"Development costs and currency pressures" - no, i think you'll find it's called greed.

I think the consumer is going to be very surprised, because last christmas all of the single-A titles that weren't COD-like definite top-sellers were on sale for only twenty quid.

Oh well, guess we'll have plenty of fun things to play until MW2 goes down in price.

One word "Boycott"

Yep, Boycott!

I can see alot of people waiting 3 or 4 months and getting this for alot cheaper, or pre-owned. Ridiculous.

Any price increase by publishers will mean no change to Indies whatsoever. The High Street Stores and supermarkets will still be selling this game 1 to 2 pound more to the public than we Indies will have to pay to Centresoft.

If Game or Others sell for 45 pound we will have to pay 42 pound so that margin we will make will still only be this same.

As an Indie will we see an increase in Trade-Ins by the public as they may see 45 pound to steep to fork out for a game in November.

OH DEAR PUBLISHERS FORCING THE PUBLIC TO TRADE IN THEIR OLD GAMES.

The only people in our industry who will benefit is the Publisher.

When will all these Publishers and Distributors see that RRP means Jack shit to to anyone. If we all sold games at RRP we would all be on a level playing field. But when the greedy high street stores just want sales of any kind, even at a loss.

Of course all Indies and Joe Public now know that 2-3 weeks after this game is launched publishers do deals with Game and Gamestation and HMV giving them discounts, SORRY YOU CALL IT BUNDLE STOCK, to allow them to sell the game cheaper at retail so it gets to number 1 for xmas.

Personally, I don't see the problem. If we want games to be better, they are going to cost us more. Take the car for example, you want a better car you've got pay more for it. We've been lucky enough to pay almost a flat rate on games no matter what the quality.

If you're going to be childish and boycott the games industry because of a price hike, then game developers will just stop making them. They're not going to lower their prices just because we've got used to a low price. They need to make money, it's a job, they need to make a living.

HOW MANY OF YOU GET DISTIES PHONING YOU UP ALL DAY SAYING "THIS GAME IS FROM ACTIVISION IS 32 POUND BUT ITS OK THE RRP IS 50 QUID".

KNOWING FULL WELL THAT ALL RETAILERS ARE SELLING THE GAME AT 40 POUND.

You watch Centresoft will be phoning you for your orders telling you the trade price is 37ish but its ok the RRP is 55 POUND.

RRP is false advertising by Disties and Publishers DO NOT FALL FOR IT

OK lets put something into perspective.

They say production costs have risen by 30pc. What they dont admit is that they already had the basics of the game (engine) form previous COD4 and that when a disk goes into production it costs a little over £2 to manufacture, market, ship etc...This is also due to the fact that the proeduction costs should come down anyway. This is NOT the first COD in the series.

As with regards to the GBP, this has been gaining on the Euro over the summer months and with a recovering economy it is more than likely to continue into the last quarter when the UK sees its strongest growth (incidentally also when MW2 will go into production). At the end of Spring the Euro>GBP was 1.04. It is now 1.17

Even if we took the issue of currency into account, why is Activision not raising the price of OTHER SKUs and just MW2?!

As someone said earlier it is down to greed. There Marketing campaign was flawless and I believe they based the price on peoples reactions and the amount of traffic they got on their website and people who saw the video.

I beleive this move, at a time when people are thinking of every penny they spend, will alienate players (except for the hard-core ones). Many people with simply wait for a price-drop.

We sold may more COD4 and WAW AFTER release than we did pre-release and that was because of promo stock.

That says it all.

If you're going to charge £54, then don't you dare frickin' bitch about piracy or "grey" importing.

This is the day after you announced that the "ultimate" set will come with a pair of night vision goggles. Hows that going to work now?

the UK - as anyone who has the foresight to check - is the lowest priced in PAL countries for video games. this is because retailers fight hard to maintain their market share/sales and pay little attention to publishers RRPs.

Publishers can only decide the RECOMMENDED RRP, because retailers need an indication of what it will sell for (I think....), and it's been common practice for decades don't forget. And of course publishers like the consumer to know roughly what they can expect to pay for their game.

No, you are right, the indies vs multiples scenario won't change because of the increased trade price, no new problems or complaints there then.

UK retailers are happy to work on half the margin of their European counterparts, and there's not a lot any indie, developer or publisher can do to change that.

Remember, publishers cannot by law controll the end-price, only the price to disties/retailes can be controlled.

So stop effin' moaning about it and be grateful that each copy sold will put more turnover and more profit in your tills.

Why are higher selling prices a problem for any retailer anyway?

FYI - I don't work for Activision.

FYI 2 - it costs publishers far more than 2 quid to manufacture any console game

I would be amazed if this really ends up on the shelves at £54 other than in places like Game where a lot of titles lately have already been carrying the full price of £44 when you can walk around the road to blockbuster and get it £5 - £10 cheaper.

I'm sure whatever the price this will be the Number 1 game towards the end of the year but I think there will be a lot less people purchasing it at that price than there would have been at £40 so guess it all come down to sales units against price.

Unless theya re going tomake a loss on every unit at a £40 price tag (which I would find very hard to believe) Why not push at a lower price to shift more overall units and make the money that way ???

I know for sure at £54 there are a lot of potential buyers that will stay well clear

BK, you are £7 off the COGS on 360 and PS3.

As for pricing... seems to be a really emotive subject around here, doesn't it? Commenters support the free market in terms of selling secondhand goods but not in terms of publishers being free to price their goods at whatever they like. And I take it no-one has ever asked for a raise or looked around for better interest on their savings, because that would be greedy wouldn't it?

