Thoughts on rising game prices

When the XBOX 360 was released, it introduced gamers to $59.99 games. I personally thought, ah, it’s $10, and if I wait a month I can get it for 50 used. Now that I own 11 of them, I have quite different feelings. I don’t mind quality games like Oblivion and Ghost Recon that I’ll be playing for a long time costing that much, but stuff like Tomb Raider: Legend and King Kong should be $40 or $50 at most. Why? Because you go through them once or twice and there’s nothing else. You’re done. Basically, what I’m saying is, if a game is less then 20 hours long and has no Live play, it shouldn’t cost $60. Even Need For Speed Most Wanted should have a reduced price tag because the Live play is pretty much a pile of unleaded petroleum and virtually un-playable.

What I’m also pissed off about is sports games. They come out every damn year with a few added features and they figure they can charge gamers $60 when the exact same game is on current-gen consoles for $40 or $50? I think not. My other problem is the amount of ads they’ve put into these games. If you played Fight Night Round 3 or pretty much any other 360 sports game, you probably noticed how many advertisements were in those games. In FNR3, ever freaking ring was sponsored and the replays were too. If they can get away with that level of ads, we should be able to get away with a $40 game. Either get rid of the ads or get rid of the high price tag.

I’m worried about this especially now with the Playstation 3 on the rise. Since XBOX 360 games cost $60 and they’re on regular DVDs, use the Blu-Ray logic and you’ll realize that PS3 games will cost a minimum of $70. Think about the fact that Blu-Ray discs hold 53 GB so games will be much bigger, and I think we’re looking at price tags of around $80. Frankly, I can’t see them pulling that off. I understand why they're that high, but in my eyes it’s just another reason Blu-Ray should have been left out of the PS3.

With price tags possibly at $80, what I spoke about earlier will be even worse. Sports titles for that much would be the biggest rip-off I’ve ever seen, as they won’t use more then a tenth of the capacity of those discs. This is probably my biggest problem with the Playstation 3, and the only reason I can see to buy one now is if Assassin’s Creed is exclusive to the system. I’m glad that Nintendo is trying to counter this by offering games at a lower price, and I hope Microsoft and Sony can figure out something as well, because I’m not happy about getting 7 hours of game or the biggest bunch of ads I’ve ever seen for $60.

Your thoughts?