Anomaly Warzone Earth. Costs 2,49 LBP on the Appstore, $9,99 on GOG.

Considering how much fantastic playtime I've gotten with the likes of Stronghold - on my fourth (fifth?) attempt at finally beating the campaign; wish me luck! - Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion 2, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Heroes of Might & Magic 3, Wing Commander: Privateer, etc. for relatively little money.... nope, not expensive at all.

Hell, I used to pay full retail price for games like these over a decade ago, and that's not even taking inflation into account. In addition, that's before any GOG sales may come into picture.

All I can say is: It's wonderful to be a PC Gamer these days! So much choice for relatively little money. In the end, it all depends on whether it is worth it to you. In my case, it very much is. I'm good. ;)

As for mobile game pricing: you get what you pay for. 99.9% of that market can't even hold a candle to most of the games available here, specifically the classics.

I think classic games on GOG are a real bargain at regular prices and a steal when they are on sale.

I think that we're just at the beginning of DD mega sales.
Sure, devs who have already brought their games on the market can be happy with them: indies get exposure, oldies can be monetized even decades after their releases.

But concerning new games which will be released in the next 5-10 years, I don't know if buying games only at mega sales is a good thing.
Talking about an infinite backlog is now a kind of joke, but is this reasonable?
It could sound a little "macabre", but unless you intend to support the industry without regarding the time you should spend to play the games, having a very huge backlog of unplayed games is like having a debt. A debt of time to allow as a hobby.

And I am afraid of my backlog myself, even it is pretty tiny on GOG, and there are some retail games on my shelf that I don't have played yet, because it's like I'm throwing money and I am constantly anxious to play my games, like it was a duty, or a work. I enjoy less games since then. And adding to this, I support crowdfunding campaigns, and I have many hopes on them. But now, it's a bit annoying because when I hear about a crowdfunding game nice to me, I'm thinking about it and when I have to play games I already own, they are less entertaining because I anticipate the game I have just heard about. And since there are other games on the list, I can truly enjoy less games.

Maybe it's just me, but I am wondering until when people continuing to make their backlog grow will stop buying games, because they're tired of it or because they cannot afford it or even worse: because they're thinking that since the price of games has begun decrease, games should be free (and I'm not talking about freesoftware), so people would want F2P only for ever?
How many years until then?
How many years until fans buying at full price will stop preventing ambitious games with moderate/big budgets to fall?
I am sure a bit pessimistic, but if almost all devs income are from mega sales, if you want ambitious games to exist in the future, the only way is to make the fanbase grow. Yes, there are plenty people in the whole world who could be interested in, since many of them have not played video games yet. But is the number of people gaming increasing quickly enough to counterbalance the price of games? And if the whole gaming population follows a Gaussian distribution, what could happen to niche games, ambitious games (in their gameplay, narrative system, choices, consequences, etc...)?

If there wasn't KS, Indiegogo and other crowdfunding platforms, I would feel worse. But yet, there are people complaining because early pledges with digital game (often US$20, CAN$20, £20, €20) are too much expensive!!! Wanting prices to be very low, and expecting ambitious projects to succeed are incompatible IMHO.

If the industry follows this path, I'm confident that F2P, online gaming, streaming gaming will be the norm. And most of all, reiteration of assets and IPs, and "cheap" games will flood the market without any chances of success.
If I'm more pessimistic, I would think that the industry (and almost indies) will collapse in the next 15 years.

Sure, because the games they offer at that price probably wouldn't sell for more. For all I know they're not available on GOG though, so apples and oranges again.

Exactly, so I guess it wouldn't be wise for them to imitate other stores with a different clientele. If they were just as cheap as Steam, most customers with a preference for Steam would still ignore GOG.

Or buy more oranges than you can eat just because they're cheap and then let half of them rot. ;)

Who can say, Maybe selling them cheaply in a bundle is the only way to sell them now, because noone will pay the full price anymore after they've all been available for such low prices. Personally, I own all of them, even though I haven't played through a single one and probably never will. Is that what indie devs want? :/

Mobile games and PC games aren't really comparable, so I'm not sure why I would expect PC games to be a dollar or free like mobile games. People like you are why the free to play movement exists though, so dive into that I guess?

I do think the occasional GOG launched at $10 when it should be $6, but it's not a big issue.

I suspected this much.
So given that the prices are the same for the past five years, help me understand how and where does "inflation" come into this discussion.

It more sounds to me that you're either less attracted by the recent efforts of the gaming industry or you're unconsciously relating modern indie games with mobile devices or that you're suffering from PC gaming saturation (unconsciously, you've already moved on), regardless of content.

In other words, is it possible that the excess of sales and bundles of PC games combined with the state of the mobile games market makes you think that your reluctance to buy games on GOG is due to high pricing when it could actually be related to one or more of the reasons I mentioned above?

I started buying in GOG just old games that weren´t available on newer platforms, and everything else on Xbox360 and XBLA. There most digital games were $10 or $15, even old ones. You could get 50% of discount on a selected title every week, and rarely something more than that. That on top of paying $60 every year and paying $60 to $70 for new titles, again not counting DLC, which wasn´t cheap. On May, they announced that Xbox One won´t be compatible with any of the games on the Xbox360 system.

Are GOG games too expensive? NO.

Most games cost between $5 and $10, they get discounted often, they can get discounted more than 50%, you don´t have to pay to play, and better of all, NO STUPID DRM. If I buy the game and the next PC hardware isn´t compatible, yeah, I won´t be able to play the game, but I will be able to as long as the hardware lets me. I can install the game on as many computers as I want.

So seriously, NO.

And I´m not even talking about how expensive a Cola is on a bar ($2), or a cinema ticket ($7). If you compare that to how much time a GOG game takes to complete (usually more than 10 hours)... