Print

[Textbook]

I will admit right now, I am not a fan of Sony and I probably won't buy a PS3 or even think about buying one.  This is my first time even coming to the PS3 forums, because I read the news on XS.

My question here is how much are games going to cost for the PS3?

Based on the new press release from Ken Kutaragi:

QUOTE

To prevent piracy all PS3 games will come out on Blu-Ray discs only, not on CD/DVD.

Now let's compare:

Standard double-layer DVD - very cheap

HD-DVD - based on standard DVD principles, not too much more expensive

Blu-Ray - new technology that requires a new manufacturing process, making the discs much more expensive


An Xbox 360 game gets put on a standard double-layer DVD and the price tag for the game is $60.

Assuming that the development costs are the same, where will this put the price tag for PS3 games?

[kizmet]

THE GAMES WILL BE THE SAME PRICE AS 360!! As production volumes increase the production costs should fall and eventually be comparable to DVDs.

[calderra]

QUOTE(kizmet @ Mar 16 2006, 08:45 PM)

THE GAMES WILL BE THE SAME PRICE AS 360!! As production volumes increase the production costs should fall and eventually be comparable to DVDs.

Is "eventually" the same as "at launch"?
The price of 360 games will also probably fall, and even then, the discs would still be even cheaper than BluRay.

[yourM0M]

i'd hope sony would take a hit in the production cost if its really any more significant but anyway id hope they would take a hit for competition's sake

[kizmet]

QUOTE(calderra @ Mar 16 2006, 11:34 PM)

Is "eventually" the same as "at launch"?
The price of 360 games will also probably fall, and even then, the discs would still be even cheaper than BluRay.

obviously "eventually" is at launch as Bluray will have been out by then....

[DragoNs]

I say they will be like 65$ but i also say thats not really a problem because.. when people want things, people will buy it at any price, if they put $75 pricetag on a game i want, id buy it.. lol

[whiteblur67]

$60      

and all the 360 games will drop to $50 when ps3 is released

[CAjr45]

actually IMO

when ps3 comes out xbox probably will lower games to 50$ but blu-ray wont THAT cheaper. 50 gigs today is still 50gigs in the future and you not only paying for the disc. your also paying for the data that comes on the discs which could take game developers time and their money. i expect 70$

[mathers3000]

QUOTE(whiteblur67 @ Mar 25 2006, 07:28 PM)

$60      

and all the 360 games will drop to $50 when ps3 is released

OH REALLY, where do you get this most valuable information??  

OR is this just an opinion you thought of??

The 360 it self may drop but not games, because of the costs of games. Here is one of many articles saying that price of game increasing.

[whiteblur67]

no shit games will cost more to make

its high rez
so the textures will that a long time to draw

70 for a game
people would only buy 2 new games a year

the console attach ratio would make sony negitive economic profit

[Mr Invader]

My friend had a PSM magazine one day and he shoved it into my face to read (because it had PS3 graphics in it, which suck by the way) and i continued to read and i read an article on the Blu-Ray player. The movies for blu-ray will range from $45 to $30. Thats the movies, not the video games. Either the video games will be really expensive, or Sony will price them at the same price as Xbox 360 games and lose even more money.

[calderra]

Recently announced: One single [single layer, slow spin, lowest capacity] Blu-Ray writable disc will cost $20. Higher-end discs will cost $45 and up.

Some retail websites have started publishing prices for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies. I now work at Wal-Mart (shut up! the job market sucks in my area atm- gotta wit for summer gigs to open up) and we got our first HD-DVD movie in. So I took the opportunity to compare HD and Blu-Ray prices. I don't remember the exact titles, but for single-disc entries (won't they all be?) it was basically:

Popular movie on regular DVD: ~$20 (19.95)
Popular movie on HD-DVD: ~$25 (24.95)
Popular movie on BluRay: ~$40 (39.95)

I didn't spot a BluRay title for less than ~$40 when I checked (okay, maybe $.05 cheaper), nor did I find an HD-DVD title over $30.

Will PS3 games cost more? They'll either cost significantly more (upwards of $70-$80), or yes, Sony will have to somehow plan on taking even more loss on the console.

