Halo 2

[bobgrant]

Best Buy is taking Pre-orders for Halo 2. ETA = November 9th -15th.
Cost= $54.99
Per the Best Buy web Site HERE. (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1083711638031&skuId=6684046&type=product&cmp=ILC-M1807040402)
Halo 2: Limited Edition is supplemented by a second DVD that is loaded with special content, including The Making of Halo 2: Behind the Scenes of Bungie Studios, featurettes on game design, deleted cinematics and characters, art, commentaries and much more. Along with powerful new weapons from fallen enemies and exciting planetary landscapes, you will experience more than double the number of vehicles found in the original. In addition to a single-player campaign playable across multiple difficulty settings, you can also compete online via Xbox Live. Although there is a lot ahead of you, you won't be alone. A collection of allied forces will be on hand to help you conquer the Covenant and take control of the galaxy.

[20NemesiS01]

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but you can pre-order Halo 2 at any computer or game store around. But I do plan on ordering the special edition, can't wait.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Wait, is the special edition going to be $54.99 or the regular version??

I'm getting really tired of this $55 sh!t (pardon my french) that some of these companies are trying to pull now, just because their game is highly anticipated.

$50 has basically been the ceiling for game prices since shortly after the N64 days, and even that was a little steep. $100 for 2 "games"?? Just not right. Yeah I know, only $5...where's the harm? But when you consider there really is no justifiable reason for them to do it OTHER than that they think they can get away with it because the game is popular, it makes you sick. At least me, anyway.

[20NemesiS01]

Calm down there, that's $54.99 for the collectors edition. It's still $49.99 for the regular.

[Kamakazie]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff

$50 has basically been the ceiling for game prices since shortly after the N64 days, and even that was a little steep. $100 for 2 "games"?? Just not right. Yeah I know, only $5...where's the harm? But when you consider there really is no justifiable reason for them to do it OTHER than that they think they can get away with it because the game is popular, it makes you sick. At least me, anyway.

Companies do this because they know the game series is popular and it will sell! It may seem immoral, but if you look at it from a marketing point of view, it seems like a smart thing to do. IIRC, Warcraft 3 was being sold for $60 regular and $70 collectors edition here in the US!

In my own opinion, if all games were $30, there would be a lot less pirating and a lot more games being bought.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally posted by Kamakazie
Companies do this because they know the game series is popular and it will sell! It may seem immoral, but if you look at it from a marketing point of view, it seems like a smart thing to do. IIRC, Warcraft 3 was being sold for $60 regular and $70 collectors edition here in the US!

In my own opinion, if all games were $30, there would be a lot less pirating and a lot more games being bought.

Exactly! That's just my point! I know that's why they do it, and thats what makes it so infuriating! They do it because they know they can get away with it.
It's like the Microsoft Windows effect. The OS's don't NEED to be anywhere near the $200+ MS charges for them, but MS does it because they know people will pay it practically no matter how high the cost.
It's the "Everybody wants this game, so lets rip the customer off by five bucks...he'll pay it to play our game" approach that seems to ratty and smug to me.

I almost HOPE piracy increases because of it. ;)

[Kamakazie]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff
Exactly! That's just my point! I know that's why they do it, and thats what makes it so infuriating! They do it because they know they can get away with it.
It's like the Microsoft Windows effect. The OS's don't NEED to be anywhere near the $200+ MS charges for them, but MS does it because they know people will pay it practically no matter how high the cost.
It's the "Everybody wants this game, so lets rip the customer off by five bucks...he'll pay it to play our game" approach that seems to ratty and smug to me.

I almost HOPE piracy increases because of it. ;)

I've never bought a Microsoft product in my life.

[20NemesiS01]

Originally posted by Kamakazie
I've never bought a Microsoft product in my life.

Wow, any reason behind that? Just curious. What OS do you have then? I can understand why people don't like Microsoft, but I myself think about where we would be today without them.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally posted by 20NemesiS01
Wow, any reason behind that? Just curious. What OS do you have then? I can understand why people don't like Microsoft, but I myself think about where we would be today without them.

Kamakazie is a wily one. ;)

Notice he said he'd never bought a Microsoft product. He didnt say he doesn't USE any...:p

Oh, and its good to hear Halo 2's regular price is $50 even. Sorry if it sounded like I was overreacting there. :p
But with DOOM 3 also going to be priced at $55, and a strong possibility Half Life 2 will be as well, it's still something that bothers the hell out of me.
I just don't like that buisness model.

[MealsonWheels]

Originally posted by Kamakazie
In my own opinion, if all games were $30, there would be a lot less pirating and a lot more games being bought.

Good point, I agree.

