because of increased developer costs and a new release was 75-80 euros. Funnily enough the PC release of the same game was only 40 euros. Now that's some serious price scamming.

While the inital costs of games this gen were stupidly high, there is still a premium on console games for a real reason, namely costs associated with dealing with the platform holders. Costs which, thankfully, don't apply on the PC.

As for the price drops, what I'd like to know is whether the wholesale price of the game is dropping to the same degree or is part of it just the retailers reducing their margin over time. As Helix says, most games will sell the most copies in the inital month or so and after that retailers will be looking at clearing the space for the next lot of big titles to come in.

youcancallmeal

MW3 is still pretty much full price in bricks and mortars stores in Dublin. I'll wait until January when it will hopefully drop in price.

Dont be at yourself

youcancallmeal wrote: »

MW3 is still pretty much full price in bricks and mortars stores in Dublin. I'll wait until January when it will hopefully drop in price.

Black Ops and MW2 both held their initial price for much longer than that. I don't expect MW3 to be any different.

Helix

cod is, strangely, one that probably wont drop til the next game arrives. it sells more in the first 24 hours than most other games sell in their entire shelf life, yet there's still demand for it there months after launch. it's a complete anomaly though

GavRedKing

I'll be picking up Assasins Creed 3 (PS3) when it drops in price anyway. Played AC2 to death after picking up for cheap so going to go the same route with AC3.

marco_polo

youcancallmeal wrote: »

MW3 is still pretty much full price in bricks and mortars stores in Dublin. I'll wait until January when it will hopefully drop in price.

Good luck with that, a month after release you'd be lucky to see Activision reducing the price of the previous version. :pac:

LighterGuy

I was actually keeping an eye on Call Of Duty Black Ops the last year. It was 50 euro right up until MW3 came out in every retail shop I checked (Game, gamestop, hmv, smyths etc) Even the preowned was around 45 euro! (rip off)

Hogzy

gavredking wrote: »

I'll be picking up Assasins Creed 3 (PS3) when it drops in price anyway. Played AC2 to death after picking up for cheap so going to go the same route with AC3.

Assassins Creed 3 (Brotherhood) is already £10 in most online shops.

Bonesy.

I cant find SR3 or FIFA 12 for under 45e anywhere..

gizmo

Bonesy. wrote: »

I cant find SR3 or FIFA 12 for under 45e anywhere..

Currently available from Gamestation UK for £19.99 plus £2.95 for delivery to Ireland.

K.O.Kiki

It's also a supply-and-demand thing.

Halo 1, for instance, was so in-demand that retailers would've been stupid NOT to keep it at full price for the 3 years between release & Halo 2.

Overheal

Retr0gamer wrote: »

A remember at the start of this generation that games would be much higher in price because of increased developer costs and a new release was 75-80 euros. Funnily enough the PC release of the same game was only 40 euros. Now that's some serious price scamming.

Ahm, when??? I only remember when the 360 came out and the average price of new games jumped from 50 squid to 60. And everybody was like WOAH THERE BUDDY the end times are here. But no I don't recall any new release title of any description being 80 yo yo sqiddles.

NTMK

Overheal wrote: »

Ahm, when??? I only remember when the 360 came out and the average price of new games jumped from 50 squid to 60. And everybody was like WOAH THERE BUDDY the end times are here. But no I don't recall any new release title of any description being 80 yo yo sqiddles.

At the launch of the 360 i remember buying COD 2 for €75 and a few months later G.R.A.W for €65

Cherry_Cola

I remember Gun being €75 for the 360 aswell.

It is certainly crazy how quickly they drop in price these days, I know it's always generally been the case but it's happening at a much faster rate these days.

Perhaps it's due to the large amount of titles released these days not to mention that a lot of folk these days have 2-3 consoles including handhelds.

It's a good thing though if you're willing to wait a little. It's possible to pick up games these days for less than €10 which certainly didn't happen very often with the last 2 generations of consoles, at least not in my experience.

Retr0gamer

Overheal wrote: »

Ahm, when??? I only remember when the 360 came out and the average price of new games jumped from 50 squid to 60. And everybody was like WOAH THERE BUDDY the end times are here. But no I don't recall any new release title of any description being 80 yo yo sqiddles.

80 was the RRP most shops didn't sell it at that, some did. I remember buying Dead Rising for 75 in xtra vision. When the next generation rolls around they'll pull the same thing again.