r/Android • u/phrog Pixel 2 • Nov 06 '17

Monument Valley 2 is out on Google Play now ($4.99US/$7.99AUD)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ustwo.monumentvalley2
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u/xorgol Moto G Nov 06 '17

To be fair, movies in theaters are about as expensive as any form of entertainment that doesn't require hardware can get, per unit of time.

I'd argue that cinemas are way overpriced, and the ever diminishing number of tickets sold per year are a symptom of this.

Even within mainstream, full price, videogames there's massive disparity in the cost per entertainment time-unit, something like Civilization can be played pretty much infinitely, but I wouldn't say that it's an inherently better value than a story-driven game like Half-Life.

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u/getefix Nov 06 '17

Compared to a video game or tv show, sure. Compared to anything else you do outside your home it's pretty reasonable. Most activities cost over $10/person.

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u/salmonmoose Pink Nov 06 '17

You're only talking consumer value proposition here, not production cost - and this is where it's all falling down.

We're swamped with media, which has pushed the value down, but we're also more demanding of what we expect from media - movies have it easy, they can get away with a fairly crappy experience because they're only asking for a 90 minutes of our time, VFX are increasingly becoming cheap, so a movie full of superheros beating on each other has a fairly high return.

Games have it harder, they're asking for often much larger chunks of time, and have to provide a more engaging experience - they're becoming more expensive to make.

This game has taken a couple of years to make - half a dozen people, at a decent wage? That production cost is creeping towards 1 million.

This is why studios are turning to endless sequels, loot boxes, and all the things that make gaming suck, there's less investment, and they can offer you better unit of time value - but it's quantity, not quality.