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Are video games too cheap?

(note for readers outside Europe, 1€ is $1.40)

Back in 1992, 13 years old me bought his very first video game. It was A-Train (link), developed by Artdink and published by Maxis. I paid 2399 BEF (link) for it, that would be equivalent to €90 of today (with the 50% CPI inflation). For the following years, I would spend all the money intensive lawn mowing would earn me in video games, and I managed to buy one every three to four months or so.

Of course I was making copies of my own games and trading those with friends to get more games, copy protection was quite simple to break back then. But when I finally got my degree in CS I was firmly decided to create video games for a living, and I decided to not copy a single video game anymore. Let’s not bite the hand that feeds.

Today I have a pretty active life, and not that much time to play video games anymore. But I still manage to play every now and then, and if I look at the games I bought in the last few months, I am worried.

• I bought “Kudos 2” for €3 (link).
• I bought Left 4 Dead 2 for €5 (link).
• I bought Flight Control HD for €5 (link).
• I bought Civilization IV : Colonization for €4 (link).
• I bought Need for Speed Shift for … €0 (bundled) (link).

Countless hours of entertainment for less than a fourth of the price of most games I used to buy as a kid. I am spending less money in video games now that I buy everything than twenty years ago when I was making copies of any game that crossed my path.

Two days ago a friend showed me a game he bought on his iPhone, it was “Jet Car Stunts” (link), and he paid 1.5 euros for it. The game looks absolutely amazing and it could have rivaled some full price retail games of a few years ago. How can people still make money by selling stuff at this price? It’s not like the tools we use have slashed development costs by such a factor over the course of ten years, or is it? Digital distribution ? Sure, it cuts costs and has the famous “long tail”, but… 1.5 euros ? Really ?

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