Curmudgeon Gamer
20 August 2006
What gives with the price of Black?
Why hasn't Black, the gun-porn game from EA, dropped in price? Six months ago it was released at $40 and it's still at $40 today.
Back when EA announced they were going to put the game out at $40 instead of $50, even though they'd sunk a ton of money into its development, I wondered what they had in mind. Could it be, I thought at the time, that a game that sits at $40 for a long time will make more money than one that initially starts at $50 but then slowly drops after a couple of months?
All the folks who'd pay $50 to $40 of course have already bought the game, and probably bought it when it was released. A few who would like to pay closer to $30 will rationalize a buy, figuring it's an early deal, while others will snap up the used copies priced just below $40, keeping the market for used copies tight.
Then I'd guess there are a ton of folks, like me, who'd pick it up closer to $20 but can't stomach the $40 price for new (or $35 for used). Over time some of us will become impatient and eventually fork over for the game. This isn't entirely irrational, since experience has taught me that I can't rely on my memory to be vigilant for a good deal nor the market to provide such opportunities.
The question is how long will Black stay at $40? I really would have pegged it for a price drop about two months ago, but EA has stubbornly kept it high.
Anyone seen any NPD data specifically for Black?
Back when EA announced they were going to put the game out at $40 instead of $50, even though they'd sunk a ton of money into its development, I wondered what they had in mind. Could it be, I thought at the time, that a game that sits at $40 for a long time will make more money than one that initially starts at $50 but then slowly drops after a couple of months?
All the folks who'd pay $50 to $40 of course have already bought the game, and probably bought it when it was released. A few who would like to pay closer to $30 will rationalize a buy, figuring it's an early deal, while others will snap up the used copies priced just below $40, keeping the market for used copies tight.
Then I'd guess there are a ton of folks, like me, who'd pick it up closer to $20 but can't stomach the $40 price for new (or $35 for used). Over time some of us will become impatient and eventually fork over for the game. This isn't entirely irrational, since experience has taught me that I can't rely on my memory to be vigilant for a good deal nor the market to provide such opportunities.
The question is how long will Black stay at $40? I really would have pegged it for a price drop about two months ago, but EA has stubbornly kept it high.
Anyone seen any NPD data specifically for Black?
--jvm at 23:47
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Comments on this post:
Please, don't come near Spain then. In the spanish market, console games ALWAYS remain the same price after launch until they are returned to the distributor or a new "platinum" edition replaces the old version. This is not the case with the PC game market, where prices fluctuate as expected.
I wonder if it is the same in the rest of the euro zone.
By 
Paraninfo, at
29 August, 2006 05:23
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