What makes a game worth $60 to you? Post with example please.

[Yavin4MFC]

Witcher 3, in hindsight, would have been worth $60 to me. In contrast, Star Wars Battlefront was not worth the $60 I spent. On the other hand, Overwatch is a perfect $40 game to me, tho I did spend full price.

The last time I spent $60 and it was worth it was Bioshock Infinite.

 

[Gen]

Games I've felt are worth $60+ are usually quite long and have a variety of things to do (driving, puzzles, shooting, etc). So for me games like GTA, Skyrim, Dragon Age. Also games I play frequently with friends like Left 4 Dead or Dead Island. Basically anything I'll play for a while.

A few games that I enjoyed but wouldn't pay more than $40 for are the Arkham games, and the Bioshocks. Both series I enjoyed a lot but don't hold a lot of replay value for me or get tiresome after a while.

Currently debating Dishonoured 2; I loved the first one and know I'll want to play this, but the first was quite short and I'm not sure if this one will be longer. Obviously reviews can let me know but I want it right away haha. Might get it for winter break.

 

[Shaun__]

When I was younger it was long roleplaying, like Ultima the False Prophet( which I never finished). Now I just do not know, work takes so much of my time I find it hard to find time to spend on games. So I tend to just wait for sales most of the time, since I will not be able to play much when released even if I did preorder it.

 

[Violet Dawn]

Honestly. Maybe only online games. I tend to only pay about 40 dollars max for a game, even if that means I have to wait.

 

[zippypinhead]

Honestly, I don't know if I could bring myself to spend $60 on any game. About $40 is my ceiling, and since I subscribe to the mantra of the patient gamer, if I do drop that kind of money on a game, it's gonna be for the Mega Ultimate Game of the Year edition with all expansions included, and it's a game I will have waited long enough for.

 

[AerynShade]

I have a friend in the game biz, and knowing how much work she puts into a single game...I'm happy to pay $60 for pretty much any game.

 

[zippypinhead]

I have a friend in the game biz, and knowing how much work she puts into a single game...I'm happy to pay $60 for pretty much any game.

Given that $60 is pretty much a AAA price point, and the big publishers aren't exactly scrupulous about paying their talent vs. what they charge, I don't feel too bad about waiting. I have and do pay full price for indie titles that I like, when I'm sure the money is reaching the creators, but indie titles rarely reach $60.

If I was making enough money that I didn't have to scrutinize where every cent is going, I might be more willing to get games at launch for full price. Alas, such is the life of an artiste...

 

[DaddyDominant]

Witcher 3, in hindsight, would have been worth $60 to me. In contrast, Star Wars Battlefront was not worth the $60 I spent. On the other hand, Overwatch is a perfect $40 game to me, tho I did spend full price.

The last time I spent $60 and it was worth it was Bioshock Infinite.

I spent full price for BI..and I can NOT get into it....I've tried and tried and tried.

 

[DaddyDominant]

Witcher 3, in hindsight, would have been worth $60 to me. In contrast, Star Wars Battlefront was not worth the $60 I spent. On the other hand, Overwatch is a perfect $40 game to me, tho I did spend full price.

The last time I spent $60 and it was worth it was Bioshock Infinite.

Responding again....

I always check cdkeys.com for decent prices on games...be warned they're situated in Ireland so my CC company tends to be a bunch of cunts when I try to pay (ie I have to call them).

My bank: Its for your protection
me: fuck you, I'm covered if my card is used fraudulently this is for YOUR protection. Also, at the point you decline it, I've already entered all of the information they need to sell the account.

 

[Snowie1969]

There absolutely is a lot of work going into creating a game. Add to that things like marketing and licencing fees (sports games and racegames suffer from this) and you reach $40 quickly.

Is it worth that to me? That depends. I have bought games at full price that I have played for hours and hours and re-played for hours. Yes, that game was worth it.
Others I have bought at reduced prices and didn't even finish the game.

 

[Yavin4MFC]

I just found out that Titanfall 2 has ALL FREE DLC. Everything. Since I loved the first game a lot, but waited til the DLC was free...this might be a no brainer $60 purchase, plus I want to see it crush Call of Duty.

