How are people comfortable paying full price for games?

That's nothing. Back in the cartridge days in NZ a new Megadrive game would cost $170-190. A new "AAA" Master System title would be $120. Games are cheaper these days and there's a more varied market to buy from so the consumer is winning at the moment in my books.

Only exception to this I find is Nintendo game pricing. Look at a title like Fire Emblem Awakening, on the eShop its $89.95 AUD, in store you can pick it up from $53.99 minimum (I'm talking in Australia here). In the U.S. on eShop its $39.99 now on Sale for $27.99. These are pretty frustrating figures for me to fathom here.

But yeah, apart from Nintendo, I have no qualms about game prices. However I do acknowledge that its probably Nintendo that have it right in terms of not undervaluing their software.

I do pay full price for some console games on release but I only do when I'm comfortable on a game by game basis.

Recently I bought splatoon immediately, however as a first party nintendo IP I had a high level of confidence in its quality based on a relation ship with nintendo going back to getting an NES and Zelda in 1991, and never being disappointed in the quality of their games yet. Similarly I've been happy to drop a pre order for Yoshi's wooly world and the wooly amibo, because I know both my other half and I will (just like splatoon) get hours of entertainment for our 30 pounds and 50 pounds respectively.

The exchange rate actually seems to be making wii u games a particularly good deal in the uk at the moment.

Similarly spending £40 on a special edition of Dark Souls on release with a gorgeous art book and documentary about the games development is a wonderful deal when you think about the hundreds of hours entertainment I've had from that game.

Similarly I won't buy bioware games on release, based on their recent record. I couldn't guarantee quality so I waited a bit to get Dragon Age inquisition, also as single player focused games I don't feel I loose anything from coming later to the game, as there is less of a collective experience than with a souls game or a multiplayer game like splatoon.

A lot of it comes down to money, I'm in the fortunate position of being in a relationship without children where both of us have a decent income (and we both like games) so spending 50 pounds on something we will both get weeks of enjoyment from (if it's a couch coop game all the better as we get to do it together) is a pretty good value proposition to us, when going out for a good meal can cost double that, our nights out at the theatre or cinema can be also be easily as expensive for one night. A good game can actually mean a lot of cheap nights in together for us.

Also, it may be a matter of perspective I did my formative gaming in the 1990s in the UK when a copy of street fighter 2 on the mega drive cost 70 pounds at release in 1993 (130 pounds today if you adjust for inflation, 205 dollars for our American friends)

So yeh, in the historical context that I'm familiar with, your 70 dollars for a new game really isn't too bad compared to 205 dollars for one game when I was a kid.

I used to get 1 game to last me from Christmas to birthday and so on, (and I was a lucky kid to get that), so yeh games prices have in real terms halved in the UK in the last 20 years, and although I've not done the maths I'm pretty confident the same is true for the US and lots of other countries around the world.

All in all, I'll totally pay 40 or 50 quid for a new game.

I feel fine paying full price for a game I really want, because I'll get enough enjoyment out of it and I like to support developers who are producing great games. In your Sleeping Dogs example, $5 per hour sounds like perfectly good value for money to me for something I've enjoyed - although I'd also say I think that game has more than 12 hours of fun in it, but that's a personal take. I've spent around £100 in total across all versions of Street Fighter IV, but I've also put in hundreds of hours and that feels like fantastic value for money. I'm happy to keep supporting Capcom for supporting their game - even if you just looked at each new version as some character DLC that'd be similar value to your average offering, but they also completely rebalance the game with each iteration too.

I buy plenty of games cheaper, but I'm also alright with paying the big bucks for a game that I'm very excited about. I also really enjoy being part of the cultural zeitgeist around a big new release and there's an inherent value to that which makes me feel okay about buying on release versus saving a few quid to pick it up a month down the line. I'm less likely to fork out for DLC day one however, and I almost never bother with Collector's Editions of games as I don't really care about the additional bits and bobs they throw in.

Especially with Steam Sales, there's a ton of games which are half price (or lower) a few months after release, so I'll wait for a lot of things to show up there. But I've already bought a handful of games for full-price this year and I feel just fine about it. Games are still one of the better value-for-money forms of entertainment in my eyes. I was thinking last week about how Fallout 4 is £50 right now to pre-order on Steam and my mind went back to release day for Fallout 3 where I just said "fuck it" (at a time when I was in Uni and didn't have the income I do now) and walked to a store and threw down £40 for that game.

Looking back, that feels like a bargain for all the joy I got out of that game. I'm not going to buy Fallout 4 until I'm confident in the final quality (so at the earliest a week before release, or more likely on the day of), but I'll feel okay dropping full price on it if needs be. The amount of work they seem to have put into it looks to be well worth my money. At the end of the day, that's a personal decision that you have to make. Being there "in the moment" with everyone is a big aspect of it, as is wanting to support developers as much as you can. If neither of those are big issues for you, there's nothing wrong with waiting and playing games a few months or a year behind the flow.