[20NemesiS01]

If they sold games for $30 sure they'd sell more, but they'd also have to sell almost twice as many games to get the same amount of money. Also, games are partly $50 because of pirating. If there was no pirating in the first place then game prices would definatly be lower. Dropping all game prices to $30 will not happen, it would be too risky, and most of the people that do pirate are too cheap even to spend $30 for a game.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally posted by 20NemesiS01
If they sold games for $30 sure they'd sell more, but they'd also have to sell almost twice as many games to get the same amount of money. Also, games are partly $50 because of pirating. If there was no pirating in the first place then game prices would definatly be lower. Dropping all game prices to $30 will not happen, it would be too risky, and most of the people that do pirate are too cheap even to spend $30 for a game.

I'm not sure thats the reason though.

Remember when the Saturn and Playstation was new? Back in the days of '95 and '96, PSX games and Saturn games were routinely priced over $50. In fact, often times around $60 for a much hyped title. And piracy has INCREASED substantially since those days, and yet the ceiling for game prices has come down to rest around $50.

I'm not saying piracy doesn't have SOME impact, but I don't think it's the major reason behind higher game prices. Afterall, they were much higher 10 years ago when piracy was much lower.
Go figure...

[20NemesiS01]

That's a good point, they only thing I can find possibly driving the cost up would be that it was 10 years ago and technology wasn't what it is today. So making CD's could've cost more, but not by that much.

[senorgotti]

I think I bought Diablo 2 for 55$ just for the regular edition. Nintendo 64 games were expensive as hell too like 55-60$ if I remember correctly. Anyway, looking forward to Halo 2 and Fable for the XBOX.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally posted by senorgotti
I think I bought Diablo 2 for 55$ just for the regular edition. Nintendo 64 games were expensive as hell too like 55-60$ if I remember correctly. Anyway, looking forward to Halo 2 and Fable for the XBOX.

Some of the earlier N64 games cost upwards of $75. I remember Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was $80 brand new when it was first released, and the majority of other first and second gen N64 titles were in the same price range. It wasn't until after about 2-3 years Nintendo started dropping the average cost down to the oh-so-low price of about $60 or so.

Of course, it was also much more expensive to manufacture N64 carts than it was to make your average Saturn or Playstation CDROM, but how much of that was bloat by Nintendo to justify high prices is unknown...

[PriMaTe]

I guess since it's so highly anticipated like doom 3 a lot of people will pay it

[Kamakazie]

Originally posted by Spaceman Spiff
Kamakazie is a wily one. ;)

Notice he said he'd never bought a Microsoft product. He didnt say he doesn't USE any...:p

:D

I have to change what I said though, cuz I just bought an XBox. Not at full price, and not from a retail store, but I still bought one. Does it change anything that I already have a mod chip waiting to go into it? ;)

[ob1ob]

.

[ATacoGuy]

On a completely unrelated Halo 2 tangent, does anyone know if there are plans to do a PC version?

[WildWeasel]

Originally posted by ATacoGuy
On a completely unrelated Halo 2 tangent, does anyone know if there are plans to do a PC version? Nothing official, of course, but I'd imagine there will be a PC version ~2 years after the Xbox launch, as with the original Halo.

[UmneyDurak]

Hmm probably will be getting a lmited edition. Since Half-Life release Halo was the only singleplayer game I actually really enjoyed playing. Although I seriously doubt I will preorder, will just wait till it comes out. I'm sure I can find a store that will sell it.

[Miz]

For the point of view from the game developer's side of things, check out Why Being a Computer Game Developer Sucks (http://slashdot.org/features/99/08/20/143215.shtml).

One interesting factoid from that article: "The last figures I saw placed the average cost of developing a PC game at approximately $2 million.(That figure, by the way, was double what it had been two years earlier, and more than forty times what it had been a decade before.)"

Kinda' puts the price of games in perspective...although it doesn't make those prices any easier on your cash flow.

[rimmerchant]

Originally posted by Miz
For the point of view from the game developer's side of things, check out Why Being a Computer Game Developer Sucks (http://slashdot.org/features/99/08/20/143215.shtml).

One interesting factoid from that article: "The last figures I saw placed the average cost of developing a PC game at approximately $2 million.(That figure, by the way, was double what it had been two years earlier, and more than forty times what it had been a decade before.)"

Kinda' puts the price of games in perspective...although it doesn't make those prices any easier on your cash flow.

am I the only one not complaining about the price of games?
I do agree with the high price of game developments. and think the $50 is a fair price for a game that have a like $50+ million developmenent cost and large team working on it for a few years.

I remember back in like 1987 the NES and Sega Genesis days. there wasn't rampant pirating of the games. some games were priced as high as $79. was 12 back then and I would go to Toys R Us and drool over the copy of STRIDER for Sega Genesis. it has a price tag of $69. and I seen copy of Super Mario 3 NES for like $59


and I REALLY doubt those games have more than $20 milliion development budget with large teams working for over 2 years on it.