Big-Budget Games, Little-Budget Gamers

Features | June 4th, 2009 by Staggs

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The release of “next-gen” consoles prompted a new generation of higher costs to gamers. Having the most expensive games, bigger budget productions, and more intense gaming situations, gave many hardcore gamers hard-ons, but most of the new “casual” gamers are stuck being just that, casual.

priceiswrong The term casual implies that a person plays a video game only once and a while. They buy a game and stick with it before moving onto another. However, with games priced in the $50 to $60-range these casual gamers aren’t being enticed to become more avid consumers. People become forced to make many more choices than ever before: “Do I buy Call of Duty, or Halo? I can only afford one, so…”

The video game industry is setting up for some sort of a downfall by leaving the casual gamers to make such expensive decisions. I’d love to own all the sweet games out there, but I cannot afford to buy any more than, say, three a year.

Oh but wait, have they found the alternative in used-game sales? Gamestop, once only showcasing new covered games in shiny plastic, is now displaying “Get it Used!” signs and allowing gamers to trade in old games for more old, reduced-price games. We cannot go into a Gamestop without noticing that there are more used games on display than there are actual new ones. This is why publishers are losing out on used-game sales: their new games are too expensive, and used games are a better deal.

This is a problem for us gamers. I, once a hardcore gamer purchasing 6+ games a year, am now only buying a measly 2 or 3 games… used! Why? Because a new one is too expensive for me and the rewards are limited. The system is thus, broken.

Will the issue of pricing ever be resolved, I don’t know. I’m hopeful, because I do want to buy more games and I feel this is not an isolated case.