Why do people act like age should make a game cheaper?

[MusicTokuXX]

Age doesn’t make an item less valuable!!! SAYING LIKE A 15 year old game re release deserves to be $20-30 or less is equivalent to you saying it’s value has decreased tremendously! Even tho it is a 15 year old game! Like why are old games selling for hundreds on ebay and shit if that’s the case?

[sawno]

Because on PC this is objectively true, especially if you look on sites that buy the keys in bulk when they are on sale or buy them on sale yourself.

Lets try a few since I like old games as you know.
Half-Life 2: roughly $6, but $10 brand new.
Doom 3: Currently on sale for $4 on gog. But can be bought as little as 2.50
Far Cry: Currently on sale at gog for $3
Forza Horizon 4: roughly $18
Witcher 3: $8
Skyrim : $6

The reason its a lot on ebay is because your looking at physical rarity of the media. If the disks/cartridges aren't produced there is a limited supply. And if people then still want those games that keeps the prices up. But in the digital world like on the PC you get the game for its actual value and as you can see above thats way lower.

[unending]

Because they've already reached market saturation at the original price. On initial release people that really want the game will pay full price. Over time word of mouth will enrage an extended audience to pay full price or close to full price, but eventually demand declines and customers run dry. To capture a larger market, price has to drop to attract new consumers. If price never drops, then the game dies and fades into history. If price drops, a new surge of customers can be reached at a lower price point which generates more revenue for the company and a larger player base to fuel community interaction. The larger the community the larger the targeted marketing outreach for the next game release. So smart companies will reduce game prices over time to generate more cash flow and increase interest in up and coming new titles. It's good business.

[unending]

For example I personally never bought Dead Cells. It looked kind of interesting on release but seemed over priced for what it was. The developers never enticed me with a reasonable sale price over the past 8 years. With a reasonable sale 2-3 years after release I might have bought it, but at this point I'm not very interested in playing it. I would have to see the complete game with all DLCs for like $3-$5 to purchase it at this point which will likely never happen based on that companies past behavior. The company is now trying to sell a new game, but I didn't even hear about it until I intentionally went and looked due to this post on their poor pricing structure. I'm not part of the Dead Cells community, so I wasn't marketed to. As a result I have zero interest in the next product. They missed a potential customer and there are millions more like me meaning that company missed out on tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

[Kaneki05]

You took a lot of effort to answer this and I have nothing more to add so this ^^

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Why do you hate it so much when people complain? Why do you let it get under your skin to the point you think that being anti-consumerist is a bad thing?

[msc545]

Well, using your example of old games, old games are scarcer than new games. You can buy new games off the shelf, but you frequently cannot buy older games off the shelf and have to actually actively search for them. It's the same reason antiques in general are more expensive than modern furniture.

[jshm2]

They are either stupid, or confused about how " value" works.

Something old may be more valuable than something new, if it is rare, or something with high demand. Be it a game or diamond necklace is irrelevant.

[In_Trance]

It's not about age, it's about demand. Generally speaking, demand decreases with age and market saturation.

[msmissydc]

This! There are exceptions though. Try any pokemon game from the 5 generation or earlier and the prices are double or tripple the original selling price. But this is about demand as well so not really an exeption, just the same into a different direction.

[Snakeyes7]

Game popularity should determine price after the release hype dies down. If they do that, they might actually be able to maintain the hype.

[Anonymous]

Should they? No, not necessarily. Is is in their best interest they make their games cost what the market is willing to pay for them? Absolutely, which is what is happening in most cases.