'It's too expensive'; three little words that are killing gaming

Opinion by Matt S. 

Being a compulsive Twitter user that I am, I don't think there's a single day (if not hour) that goes by that I don't see the following line (or a derivative thereof) used: "game XXXX is too expensive," or "games are too expensive."

And, in fact, that attitude is backed up by a recent poll that we ran on Digitally Downloaded where a full 25 per cent of respondents believed that a reasonable price for a top-quality game was $30 or less. Anything more than that, therefore, is "too expensive," and considering the costs involved in making a game and the profit margin that a developer or publisher actually sees from their work, charging $30 or less for a top quality game is simply unsustainable. What can we draw from that? The games industry is in trouble when it can't convince a full quarter of its most dedicated consumers (the average reader of Digitally Downloaded is not a casual game player) of the value of its product.