EA concerned by casual game price wars, but doesn't think it will undermine industry

If games reach $69.99 I think I'm going to have to wave farewell to one of my favorite hobbies.

I notice that there are a few games going for 69.99 here in Canada, so it might be possible that games will start to cost this much in America too.

But for now I'll be buying all my games from America while they're 10 bucks cheaper :p

No, I won't keep paying. I'm not some sort of consumer zombie, and I know what is reasonable and what isn't. If you can quit, then why aren't others capable?

There is no addiction here. I love gaming, but I'm not an idiot.

Thanks.

Hey, I don't know you. Maybe you will quit. I just know that gamers make a lot of noise, but then when that game hits the shelves and the hype machine is running white hot, they'll pay whatever price is on the box.

No I don't that that's true Tom. I for one am going to have my first kid in 6 months, and there's no way in hell I would be able to justify $70 - $80 for a single game, $60 is about the max that I'd be willing to pay.

Even were I still single, I wouldn't be willing to pay more than $60 for a vanilla retail game (ie: not a collectors ed. etc).

The current price point is due to the now decades old business model the game industry uses, which is obviously collapsing quickly (by them trying to raise prices to cover absurd production costs). That business model is in desperate need of change for the industry to continue putting out traditional "retail" titles.

Casual and Free-To-Play are all the rage now because it's a completely different model that's cheaper for the customer AND the publisher. "Bite Sized Games" as some call them (I think that's even the name of a casual studio). This is a far more down-to-earth model, and it's obviously incredibly successful.

I don't know yet how the game industry beast is going to evolve to overcome their issues, but they certainly have to soon to be successful - there's no way the NEXT generation of consoles will function with $80-$100 titles.

I'd still buy games, but there is no way I'd want to experiment at $70. It'd be all 90's on aggregated sites.

Nobody says "support EA."

Those who do are WRONG.

If I had been old enough to be buying video games during those times, I wouldn't of. My mother used to be a gamer, and NES, SNES and N64 in my house all belonged to her.

Also don't forget about inflation. If the internet is to be believed from 1995 (when Chrono Trigger was released) to 2009, there's been about 40% inflation, meaning it would cost about $140 in 2009 dollars. The more common $69.99 SNES and N64 premium priced games would be nearly $100 in 2009 dollars.