SONY taking the p with uk dlc price!!

[Rdp616]

How much does a paperclip cost to manufacturer. I wonder, how much it cost PD to properly model Spa + the Kart track. In the case of Spa, it was probably a team of 4+ people with digital cameras, measuring equipment, there was car rental, helicopter rental, permits, licenses, not to mention hotel, food, travel expenses. And then a team of probably a dozen or more people working on the graphics and visuals for 6 months or more. And then another team of who knows how many working on what's underneath it, getting the actual track modeling to match the pictures and measurements. When all was said and done, I'm guessing it probably cost them millions from start to finish.

Modeling a new track is a HUGE undertaking. It's many times the work of modeling a new car. I think one has to appreciate what's behind it. They have to not only recoup that cost but they have to make a profit on it. They're a business Simon. That's what businesses do--they generate money for their employees, their owners and their shareholders.

Thank you sir.

 

[db14]

I'm not interested in any of this DLC so I won't be spending £10

Bring out an Australian Muscle DLC with Bathurst and I will!

Or some decent English cars, Cortina, Capri, Escort.

 

[Samus]

How much does a paperclip cost to manufacturer. I wonder, how much it cost PD to properly model Spa + the Kart track. In the case of Spa, it was probably a team of 4+ people with digital cameras, measuring equipment, there was car rental, helicopter rental, permits, licenses, not to mention hotel, food, travel expenses. And then a team of probably a dozen or more people working on the graphics and visuals for 6 months or more. And then another team of who knows how many working on what's underneath it, getting the actual track modeling to match the pictures and measurements. When all was said and done, I'm guessing it probably cost them millions from start to finish.

Modeling a new track is a HUGE undertaking. It's many times the work of modeling a new car. I think one has to appreciate what's behind it. They have to not only recoup that cost but they have to make a profit on it. They're a business Simon. That's what businesses do--they generate money for their employees, their owners and their shareholders.

I've already said I have no issue with the track DLC and will be buying it. It's a fair price for all the reasons you covered. What I do have an issue with is the cost of the cars/paint/suits because they didn't take a lot of time or money to build. The cars are (modelling/coding wise) slight modifications of current cars. They're not brand new models. Paint is just a bit of code and I'm sure the suits are just pasted onto a template like liveries are.

 

[posimosh]

Capitolism is dead.... PD is simply hitting numbers which they need to hit to get resigned by sony/ activate a bonus in their contract etc... that said, at least this isn't forza or shift where DLC should have been on the disk in the first place... The only economic principal in use is that of pricing goods at what the market will bear (in a rigged market). It's bs but you will pay up. If you want someone to blame blame the large currency traders who have computers running logarithms that auto trade currency artificially inflating currency. Otherwise, don't talk economics, you just make yourself look ignorant... Last thing... Companies aren't incorporated to "make the owners money" although I can understand why someone would think this. They are created to provide a good or service for money payed in currency while serving the public good. However, this system has been neglected, forgotten, and perverted by greed which is why I say, Capitolism is dead.

 

[FahrerGott]

Well it's looking like my guess for the Australian DLC price might be right. $20 for the full pack.

 

[CSLACR]

Unfortunately, we don't have a better business model for PD to follow and if it works, who's going to risk going lower?

I agree that in pure monetary terms, all DLC is outrageously priced, but they're the ones doing the work, so they get to decide how much their time and effort is worth to them.

Honestly, I can find a dozen different ways to fund DLC (advertising revenues in-game, for example, or putting loading ads in GT5 Online), but I doubt they would go for that... as it means marginal profit.

I'm in the magazine business. As a contributor, though, instead of a publisher (though I have decades of experience in editing and layout)... because I'm not crazy enough to gamble my money on a poor business model (we worked for six months on the numbers then decided... no)... it's a poor model because ad revenue barely covers overhead. And even if you find ways to pay for content development costs through advertising revenue, it simply isn't enough to pay for new content development down the line unless you have direct sales money funding it further. PD doesn't have any other income streams besides direct sales because they don't charge for additional content directly. Now they're starting to. And the income from this goes into future DLC and GT6.

Like I said... note who offers free content... it's cheap games with small groups of programmers or individual programmers who can subsist on ad revenue... or games which force you to buy DLC to be competitive or to even achieve certain tasks in the game, after giving you the basic game for free. You get what you pay for, and this is the price.

I've played some fantastic free games, and I've seen some great free DLC. But I've also payed for some games that were worth the money. Last sum I spent online was $10 for a turn-based strategy/comedy game. While the story and art were great, it obviously didn't take half-as-long to program (in terms of man-hours and processing power) as Spa alone would take. But I bought it, anyway... and I felt it was well worth the money.

Sounds like we're agreed.
In pure monetary terms, it's outrageous, and that's the only point I was trying to make.
It's undoubtedly a "smart" marketing move, especially making the separate packs cost far more then the bundle pack. But they should be aware the more money savvy people will scoff at these options unless it's something they really want, in this case, the gold mine is pretty clearly Spa.
We'll see if next time they can manage to find something worth so much money for such relatively little content.

But as a consumer you don't have to care what the development costs were. Something being expensive to develop doesn't make it intrinsically valuable to everybody, just as the way something being cheap to make (like a painting) could have value far beyond the production costs.

The first ps3s cost far more to make than they sold them for, but it's still just a ps3, it didn't make it sensible for them to charge $1000 dollars per unit. And if they had, you'd be foolish to think it's worth the money just because it cost that much to make.

PD have priced the dlc quite realistically and fairly imo, though, the price is determined purely by the number they hope they will sell, and that number is determined by the price point, since there is zero extra cost for each seperate sale.

They would rather sell 1 million at $10 than 1000 at $100.

Absolutely, the price something costs to produce rarely has an effect on it's actual value in realistic terms.
I don't think it's priced "fairly" though. It's priced fairly in relation to the current trend of semi-extortion that DLC has become. The reason I call it semi-extortion is because it's commonly made in a time when it could be on the game, and/or the price is determined by the amount of fanatics that will pay almost any amount they ask for it out of addiction and compulsion.

If they have enough fanatics willing to pay 20 bucks for a single track, they'd price it that way, leaving the people that want it but have self control and/or a limited budget out in the dark.
That's my secondary point, that PD is just as much a business as any other company, and they want as much money for their work as possible also. Not that this is wrong, but people seem to believe Kaz, Sony, and PD are these angels from heaven that bless us with everything and only charge for their "dreams" because they have to, and that's clearly not the case.

Thank you sir.

Waiting for that check yet.

 

[BWX]

I love the irony strew across your reply. You tell me not to dictate to you about the value of this DLC whilst constantly telling me it's not overpriced and that $10 is nothing. Good work.

Is $10 a lot of money overall? No, it's not. Does that mean I will spend $10 on anything, JUST because it's not much money which is what you are suggesting? No, I won't. I won't spend $10 on a bottle of water or a paperclip just because it's "only" $10, so I won't spend $10 on some car DLC if I don't think it's worth it. Therefore I'm entitled to believe they're too expensive.

That was my whole beef with the replies in this thread. The OP and others expressed concern they felt the DLC was overpriced (an opinion they are entitled to) then you and the rest of the PD defence brigade steam in telling us we're wrong, the DLC isn't overpriced and $10 isn't much money, we're poor if we can't afford it etc etc.

I never told you what to do or think, so it's not ironic. In your post I responded to, you were trying to tell people what to do.. go read it again.

 

[shearer9]

Everyone is basically paying to unlock what we've already downloaded. All the tracks, cars etc are in the 2.0 update. They have to be because every game needs the same data for online so if you play against a DLC car or DLC track your system has all the data to show that.

As for the cost. Is £9.49 pricey?, I'm bot sure. If you look at the pricing announced for Arkham city, its £5.49 for a character and a map or two. PD have created quite a bit, but only the tracks take my fancy and for £3.19 I'm not complaining.

 

[Jaywalker]

Is GT5 complete now?