The fact is that the price is comparable to the cost of other forms of entertainment: going to the cinema, buying an album, playing five a side football. If you don't like the price, walk away. Get over it and stop being so sanctimonious.

Game are already offering it for 44 99 on pre-order.

...and all they do is moan.

I pre-ordered mine from Argos, applying the discount code 'game20', and got a price of 36 quid without ever having to go near a dungeon that makes a living chipping consoles.

JS - I think thats the point though - If too many people take that attitude and just walk away, that has got to be very detrimental to the industry as a whole.

With the economic climate etc etc consumers will not just sit back and accept a price increase on anything.

There is also no way you are comparing like with like either. since when did your cinema ticket cost you £54. Yes I know your comparing total time spent playing but you can choose when to purchase these lower priced entertainment items say at £10 a month. I don;t know of many games retailers that will allow you pay £10 a month for the game as long as you promise to only complete 2 levels a month. Come on get REAL.

All I can see a price hike like this doing in the short term is increasing the rental market, which seems to be on the increase already. People will pay £10 to rent the game for 2-3 weeks then send it back and wait for a price drop.

By which point they may as well have just paid initial full price cos in 2-3 weeks it's not going to drop any more than £10...

This is just another way of getting the proposed (and scrapped) subscription money out of the gamer. The retailer already takes 40% margin on every game - they don't give a crap about pricing - and they get the added benefit of trade ins.... There is no way on gods green earth you can justify high development costs - that's just PR waffle for "we are bending you over loyal customer...again"

The RRP of current Xbox 360 and PS3 games is £50, this is a £5 increase. It will translate to at most the game being £45.

Go back 10-13 years and games cost more than that. N64 games could cost £60 at retail, the only reason that we don't see the RRP at retail anymore (like you do in most other countries) is that our retailers take a bit off.

In the USA the RRP is $60 and you will pay $60 (+tax), its similar with DVDs, we get so many discounts that people forget what the RRP actually is.

Gaming today is cheaper than it ever has been, prices have dropped even though the cost everything else has risen. 50 people working on a game for 2 years at an average salary of $50k is about $50m, $55m once you factor in the publishers costs. Which means that game must sell about 2m to break even.

Subliminal, the point really is not to get so het up about it. If it was a food or utility bill I could understand being angry, because food and utilities are essential. But games? Come on. Anyone would think there is a human right to games. People get ridiculously upset about what is in fact a non-essential.

The price will come down eventually and indeed retailers are already discounting the RRP on pre-order.

The cinema ticket comparison was just an attempt to illustrate that people look at a big number and don't like it. The cost per minute is comparable to various forms of entertainment. Of course people don't look at it that way.

As for "£10 a month" - well, I foresee further moves toward episodic releases where appropriate.

Badger, how is the consumer screwed by the mere fact that an RRP has been set? He is only screwed if he purchases the game for that amount and feels that it has not been worth the money. Jebus.

...who say quit moaning... go f**k yourselves... (preferably behind the counter of the game shop you work in) The only thing the higher price is good for is the retailer. NOT the gamer.

this has nothing to do with any increase in costs, mw2 will be the game of the year, and the best selling game regardless on price, activison are just being greedy as they know this could be the peak of this franchise,
after cod 4 ,this was still selling new over 18 months after its release, what game does that in this day and age ?
greed pure and simple, i dont believe its anything else, boycott is silly and wont work, the game is too big

just buy it from asda for £28 like mw1 and waw

WOW - some of you guys are really het up huh?!

So I must have spent something like 60 hours playing COD World at War - single player and then multiplayer since it launched (half of thie time on Nazi Zombies !!). If I spend a similar time playing MW2 I figure I am getting entertained for < 90p per hour. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

The game looks like it is going to be a blockbuster and is probably costing the earth to produce (Infinity Ward are one of, if not THE best studio in the world and they won't come cheap). They've been working on the game for two years so I say fair play to Activision for building some value back into the category whilst still giving consumers good value for money.

MW2 is top of my Christmas list and I WANT THOSE NIGHT VISION GOGGLES !!!!!!!!

well this is correct, we buy more and more from supermarkets and less and less from suppliers, wii sales are that bad we dont even use koch anymore, just get our nintendo stuff from centresoft, but we cant pay 37 + vat and compete with supermarkets selling at £1 above cost, will send all my staff into some supermarkets at midnight of launch

>Personally, I don't see the problem. If we want games to be better, >they are going to cost us more.

by that arguament a ticket for titanic would have cost 180 times the price of one for Clerks. (C) The rev.

"Go back 10-13 years and games cost more than that. N64 games could cost £60 at retail"
That was due to them being on a catridge that cost 20 odd quid to build, how much is a DVDto burn and stick in a box with an annorexic manual that I can "upgrade" to a guide for £15 notes?
And if we go back til the 1980's then games are £5-£10.

Fact is, Activision have spent the earth on production tooling and licenses for Guitar Hero, made next to no money on it for some time due to the way they've run their business and now need to start making some cash, COD is the one trump card in their hand right now and will be pumped for all it's worth.

All joking and abuse aside we as a Quality Indie with Good Hygiene and no chipped consoles will be procuring this title by whatever means possible and at whatever price we can.

Supermarkets, Internet and Grey Disties will all be selling this cheaper than Centre as they always do so realyy we will still be making the same as before.

One of my last posts which cast dowt on your parentage has been removed so here goes again.