[KAGE360]

the games should cost about the same, if not, maybe only $10 more the most.  your mostly paying for the development of the title, not the disk its put on.  publishers would be the one losing or making mone off of the games not sony (unless published by sony of course).  there are some in the industry who believe that 3rd party companies really dont have to raise the price to make a profit and are only riding the assumption that next gen is soooo expensive.  mark rein disputed the comments made by 3rd part companies like EA and activion who say they need 200+ teams and millions more to produce a next gen game.  epic  who are making UT2k7 AND GoW, did not raise their team by much.  however i still see UT2k7 being priced higher then normal prices.  

is the next gen more expensive?  hell yeah, taking advantage of all of that new technology requires money.  but were only paying more because everyone expected it and publishers are riding with the idea.  i wouldnt worry too much, although its true that blue-ray will impact the price it has yet to be seen by how much.  

also another factor to consider is this:  with the possiblity of sony losing so much money off of each ps3, will they raise the royalty rates for 3rd party games?  if not then they would have to sell twice as many games just to break even.  all of that could play a part in the price of games.  

i wouldnt be surprised to see them at $70 but no higher.

[DragoNs]

Sony will most likely price them as the same price that xbox 360 games cost, it would be stupid not too

[KAGE360]

QUOTE(calderra @ Apr 19 2006, 10:09 AM)

(massively edited since I realzied I'm insane)

On further research:
-Normal new-release, big-name DVDs usually release for ~$20. Some places have specials and all that, but the actual suggested street price is usually around $20.
-All of the HD-DVD movies that I could find as having a price online were ~$20-$30. As in, $30 was the most expensive HD-DVD I've seen so far for a one-disc new release.
-The single cheapest BluRay I've seen so far has been $30, and the most expensive was $40.

So I'll revise my previous statement here to say it's more like:
DVD: $20
HD-DVD: $25
BluRay: $35

Or, looking at only the big-name, new-release titles
DVD: $20
HD-DVD: $30
BluRay: $40

If we try to apply this roughly to games, we get:

Last-gen DVD games: $49.95
Next-gen DVD games: $59.95 (the same price as an upgrade to HD-DVD?)
BluRay games: $69.95 (assuming the base price over regular DVDs holds)

If you remember the recent announcement that a single BD® disc costs $20, this is a pretty reasonable estimate. However, Xbox 360 games are NOT ON HD-DVD. That means that either MS are charging for that upgrade for no reason, or perhaps it means that the upgrade to the next-gen would have been more costly had they gone with HD-DVD:

Xbox 360 games on DVD: $59.95
If Xbox 360 games were on HD-DVD: $69.95
And then Sony's Blu-Ray games would be: $79.95

It's all theoretical, but depending on which set of assumptions you'll allow me, we can make some pretty good guesses as to what BluRay games will cost. And as I first guessed, the apparent range is ~$70-$80.

MS is the only publisher so far that has not embraced the $60 price tag.  they have already announced that all of their regular edition games will retail at the usual $49 price tag.  like i said before, its all down to money.  while publishers could still make a profit charging the normal $49 rate, it would not be as big of a profit because of the higher costs to develop a next gen title.  coupled with the fact that most people expected to pay more for next gen gaming already, the publishers have no reason not to charge $59.  if you opened a store and could sell your products for $10 and make a profit but you knew that your customers were expecting your products to costs $20, would you really lose out on all that money by being honest?  no you would over charge to $20 like it was originally expected and take advantage of the publics expectations.  its all simple business.

QUOTE(DragoNs @ Apr 19 2006, 11:44 AM)

Sony will most likely price them as the same price that xbox 360 games cost, it would be stupid not too

with their comments of 1080p games, a spring launch (even though knowing it couldnt be achieved) 120fps frame rates, duel screen displays, and 7 player split screen play; when has sony been anything but stupid?  

and like i pointed out before, if they do keep the same price as the 360 games then sony and the publishers wont be making as much of a profit because of not only the higher dev. cost to make a game on the ps3 but also the higher production cost to make blu-ray games.  IMHO, sony is gambling with a dangerous hand with this coming generation.  but youw wouldnt understand any of this because sony could do no wrong