SIM City by Maxis is released in a few days.
I saw the developer blogs and trailers from last year's E3 and was very interested in this game. Then the bad news started trickling out. Phrases like "always on DRM" rang alarm bells.
Currently you can get it for the "bargain" pre-order price of £44.99! And if you want to pre-empt all the worthless DLC you can stump up £64.99 for the "Digital Deluxe" edition and get all five DLC packs from the outset.
I cannot see, in my opinion, why any game should climb much above the £20 mark. If it cost too much to recover the development budget at that price, then they should not have used Tom Cruise to make the tea for the last four years.
I will confidently predict that this fiercely hyped game will be the most pirated title of 2013. Why? Because that price-point coupled with the absurd DRM measures is a "screw you!" to anyone who buys it, which usually engenders the same response back.
I have lost all interest in this game. And if I think "crikey that's more money than I can afford" what chance does any teenager stand of buying it?
Click here (http://store.origin.com/store/eaemea/en_GB/pd/productID.246949500/)to torpedo your financial exhaust-port.
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I wouldn't even consider a game at that price point. EA have a long history of finding new and exciting ways to monetise the game market. They seem to be doing so at the expense of their customers who they clearly see as walking wallets to be emptied rather than valued customers to be nurtured. Sadly as long as people will pay elevated prices and accept endless ongoing micro transactions for content that should either be included in the original game or as community created content (i.e. new maps) then companies like EA will continue doing business like this.
The simple answer is to stop buying their stuff as the only thing that will get their attention is a fall in revenue.
£30 is, generally, the most I'm willing to spend - and it has to be a sure-fire winner for that money.
From the brief time I've spent looking through its store, Origin seems to be one of the most expensive places to buy games. I thought Steam had shown that heavily discounted games = mega sales, but I guess EA didn't get that memo.
The last few games I've pre-ordered or brought at full price have been a let down for me, I'm fed up with games being hyped out of all proportion & then turning out to be a bit "mehh"
I think I'm done with buying new games, leave them a while & get em in the steam sales or just online cheap, by then atleast the hype has gone & you should know if there good or not.
I think a lot of people have been stung by the Colonial Marines scandal, 'Fake' pre-release footage making the game look much better than it actually was in order to drive up pre-orders.
The best indication on whether an upcoming title is going to be a lemon is if they give 'pre-release' review code to gaming review websites. If the likes of Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun etc are denied a look at the game before it's released then it's generally a sign that the hype-machine is in full effect and you're better off waiting for some post-release reviews before buying.
Quote from: RizZy;367758The last few games I've pre-ordered or brought at full price have been a let down for me, I'm fed up with games being hyped out of all proportion & then turning out to be a bit "mehh"
I think I'm done with buying new games, leave them a while & get em in the steam sales or just online cheap, by then atleast the hype has gone & you should know if there good or not.
I think I am with you still Arma 3 does look good but after as Tut said about Alien I will be being more careful
£45 is too much, let alone £65, typical EA
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I don't particularly mind £30 if it's a game I'm looking forward to. I don't enjoy it, but I don't mind too much. I've spent £35 for a digital deluxe edition of a game before. I can't see myself spending more than that though. Even with inflation slowly pushing up prices generally digital distribution is generally pushing down the cost of making a computer game. If modders can hold down a steady job and put out high quality games for free in their spare time, why are developers struggling to break even at the £30 mark. There are plenty of kickstarters producing games for a very reasonable price, so it's not the games themselves that's costing the money it's the label. Just like musicians don't get a fair share of album sales, developers don't get a fair share of the game sales.
Platforms like Steam (through Greenlight) and Kickstarter are letting people pick the games they want and what they want to spend. Let EA spit out a load of crap games DRM crippled games on Origin for £45 or £65, I won't be buying them. I'm Steam exclusive (The Kickstarter games I've backed have pledged to release steam keys for the finished products), if EA want my money they'll have to offer a game on that platform, without crippling DRM and at a sensible price (as well as being fun to play of course). I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been pushed away from EA games with horrible DRM, and into the arms of indie developers who are actually producing reasonable games at sensible prices.