Arfur did you know that although you paid £36 for the game you also got charged £5 postage and based on argos's previous reputation you may well get this game on the Monday after release

Badger dear Boy back in the 90's Indie shops had quite poor hygiene and did deal in dodgy consoles but not anymore we are professional and pleasing to experience.

I would like to also add that if people think we make more money because the RRP has gone up then you are wrong we charge more because we have to pay more to get it SIMPLES.

This post has been toned down considerably and I hope Ben will allow me to keep this one.

better games =more expence i dont believe it, great games are being created now, and i see no reason why there needs to be an increase, EA and activision have terrible prices,more games with accessories are just cash cows since they are low cost to produce, guitar hero, dj hero etc.
i dont believe for 1 minute mw2 has cost infinity or activision any more than the last game to develop, and with map packs and dlc they will make millions from this franchise.
and im not intending to offend here but this site is for business people who own games shops and people in the industry, how can we have a serious debate, with customers who do not understand the costs involved in business, this site should have a system where only industry members can log in and post comments, customers dont see the whole picture, i dont want to rip anyone off either i just want to make a living, if the price of the game goes up the profit doesnt, just the cost price.

Well Said Henry not everyone Understands

We still get Customers coming in thinking we make £10-£15 on every game we sell at £40. The Public just do not understand

people do not understand you make about £5 on a console, i told a customer that and she didnt believe me, she said i bet your a millionaire, seriously just because the industry is a billion pound industry doesnt mean retailers are doing well, the public really doesnt understand how it works, because it doesnt work very well for retail at all im afraid, i know it always sounds like we are complaining but if you were in my position you would be exactly the same,
and when we do a sale to get rid of all the stock we got stuck with, the public say oh well look at this they cut £20 off this title they must make a killing, we are selling games at that price as a last resort to just get SOME money back in,

you're right that a boycott won't work, and i have no doubt that MW2 will be the GOTY this year and probably the best FPS ever. however, i'm not going to buy it purely because of Activision.
trying to block games like Brutal Legend and Scratch, charging an unholy price for shi**y fake guitars/skateboards etc, then threatening Sony over the PS3 price point and NOT doing anything in responce to Sony's stance on that whole thing.

despite how good MW2 will be, i'm not giviong money to people who try and exploit/manipulate the industry so actively.

just because a boycott won't work given the might of COD/MW brand, doesn't mean I have to whore myself to these douche-bags.
i know i'm probably alone on that and that's cool, god knows i don't let people tell me what i should spend my money on and i don't expect anyone else to either. just remember that tho, it's your money, spend it as you see fit.

hats off to you tom, stand by your morals, wish all the kids that will want the game would feel the same !

Henry, no offence intended, but you don't know about the costs in games development and publishing either (just as I don't know about the costs in retail). If we were to shut out everyone who didn't know something there wouldn't be any comments.

Ideally MCV would run an article on costs of games from inception to shelf and maybe give a few people food for thought - of course there will always be cretins who are more interested in whinging.

Mr Jolly, it costs publishers over £8 to put a cart or PS360 disc in a box: manufacturing cost and platform holder royalty.

Looks like a good time to buy used games come November, what with everybody trading in their others games to buy Modern Warfare 2.

ive never seen game prices go up during a recession, i dont know the costings of game developement but if there wasnt millions to be made they wouldnt get made, only activision has increased cost and retail price so far, and its downt to greed in my view, if other publishers do the same, ok im wrong or maybe they too want more money for their games, MCV is not ment to be a public website, when it was soley a magazine you didnt buy it at whsmiths, this is my point, your not getting comments from people who understand any side of any arguement, if i was just a customer and an artice ran about the down pricing of games i would love it, but not understand how this impacts retailers.

lets just say some franchises come out each and every year and the price is always the same, infinity ward have had 2 years development cycle, and their game cod 4 was a huge sucess, they know this game is going to be twice as big, in my view costs have not risen, Activision have pound signs in their eyes, this is just my view, they are tryin to capitalise on a title that has gaurenteed sales and easy xmas number 1 game. some games have even moved to 2010 and i beleive MW2 has played a factor in this,

"how can we have a serious debate, with customers who do not understand the costs involved in business"

"i see no reason why there needs to be an increase"

"i dont know the costings of game development"

nuff said.

Just don't buy it!
There will be plenty of othe games out and you dont have to stop playing COD4 just because 5 is coming out

so JS your a developer and a retailer and a publisher, its just my view, how would i know the ins and outs of development, but i do know the ins and outs of retail, each year franchises come out same price,
this year one publisher who is now the biggest publisher increases the price of the biggest highly aniticipated game of this year,
if you dont agree fine thats your view,

Looks it's quite simple. If your a consumer and £55 is too much for you then don't buy it. If you're a retailer and you don't want a part of one of the most wanted games this year, then walk away. It's your loss.

It isn't very often that a publisher holds the strong position over retail and in some ways I applaud them for what they are doing. However they may find this hurts them in the long term with the trade. If nothing else this shows their commitment and belief in the demand for the title.

The price of everything has gone up in the recession, particularly non essential/luxury goods. Anyone bought a bottle of JD recently? Last year it was fairly easy to pick one up for around £16, now you're lucky if you get change out of 20 quid. It's very common for manufacturers of luxury goods to raise prices during lean periods as less of their product will be sold, they balance that by hoiking the price up. It's a simple economy of scale thing.

Did anyone really think that games - one of the best examples of a non-essential item - would be immune?

My point about the quotes: you volunteer that "you dont know the costings of game development" (and, I presume, publishing). Well, maybe that's why you "see no reason why there needs to be an increase"?