We didn't pay for any of the updates until this point. So what GT5 was when we originally purchased it is irrelevant.

How complete is Spec II? That is what our original purchase price bought us, it just took a while, which we all knew going in.

Therefore, for my original purchase price I bought GT5 Spec II, which I think is a pretty complete and mature piece of software.

Therefore, this DLC is not ''completing'' GT5.

Therefore, your devil's advocate argument is irrelevant.

Have a nice day. ;-)

That's your opinion & you're wecome to it. There's no such thing as a wrong opinion. Just like mine. You have yourself a nice day too...

 

[Klaus_PSU]

Its the new Carbon tax that the Australian Labour government just brought in.

They're charging for all that carbon fibre on those new race cars

 

[Heath_1]

9 pound 50p = $14 AUD.. the DLC full package is $18 here.. pretty sure we're gettin ripped off more lol.

 

[fade]

You know what bugs me more than expensive DLC? ignorant ingrates.

There are tax differences between america and the UK. Things will always be more expensive here.

Pick your battles, there are plenty of obscene regional price differences around, but this is not one of them.

 

[bigfoot69]

the dlc is too expensive in australian dollars. its not just the dlc but games cost far too much. many people buy them from america just to save money. and dont get me started on beer prices over here....

 

[Grayfox]

the dlc is too expensive in australian dollars. its not just the dlc but games cost far too much. many people buy them from america just to save money. and dont get me started on beer prices over here....

This is why i buy my games through steam.

Steam uses US Dollars i just add money to my steam wallet and buy cheaper.

I don't know why things are still so expensive here even with our strong dollar.


Off Topic: This grill from Honda Australia will cost AUD$707 not installed, if i am to buy from the UK it will cost about £140 for the grill and £161 for delivery in total it is $470 or so.

You don't pay $300 in taxes.

 

[Griffith500]

This is why i buy my games through steam.

Steam uses US Dollars i just add money to my steam wallet and buy cheaper.

I don't know why things are still so expensive here even with our strong dollar.


Off Topic: This grill from Honda Australia will cost AUD$707 not installed, if i am to buy from the UK it will cost about £140 for the grill and £161 for delivery in total it is $470 or so.

You don't pay $300 in taxes.
[/QUOTE]

I remember the days I could pay USD prices for stuff on Steam. Then they got their act together and started charging in local currency, and really screwing the pricing up as a result (totally non-representative in different currencies for the same game, with the ratios varying per game - Euros are usually the worst). I guess that time will come for Aussies, too, eventually.

 

[Grayfox]

I still pay in USD on steam.

So the GTA classic pack i got is USD$29.99, I only paid AUD$28 something.

 

[Kilvoctu]

But as a consumer you don't have to care what the development costs were. Something being expensive to develop doesn't make it intrinsically valuable to everybody, just as the way something being cheap to make (like a painting) could have value far beyond the production costs.

I like to think that perceived value mostly comes from the ability and difficulty to recreate the product, and indeed not the development cost, as you said :
The track was already explained in the previous page.
A paperclip is mass-produced at factories in a manner where they're all identical.
A valuable painting is unique, as recreations can't capture all the attributes of the original. This uniqueness makes the art valuable for collectors. Take it from someone who buys PVC statues, where out of print models of popular characters can increase in value five times over.

Note that the more mechanical automation there is in these examples, the less valuable they are. Additionally, there is the factor of availability.s

 

[Griffith500]

I still pay in USD on steam.

So the GTA classic pack i got is USD$29.99, I only paid AUD$28 something.

I'm just saying, I used to enjoy that (relative) luxury, too. I suspect Valve use separate regional pricing schemes now per game, for some reason, at least as far as Europe / US is concerned. I'm not aware of the option (for me) to pay in USD, but if it's there, I'll be a bit miffed!
So yeah, hopefully it stays that way for you guys.

 

[brainfade]

It's actually good value for money considering how much EA and Codemasters rip people off on DLC, with those guys you can expect to pay the same amount, if not double, just for a single car.