[overload1977]

call of duty modern warfare 2 going to cost 55 pounds / dollars or more everone boycott the game don`t buy it, or if you did perordered it get your money back, has the whole world gone mad............

i have been buying games for the last 20 years maybe its time to STOP.............

In the wake of Modern Warfare 2 controversy, industry legend Chris Deering questions current model for triple-A games

Industry stalwart Chris Deering has estimated that today's triple-A video games need to be priced at £70 – if the trade's current release cycle for 'blockbuster games' is to be maintained.

His comments come just two weeks after we revealed that Activision had raised the SRP of Modern Warfare 2 to £55.

Deering is once again acting as chairman of the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, which this year takes place on Thursday, August 13th and Friday, August 14th.

At the event, industry luminaries such as Deering, Sony’s Ray Maguire, EA Sports’ Peter Moore and Eidos’ Ian Livingstone will discuss ‘the future of the blockbuster game’.

Former Sony Europe president Deering  – who is on the board of Codemasters and IGA, amongst others, told MCV this week:

“Before there can be as many successful blockbuster games as there were in the past, games have to be produced in a more efficient fashion.

“In order to price these games at a level where they would support an industry [as strongly as] they did ten years ago, they’d have to be sold at £70. But people just don’t have that kind of money, there’s a psychological glass ceiling.

“Consumers won’t spend more, but to write the game, publishers are having to spend more than ever before. That’s the key problem.”

MCV revealed that Activision had raised the trade price of Modern Warfare 2 by £10 to £55 a fortnight ago. The story has featured heavily in the national press this week.

Deering added: “The cost of development is ten times what it was for PS2, and more like 20 to 50 times more than on PSOne. Yet there are lots of things you can get for less than the relative value of paying 50p an hour for a very high end game.”

link to news page

http://www.mcvuk.com...ag-says-Deering

http://www.mcvuk.com...eering#after_ad

Link to petition to protest against this

http://www.petitiono...6/petition.html

this is not my voice in the video lol

[jim_uk]

What these halfwits don't understand is that people don't have bottomless pockets, put the prices up and they buy less games. Development costs are their problem, not the customers. Even though the PC version is cheaper I won't be buying it, if they get away with this then they'll keep doing it.

[Monolithic0117]

I don't really care... I'll still buy it one way or the other.

[katashy]

Ill just pre order for my PS3, I dont really like FPS on PCs...

Though Jim_Uks right, the problem is the developing costs.

[Halororor]

I've heard about this boycott and I think it's 100% right of you guys to do so. If you work that price over into Rands (South African currency) then the game will cost roughly R1000, with the average South African getting about R7000 a month.

I'd boycott it to if it cost that much here. Fortunately for us though, the game costs R400 on PC and only R700 on PS3, so it would be dumb of us to boycott it too. But by all means, I encourage you guys to keep it up, the publisher must lower the price at some time or another.

[Pronam]

It is quite expensive to release games on consoles as well as on the PC. I can't quite remember which one was the most expensive...
But I can recall an article where publishers refused to work with certain consoles as they are simply far too expensive to get a license to for their game.

Indeed like jim_uk said, less people are going to buy the game. But they'd probably figured that out and have found a stable price which in the end will give them more profit, despite of the lower number sales. As some people will still buy it, despite of the price. I'll probably one of them.

[Blacksnake89]

vicICE, on Aug 23 2009, 09:39 AM, said:

It is quite expensive to release games on consoles as well as on the PC. I can't quite remember which one was the most expensive...
But I can recall an article where publishers refused to work with certain consoles as they are simply far too expensive to get a license to for their game.

Indeed like jim_uk said, less people are going to buy the game. But they'd probably figured that out and have found a stable price which in the end will give them more profit, despite of the lower number sales. As some people will still buy it, despite of the price. I'll probably one of them.

You were spot on with that comment and btw it's the PS3 that's a pain in the ass. I'm going to school to be in the game industry and have gotten a fair amount of info on the industry itself. Games today are as expensive as they've ever been to create. Throw in America's bad economy which accounts for about 50% of video game sales alone and you've got an industry in trouble. Developers themselves don't even make a whole lot of money off their games the publishers do. So if a game is a blockbuster and sells big the money goes to the people who own the game rights not the people who make it.

So if you have a publisher that has 4 devolopment companies under them and only 1 of those companies makes good games very little of that money actually goes to the good development company. So in the case of CoD 4 a lot of the money made off it probably went into the devolopment of CoD: WaW and other mediocre games which actually means that CoD 4 LOST Activision money. That's just a possible scenario not fact but it shows how just because a game sells big doesn't mean it'll make a company money. A few bad investments will ruin a companies profits.

Edit: i for one will not only be buying MW 2 but I'm buying the $150 presige verson of it.

[billypnats]

lol people always have "other" ways of getting games.... and they just encouraged more people do so

[pwnedbyscope]

@blacksnake, i belive that the perstige edition will be 100, or 120, i might be mistaken. and yes i to will by the prestige edition, i mean you get night vision goggles for christ sake.

[Halororor]

billypnats, on Aug 24 2009, 05:13 AM, said:

lol people always have "other" ways of getting games.... and they just encouraged more people do so

You included?

Piracy is cannot be justified in any way. If you don't have the money for a game, you can't have it. Gaming is a privilege, not a right. I hear far too many people saying they pirate games because they can't afford them. If you don't have enough money for a McDonald's burger then you don't steal someone else's burger. Piracy is theft, so it's illegal. The end.