You say that the RRP of franchises remains the same year on year. I don't know why you think this proves the costs remain the same.

Activision's annual report, available from their website, provides info on various costs. Theysay that costs have increased year on year. Let us assume that the annual reports tell the truth - they ought to or Activision will be in a lot of trouble. If costs increase, Activision must recoup more money, therefore it must sell more, increase prices, or some combination thereof.

We also have people in this thread and elsewhere saying it only costs £2 to put a game on a cart or disc and in a box. Publishers would love it to only cost £2! But it's actually closer to £8. So why do people claim it is only £2? They have simply invented it or believed someone else who invented it.

Can't remember who said it but, "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts."

"back in the 90's Indie shops had quite poor hygiene and did deal in dodgy consoles"

Both CEX and Eplay stank to high heaven the last time I was in either, cleanest Indie and grey importer and used retailer out there out there - Game focus. Eplay went bust for a reason and CEX I don't care for now though there's debate if the smell was the staff, the store or the punters.

It's funny to hear currency fluctuations blamed, the strength of the pound was blamed for high prices in the past, now it's fallen it's being blamed again.

Any port in a storm, any excuse.

JS - thank you for actually posting some rational comments on this topic.

Every single year, the costs of developing a game, particularly a AAA game, go up. This is because of the simple reason that each year there are some huge blockbuster titles that reset the bar of what is expected from a game. When this happens, the AAA titles in development need to match and, ideally, raise this bar, and that involves more people, occasionally more time, more hardware for the extra people, more software licenses, and on and on. Then the marketing and promotion of these blockbuster games increases by tens of millions of dollars in order to sell more of the game that just cost more, and everyone else has to play catch-up, and all of this sends costs of both development and publishing spiralling.

It's one of the reasons E3 got dumped a few years back - every big publisher was trying to out-willy-wave the others each year and this meant the costs just went up to ludicrous levels until finally people realised it was ridiculous and they stopped. Will this happen with development costs? I doubt it - the consumer wants more and more and bigger and better from their games without realising just how much this extra content costs to develop and market.

MW2 will obviously cost more to develop than MW1. Just things like pay rises, inflation, increased manpower, more outsourcing of art to allow for more or better looking levels in the alloted development time, and so on. Also, as a franchise becomes as mature and sought after as CoD, other costs pop up, such as using bigger named talent to voice the characters, hiring better story and script writers, and so on. It all adds up in a big way, so anybody on here who can't understand that AAA games get more expensive every year needs to do some research.

Some dufus early on in the postings said something about the cost should be cheaper because there have been other Call of Duty games made in the past so the 'engine' exists therefore it should be cheaper to make. That person needs to go away or stop commenting on anything to do with development, because they clearly have no idea what they're going on about. Do you really think that CoD4 was using the exact same engine as CoD1, or even MW1, for that matter?? No, of course not - aside from the hardware change from CoD1 to now, every year better and fancier shaders and effects are developed, the engine is refined and tweaked and optimised, the tools they use are improved to increase productivity, the graphics abilities of the consoles are pushed further and further, the gameplay is refined, the multiplayer is pushed, and all in a quest to make the next game in the series even better than the last. If it were as simple as just reusing an old engine and changing a few textures, you'd all still be playing variations on Manic Miner. Rant over. :-)

that's a fair point there, it's very probable that the cost of MW2, especially seeing as it now has to be effectively the best game ever, least of all the best game in it's genre, has escalated.
that may well justify why the game is more pricey our end (consumers), however in the same way that the PS3 has proved prohibitively expensive for some people, i believe MW2 will still sell like blue pills in an old folks home. ie, well.
maybe given the demand they are right to bump up the price esp given the development costs, but why hasn't anyone else done this? are we to believe that the cost of developing GTAIV wasn't higher than any other project they had undertaken? OK so the economy was different then. how about GT5? ok they made some money off the epilogue but that's been in development for ages and they've whacked oput a PSP version too. Heavy Rain? GOW3? U2? i need some other Xplat examples to be fair but can we expect MGS:Rising to be more expensive as well?

maybe it is justifiable, but coming from Activision it just smacks of exploitation. then if IW deliver the FPS game ever, maybe the premium is on quality. still, activision suck balls. you can quote me on that:)

I went a bit off topic and had a rant about people saying the development cost doesn't go up, rather than commenting about the RRP for MW2. :-)

However, you raise some interesting questions - will the cost of developing the titles you mention be more than their predecessors or a similar game 2 years ago? Almost certainly (unless development has suddenly moved to China or India, which is unlikely). Will the cost of the game on the street go up? I don't know, that depends on the publisher. I do agree that Activision has raised the RRP of MW2 knowing that the game is going to be huge and people will buy it no matter what. Most games don't have that luxury, no matter how good they are.

Perhaps less will be spent on marketing to compensate for the increased development cost.... oh, wait, a pig has just flown past my window..... ;-)

I'll pass on the game. It looks crap (generic) and it price is way overdone. By the way, this is what any game costs in most of Europe...

