Video Games are Not Expensive, Seriously

“Video Games are getting expensive nowadays” is probably something you hear out-of-touch people say, but it does hold some merit. The price points and levels of value are an ever changing element of the games industry, and that roller coaster isn't going to stop any time soon. Between monthly subscriptions, free to play models, sale pricing, and more, figuring out just what you are getting for your money can be a chore, but fear not friends, I, Lance Vance am here to put your mind at ease. Below is my simple guide for determining how much value you, personally are getting from your games!

Video Games are, first and foremost, an entertainment product. You buy video games to be entertained, and how entertaining they are determines how much of your time is spent playing. Each person is going to have their own idea of how valuable their time is, so you’ll have to apply these numbers to your own life, and see what you can find, but no matter how much time you have available to play video games on a weekly basis, you don’t have infinite time, so budgeting how much value you are getting from your games is important. In order to determine how much each hour of entertainment costs you, just follow this simple formula:

(Note: This formula doesn't factor in things like, electricity bills, hardware costs and maintenance, or time spent discussing the game but not playing. These things vary wildly from person to person, and it will be up to you to determine those values for yourself.)

(Cost of game + additional game costs (DLC)) / (Game playtime in hours) = (dollars spent per hour of gameplay) 

Most games and game systems have an internal method of tracking playtime, and keeping track of how much you spend on a game is important anyway. For example, if you bought Bioshock Infinite for $60, and played it for 15 hours, you spent $4 for each hour of gameplay. That may seem like a lot, but let’s check out some other forms of entertainment, so we have a benchmark to go by:

Activity:	Cost:	Time:	Hourly Rate:
Average Movie	$14	1.25 Hours	$11.20/hr
Day at Six Flags	$85	8 hours	$10.62/hr
Average Concert	$46	4 hours	$11.50/hr
Average Brothel in Nevada	$835	2 hours	$417.50/hr

Well the lesson here is that hookers are freaking expensive, but the other lesson is that an average hour of entertainment is going to run you about $10 - $11. Compare this to our Bioshock example above, which is looking pretty good right about now. From this point of view, even if you only play a $60 game for 6 hours, you are still getting pretty decent value out of it. You may not feel like the game was worthwhile, but for sheer dollar value, it isn't too bad.

Let's look at my personal numbers for a variety of games across multiple platforms and genres:

Game:	Total Cost:	Total Playtime:	Hourly Rate:
Borderlands 2	$68 (Including season pass)	138 Hours	$0.49/hr
Bioshock Infinite	$46	14 Hours	$3.28/hr
Fire Emblem: Awakening	$83.50 (So much DLC)	141 Hours	$0.59/hr
Pokemon Black	$35	324 Hours	$0.10/hr
Super Smash Bros. Melee	$50	1265 Hours	$0.04/hr
Dungeon Defenders	$8 (Yay Steam sales)	66 Hours	$0.12/hr
Halo 4	$100 (Worst special edition ever)	66 Hours	$1.51/hr
Tales of Vesperia	$150 (Imported copy and DLC)	477 Hours	$0.31/hr
Metal Gear Rising	$55	6 Hours	$9.16/hr
League of Legends	$180 (LOL free-to-play)	512 Hours	$0.35/hr

Oh. I… wow. Just wow. I don’t even know how… That’s a lot of hours. This is only a handful of games I've been playing lately too. If I add up all the time I've spent on the Pokemon series alone, it comes out to about 3,600 hours. That’s 1.7% of my entire life. I’m going to go lie down.

(Just kidding, I’m playing Fire Emblem right now.)