You seem to be responding to other peoples gripes about the price having gone down 1 year after release. That was never my point, and so, I am sorry if my post was directed incorrectly at you. Of course the price will drop as the game ages, I have no problem with that and I don't feel cheated because of it. Nor is that anything new.
What IS new in the realm of civilization is partially releasing a vanilla game (IE with less leaders and wonders than you planned on releasing) and then making people (who want the entire vanilla game) pay for the rest of the leaders/wonders piecemeal and then AFTER the die hard fans buy the DLC (who OF COURSE buy these DLC as soon as they come out since they are "die hard fans") release the ACTUAL full version of Civ5 Vanilla with all DLC inclusive for less than the original game sold for.
Do you think when Firaxis released civ4 they had no plans to develop for it further?
And if "die hard" fans choose to distinguish themselves from less hardcore fans by buying all extras for the game at maximum price when they are released, I don't see how that's a problem. It's their choice. No one forces them to do anything. When civ5 released in Australia, EB Games sold the collector's edition for $130 (more than US$130) and they had an exclusive on it. I'm a fairly loyal fan of civ games I'm pretty sure and I bought civ5 at release, but for $40 not the $80 they were asking on Steam or in stores. I spent that money willingly after reading about the game and deciding that even with any shortfalls the game was worth at least that much to me. In other words it was a rational decision at the time and still is. I bought the Babylon DLC when it was released and a few of the other DLCs when they were 66% or 75% off. I don't feel compelled to buy all the DLC to make the game feel complete, especially the Cradle of Civ map packs. Any civs or scenarios I haven't got yet I'll probably pick up when they're cheap in a sale.
All up I've spent about the same on civ5 as I did on civ4 vanilla (which if I recall was about $60).
Civ5 is not quite what I was expecting as a civ fan but I don't immediately translate this to a feeling of being punished by the developer or publisher because of the release of DLCs. They've made a game in the hopes to, in the case of 2K Games hopefully make a profit and in the case of Firaxis to have a job at all. They're not charities. They won't work for free. They have every right to charge as much as they want for what they produce just as customers have every right to decide what price it is they're willing to pay and wait for the product to lower to that price.
If they couldn't make money (to be precise, a minimum ROI) from the game they wouldn't develop and publish it. That's free market / capitalism at work.
Again, I point to the failure of free market / capitalism when the consumers (who are responsible for holding companies accountable for their actions) simply acquiesce to new (and absurd) pricing structures.
If the new pricing structures are absurd then why do they work? It may alienate some fans who object to the concept of DLC but I'm sure they are significantly the minority.
It's a bit insulting to assume that most people are simply like sheep and pay what they do as if they are somehow tricked into doing so. Games are a luxury and people pay for them from their disposable income. People pay what they please and I'm sorry but if that upsets you it's
your problem not theirs.
If we were talking about healthcare or education or some other essential product or service, it might be worth worrying over. But it's not - it's a video game.
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Re the comparison to the price of an operating system, it doesn't really work. Operating systems are entirely different to video games. For one, OS's reach a much much larger market and also one that is much much more competitive. Both these things obviously have a downward influence on prices.
All software (including OS's) which have unlimited supply are not priced based on cost to produce but rather to maximise (or attempt to maximise) return with the current demand in the market. For instance a lot of indie games are sold for $10 or $15 but in most cases you can bet anything you like the cost to produce them is not anywhere near a 5th or a 3rd (10/50 or 15/50) of the big publisher games which go for $50 typically.
Look at simulator games (or just "simulators" if you prefer not to call them games). They have a very niche market so they have a different pricing model again. They usually have a base program and then "addons" which you buy separately. Consider the hundreds of addons available for Railworks or Microsoft Flight Simulator. There are terrain packs for FSX
that cost $100. People buy these things because it's what they want and they're willing to put up the money, not because they're being conned or tricked into spending more than they should.