"no actually the 'living wage' is £14040 a year if the min wage worker works 37.5 hours a week."
£14040 British Pounds is $19543 US Dollars, at today's exchange rate. That's less than the $20k I quoted. Thanks for correcting me.
"The poor blighter can buy a throwaway game for working 10 hours (12 after tax) woo hoo get working in sports direct chumps."
You do realise games are a luxury item, right? I've been on minimum wage jobs, and I can tell you now that games are the first thing to be dropped from my shopping list, because of that. No-one should expect a luxury item to be priced so low. It's like demanding Harrods stock PGTips alongside the hand-picked Ceylon.
"Rocket League has made over £50mil being free with cheap dlc."
If you honestly think Rocket League is the rule and not the exception, you need to look at this industry long and hard.
Oh, and let's not forget that that continued DLC support costs money, and may be attacked for being money-grabbing, depending upon who you talk to (it's DLC, which some consumers take exception to in all its forms).
@themcnoisy "Blockbuster films which have taken years to make with a cast of hundreds are released on Blueray for £15. We dont expect this of games - but why is it beyond the realms of possibility to ask for a similar price point?"
Films are paid for via tiers - firstly, initial release (Opening Weekend). Secondly, international release. Thirdly, BluRay/DVD release. Most films have covered their costs back by international release (either middle or end-of), and BluRays are where studios generally start making a "true" profit. (Ignoring any dubious Hollywood accounting practices).
Games, it should be obvious, don't have this tiered release system, which is why publishers take so much interest in pre-orders and pre-order incentives - once a game is released, that's it (excepting for HD re-releases, which a lot of people decry as a money-making scam. See, for example, Dark Souls 2: SotFS Edition). Games also don't (generally) have tie-in merchandise like Marvel comics, toys, bed-spreads, socks, etc, to raise awareness. A lot of games are just released into the void, unless they have a lot of hype (like GTA or No Man's Sky). Note, also, that console games have the second-hand-market to further squeeze publisher/developer revenues.
It should be fairly obvious, then, that any game that has cost a good amount of money to produce should aim to recoup that costs by releasing at a high-price-point, since it's easy to reduce the price in the future, but impossible to increase the price once released. You say "$60 is crazy money for a 6 man team over 3 years." yet minimum wage for someone over 21 in the UK is equivalent to $20k a year. That means - at the awful minimum wage we have in the UK - they need to clear ("turn a net profit of") $360k just to have earned the same as someone stacking shelves in Tesco.
Think about that, when you complain that an indie game shouldn't be priced too-high.
Comments 3
Re: No Man's Sky Will Carry An Intergalactic Entry Fee on PS4
"no actually the 'living wage' is £14040 a year if the min wage worker works 37.5 hours a week."
Also, point-of-order - "minimum wage" and "living wage" are not interchangeable.
Re: No Man's Sky Will Carry An Intergalactic Entry Fee on PS4
@themcnoisy
"no actually the 'living wage' is £14040 a year if the min wage worker works 37.5 hours a week."
£14040 British Pounds is $19543 US Dollars, at today's exchange rate. That's less than the $20k I quoted. Thanks for correcting me.
"The poor blighter can buy a throwaway game for working 10 hours (12 after tax) woo hoo get working in sports direct chumps."
You do realise games are a luxury item, right? I've been on minimum wage jobs, and I can tell you now that games are the first thing to be dropped from my shopping list, because of that. No-one should expect a luxury item to be priced so low. It's like demanding Harrods stock PGTips alongside the hand-picked Ceylon.
"Rocket League has made over £50mil being free with cheap dlc."
If you honestly think Rocket League is the rule and not the exception, you need to look at this industry long and hard.
Oh, and let's not forget that that continued DLC support costs money, and may be attacked for being money-grabbing, depending upon who you talk to (it's DLC, which some consumers take exception to in all its forms).
Re: No Man's Sky Will Carry An Intergalactic Entry Fee on PS4
@themcnoisy
"Blockbuster films which have taken years to make with a cast of hundreds are released on Blueray for £15. We dont expect this of games - but why is it beyond the realms of possibility to ask for a similar price point?"
Films are paid for via tiers - firstly, initial release (Opening Weekend). Secondly, international release. Thirdly, BluRay/DVD release. Most films have covered their costs back by international release (either middle or end-of), and BluRays are where studios generally start making a "true" profit. (Ignoring any dubious Hollywood accounting practices).
Games, it should be obvious, don't have this tiered release system, which is why publishers take so much interest in pre-orders and pre-order incentives - once a game is released, that's it (excepting for HD re-releases, which a lot of people decry as a money-making scam. See, for example, Dark Souls 2: SotFS Edition). Games also don't (generally) have tie-in merchandise like Marvel comics, toys, bed-spreads, socks, etc, to raise awareness. A lot of games are just released into the void, unless they have a lot of hype (like GTA or No Man's Sky). Note, also, that console games have the second-hand-market to further squeeze publisher/developer revenues.
It should be fairly obvious, then, that any game that has cost a good amount of money to produce should aim to recoup that costs by releasing at a high-price-point, since it's easy to reduce the price in the future, but impossible to increase the price once released. You say "$60 is crazy money for a 6 man team over 3 years." yet minimum wage for someone over 21 in the UK is equivalent to $20k a year. That means - at the awful minimum wage we have in the UK - they need to clear ("turn a net profit of") $360k just to have earned the same as someone stacking shelves in Tesco.
Think about that, when you complain that an indie game shouldn't be priced too-high.