You are herePrice gouging alive and well

Price gouging alive and well


By Blackwalt - Posted on 06 March 2009

Did anyone tell Microsoft that there is a recession?

Now I know that the gaming market is supposed to be mostly recession proof but it is hard to accept this when you see stories every day about game companies going under, being sold, games cancelled, staff layoffs, etc.

But browsing through the Best Buy and Future Shop flyers this morning I discovered that Microsoft's knee jerk reaction to the recession has been to increase game prices. What the? Hello? Microsoft? Now I am not a economist by any means but when I see the global market collapsing around me and I see my consumers, my target market, losing access to disposable income (not to mention salaries) the reaction of raising prices seems counter intuitive.

Now I am not claiming they should lower prices across the board. Although I do believe that Halo Wars at a $49.99 launch price would have sold more copies and made Microsoft more revenue than the initial $69.99. I am claiming that they should have kept launch prices at the expected $59.99. This is what consumers are used to and this is what Microsoft has broken us to except.

Game buyers want to buy more games! It is an instinctive and undeniable urge. We keep walking into video games stores even though we know there is nothing available. We talk ourselves into games that we originally had no interest in. Sometimes this works out and sometimes it doesn't

I won't touch a $69.99 price unless I know the developer, the game, and have read reviews. Even then I am more likely to wait for the first price cut. I refused to buy Call of Duty: World at War (launch price of $64.99) until I found it somewhere at $59.99. I too have been broken to the $59.99 price and will pay it for the games that I want.

Taking Halo Wars as an example. This is a top notch developer, a fully funded product, a known property, an A list title but it is a Real Time Strategy game. Not a First Person Shooter as people expect from a Halo product. It is in many ways an experiment by Microsoft. Can a RTS sell to the Xbox 360 market? Historically they don't sell well. So why shoot your own foot off with a $69.99 price point? This is stopping a lot (A LOT) of on the fence purchasers. Me for example. With an experimental game in a recessed market this is cutting out a large portion of your potential buyers. At $49.99 I probably would have jumped on the experiment just to see what they have done. Out of curiosity if nothing else. $69.99? Sorry, I'm not that curious.

They cut off a huge portion of the borderline market and the accidental market. Those fan boys that grab any Halo product they see. At $69.99, they are more likely to look at the back of the box. One look shows them its a RTS not an FPS and back it goes on the shelf.

So... I don't really have a conclusion here as I didn't really think that far ahead. What are your thoughts? Add your feedback in the comments. Let us know what you think. Don't hold back now (Ha! As if).

$69.99 is too much should we be looking at a price cut ($49.99) or status quo ($59.99).

Partial price list:

      In the flyers:

  • Resident Evil 5 $69.99
  • Halo Wars $69.99
  • Hawx $64.99
  • Street Fighter IV $64.99
  • Star Ocean $64.99
  • Older titles on the website::

  • Fallout 3 $69.99
  • Call of Duty: World at War $69.99
  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Game Of The Year Edition $69.99
  • 50 Cent Blood on the Sand $69.99

    And many others (mostly non-A list titles) listed at $69.99. I got bored searching for them all.

  • Dark Nightowl's picture

    Zellers is selling Halo Wars for $59.99

    Take their ad to Futureshop or Best Buy and you can beat that price by another buck.

    Coxxorz's picture

    Wal Mart is often cheaper on many games.

    I'll make Price Matchers out of all of you yet!

    Dark Nightowl's picture

    Unfortunately WalMart is also selling at $59.99
    I bought my copy there on launch day. I guess you know where I fit in the poll now.

    Stormblade's picture

    I guess I am one of the few who actually takes into account the economics of my own hourly rate plus gas and car wear and tear when shopping. Price matching is way too much work.

    Coxxorz's picture

    Where you can research who has the best price, then drive directly to the most expensive place for the biggest price match. Or stop on the way home, whichever.

    Are you gonna bill us for posting comments now?

    MauriceRevek's picture

    How do you expect him to pay for his hair plugs.

    HardW00D's picture

    many companies do this for whatever reason - perhaps it's because they know that the price would have to be reduced to a point of no profit to get the masses to purchase, but for those shoppers who are "recession proof" i.e. rich people - they will buy anyways and so the companies will make more profit to help offset the fact that all of us won't be buying...

    i've seen products accross the board go up in price - tv's, stereos, games, etc..

    Sucks ass...

    Swag's picture

    to rip people off, since they will buy games anyway, is how these companies want to make money? Possibly.

    On the other hand, most "big budget" games make almost all of their money within the first and/or second week of sales (unlike most Nintendo games, which have 'evergreen' sales [just look at mario kart for the DS, it's still in the top 5 even after being released in 2005]). So why would publishers want to jack up the prices, which will almost surely effect their bottom line? I am sure that they can make a profit off a 59$ game.

    Coxxorz's picture

    So they better be prepared to drop their game prices to "normal" levels after the first two weeks, or they're in for a surprise.

    Coxxorz's picture

    Pushing up prices at this point is just going to drive sales into the hands of their sworn enemy: the used game market.

    I choose games carefully nowadays, but will never pay $70 for a game, no matter how good it's supposed to be. There are just too many ways to save money to make it worth buying "right now". The one exception to this would be a preorder scenario, where exclusive goodies are offered for free.

    Swag's picture

    at seeing an article like this one on here. Good job writing this up btw.

    But I totally agree with you, why, at a time of a economic 'recession', are they jacking up the prices of games? Do the publishers truly think that because the game industry was supposedly 'recession proof' (although as you alluded to above, it isn't) that they can get away with this?

    A recent example of mine is when I got Fallout 3. At first I thought that I could price match with Futureshop to get it at 59.99$, but turns out that was for the PC version and the console was actually 64.99$. Well I just said screw it and got it anyway. Now, over 4 months later, the price went up to 69.99$. What the hell? Do they think people are retarded and won't notice an increase in price like that? Aren't games supposed to get CHEAPER as time goes by? Will Fallout 3 be 99.99$ by the end of 2010?

    Hopefully this will stop soon. People can't be stupid enough to accept this for long.

    On the other hand, I find that Amazon usually prices the games around 59.99 or less for new ones. For example, Resident Evil 5 is 53.99$ and Fallout 3 is 59.99$. I might just start buying them there. Of course in a couple years retail distribution of games will be a thing of the past, as Capcom has pointed out.

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