Criticisms of the Video Game Industry Part 1: Price of Software

I think the meme above says it all. When I have talked to people about why they are not interested in playing video games, one of the biggest reasons is the fact that each video game can cost upwards of $60. That is a lot of money. That can get someone two or three Blu Ray movies, about four 3D movie tickets, or sixty items from a fast food dollar menu, which is enough food to last a couple of weeks.

You ever ask yourself why the average console game costs $60? Its because the games companies need to make their money back. It shows just how many people are not buying video games. Movie tickets and albums are cheap because a massive amount of people are willing to buy them. Lets do the math with an example irrelevant to media. And by the way, I’m terrible at math. Even if the math is wrong, the point I’m making is at least obvious. Mike has opened a lemonade stand and needs to make $50 to gain a profit. The cost to create the lemonade recipe was $35 and it costs 10 cents to make a cup of lemonade. Only 20 people are willing to buy Mike’s lemonade. Mike would have to sell each cup for around $2.50 to make a profit. Now, Jesse is making Iced Tea. He also needs to make $50 on his beverage. It costs just as much to make his iced tea recipe and to create a cup of it. The only difference is that 50 people are willing to buy Jesse’s iced tea. Jesse can price his iced tea at $1.00 to make a profit. What is the price behind all of this? The point I’m making is that if there are more people who buy video games, the cost will go down. Looking at the example, the cost to create the recipe represents the cost of developing a game, which is typically a cost of ten to thirty million dollars on average. The cost to create a cup shows just how cheap it is to actually manufacture a boxed copy of a game. Usually the game manufacturer’s do it so long as they get some royalties. If a game is sold digitally, this price is either free or if on an online store, the online store would be receiving some royalties.