Wednesday 31 December 2008

Could last-gen game pricing return?


I'm sure all of you have been gaming for a while. You might be a little annoyed about the current price of games of about £50 brand new in a shop when in 2004 you could get a brand new game for £30 online.

The good news is, this may start to stop. I managed to snag Fallout 3 for £19.50 delivered from Gamestation a few weeks back (yes, I will review it but I need to finish the damned thing, it's a monster,) and I was impressed. I've been looking around the shops and even Gears 2 is going for £35 in store these days. What the hell is happening?

That's where the bad news comes in. The world economy is dying on its arse. Whilst this means we can now get a litre of petrol for less than a quid again (yay!) it means millions are losing their jobs. The high street chain Woolworths closed it's doors recently and others such as The Officers Club (clothing chain) and Zavvi (they sold games too, so that's a shame) have gone under. Whilst it sucks that people are losing their jobs we have to focus on the bright side, and that is the chance that these new game prices will stick. Who will pay £50 for Gears 2 a few months after it was £35? Very few people. We do have to be aware that all these low prices could just be post christmas bargains and revert to the insane prices of last year, but I doubt that.

Let's hope we can take one of the few good things about this depression and keep it going. £50 for a 360 game (espeically if it was an Xbox port like Far-Cry instincts) was bleeding outrageous.

You can read more about the American side of this issue at Kotaku. If you want to learn more about this event in the UK, I suggest you step outside and go shopping. It's hard to miss.

Article By: Edwin Jones

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