Dont it cost them pennies to make those games? wtf!

this isn't a surprise at all considering how we let microsoft screw us over with paying for xbox live, paying for unlockable content that's already on the disc and paying $100 for $10 HDDs/wireless adapters.
Activision just took a page from them.

ok im from canada our games are 69 99, just 2 months ago they were 59 99, so ur not the only one gettin screwed, we get screwed because of our low dollar, u get screwed cuz of a high dollar, where do all the politic bull ever work out, greed ya but no only from the devolper they put there hard work into it, taxes are the number one, the retailer is number 2, so it aint the developer is the goddamn government who says well, the gaming industry is doing so well in a recession lets raise it up a bit to get a piece, so infinity ward i dont blame u, i already pre ordered the hard case, u guys have made an unbelievable game good job
CLOVE

I'm waiting to see what Fat Chris and Gamestation are doing this festive season, as they had some cracking deals last christmas.
Including titles like FIFA 09 , COD World at War instore and online just weeks after they were released.
I'm sure they will do the same again.

In the middle of a recession who in their right mind wil pay 50 quid for a game that will drop in price over the following months, let alone a fiver more. The public responed by not buying sonic 3 when sega tried this on the megadrive. the same will happen again. stupid.

well the games retail 70 euro in france , both in supermarket and specialist, didnt see anyone moaning about it, i think here we get use to cheaper prices

Can I just express how offensive it is to my eyes and brain when people don't pluralise pounds with an "s".

"If Game or Others sell for 45 pound we will have to pay 42 pound so that margin we will make will still only be this same."

There are 45 of them so it's pounds not pound. Thank you goodbye.

Firstly, just to remove this concept.

Pay average people an average wage, you get an average product. Paying average people an above average wage, does not get you an above average product, it gets you a more expensive, but still average product.

If you people think that increased development costs = better games, then I guess you also probably think that higher paid footballers are automatically better than lower paid ones.

@Old Timer: Manic Miner didn't use textures, and on that note, I think we have perfect clarity regarding your game development experience, which is obviously very little.

You honestly don't think COD5 use the COD4 core engine? You really think that they can spend 3 years developing an engine and then miraculously re-write it in 12 months to produce the sequel? Do you think that those devs using the UT3 engine also have the right to charge full price, considering they are using existing technology... which they didn't write? Pro-Evo 3 was written using Renderware, was PES3 cheaper than PES2 because they were using existing technology, or was it still the same price? Existing engines and technology are ALWAYS used, because it's cost effective. Maybe you need to sit in on a design meeting that starts with "what other games can we write based on our existing engines?", because I can assure you, they're not the nicest places to be.

The hardest and longest part of any engine development is from concept to working. If you believe that the same amount of work goes into tweaking/optimising, than goes into initial creation, then I think some reality checking is in order.

There hasn't been a game released this gen that is worth £50, never mind £55, and certainly, some generic FPS using existing technology is going to be a long way from being worth that much. I'd like to see this get hammered into the used pile, because as much as I support the developer side of "making a living" (being a veteran developer myself), if it comes at the cost of "ripping off the gamer", then they deserve every bit of hardship that they create for themselves.

But of course, it won't... as we all know well and good, a high percentage of gamers, aren't the brightest bulb in the shop when it comes to buying games. History shows that people will buy pretty much anything if you tell them it's good enough. Once they find out that it actually isn't, it's too late, the money has exchanged hands.

Join the Euro today and all this crap goes away...

Cost of Goods are in Euros there is no getting away from that.

With the Pound now parity with Euro, it is about time this island got used to these prices.

Even our illustrious body starts with an E (ELSPA) which has been notable silent on the issue ;-)

Deal with it.

MCV, the comment validator is still faulty: it says there are URLs when there are none. Indeed nothing that conceivably looks like an URL after I stripped out all symbols except punctuation.

Comment from MW2:

"Dont it cost them pennies to make those games? wtf!"

Dipstick!

We need BBFC or PEGI to step in to stop kids making stupid comments here...

Break even on a 25m game (including dev and marketing) is nearly 1 million units at 49 99 ARP.

(not including royalties except to platform holders)

this got through after deleting pound symbol and decimal point.

Seems like a lot of comments here are being made by indies and are generally a moan. I get that you want a level playing field to sell at but you guys seem to be ignoring that we all live in supply and demand world. Retailers like GAME, Tesco and ASDA buy thousands of products and with that power of buying volume comes the ability to demand lower prices from suppliers; and they do, and they don't mind asking for more and more and more. Those suppliers/publishers, like you, are in business to make money. Games aren't free to make it costs millions, 1st parties take a cut of everything, there's marketing to spend and a whole load of other costs and so I don't imagine publishers make anywhere near what you like to think they do. We don't see you running your store for charity and so why do you demand publishers do? If you bought as much volume as Tesco or ASDA I imagine you would be trying to demand a lower price too and if you say any different I don't believe you. If your supplier offerred you a lower price you would take it right! And if you didn't have to pass that on to a consumer you wouldn't either.

Retailers set prices on shelf not publishers; and retailes such as ASDA and Tesco will cut their price really low when they choose because they want share and they know they can lose money on the game and make it up selling banana's or bread. You can't but that's no one's fault. No one can stop them doing that because they set the price.

Like other have said, games use to be far more expensive in years gone and people had less money in their pocket. I think we should all put more effort into retailing and less into this as a platform to moan about - that's what I'm going to do!

This is utterly wrong. Neither Ubisoft or EA Games have declared their intentions to raise the price of their games by £10 yet here we have the increasingly repugnant Activision doing that very thing and blaming it on the weakness of the pound. This is a lie. If it were the case the above referenced publishers would follow suit. They haven't and they won't. Why? Because they have a scrap of integrity, something Activision lost aeons ago.

So why have Activision done this? It's been said before on this extensive comments thread and I'll say it again. Greed. Activision know people will buy CoD: MW2 by the truck load and are exploiting this fact by hiking the price up by £10. This is too much. I personally baulk at spending any more than £40 for a game. It's my personal upper bound barrier and one many share.

