I know that this topic has been pondered alot, but with the recent drop in music CD and DVD prices, I thought that maybe we could take another look at it.


Ok, music CD's are selling now in the $11.99 and $9.99 range, DVD movies are selling in the $17.99 and $14.99 range. Typically, of course. Sure there are lots of music CD's and DVD movies that sell for quite a bit more, but I'm talking about typical prices.


So with Music CD's and DVD movies selling for so cheap, why are brand new video games still going for $49.99?



My personal belief on this is that it is a combination of a number of factors. No.1, video game publishers feel that consumers think that $49.99 is a fair price, they think that is what they have to pay, and they continue paying it. No. 2, development costs have risen dramatically over the years. What used to take a team of 8 or 14 people to make, now takes 50 people or more to develop. No. 3, with so much fierce competition in the industry now, and so many companies fighting over the same market share, marketing becomes a huge factor and it's very expensive to market your product properly. I'm sure E.A. spends ridiculous amounts on marketing, but they also are always the sales leaders too.

But I honestly feel that new video games should cost in the neighborhood of $34.99, $29.99 and $24.99 brand new. I know if that was the case, I would buy triple the amount of games that I'm buying now. But obviously, the focus groups and think tanks in the industry disagree. They must feel that even if they lower the price, that consumers won't actually buy any more games. So they might as well keep prices high, if they aren't going to double sales.