In hindsight, I wish Overwatch had pushed the all free DLC angle. I didn't even know about it til after I had bought the game. That bumps it up to worth the $60 to me.

 

[DuoShi]

I just found out that Titanfall 2 has ALL FREE DLC. Everything. Since I loved the first game a lot, but waited til the DLC was free...this might be a no brainer $60 purchase, plus I want to see it crush Call of Duty.

In hindsight, I wish Overwatch had pushed the all free DLC angle. I didn't even know about it til after I had bought the game. That bumps it up to worth the $60 to me.

Is Titanfall 2 worth the 60 bucks to you? I haven't decided if I'm going to get it yet. The beta felt kinda meh, besides the training running course. As for me, I usually get AAA titles, so I expect to pay 60 every time. I've only had a few stinkers that I wish I didn't buy (Advanced Warfare and Homefront come to mind).

 

[EspiKvlt]

Being open world.

Being made by Bethesda (this isn't a joke, they own my soul).

 

[Yavin4MFC]

Is Titanfall 2 worth the 60 bucks to you? I haven't decided if I'm going to get it yet. The beta felt kinda meh, besides the training running course. As for me, I usually get AAA titles, so I expect to pay 60 every time. I've only had a few stinkers that I wish I didn't buy (Advanced Warfare and Homefront come to mind).

tbd. bigger, better in some ways, more content, but something is different...

one thing i'm missing right now is being able to wall run the whole map. it seems they nerfed the running just to be able to use grappel hook more.

 

[WendyElm]

The only two games I've payed full price for is Dragon Age: Inquisition and Life is Strange. I can't remember how much DA:I was, probably close to $60. Life is Strange was released in chapters, and I paid for the full game before all of the chapters were released for about $20 (That's actually a big spend for me, which is sad.)

I've just been lucky catching sales and watching Steam for the games I liked: Got all the Bioshock games for under $10, snagged Fallout up to NV for a few bucks each, DA:Origins for free, but most of them are games I would have paid for if I had the money and didn't find on sale after a while of waiting.

If I was paying $60 for a game, it would have to be something I could log hundreds of hours on. I prefer open world, wander off track, and the ability to make choices that effect gameplay. (Also, I'm shallow and have way too much fun with character customization and the ability to build backstory etc. If I hear a game is good in that regard, I'm pretty hooked already.) I'd definitely prefer to pay more for 'game of the year' editions or packs with all the DLC etc included, my FOMO is real.

Also, as much as I'm loyal to companies (Bethesda owns my entire ass too) I find I'm way more willing to pay full price for games if they're from independent creators, or kickstarts, or really anything that isn't big-name. Even if it isn't $60, I'm way less hesitant hitting 'add to cart' for these.

All this is making me think of all the games I need to play/buy, but then I remember I play on a potato that just barely scrapes the minimum requirements for DA:I on Awful Mode.

 

[zippypinhead]

That's another reason why I don't buy games on release. I'm stuck in this loop where I accrue a list of games I want to play, but am unable to due to an aging computer. So, every 5-7 years, when I get a new computer, I spend all my time and money on a wishlist of games that I wasn't able to play on my last machine. By the time I'm caught up to current releases, my current computer is already not good enough to play the new stuff. It sucks that the upgrade cycle is pretty much every couple of years at this point. On the flip side, though, I have about 250 games just in my PC games library, and have only given real attention to a handful of those. I could probably go the rest of my life without buying a new game (fat chance, given my collector's mentality) and it would still be a bit of work to get through all I own.

 

[AvaMae45]

The way I look at game prices is that I take the price of the game, think about how many hours of entertainment it'll give me, basically if the hourly price is better than going out to see a movie, it's worth it to me. For instance, Undertale costs $10. At ~5 hours for a playthrough with three very different ways to run the game, that's 15 hours of gameplay, which ends up being about $.67/hour of entertainment. That's a really good value. If a game is $60, I pretty much look to get at least 15 hours of gameplay out of it, and then it's worth it to me since that's comparable to the hourly rate of entertainment from something like seeing a movie. It's kind of complicated, but it's a good way to justify the spending to me.

