Yes, bandwidth does cost, but its nothing like producing tons of dvd's, packaging them, sending them all over the world and delivering to stores. I think digital delivery is something that can bring this price down a lot. $10 go toward cost of goods sold, which includes manufacturing the game disc, shipping the games to the store, and anything else directly related to production and delivery of the game package. That being said, I would probably try more games if they were cheaper. And dont even get me started on the civilization and settlers series. My stats for Left4Dead show 947 hours and I've probably spend *a lot* in WoW too. Good games give a lot more entertainment and fun hours. Both of those give only a few hours of entertainment value, and to be honest aren't all that fun all the time. You might spend the same amount in bars too. You pay atleast $15+ to go the movies, probably even more if you make a night out of it. You have to find the fine line.Īnd to be honest, they $60 price isn't that much if it's a great game. Going a bit over the standard decreases sales, going a bit less than the standard can increase them. There's a certain "standard" price everyone goes with, because if they didn't, it'll affect their sales. It's the same thing with movies and music. Many games start out at this retail price â" but why? Did the makers of The Beatles Rock Band game just happen upon $59.99, as did the makers of Batman Arkham Asylum? After all, those two titles surely took different amounts of man hours to develop, and result in different averages of entertainment time enjoyed by the consumer. To my mind, emerging technologies, subscriptions and episodic and downloadable content should all enable price drops - increasing accessibility to a much wider audience.'" When asked about the next step up to $70 or $80, Hal Halpin (president and founder of the Entertainment Consumers Association) says, 'I'm not sure that we'll see a standard $70 price point at all. Though lengthy, the article looks at three forces of economics on why game publishers continuously end up in lockstep for pricing: sensible greed, consumer stupidity or evil conspiracy. That leaves $30 to $35 in the hands of the publishers. They interview a director at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, who breaks down the pie as $12 to retailer, $5 to discounts/returns/retail marketing, $10 toward manufacturing costs and shipping. Many games start out at this retail price - but why? Did the makers of The Beatles Rock Band game just happen upon $59.99, as did the makers of Batman Arkham Asylum? After all, those two titles surely took different amounts of man hours to develop, and result in different averages of entertainment time enjoyed by the consumer. Eldavojohn writes "Crispy Gamer is running a very interesting article on why games cost $60.