The Video Game Critic

We all know that since the 360 has come out videogames have jumped from $49.99 to $59.99.  Most of us believed that it was because of the higher production costs...yet even games that have last gen budgets are going for the standard $59.99.

Why am I saying this?  Well I was looking at my BestBuy Sunday Ad and I noticed something sort of strange.  The game Shadowrun is coming out for both the PC and the 360 on the same day.  Silly thing is that the PC version only costs $44.99 while its 360 cousin costs $59.99.  The versions must have had about the same budget so why the difference in cost?

After doing some digging I found this little article about the situation...

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/05/14/first-hand-explanation-of-shadowrun-pc-and-xbox-pricing-disparity.aspx

So what do you guys think of this?

Yeah, that's a crappy explanation, to be sure. If Shane Kim had actually explained something plausible, instead of his corporate B.S. answer, than I could have been satisfied.

The whole $60 a game thing is one of the aspects of "next gen" that I really dislike. Since December, I have purchased four Wii games and two Xbox 360 games. The main reason that I am very stingy on 360 games is the $10 difference. I'm a young married dude, and I have to keep a very tight lid on leisure expenses, so I simply can't take many risks on too many 360 games... I mainly buy ONLY the ones I am 99.999% certain are going to be great.

But the thing about Shadowrun is that its a multiplayer only title, and that lack of single player content makes it a real hard sell at $50. Twlight Princess would have been worth every penny at $100 for me (I'm a real extremist when it comes to that game, as you all know), whereas I would never pay $50, or even $40, for Cooking Mama on the Wii. Content matters when it comes to pricing, and I doubt Shadowrun contains the sort of content I value, or at least value to the tune of sixty bucks.

-Rob

[QUOTE=Steerforth]Well, I recon it is the other side to the practice of selling systems at a loss. They have tro recoup on everything, regardless if it is warrented.
[/QUOTE]

bingo!! sony and MS have higher third party licensing fees for next gen games

[QUOTE=Steerforth]

Well, I recon it is the other side to the practice of selling systems at a loss. They have tro recoup on everything, regardless if it is warrented.

[/QUOTE]

That's a good point, and probably very true. I doubt I'll help Microsoft recoup their losses with a Shadowrun purchase, however!

-Rob

Another thing I've noticed is that while the PS3 and 360 games are more expensive they also don't drop in price all that quickly.  It seems to me that Wii games drop in price faster and are also more likely to be on sale.  This is purely speculation on my part as it is just something I've noticed.  I've been able to get games like Warioware ($36) and Super Monkey Ball ($28) a few months after they were released. 

Also I hate the fact that the greatest hits on the 360 cost $30.  Thats still too much money for a game thats over a year old.  It just seems beyond greedy to me.  Not to mention that several games try to nickel and dime you with downloadable content.