I'm fine with paying American full price which is about 40 bucks different than the local full price.

tldr

but to answer your question, do some research before you buy something and you'll have a better idea of what you're buying. If said material doesn't meet the criteria or standards you have to justify 60 bucks then don't do it, or if it does, that would be why.

How do people justify buying gasoline? that shit is expensive, unpredictable and bad for the environment! chew on that for a silly forum topic

Honestly... no they don't. I've had this conversation with friends and co-workers, and most don't see the problem with preordering even when I try to explain that games are going to keep coming out broken as long as developers get their money up front.

It's really unfortunate and it's something that has to change. It's also why I'm opting to build a PC now rather than owning a new console (still running on my old 360 for the time being).

There are some games I would pay more than that to get at. That's just thirst, hype, and a call to a game.

When you find value in something---pricing is unimportant. Would I buy more games if they were less priced? Absolutely. Do I buy less games now due to pricing? Slightly. Time plays a bigger factor. With so many games all year round I have to pick and say to myself"Okay this will be my go to RPG this year, this is my go to adventure, this is my fighter, and this is an indie to watch."

If I had more time? Shit money wouldn't matter to me I'd buy it all.

Someone did touch on a good point---games launching half ass, and having to roll the chips. There are certain games now that previously would be a buy that are now a "wait and see" due to online netcode for example. I will now pre-order a game I want, and not pick it up day one until I read some impressions online. If the netcode is junk? Nope. Take that $5.00 and put it on something else at Gamestop. They look at me funny sometimes, but hey I'm not going to support that. If you want my full $60.00 day one then give me the full experience. I don't have the time to "beta" your game during the 2-3 week, 1 month, 4 month period until you get it figured out at which point the game is dead in the water and people are onto the next thing anyway.

Another problem we are seeing is these "limited editions" and day one DLC's raising prices without us all thinking about it. That is a MUCH harder sell on me. I don't need your season pass, I don't need your strategy guides, and your LE has to be out of this world for me to jump aboard to spend more.

Something else that helps me is I trade in games frequently so I can offset cost of games I want. I'm not a build a library kind of guy, and so that used market benefits me quite well.

-------

Day 1 buys coming up for me:

MGS5
StreetFighter 5
The Division

Everything else is a wait and see/hear more about/reviews,etc.

I love my PC but i rarely buy new games at full price at release. too many games in recent years come out unplayable or at least optimized for PC and I'm ok with not being the bleeding edge on a new game. I usually give it couple weeks and see how well the developers have actively changed the game. I also thing if you pay full price for a PC game anymore you're spending extra then you need. Greenmangaming and other sites offer a flat % off most games, which usually includes pre ordered games, (I picked up Arkham Knight for $36.00) and I'm the fear of the game being horrible and never fixed is far easier to shallow when its 35 dollars compared to 65.

Console games i usually pick up after they come out on deals or even ebay, (yup, picked up the dreaded assassin's creed unity on xbone for 13 dollars and it was worth that much.) however I'm willing to pay full price for something different that i feel deserves full price and gives me an experience i can't get anywhere else, (sunset overdrive, spitoon, Bayonetta 2, DonkeyKong, Mario games)

I don't buy into the whole if a game is only "X" hours long then it's not worth spending full price on it because we have to compare it to how much other forms of entertainment cost. Well consider that many people are happily willing to spend $15 on a 2 hour movie, I don't see how spending $60 on a 6 hour game is suddenly considered to be a crazy thing. If those 6 hours are pretty awesome, then well considering how much other forms of entertainment cost then I'd say it's well worth it. I mean would you rather spend $60 on a 6 hour game or $20 on a 2 hour Bluray? It's all relative.

Also movie ticket prices have gone up significantly since movies first started to be a mainstream thing (especially when you consider 3D ticket prices, IMAX etc). Game prices really haven't gone up compared to when games first started to come out. In fact, it's for the most part has gone down compared to how much most games cost 20 years ago.

It really depends on the game. Most of the times is the desire of playing it while it is still relevant to the conversations; but there are some other reasons and examples of games that I bought (or going to buy) on the first day:

• Online Heavy Games: I bought Battlefield 4 on the first day; and I played dozens of hours of the multiplayer before I even touched the campaign. For games that I want to play that have a heavy online component (specially competitive component), the size of the community is a real concern. It is true, I could have gotten into it several months later, with many of the rougher edged ironed out and at a fraction of the price, but I would also be playing against a fraction of the community, the fraction that stayed on the game for months and are going to crash me while I try to figure out the right button to throw a grenade.
• Exploration Games: I am going to buy and play No Man's Sky on the first day. Games like this are all about exploration and discovery, and I can't help but feel I am having diminishing returns when many people have played it and moved on, and there are less things to discover (both mechanically and content-wise)

Of course, this is harder to justify now, when games are seriously segmented to be sold separately or are shipped broken. I am getting a lot less prone to preordering games now.