 

[zippypinhead]

Yeah, it's not a perfect metric for judging enjoyment, but the $/hr equation is at least a good way to ballpark whether a game will prove worthwhile or not, even at $60. There isn't a BethSoft rpg I've played that I haven't sunk hundreds of hours into. Even at $100 or more for Elder Scrolls or Fallout games and their expansions, I'd be well under a buck an hour, and all of those hours have been quite enjoyable. So, I'd be hard pressed to convincingly argue they wouldn't be worth even $100 or more. Most of these open world sandboxes and sprawling RPGs prove to me to be good value for time spent, really.

If I had a PS4 and $60 to drop, I think I might be tempted to buy Dragon Quest Builders at the full price.

 

[Dan N]

On my other laptop I have Minecraft installed - 5 years now and I still get killed (sometimes) by zombies when night comes . Yes I'm a Minecraft fan

 

[DuoShi]

I feel like $60 is always worth non-expansion type games. I'm not the type to go over that unless it's Guitar Hero (the old ones; not GH Live). I tend to enjoy every game I get for a decent amount of time. The only ones I should put more hours in, that I don't currently, is main series Forza. I'm a completionist in Forza Horizon games, but I don't really finish the races in sim Forza.

 

[TheHamilDick]

I feel like if I'm getting at least 10 hours enjoyment out of a game, then that's $60 well spent. That's about the same price of a dinner that only lasts about 1-2 hours.

 

[Val Vega]

That's an incredibly narrow thing for me these days. Where I used to throw money at $60 games and not think about it, now my spending is much more measured. This is because my interest in gaming has dulled considerably as I've grown older. And I attribute that to the fact that games simply haven't grown up with me. There's a lot of the same ol' shit out there that I've played endless iterations of in some form or another.

A game has to grab my attention by either being unique or doing what it does so well and in such a way that it makes the old seem like new again. A good example of the former would be Crusader Kings II. Just a whole different breed of game with a complexity and uniqueness to it that no other game can really rival. It was totally worth me spending the full price for it AND all of its expansions.

 

[Lelo1]

I find I get into two kinds of games. I tend to play competitive games like starcraft, quake, overwatch. Or I play games with rich story telling like secret of mana, zelda, the secret world.

I don't play as much as I use to. But when I do. I tend to spend allot more then 60 dollars.

 

[Atrena]

WendyElm you bring up many of the same points I see in Star citizen

If I was paying $60 for a game, it would have to be something I could log hundreds of hours on. I prefer open world, wander off track, and the ability to make choices that effect gameplay. (Also, I'm shallow and have way too much fun with character customization and the ability to build backstory etc. If I hear a game is good in that regard, I'm pretty hooked already.)

I find I'm way more willing to pay full price for games if they're from independent creators, or kickstarts, or really anything that isn't big-name. Even if it isn't $60, I'm way less hesitant hitting 'add to cart' for these.

All this is making me think of all the games I need to play/buy, but then I remember I play on a potato that just barely scrapes the minimum requirements for DA:I on Awful Mode.

Star Citizen is still in alpha alpha stages. So if you dont want to deal with testing and feel like the impatient type, maybe check it out in a year or two. But it is an open galaxy sandbox with many star systems and planets to explore. It has accurate physics. You will get to customize your character. Fly around in space ships. Travel through worm holes. Buy, sell, trade, mine, pirate, bounty hunt, mercenary.. farm... explore.

I dont normally spend much (like more than $10) on games and I am not the collector type but I invested a very pretty shiny penny into star citizen back in 2013 and have patiently watched it grow. Once the game is fully realized (and I have way more free time) I am going to be sinking years into this game... so I totally think this was worth it.

Star Citizen started out as a kickstart and is now the largest crowd funded project ever (and not just in the gaming sector, but like in all sectors). The downsides include needing a beefier computer and not being completely done. But like I said... I dont have much free time anyway.

 

[ExcellaExe]

I tend to go hour per dollar. So, if I spend 60 bucks on a game, I better get at least 60 hours of gameplay out of it. This doesn't have to be all in one go. If a game has great replay, like the Mass Effect series (minus one, omg that battle system is tedious) then I'll happily throw money down on it--I'm doing just that for Andromeda. But, if the game is short, has poor replay, etc. I will NOT spend full price on it. One game I regret paying full price on was Shadows of Mordor. I have friends that rave about it, but I just can't get into it. I got B:I for free because I was doing game reviews way back when, and again, couldn't get into it.

