Modern Warfare 2 was always going to sell like crazy in the UK, especially given the ridiculous success of World at War, but Activision decided to bump the price up to fifty-five quid anyway. Activision UK managing director Andrew Brown feels his company is justified in doing this, saying it's okay to charge fifty quid if you believe people are willing to spend it.
"At the end of the day, there is a spectrum of what people can afford and what people are prepared to spend. These things are key," claims Brown. "This is an industry where things cost a lot to develop and it’s a risky business. We talk about building franchises; it is very expensive to do this from every respect. What we are finding is that for the right products, if you look at the time someone will spend playing something and compare it to something else, people are saying it's worth it"
Did Brown really try and make us believe that Modern Warfare 2 is an expensive and risky move? An FPS based on an engine that's already developed and guaranteed to sell millions upon million of copies is an expensive risk? Wow, that's utter horsesh*t right there.
Activision, I would respect you a lot more if you just straight-up admitted the real reason for the price hike: You're greedy and you think you can get away with.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
8:00 AM on 10.05.2009
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Money Whores, all ActiBliz cares about is money these days.
You bastards got greedy, MW is one of the best selling games this gen, its name alone prints money, there is no excuse for what you guys did.
With that said, I hope the game fails miserably. I know that it won't, but it's still fun to dream.
The sad truth is no one besides psychopaths are gonna be regularly using the nvg's, people will take one maybe two looks at the artbook but it will soon head the same way the Legendary edition of Halo 3 did, ...on a shelf in the corner collecting dust.
Also because HMV got the prestige exclusive deal has anyone noticed the deal GAME.co.uk has going on. now THIS is greed! thats a £30 mark up for something that must cost £10 tops on top of the hardened edition.
With that said, this practice is not typical for the video game industry, and I believe that any company that attempts this will be surprised by the negative reaction towards their product.
So here's to hoping that all of those cute little Englishmen screw Activision over.
Expect this to happen a lot after the success of Modern Warfare 2.
Seriously, alot of people on here are acting like activision have just raped their mum when in actual fact it just means you won't be able to afford a box of pop tarts while you enjoy your game
But hey, don't let that get in the way of all the Activision hatin', eh?
L4D2 and Borderlands' 10% off offers have spoiled me enough.
Although, thinking about it, that's practically 2 games for the same price as MW2 on consoles. Eep.
Sure, Activision are being excessively and shamelessly greedy, but they're not likely to actually get their way and all they've really done is increased the number of people buying their game used or renting it.
Are you flying high in the spaceship of the mind again? You are aware that while development costs are rising, raising the price of games incrementally is only going to further exclude more and more people from the overall player pool? Sure, it ain't that much of a difference now, but this could be the harbinger of a bad idea. Hopefully this doesn't become the norm, because the $40-$60 price point has been observed as a standard for almost 20 years now.
Anyway, I don't think twenty years is nearly enough time to establish any constants or standards. The industry has changed considerably in twenty years and it could always be completely different in a decade. So let's not assume anything.
Frohike, I'm not assuming that studios will adopt that sort of pricing scheme, I'm just observing that people will likely be willing to spend more for a game with higher production values. Modern Warfare 2 only stands to evidence that. So do 3D movies.
Anyway, I don't think twenty years is nearly enough time to establish any constants or standards. The industry has changed considerably in twenty years and it could always be completely different in a decade. So let's not assume anything.
Frohike, I'm not assuming that studios will adopt that sort of pricing scheme, I'm just observing that people will likely be willing to spend more for a game with higher production values. Modern Warfare 2 only stands to evidence that. So do 3D movies.
"They're saying this: why should a game that costs millions of dollars to produce cost the consumer the same price as a game that costs only thousands of dollars to produce."
Really? Then how come they're only doing this in the U.K. Seriously you can't justify charging one country more than everyone else. They're charging the U.K. the equivalent of $100 US for a game.($210 US fro the Prestige Edition) And do you really think this game cost millions to make? Most of that production costs probably goes to voice actors and they're musical score as well as advertising. This is really just a graphical upgrading with more features. It's all about demand Sagan. They know people want it so they were greedy and hiked the prices.
I didn't consider the difference between the markets. Yeah, I'm starting to be kind of amazed that they would pull this stunt.
The fat cats of Activision are bound to make millions out of this even at a more consumer friendly price point. It's not the money making that irks me, more the patronising gob-arse that goes with it.
So yeah I'd grumble about the price and then pay it anyway, because it is worth it to me. In fact, it's one of the only games that I simply can't wait a few months to get second hand.
Other new games might try price hikes and get burned but I think COD is going to get away with it.
"I'm just observing that people will likely be willing to spend more for a game with higher production values. Modern Warfare 2 only stands to evidence that. So do 3D movies."
How can MW2 stand as evidence to people willing to pay more when it's not out for another month? 3D movies aren't more because of higher production values. They're higher because you gotta provide the glasses and create the optical illusion on the film itself. And 3-D movies cost $2 extra not 15 Quid more. If the movie business charged more for production value the The Dark Knight would've been the most expensive movie to watch last year. But it wasn't. It was the same price for a Dark Knight Ticket as it was for a District 9 Ticket. The Dark Knight cost $185 million while District 9 cost $30 million. I'd really like to see Activision try this crap here in North America. If people didn't buy PS3s because of price then they wouldn't pay $100 for video games either.
I'd be amazed if every retailer stuck to that price point. Expect Gamestation, Game, and HMV to do so however, as they never do anyone any favours on new releases.
Better still, if I wait 6 months I'll be able to get a copy for around £30. That's brand new, before I even consider going down the avenue of preowned or eBay, where I expect I could get it for £10-20. All without breaking a single law or losing out on the experience of playing it.
Two other comments I love he made, "... and compare it to something else, people are saying it's worth it." YES! Thank you Fox news! "Some people say" it's worth it! Like... Ferrari's right? You don't hear filthy rich people saying that spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car they barely drive isn't worth it right?
Also his comment that the business is a "risky business." Activision makes between 3-4 BILLION dollars in profit (after expenses). It ain't *that* risky. (It's not like they're artic fisherman or something where they could actually die. Now *THAT* is a risky business.)
Can't. They're owned by Activision.
And to whomever said that apple did this with the iPod isn't paying attention. The iPod has either gained features or gotten cheaper every singe iteraton.