by Sora Jhannoa

Created on: March 06, 2008

Video game prices have sky rocketed since the next generation consoles have exploded onto the gaming scene. The average, newly released game can see you paying 35 to 45 a time, which is entirely related to which console you're buying for.

There are several reasons behind the increase in game prices. Video games in the past used to be created generally by two, average, nerdy human beings in their garage with nothing better to do but provide people with entertainment. This was cheap, and usually didn't earn said two people much money. Then the industry grew, rather quickly, and so did the teams who made the games. Teams nowadays range from 30 to over 100 individuals working on one project at a time. The rise in prices is mainly due to how much money it costs a developer now to produce a high end, next generation console game, and even those games which go on the PC. Companies have more wages to pay, have to spend more time ensuring that everything is made to as high a quality as possible and then they have to worry about telling the players about their new creation.

Only a small part of the money you spend on a game in a shop actually goes to the people who made it. The rest goes into the marketing campaign, publishing fees, rights to put the game on a certain console or run in on a PC, packaging, distribution costs and so on. The list is endless. There are a lot more people involved in creating games today then there ever were in the past.

Another big reason for the rise in cost for console games is down to the consoles themselves. The companies who make the consoles don't really make much profit from the players buying the consoles; they make the majority of their revenue back by charging developers and publishers a fee to put their games on a certain console.

All of this is very interesting to know in regards to how the industry has expanded, but it isn't much fun to be a student or gamer, who usually don't have tons of money, to go out and try and buy the latest game. If games keep rising in price then the only people who will be able t afford to play them are people with a very high disposable income, which they will be able to use to buy these pricey games. It is a shame really, that a key section of the gaming industry's customers will be unable to buy the new games when they are released purely because of the high cost.

Hopefully there will be some sort of compromise on costs soon. Until then, we poor students and gamers will have to ferret around in the rental and second hand shelves in game shops, or bother friends who have the money to buy the games, all in order to keep having fun and enjoying new games.

Learn more about this author, Sora Jhannoa.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.