price • QSF5

24 Feb 2015

It’s Virtually a $75 Reality

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

“I shall call him Stitch Face”

Charlie Nash is back and I’m not sure if he’s better than ever with that face. The game does does look superb though. I may pre-order for the beta code but I don’t know if I’ll keep my pre-order. Especially not for $74.99.

Upcoming new releases listed at $74.99

It seemed like it was just yesterday that we saw Canadian video game prices rise from $59.99 to $69.99.

It was actually just little over a year ago.

I’m still not used to seeing $69.99 MSRP and retailers and/or publishers have already raised prices by another $5. It matches the exchange rate but it’s still an unattractive proposition and will undoubtedly affect the buying habits of most consumers. I am very curious how these price hikes have affected the new generation console adoption rates. Imagine having to pay $74.99 for The Order: 1886? Imagine paying $499.99 for a PlayStation 4?

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sony raise the MSRP of the PlayStation 4. They did it once already.

For myself? It’ll just mean longer waiting times for games to get to my price point. On the plus side, it gives us all more reasons to delve into our backlogs.

Virtual Reality

These are the questions that I ask myself before I buy anything:

What are the additional costs?
Does it integrate well with my current flow?
If not, Is it worth the hassle?
If it’s expensive, will I be able to enjoy it for years to come?
How quickly will it be dated?

Most of these are giant question marks and I don’t see myself finding convincing answers for them any time soon. I hope the upcoming VR extravaganza at next week’s GDC will yield more concrete information but I’m not getting my hopes up whatsoever.

It’s difficult for me to get excited for virtual reality because it goes against the way I play games. I’m not against the idea of total immersive view of a virtual world but to me, it’s like a racing wheel, a DDR pad or a fighting stick; it’s appealing for only certain genres. I can see myself wanting to use this in a game like MechWarrior: Online but how often do I play that these days?

For now, I’m treating it like an arcade machine. I’m sure it’s amazing and fun but I don’t want to actually own one just yet.

Random Thought of the Week

If you’ve ever wondered how player ratings are calculated in sports titles, read this excellent piece by FiveThirtyEight Sports

9 Nov 2014

Checkpoint: Deals Without Borders Edition

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

As someone who follows gaming deals, it pleases me greatly to see previously U.S exclusive deals make their way north.

Target’s Canadian presence brought aggressive promotions like the recent “buy 2, get 1 free” video game sale. The only downsides to this deal are the limited store locations and the limited stock. It’s why I’m not a fan of posting retail deals like this; I don’t want to waste people’s time.

But Target’s efforts were not for naught. Big box stores like Target and Walmart make waves with their sales — so much so that Amazon.ca will likely match or mimic.

I say mimic because Amazon.ca’s take on these deals have either been slightly better or slightly worse. They also fail to clearly establish the terms and conditions from the get go and thus the sale will warp and confuse during the first couple of days.

The $69.99 MSRP sucks but regular sales like this helps dampen the sting of that price increase. It also highlights the fact that a little patience (emphasis on little) will pay off.

17 Jul 2014

A reminder on how expensive consoles were

by No_Style | posted in: Game News | 0

The Nintendo Entertainment System was $200 when it debuted in 1986 but adjusted for inflation and that number balloons ups to $412. That’s the price of a PlayStation 4.

Looking back on it, the Dreamcast provided an incredible value at $200. Remember: this was cutting edge graphics on a console at the time. And with titles like SoulCalibur and PowerStone (a couple of DC classics) at launch, it’s a damn shame that it died so prematurely. An argument could be made for the GameCube but its launch library wasn’t nearly as impressive.

15 Jun 2014

Checkpoint: Post-E3 2014 Pre-orders Edition

by No_Style | posted in: Editorials & Features | 0

Now that E3 2014 is over, it’s time to tally up all the games that I had on pre-order. This year was extra confusing because Amazon.ca entered the E3 pre-order promotion mix for the first time. Normally that wouldn’t be a fumbling point but Amazon.ca’s promotion morphed throughout the four days.

It started with 30% off three or more titles with many titles priced at $59.99. By the end, it ended up being 18% off. Then there were titles listed in their promo page that weren’t eligible. On top of that there were a few titles that ended up being cheaper at BestBuy.ca because of how the math worked. But then you realized that some titles weren’t available for pre-order at BestBuy.ca but were available at Amazon.ca, so then you had to come up with more titles to pre-order in order to take advantage of the discounts. And I didn’t even mention the random cock ups by Amazon.ca.

It was a mess but I got my games in and I was happy. I had to make a Google Docs spreadsheet in order to track where every game was but here is the official breakdown:

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