Topic: Price of next-gen gaming? $1,710

[Famicom]

Outside of print material, entertainment tends to be much pricier in Japan than compared with the states. I've heard various reasons as to why (pricey duplication methods, small print runs, too many limited edition goodies, the people don't care, the economy can handle it, it's a big scam, etc.), but I don't know if it's one or more of them. Typically games cost $60-$100 US dollars, DVD's $40-90 US, and CD albums $20-30 US. Used shops get a lot of business there too (who can blame them?), so that could also be a factor.

[Mr. Segali]

I thought I heard somewhere that there's a law that makes it illegal to resell used videogames in Japan. Am I totally wrong?

[KDR_11k]

That happens when you let corporations control the government.

I think the japanese prices just reflect what japanese gamers have been conditioned to buy, just like US americans have been conditioned to pay 50 bucks for a game and Europeans have been conditioned to expect that console games are a third to a half more expensive than PC games.

[jasonditz]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
That happens when you let corporations control the government.

If that's really the reason you'd figure we'd be paying that much here in the US too... its not like we're a bastion of independent, well-meaning  politicians.

Then again, I guess the video game industry here doesn't really buy off that many politicians. If they did, you wouldn't have them start railing against (insert mature rated title) just before every election.

[stevey]

I read some were that game in the u.s. are going to cost much much more the x1.5 game are going to be $59.95 and ps3 $69.95 WTF!!!

[Caustic Saint]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mr. Segali
I thought I heard somewhere that there's a law that makes it illegal to resell used videogames in Japan. Am I totally wrong?

You're wrong.

That may have been the case at one point, but these days most every shop here that sells new games sells used ones as well. Good thing too, what with the prices here. (New DS games go for about $42.)

[couchmonkey]

Word from J. Allard is that Xbox 360 will debut for about $300 US.  link

I'm a little surprised, and I half expect MS to take advantage of Allard's use of the word "about" to launch at $350 or so...because that ($300) puts it in the same price range as the firxt Xbox, which they lost tons of money on...I thought MS was finished with that?  Still, it goes to show they aren't planning some crazy $500 console.  Unless he's referring to the cheapo version, but I don't think he is, because MS has implied that the harddrive version will be the main one...in fact I think they may even have cancelled the stripped-down version, but that might be my memory playing tricks on me.

EA and I think one or two other developers have mentioned putting prices up next gen due to the cost of developing increasingly graphically intense games, but they don't speak for the industry as a whole.  Nintendo, for example, seems to be determined to keep costs down and I'm sure Nintendo games will continue to sell at about the same prices as on GameCube.  I doubt that EA's price increases will last for long, if they happen at all.

edit: added ($300)

[vudu]

Quote
Originally posted by: Mr. Segali
I thought I heard somewhere that there's a law that makes it illegal to resell used videogames in Japan. Am I totally wrong?

Actually, I believe the way it works is, publishers make money on used game sales, which they don't elsewhere.  I believe this also holds true for used movie sales.  I don't think it applies to music.

The law stems from way back right after WWII when movie studios were getting screwed out of lots of money because theaters would sell/trade used movie reels to each other.  

[jasonditz]

So long as the US remains one of the more hotly contested markets I can't see prices climbing too much (on software that is). Sure, EA can justify gouging us on Madden now that its the only game in town, but it seems like in general prices are dropping pretty quick.

[KDR_11k]

jason: The difference is that in the US the game companies don't pay their protecion fees which is why you see all this anti-videogame legislation. Everybody was talking about how evil comic books, TV, D&D was but nobody actually managed to implement a law against them.