Mevvem

I just read this article on gamasutra explaining how the iPhone is one of the most selling mobile gaming platforms. I think there are several reasons, but mostly i think that Apple got alot of things right,

"80 hours of meh?

or 5 hours of awesome?

game length means almost nothing, depending on whats being charged.

Its all about what you get out of it.
"

Red: I called the singleplayer mode fairly short, i have played the online part, and i love it, but as i quite clearly stated my ISP has blocked the ports for playing online. So in case you didn't get it i was talking about the singleplayer. But thank you :P

It would be coloured a black, and dark gray, have plenty of fun trivia, user content, active forums, and a smiling bomb at the top left corner. ^^

the problem is that it is trying to be somthing its not. If it was "easyer" to use for everyone i think the sales would be better aswell. But now it is having trouble as both a gaming platform and a media player. Sadly though, because i love the ting, and i wish i didn't have to do illegal things to it for it to work like i want it to. (i have a 1gen wich is "hacked" and a 3000 wich isn't) But seriously, if i could DL games to it like with my iphone and on the illegal one, i would gladly pay full price for it! (and i'm saying this allthough i work in a gamestore :P)

But seriously, for portable machines, DLC wins since you don't have to drag all your disc's with you.

But, ok, now we don't have videogame rentals in norway, and i don't know the standard "new game, and movie price" in the states (would be intresting if i could have that by the way), but it seems to me that it has leveled out. Ofcource, games like Oblivion, Forza 2 etc does give you more bang for the buck, but still, is it really something to complain about when the average entertainment value per minute is under half the price of a movie? (ok, i know some of you download movies and don't pay a penny for that, but remember, piracy is stealing etc etc. Hehe)

Spiders. And women. And... spider-women.
Nah, but probably becoming crippled... Would prefer dying over that.

Just feeling that no matter where i go i'm hearing stuff about, "Man, i shount have spendt 600NOK (85,5$)on that game! it was over in 8 hours!". But seriously, take Cod 4 as the perfect example, ok, most people buy it for the online part. I havent been so fortunate due to a crappy ISP provider. but i bought it, played the singleplayer and it was SO worth it! It was damn short, but oh man, so many epic moments, and it wins on the same points as the movie Crank, for those of you who have seen it. It just never stopts throwing action in your face untill its over. So lets put a price on constatnt entertainment.

We have one movie and one game, CoD 4 (wich i spendt about 9h on (yeah, i got stuck by the stupid bumpercars :P )
and crank, at 1h27min to be exact. Crank's fullprice was 179,90(25,6$) and cod 4 was 599,90(85,5$).
I will do this small calculation in dollars for you:

Cranks price: 25,6, divided by playtime: 87minutes gives you 0,29$ of entertainment per minute.
CoD4's price 85,5 divided by playtime 540minutes gives you 0,16$ of entertainment per minute.

SO as you can see, a "short" videogame is alot cheaper than a fullprice movie. the game has to be 4 hours or shorter for it to be more expencive. Think about that before you start complaining about not getting your moneys worth in videogames.

And by the way, i find the shelf of games that i actually have completed alot more appealing to look at than the ones i havent completed.

Yeah, like TeflonBilly said, taxes are pain, but i work in one of norways biggest gadgets, games & movie stores, and let me tell you, the 649,90 will not be because we wanna make some extra cash. We will probably be earning more by selling a late 2008 title for 599,90 than a early 2009 title for 649.90.

So its not because we are making it more expencive, its the economical crisis that is showing its effects.
But as i said, i wounder what will happen when i goes back to normal. is it now ok to sell games for 649, or will the competition between the stores drag ir back down? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Norwegian game prices have for a long time been very much leveled out with a max price of 599,90NOK (83,89$) but much implies that Killzone2 will be the first of many games to reach a pricepoint above 600, and most likely set the standard at 649,90NOK (90,88$). Since the euro has been strong for quite some time now, it means that Nordisk film who distribute products from SCEE in norway has to buy their products for a higher price affecting the market. And the trend will most likely affect other distributors as well.

What worries me is the psychological boundary when regular games pass over the 600NOK mark and how this will affect prices in the future, even with a better economy.