 

[DP667]

I'm going to get economic and agree with Excella_4fun here. Any game I buy I should get 1 hour of entertainment value for 1 dollar spent. That's my general rule of thumb on whether or not a game is a good or bad purchase. In hindsight most games are not good purchases at 60 dollars. While other games are steals at 120. For instance, with all the DLC the Battlefield series of games average between 90 to (now) 120 dollars. I've never gotten less than 200 hours out of one.

On the other hand I bought Fallout 4 and got 55 hours out of it, but paid 70 dollars for it + some DLC. While Fallout 4 is a good game it wasn't nearly as good of a deal as BF1 at 120.


It's the value of your time as well, so keep that in consideration. It's not necessarily what you're spending but the opportunity cost, rather, what you give up by spending on that game rather than something else.

WendyElm you bring up many of the same points I see in Star citizen


Star Citizen is still in alpha alpha stages. So if you dont want to deal with testing and feel like the impatient type, maybe check it out in a year or two. But it is an open galaxy sandbox with many star systems and planets to explore. It has accurate physics. You will get to customize your character. Fly around in space ships. Travel through worm holes. Buy, sell, trade, mine, pirate, bounty hunt, mercenary.. farm... explore.

I dont normally spend much (like more than $10) on games and I am not the collector type but I invested a very pretty shiny penny into star citizen back in 2013 and have patiently watched it grow. Once the game is fully realized (and I have way more free time) I am going to be sinking years into this game... so I totally think this was worth it.

Star Citizen started out as a kickstart and is now the largest crowd funded project ever (and not just in the gaming sector, but like in all sectors). The downsides include needing a beefier computer and not being completely done. But like I said... I dont have much free time anyway.

As someone who has been backing SC since the earliest part of the project, I can say with some pretty good confidence that we won't see that game EVER as promised. We will see, a shell of what they promised in 2018 or 2019 if we are lucky.

135 million dollars and they can't even get Cry Engine, a FPS engine, to do FPS without glitching out..


I just hope we get squadron 42 before they run out of money.

 

[zippypinhead]

I got a physical copy of Fallout 4 for $10 on a Black Friday sale, and today I went to install it. This has led to another type of "worth it" criteria: the size of the game. Without DLC, FO4 is 25 gigabytes. Five of those gigs came on-disk, but I still have to download 20 damned gb through Steam. On a metered connection, this is no bueno, and probably means I won't be able to get the whole thing downloaded before January if I want to stay within my data cap.

I miss the days where physical copies of the games I bought actually had the games on the fucking discs. It's bad enough this shit is riddled with DRM, but to not be able to just install and play my legally-bought game without having to wait hours or days and risking data overages to be able to download the content -- it's a real bummer the industry is so crappy about this stuff. Bring back the loaded disk sets. Or better yet, put that shit on a thumb stick or SD card. Let's pretend it's gonna be 2017 in a few weeks, and this shit's dirt cheap to do. Oh, wait, we don't have to pretend.

Full price, plus time, plus data. Costs sure do add up quick.

 

[DFT]

Freemium gaming has made $60 look cheap. I can buy a game, play it, even well and have fun? Deal.

I can play a game for free, my boat isn't important, I need those upgrades, my children will earn scholarships, my wife didn't leave me I left her in the introversion upgrade.

A one time cost for a game is the way to go. I used to play with freemium guys who spent 16-25k on games, ARS has a story about an embezzler who spent a million. Point of that story is he never broke their fraud threshold.

 

[waogo]

Man, I am trying to think of the last game I even bought. I want to say the Batman Arkham redos, but that was $50 for 2 games, so... eh. Last game I would've bought at $60, though, was probably the Platinum developed Transformers game. I think I played that through 2 or 3 times in a week. It was only $40 when it came out, so that was nice, but I would not have regretted 60. Now, Overwatch, I enjoyed, but never played it, so for the $60, that was a bad decision. And, yet, I know I will hardly play multiplayer only games.

 

[zippypinhead]

Of course, these days, even $60 isn't the the full cost, since DLC and in-game purchases are the norm.