Games now cost retail more than have ever done. £54.99rrp for latest COD is ridiculous. Even nintendo this year put their standard rrp price points up.

We have been in a global recession for the last 18 months. We keep getting told buy consumers on this site that we would sell more units if we sold them cheaper. so the same has to be said to the publisher.

I dont believe for one moment that the cost of production warrants these high RRP.

also the lack of triple A products this year hasn't helped. with the exeption of res5, ufc, sports resort, batman & fifa so far there hasnt been enough, two of these are new IP.

finally publishers should cut rrp's now we have 2 to 3 years left of this generation, and then they can charge the consumer what they like with digital down loads - and consumers think Retail GAME outlets are expensive

Publisher's hands are tied by the cost of goods charged by the format holders. We have seen no reduction in Cart/Disc price from Nintendo/Sony or M'Soft for current gen, and at the same time the Euro is parity with the pound (publisher purchase goods from format holder in Euros).

RRP's cannot just go down without everyone feeling the pain. Right now the only part of the chain that is expected to feel the pain is the Publisher. Both the format holders and retail want to keep their pound of flesh. Actually, retail is quite happy with the healthy margins in pre-owned and has no really desire for new games and certainly not at 59.99

No one seems to want to address this, there is no leadership in the games industry - certainly not in UK! Fundamentals of the Games business model needs to change or else it goes all to download, then we don't need retail and format holders (ie companies like Apple/Google/RIM/Nokia come and clean up with really cool smart devices and tablets) rrp's come to Andriod/iPhone level of $0.99 and 100,000's of cheap and casual games.

Once the consumer gets games at $0.99 why pay £59.99! Would you?

I would say this is likely to continue, with people probably unable to be find enough money to spend on the new higher RRP's of games.
As mentioned there seems to be a distinct lack of games of sufficient quality lately that have any chance of people believing warrants the price increase, if we are expected to pay higher amounts for games i think we should be able to expect an increase in the quality to compensate instead of the constant flow of bland and substandard games we seem to get at the current time.

I also dont believe that digital downloads are the answer since i commonly find that the boxed versions available on the highstreet are commonly cheaper than those on Steam and other digital services.

everyone seems to moaning about the rrp but the problem exists with the trade prices. i have recently gone into the games retail business for myself running out my parents shop. for me the trade prices have been the problem for example i had to pay £40 for fifa 10 then being told the rrp is £49.99, £49.99!!!!!!!!!! i paid £40 when u bought mine from gamestation. i still haven't worked out why the trade prices are high, in a time of recession the games indusrty seems to be only 1 thats going on as normal, while there has been a significant dent in the films & music industry therefore meaning the publishers n dev teams must still be raking it in & if this is happening then i ask why are the trade prices so high