Reading this news I'm going react by doing two things. First, I'm going to actively seek out a retailer that will sell the game for £40 or less. I will not pay a penny more than that for it. Secondly I will write a letter of complaint to Activision over their decision to do this. Yes that's right, write a letter, not an email, a letter. You know, the things you put onto wood pulp based substance and comes in a very thin sheets called 'paper'. Yes that's right, one of those. I'll also put a stamp on it. Stamp, got the Queen's head on it. Yes? No? Oh well, never mind.

Whether it will do any good or not is another matter, but it will make me feel better as I'm a dab hand at writing rather miffed letters :)

this is a joke they should not be able to raise the price of games to £55 cause when you think about it unemployment is at an all time high cause of this recession rubbish so that means that nobody has enough money as it is so if they raise the price of games by this much then nobody will have a joice but to boycott the game industry and that guy Benjamin Reid who was saying that the price raise is okay and if we boycott them they're gonna stop making lol dont make me laugh cause if they did that they would be making the biggest mistake of there lives because they make billions every single year of us and if you think that they're just gonna throw that all away and sack thousands of people then you my friend are what some like to call retarded lol and any we are just starting to see signs of coming out of this damm recession and if they make this move then there gonna fuck us all right back into it like seriously whats a few million to them believe it or not mate thats like spear change to them so im with everyone else when i say that these ccunts are just going too far now and if we dont stop these greedy bastards now then they will just raise the price over and over again. also i would like to point out that the first modern warefare is still being sold at £40 in some stores so if thats not what you call being greedy then you seriously need your head examined.

Cool just had pricing thru for the hardened edition - MW2 with book in a tin case similar to Halo 3 special edition. cost to us £53 RRP £69 good margin but is it too expensive for the public to buy What do you think????.

Downside is it will be on allocation but if you take every Activision Blizzard title from now till xmas you may get an increase but knowing Activision promises are worth nothing its not going to happen

well what ever goes on there is 2 quid profit to be made on the standard version of mw2 if sold at 44 99
the majority will not want to pay 69 99 for hardened version or 129 99 for presige, publishers dont set retail price but if tesco are selling for cost price and your above this your pricing yourself out of the market, and only trade ins will help you sell new games, ive just spoken to a indie who has made the decision not to sell new games at all now, as he cant make a living doing so, if all publishers increase cost price and retial price goes up i can see year on year sales drop even lower, this is an expensive hobby for people now, if i didnt work in the industry i wouldnt buy games i would rent, too costly now

If it was any other game I might believe them but Modern Warfare 2 is going to easily sell 10 millions + and a couple of those million will be sold in the UK alone. So no I don't believe this.

@ 61, great comment.

@ 62, "Neither Ubisoft or EA Games have declared their intentions to raise the price of their games by £10 yet here we have the increasingly repugnant Activision doing that very thing and blaming it on the weakness of the pound. This is a lie. If it were the case the above referenced publishers would follow suit. They haven't and they won't."

That doesn't follow at all. They might want to raise ARP but want to see if what happens with MW2. They might think that the market will not bear an increase in ARP. They might think they are better of selling more units at the lower price point. They might not have a game that is practical to price that high. There might be any number of reasons why they haven't announced an increase in ARP at this time, none of which means they are any less 'greedy' than Activision.

I imagine that Activision's decision is based partly on increased costs and partly on thinking that the market will bear that price for this product. Is that so unreasonable? And don't forget that the directors are obliged to act in the best interests of the shareholders, not the retailers or consumers, except where they coincide.

"I personally baulk at spending any more than £40 for a game. It's my personal upper bound barrier and one many share."

Fair enough - it is entirely up to the consumer what he spends. I too have that limit on games and I won't spend more than a tenner on a DVD.

All the same it seems worth noting that, if every consumer had that upper limit, the publisher of a £25m title would break even after selling 1 1/4 million units. Not many titles sell 1m units - only 8 titles across PS360 sold over 1m units in 2008, I think. Not many publishers can afford to take that sort of risk. And disproportionately few titles shift disproportionately large numbers.

Taking such things into consideration you can understand why publishers:

1. voice concerns about costs of development on next gen and what they're going to make from sales;

2. complain (rightly or wrongly) about pre-owned and piracy, because the publisher isn't shifting the units and therefore he isn't getting any money;

3. consider acquiring their own distribution;

4. consider digital distribution (because it cuts out retail margin, returns and price protection reserve, and manufacturing costs, which total a substantial proportion of costs);

5. consider episodic and DLC, because the costs per 'title' are lower, the lower ARP is immediately more attractive to the consumer, and you'll probably distribute it digitally, which means better margin;

6. consider advertising and micro-transactions etc;

7. consider moving to less costly platforms than PS360, such as Wii and DS, or even further to say iPhone, as with lower development budgets you don't have to shift so many units to break even;

8. consider canning any sku that won't sell a million units; and,

9. consider raising ARP (which, as this thread has amply demonstrated, some retailers and consumers aren't keen on).

@ Henry Ford (Post 21)

[quote] what game does that in this day and age ? [/quote]

Another Activision Blizzard game - World of Warcraft...

I agree though, they're being a big greedy - but their games are that good, consumers will pay the price!

"the directors are obliged to act in the best interests of the shareholders, not the retailers or consumers, except where they coincide."

that's wrong. Should read, ""the directors are obliged to act in the best interests of the shareholders, not the retailers or consumers".

Completely off-topic, but to clear up something LeeC said...

