No way. (Destiny)

by yakaman, Monday, July 14, 2014, 10:49 (3803 days ago) @ Kermit

The $59 price point is sacrosanct in the industry and, even more importantly, within the psychological comfort zone for many gamers. This game is a new IP that NEEDS to sell to everyone who might have an interest, and that interest isn't (or hasn't been) as great as we might think here in the hothouse that is DBO. This isn't some boutique product like Steel Battalion. Also, from a strictly practical point of view, I don't think we should underestimate what a difference $30 makes to kids depending on allowances, college students depending on trade-in values, and the scores of people who have the budget to buy only one or two new games per year.

Edit: also meant to add, day one sales matter more than ever. There's too much competition for gamers' attention.

Yes - any deviation from the magic $60 is tempting the rage of gamers everywhere. Not to say that you don't have a point - it does seem that the "real" version of Destiny will cost about $100 bucks. The $60 + expansion pass just breaks it up into line-items...a technicality, really.

I used to affiliate the term "gamers" with terms like savvy, progressive, enlightened. The last couple of years have turned that perception directly on its head. "Gamers" it seems, has no single demographic, and en masse tends to be cranky, ill-tempered, resistant to change, and way too certain of game development judgement (yes, I realize the irony of that statement, I am part of the demographic).

IMO, an investment of, say, $40 for 100+ hours of entertainment is easily justified. Especially considering:

Beer at bar: $3.00 - $6.00 per
Movie at theater: $10-$20 per
Footlong meal at Subway: $7-$10
Tank of gas: $30-$60

Further, if one were to put away $2 per day for a year, they'd have enough to buy an new console and multiple games. Seems like a reasonable investment for a lot of entertainment.

However, Bluerunner's (I think) pointed out that $100 is a lot to pay for a game that he might not like. As a barrier for entry, that's pretty steep. By letting people at least get in at $60, your product can do the job of selling/justifying the expansions.

Good topic though. I was just thinking last night the Destiny (with it's extensive DLCs) is essentially the first $100 game.