Metropol

I don't know exactly how many gamers are on this forum, but I thought I might give it a mention - Play.com have not begun selling PS3 and Wii products for pre-order.

The PS3 section is currently selling games at £49.99 and a black 60gb console with three games for £549.99 (no sign of a 30gb one)

The Wii section has games around the same price as the PS3s, but to details of release date or cost.

http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation3/ ... nHome.html
http://www.play.com/Games/Wii/NAVSUB/5-/RegionHome.html

...made me smile anyway.

£549.99 for a console and games for 50????

i'm a fairly causal gamer, and i tend to only play when either a) there is nothing on the telly at all or b) we've got a few people round and we have a bash on something like 'buzz' or one of the other party type games we've got kicking around.

but i cannot justify 50 quid for a game. most of the games i've brought have been no more than £25 - i tend to go for the retro compilations so they're quite cheap anyway, but it's just getting stupid. i understand that a lot of these games have protracted development cycles and they are difficult to make - that's a given, but there has to be a cut off point somewhere.

the price of the console is less of a concern, it is expensive, but it's a one off cost and it'll go down in time.

with the games, i'm not too sure... i still see the xbox360 titles are going for 50 - it's too much for me and it will be too much for gaming enthusiatsts, surely?

I agree £50 for a game is extortionate.

I used to be quite content with a Codemasters £1.99 title for my Spectrum or C64 all those years ago.

On a similar gripe, I've found myself buying fewer and fewer commercial DVDs, as these days they are laden with anti-piracy warnings (on one DVD I have had to sit through a 30s anti-piracy video, two screens of anti piracy warnings lasting about 20s, country-specific anti-unlicenced-use warnings in multiple languages lasting about 1m, repeated at the start of an episode (1m again), and extensive branding for both the production company and the DVD publisher (40s)). If they are trying to market their own DVDs as superior products, they're doing a darn bad job at it! Surely it's stating the obvious that those who BUY the DVDs aren't therefore those that PIRATE DVDs!?

Has anyone seen that cinema copyright ad with the "cinema audience" clapping and cheering at the end? It makes me wonder what kind of delusional world these film distribution types live in.

cdd wrote:On a similar gripe, I've found myself buying fewer and fewer commercial DVDs, as these days they are laden with anti-piracy warnings (on one DVD I have had to sit through a 30s anti-piracy video, two screens of anti piracy warnings lasting about 20s, country-specific anti-unlicenced-use warnings in multiple languages lasting about 1m, repeated at the start of an episode (1m again), and extensive branding for both the production company and the DVD publisher (40s)). If they are trying to market their own DVDs as superior products, they're doing a darn bad job at it! Surely it's stating the obvious that those who BUY the DVDs aren't therefore those that PIRATE DVDs!?

And what's more, you can't skip the bloody warnings like you can on a good old VHS. Certainly all the DVD players I've used - both on this computer and as separate units don't have the ability to fast forward through all the promotional guff and piracy warnings.

the simpsons dvd box set is the worst one i own - not only do you get two unskippable copyright warnings *before* and *after* each episode, they are all in different languages.

Square Eyes wrote:I agree £50 for a game is extortionate.

I used to be quite content with a Codemasters £1.99 title for my Spectrum or C64 all those years ago.

too true - i seem to remember thinking that 9.99 was extortionate for the premium floppy disk based c64 games back then too... now 9.99 is considered a bargain.

also, has anybody noticed that in game, some of the "used bargains" are actually more expensive than the exact same title, brand new?

i brought worms 4 mayhem a few weeks ago for £9.99 (new, from game) and a second hand copy was for sale at £12.99 (in the same shop, about 3 shelf partitions away) - they also refused to reduce for price for used title as well.

Dr Lobster* wrote:the simpsons dvd box set is the worst one i own - not only do you get two unskippable copyright warnings *before* and *after* each episode, they are all in different languages.

Square Eyes wrote:I agree £50 for a game is extortionate.

I used to be quite content with a Codemasters £1.99 title for my Spectrum or C64 all those years ago.

too true - i seem to remember thinking that 9.99 was extortionate for the premium floppy disk based c64 games back then too... now 9.99 is considered a bargain.

also, has anybody noticed that in game, some of the "used bargains" are actually more expensive than the exact same title, brand new?

i brought worms 4 mayhem a few weeks ago for £9.99 (new, from game) and a second hand copy was for sale at £12.99 (in the same shop, about 3 shelf partitions away) - they also refused to reduce for price for used title as well.

Worms 4 Mayhem was great, until I damaged my CD and wasn't able to make a functioning backup earlier due to some filthy copy protection system (it requires it to play the game). Codemasters weren't interesting in helping either without proof of purchase, which I don't keep several months in advance.

Both the PS3 and Wii are not currently available, those are preorders.

Also while the PS3 will be £500 + with games at £50 - £60, Nintendo's console will be no more than £250 with games from £30 - £40.

Whilst the price of games may seem high, they do cost millions to make. And until we get the same amount of gamers as we get buying DVDs, the prices will never come down.

Gaming is boring. I've never been able to get into games consoles at all. I used to have a megadrive but I rarely played on it.

I've played on my mates PS2 San Andreas, but I got bored with that after an hour.

Gave my little brother my PS2 few years ago. He uses it as a DVD player. No plans to buy an XBox, PS3 or whatever.