Rant about release dates

lincsman

lincsman

Member
This might seem kind of pointless, but perhaps it will start a bit of a discussion. I am really anxious (although kind of skeptical from NFS Rivals which wasn't that great in my opinion, but I have really enjoyed many NFS games) to try the new need for speed game. I don't even really know what it's called other than need for speed. Also, I want to buy COD black ops II but not bad enough to pay $65. Then there's GTA V which is $70. My little rant is that all of these games (and GTA V didn't work on my computer so I had to return it, but no big deal) are released much sooner on consoles and thus at this point a lot cheaper. Also the new NFS game isn't going to be released on PC until spring while it's already out here for consoles. I much prefer PC gaming and I understand there is probably a lot of work to make a game ready for a computer as they have to make the graphics adjustable and also might have to improve them for the higher settings that often are better than on consoles, correct me if I'm wrong. However it's kind of a kick in the butt when they charge much more for PC games because they are "newer." Like, I had to wait a lot longer to play it on the PC and now I have to pay more too? Talk about milking people for their dollars. I know, though.. if you want it cheaper and/or sooner than get a console, but I don't want to nor can I afford it lol.
Random yes. Comment away my friends.
 
Hmm, I feel the complete opposite. Console games tend to remain at $59.99 for years, or until their replacement comes out (like FIFA 15 > FIFA 16). You rarely see sales on console games. PC games on the other hand, while they start out at $49.99-$59.99, they quickly drop for sales, and after a couple years they are much less than their console counterparts. GTA V is a good example. Last week you could get it for $45 on Steam, while it's still $60 AFAIK on consoles.

Release dates are usually the same, except for some games like Halo which if they ever come, are a lot later than Xbox.

Are you in the US? Black Ops II can usually be found for $30-$40 on sale (Black Ops III is $60), and GTA V is around $45.
 
There's generally a much larger market for consoles, so it makes sense to release those from a monetary/income perspective. Not sure where you live but even new games you can get for a reasonable price (I picked up Halo 5 and BLOPS 3 for XB1 at $37.99+tax ea). The MSRP for console and PC games usually sits at $59.99 though for both platforms. I agree it's stupid to release it on PC for $59.99 after it may have had a price cut on console, however it usually ends up in the sale bin more quickly than not for that platform.

The quality of ports should generally increase, the new consoles also use x86 computer hardware so there are a lot less dependencies trying to port it over from other platforms like 360/PS3.
 
People can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure sony and microsoft make very little profit console sales right now, I think microsoft was actually losing money at some points, but in time they will earn back the money they invested to launch the consoles. Microsoft recently changed the way they viewed their profits, I think they said it was more accurate representation for how well the xbox is doing, because less people are buying the consoles. Anyway microsoft makes huge profits on xbox live subscriptions and they both make their profits through games sales. It makes sense that they would want to encourage people onto their console by releasing game there first and I guess games prices at set at the point they would be most profitable, seems console gamers are willing to pay more.
 
I live in Canada actually, and thanks the information helps. I find on Steam which is what I use most for purchasing games, many games do go on sale often and sometimes 50% off even. This usually doesn't happen for popular games though. I must digress in the sense that I just found out, Call of Duty BO III (no I don't mean body odor) has been released for PC at the same time as consoles (for $80). As for COD II and GTA V, same price as before and they never go on sale. $65 for BOII and $70 for GTA V. I have them on my wishlist and steam tells me when these go on sale and they haven't in the last 2 months.
The x86 thing I didn't know. I read up on the benefits of 64 bit and it seems less than I thought so I guess it does work out to put out good graphics on an x86 system. I think that sometimes 32 bit games sometimes have trouble running on a 64-bit system if they were made before 64-bit operating systems were used. So I guess that it makes sense, it takes a bit of extra work to get it running on new versions of windows. So this post wasn't useless! :P
 
I personally don't like the fact that most EA games are released a couple of days later in Europe. I'll have to wait until the 20th to play SW Battlefront while Americans are already enjoying it
 
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