What is a texture? A bitmap. What is a sprite? A bitmap. They are fundamentally the same thing. The Manic Miner comment was meant to be amusing, not a programming test, you pedantic ass.

As for the engine comment, I wasn't suggesting that MW2 would be using a completely different engine. My point was that just because the game is based on a previous engine, a AAA game such as MW2 will not just take the exact same technology and swap out the graphics. A lot of work goes into improvements and modifications on both runtime and tools-side. Games with lower budgets or ones that have different end-user requirements, sure - they can use out-the-box tech, but MW2 will not be, and neither did CoD5. Based on the CoD4 engine, yes. Exactly the same engine, no.

This was addressing the misconception that just because MW1 exists, it should therefore be cheaper to make MW2, which it isn't.

Anyway, I'm off to change some geometry in Jet Set Willy....

"Can I just express how offensive it is to my eyes and brain when people don't pluralise pounds with an "s". you mean pluralise pound with an s? cos then it would be poundss?

"If Game or Others sell for 45 pound we will have to pay 42 pound so that margin we will make will still only be this same."

"There are 45 of them so it's pounds not pound. Thank you goodbye.

What if somthing costs 10 pounds and you have a 10 pound note then its just 1 of them. one ten pound note so 10 pound. you might say ten pounds note but i don't

and back on topic. i think the increased price for mw2 is a little upsetting but games are just getting better and better. i mean i can remember when i was paying £40 for the first xbox games. games that was produced with no more than 4.5gb of data on normal dvd discs. xbox 360 games are bieng put on hd discs which costs more than your standard dvd discs so theres and increase in costs right there. xbox 360 games have roughly 3x that amount of data which orignal xbox games had which means developers are working harder producing better games. i mean look in terms of graphics there amazing, outstanding compared to your orignal xbox games. and gameplay is only getting better too. so when i see that when the orignal xbox games used to cost £40 when they was in production and 360 games costing the same or £50 i cant realy complain about the price even if mw2 will cost 55 as its going to be one of the best games this year and be up there at the top in 2010. if your dont like the price you can either trade in your old xbox games, sell unwanted crap on ebay to make some money, wait 1,2 months for prices to come down (n dnt say ohh i dnt want to wait 1,2 months for the game, well it would be tough s**t if they delayed the game, dnt hear u complaining much then.) and they will come down probably only to £50 or £45 depending how bad it is in terms of how many people are not buying the game and waiting for prices to come down. retailers will have to react to make thier income somehow. or just keep bitching but i doubt people will realy like that. or you could allways result to pirating games or getting 5 fingure discount games but thats against the law and is not advisable. stop bitching about the price and do somthing about it...

Its the next gen of games n consoles for frikin sake. means it takes alot more work, money and time to create games for the next gen of consoles so it means the end price will increase.

Nope sorry, unaccepatable.

The Public already feel Games are a rip off and that is at the supermarket (our cost) prices.

Every £50 game sells for £40 in store.

Publishers know that the supermarkets will take the retail price of this game to the price point they want while making the extra £5.

Abandon the Retail Price lark, have a trade price and let retail decide the the selling Price.

By having an RRP you give Supermarkets the chance to offer a "Money Off" Promotion to make them look they are offering a great deal for the consumers.

Okay development costs more I accept that, but if Publishers stopped producing half the crap games that come out (80% of the Wii Titles) they wouldnt need the AA titles to help balance the sales.

now thats interesting, yes if developers stopped making crappy games trying to cash in on wii mini games and just worked on triple A,
and im sorry but infinty ward made their own engine for mw so they cant tweek this and dont have buy an engine from someone else,
they also now own the rights to work on all future call of duties,
so i dont think any costs have gone up, unless this game is radically different to cod4, as ive already said franschises come out each and every year with no extra cost, the only difference here is this is going to be the biggest game consoles have seen, DLC alone will make millions,activison know this simple, ive not heard any other publisher say they are increasing cost price/rrp of their games, just greed.
this game will sell no matter the price this is just what will happen, but if others developers do follow suit with a price increase sales will slow down the general public will head to the used games section, this is exactly what our customers are doing now, 40 quid for a game could be someones petrol for a week, its not a cheap hobby never has been

when the people that make these games put the price of a game up by 10 pounds it will only make people wait till the price drops or buy it 2ed hand or rent it out or chip there xbox and download it 4 free I know all of the above to be a fact. on 1 hand the people that makes these games need to make money on the other hand if they charge to much people will be pissed of that nearly 55 pounds is to much. thats why people, by the way chip there xboxs and down load it 4 free because they don't what to pay the prices they pay right now so do you thinks gonna happen when the price go's up by a 10er at christmas. 1 more thing what about the paying public that have to buy games that are crap say like terminator salvation that cost 38 pounds and was the biggest load of crap I have evered played and I have been playing games from the first game machins came out int the late 70's. It took me just over 2 hours to clock it. just befor I forget the game makers make there money on "DLC" thats a fact thats already in the game and that people feel presured to down load if they want to play online with there mates.

Activision has Game Of The Year, they know it, the fans know it, and most people here know it.

The pricing is largely irrelevent to the fans, Acitvision knows that anyone put off by the pricing is not their core audience. This secondary price concious audience will simply wait for the pre-Christmas one week price cut, or pick it up at the same price in the new year when they see no change in pricing, and that there are very few second hand copies around because people keep it for the multiplayer.

Fact is that most of these arguments are not specific to this launch; pricing, special editions, indies vs nationals va supermarkets, used games, development costs, financial returns on games.