I buy everything Full Price.

I'm not. I'm not comfortable with anything in this industry. You have to be Sherlock Holmes to find the actual trustworthy developers, publishers, and media.

The problem is (says me, the random dummy on the internet) complacency, greed, selfishness, and a lack of compassion. That expands to all business these days and especially the tech industry. Creators and consumers alike.

People value money differently depending on how much of it they have, among other things. $75 isn't a big deal to a lot of people.

Well, a few things. I have disposable income that allows me to buy luxuries, which is nice.

I have zero problems buying a game from a developer that has earned a reputation for quality instead of quantity. The Capcom SF4 you alluded to or CoD is quantity, and shit that I avoid. Things like Witcher 3, even though it's buggy in places, is quality because CD Projekt has a reputation for absolutely incredible support for their games after they release. Then factor on a price paid to time spent ratio. Something like Skyrim which I've spent about 170 hours in is worth it. I mean I blow 15 bucks on a single movie ticket and that's for a 2 hour single experience. 60 bucks seems reasonable. That said I still wait 95% of the time for something to go on sale on Steam. This past summer sale I didn't buy much because the discounts we're enough for me.

There are limits. I try to avoid pre-orders except on incredibly rare occasions. I hardly ever buy DLC and if I do it's gotta be something good. I never do that microtransaction shit, even in F2P games like Heroes and Hearthstone.

It's even better now on Steam. If I buy something, like Arkham Knight which turns out to be dogshit on the PC port end of it, I can get a refund thanks to based EU courts essentially forcing Valve to change the Steam refund policy. Believe me, if I couldn't return it I'd regret that purchase. But just because I don't pay full price for something doesn't mean I can't regret it. I bought Batman Arkham Origins on PC when it was about 75% off and regretted it after finishing it.

Most I pay is $60. Then maybe some DLC

I've generally just waited for games to go on sale. There's only two exceptions to this rule for me -- if it's a game I really can't wait to play or if it's a Nintendo game, since those never drop in price.

It's especially more difficult for me to commit to buy a game at full price now, especially since prices have gone up in Canada. $79.99 for a game? lol no.

Welcome to Late Capitalism!

Ribbing aside, I know exactly what you mean. Although, looking back, it's difficult to say that it was ever any other way, aside from edge cases. So much about how we feel regarding media is dependent on time and our past mindsets and views. To be honest there are very few games that I've gone back to and been able to say, 'this product feels as pure as I remember.' I suppose that's why I end up lionizing those edge cases even if they have tremendous, egregious flaws.

I'm staring directly at you, Drakengard.

1) On average, games are cheaper than they have been in past decades.

2) On average, these games have more content than those in past decades.

3) Value is relative, I paid full price for Vanquish and have never regretted it, I paid $5 for Resident Evil 6 and feel ripped off. I'll pay more for a good product.

4) I know its sacrilege to some people but you can get ok values for some games. I trade in anything I don't intend to keep in my collection for the next ten years. Just look/wait for a good promo.

5) YOU CAN CANCEL PRE-ORDERS AND GET YOUR MONEY BACK. I hate the question "Why do people pre-order?" Because it's not a final sale for fucks sake. Game comes out, you have one RESERVED and if reviews/buzz is not favorable you DON'T BUY IT. Yeeeesh.

6) Big budget games would kind of disappear if no one paid full price for games.

7) It's nice to play games with friends and when you choose to wait six months/a year/or two for a better price chances are they will be way done with it.

8) I like supporting good devs. I bought Metro Last Light new on 360 and the Metro Redux on PS4 because I really like those games and I want them to make more.

9) I have PS+ and it's a great service but I would rather pay money for a game I really want to play than idly play something don't really care about. I'm too busy to waste time on games I don't care about. I went out and bought Witcher 3 despite having oodles of PS+ games I haven't tried.

10) A lot of big places (EB Games and Steam is what I'm thinking of) have pretty solid return/exchange policies meaning that if you've done some research and the game still turns out to be bunk you can get money back/something else. Personally I love the EB games 7 days 'satisfaction guarantee', if you don't like or beat a game within 7 days you get a full value exchange for something else in store. Steam gives refunds within 2 hours etc.

11) Why did I see Mad Max twice in theaters when I could just wait for it to hit the internet?

OP, I think we've made some good points and I'm really tired of this question.