Sick of video game double dipping

Anyone on this forum who does any researching at all about games should not have been surprised they would do a double dip of Metal Gear Soilid 3 since they did one with Metal Gear Solid 2. Hell, they basically did with Metal Gear Solid 1 except they just released the extra content as a separate disc instead of incorporating it onto the MGS game and re-releasing it.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']GTA: SA Special Edition was released on PS2 just last week, at the same time as the trilogy. I must admit that the packaging on the Trilogy is pretty neat-o, but not for $60 of games in which only one title costs more than $7 to purchase separately.

It's interesting to see how double-dipping occurs, yet game publishers, with few exceptions, rarely seek the easiest course to immediate profit: reprints of highly-sought after titles. Many RPGs for the PS1 sell for a great deal, and they aren't attractive to as small a market as you may think. The only money invested in reprinting, say, Suikoden 1 and 2 is disc pressing and materials. Much easier than, say, actually adding content to the game. The only people you would piss off at that point would be the kind of foolios who want to gloat that they own a copy of Rez. They deserve to be angry anyway.[/QUOTE]

I had the same idea, many thought that these games are highly priced just because they are rare. I have to disagree though - I mean, Chrono Trigger and Castlevania:SOTN reprints sold well, right?

The thread -
http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69506
 
[quote name='redgopher']Fable: Lost Chapters / Ninja Gaiden Black / Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition / Resident Evil 4 (PS2) / Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence / / / / / I preordered three of those four titles, and now we're getting pounded in the ass with (for the most part) full price re-releases with a good deal of content attached to them! This is bullshit! [/QUOTE]
Don't you buy movies? They do exactly the same thing. Today you buy Lord of the Rings. At the end of the year, you buy LOTR Extended Version. (Or if you're smart like me... you just wait a year & buy the final 12-hour deluxe release. ;-) )




BTW, the Resident Evil 4 on ps2 is *not* a re-release. It's a port of a game from a different system. (Just like Space Channel 5-1 and 5-2 from DC to PS2.) (Or GTA VC from ps2 to xbox.) (Or Super Monkey Ball 1+2 from GC to ps2.) Yeah it kinda sucks that RE4-PS2 >>> RE4-GC.

But that's life.

Game producers have been producing better versions of games for years. Look at the original Pac-Man on Intellivision vs. Atari. The Intellivision version is MUCH better than the original Atari release. (shrug) This stuff has been going on since 1980.




Another annoyance is when they release games for $50 and then mark them down to $30 after Christmas. (shrug) You learn to be patient.

troy
 
I have done two things to combat this:
1) Stopped buying video DVDs. I still want to complete my Star Trek: The Next Generation collection, though (only have first 3 seasons). ;)
2) Never buy any non-MMORPG games on release.
 
I think a lot (not all but alot)of this double-dipping occurs because the game doesn't sell well:

- Skies of Arcadia was released on dreamcast which few people owned
- so it sold poorly
- so Sega ported it to the Cube to make up for losses

- Ditto Space channel 5 and rez

- Resident Evil *was* exclusive to the Cube, but the Cube is the 3rd least-popular console (only 20 million units vs. ~80 ps2s)
- so sales were poor (relative to a major hit like Grand Theft)
- so capcom decided to go with PS2 ports to reach the other ~75% of the audience

- ditto super monkey ball 1/2
-and so on



In the cases I listed, it's not really a matter of double-dipping, but a matter of poor game sales on one console & trying to cover their losses.

troy
 
Looks pretty similar to what Hollywood is doing. Sick of it or not it makes good business sense. Once the final code has been written it is a lot easier and cheaper to modify and repackage then to make a whole new product.
 
I was glad when they released Street Fighter Anniversary though. Nuthin like a good game of 3rd Strike online to get mah day going.
 
I'd have been a little miffed about some of these Rereleases had I bought the originals- especially Fable:The Lost Chapters and MGS3:Subsistence. Fortunately I waited them out long enough to hear about the expanded editions and will now be picking up both. I don't buy very many games at launchday anymore because they all drop so fast compared to a few years ago. I do however buy Collectors Editions like a consumer whore- Halo2, Doom3, SC:Chaos Theory... even games I have only a mild interest in like Getting Up and Path of Neo with their vaunted Collectors Editions make me consider dropping the $60 just for the extras. I wish to God there was going to be a Half Life 2 CE- that one would have made sense with some Team Fortress or HL1 on a second disk but no dice.

I imagine we'll be seeing alot more of this type of activity in the future as its pure profit for the most part and people keep falling for it.
 
[quote name='electrictroy']Don't you buy movies? They do exactly the same thing. Today you buy Lord of the Rings. At the end of the year, you buy LOTR Extended Version. (Or if you're smart like me... you just wait a year & buy the final 12-hour deluxe release. ;-) )[/QUOTE]

The biggest difference is that I knew about the extended cuts before even the bare-bones LOTR DVDs were released. The industry burns its customers when they release special editions long after the original and supposedly only release.
 
Sell your old games and get the new ones, or just be patient...



...wheres the cheapassiness in you?
 
I think a lot of this is only occuring because we are ending one console cycle and beginning another. This is a good reason for game publishers to still release some sort of product for the holidays while spending minimal resources/effort.

Konami can put all it resources into builing MGS4 but still make some money in between by re-releasing MGS3 with a few added features. Same goes for Team Ninja.

Also, you have to realize that some of these games take years to make and have huge budgets. If the content is there, the publishers are going to do whatever they can to capitalize on such huge investments.
 
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