All the above are common themes in the industry and, tellingly, all are topics which there has been very little change in attitude to over the years.

You have the decent indies trying to keep a good name and satisfy their customers.

You have the "we'll get imports, I can do what I like 'cause I'm an indie and have to survive" indies.

You have developers bemoaning preowned and not seeing that trade ins finance a lot of game purchases for most people.

You have members of the public who do not understand how retail/distribution/developer/publisher interact - I've been in the industry 5 years and following videogames for 20, and I don't understand a lot of it, any claim I did would simply be an understanding based on my viewpoint, and not an actual understanding.

Take for instance, the oft mentioned claim that if publishers did put out "rubbish" Wii games then they would not need the AAA to bring in the money. My understanding is that these rubbish games generally return a decent amount because developement costs are so low and the market is much wider for most of them!. Look at Koch's "As Seen On TV" range in last week's MCV - no one for one moment is going to say that any of those are going to be 9/10 AAA games, but they'll sell, and they were probably developed in months, not years.

Price is not the be all and end all - take HMV for proof - the figures for Prestige edition preorders are, I'm told, alarmingly high. Ultimately this game is not just pay day for Activision, it's payday for the specialist retailer sector.

The supermarkets do not care, they don't take customers, they get new ones, and the supermarkets will not have the events, the stock numbers, the product knowledge, and the trade in offer to get the most from this title. Specialists do, make the most of that.

I have hade every games machin going and I have been a gamer from year dot and just because cod4 was good dosn't make the next game better just look at halo 2 then halo 3, halo 3 was over b4 it began and it died a very fast death and the price of a game dose matter to people, take a mum or a father buying games for there children I would hate to b a perent to day. What im saying is developer/publisher make there money on " dlc". And if they know a game is going be, "game of the year" they also know that they will make a good profit on the game and the dlc that they will bring out. So why do they complane about not getting a good return. £55's is to much for a game 40 is better and like I said befor the games makers make there money on the dlc as well as the game.

If 8m units sold and 55k players online means a "very fast death", publishers may as well pack up and go home...

what I mean it didnt have the lasting power of rainbow 6 or cod 4 or gears of war part 1 or crackdown. And just because there was 8million units sold dosnt make it a long lasting game or even good. Like most other people I bought halo 3 because of the hype and the last halo game, which wasnt to bad but halo3 was hyped so much you saw it ever were. 4 me and a lot of my gaming friends it didnt do what it said on the tin like.... say Crackdown which I still play now and again. And as 4 cod6 it will sell but not as much as it would at a lower price if you get to gready and by the way a 10er price rise on a 40esh pounds game is a big rise people will be put of . And also these game makers will charge the earth 4 dlc maps that are already in the game and may be EVEN thought in a through back map pack to keep us happy and charge us yet again 4 the same thing. Keep the gamer happy and the will keep coming back as in if your gona put the price of a game up dont put it up in 2 big of a rise, a bit at a time.

You say that halo 3 sold 8million copys so dose that mean 8million copys at 40 plus pounds per copy and all the dlc which I think cost 6.50 pence ago. So y the f... do these compains complain about not making a good return.

Whether it's a good game or not is a matter of opinion, not fact.

"So y the f... do these compains complain about not making a good return."

Because they aren't all making a good return?!

You can pre order this title online at Grainger Games for Forty Three Pound Ninety Nine Pence with free delivery, i know where i am gettin my copy from.
What a great company.

Alan Gamestation Hartlepool

Comedy #81 post.

@Alan Gamestation
You'll be getting it from Gamestation, using your staff discount.

Nice one Activision, way to show your true nature at last. You are the new EA.

Guess I'll be waiting untill it's pre-owned so you don't see any of the profits. LOL.

what can i say....... another big compainy doing what they do best f''k the the paying public we wll sick are arms in. As if the over priced wasn't enuf already. " ASSHOLES".

what can i say....... another big compainy doing what they do best f''k the the paying public we wll sick are arms in. As if the over priced "DLC" wasn't enuf already. " ASSHOLES".

what can i say....... another big compainy doing what they do best f''k the the paying public we wll sick are arms in. As if the over priced "DLC" wasn't enuf already. " ASSHOLES".

Preorder from A maz on and get it for much less whatever the price changes to in future. If you wait you may pay more. Simple

to Alan Gamestation Hartlepool
i don't no who u are but u don't work in the hartlepool g-station.
as i am all ways in there and there is no one call alan in who works there.
so u must work for Grainger Games or some else trying to get g-station staff in to bother.

81. You nearly made me piss myself. You dont work for Gamestation you work for Grainger games. I know every staff member in GS Hartlepool and u arent one of them. Why didnt you just come on this site, advertise your stores price and then sod off.

Well, I ordered the prestige edition so i'm all good :D roll on the 10th of November :D

Discuss MW2 over on the Modern Warfare 2 Forums at http://www.codnation.net :D

This is starting to remind me of Creative Assembly and its raise in price for the Total War series. On Steam and most retailers near me, the price they're selling MW2 at is 59.99 USD, and although Im not sure of the exact values of either currency, I doubt 59.99USD is equal to 54.99GBP. But regardless of this, raising prices to this extent is outrageous, people across the world should just put in like a penny each toward buying one copy and send it to someone willing to upload onto the piratebay.

Hey, on many Canadian sites, and retailers, I found the price to be 59.99 aswell, but in Canadian Dollar..... So from what i've gathered, Activision really doesnt give a crap about the gamers in the UK as theyre giving gamers in Canada and the US much better deals

good
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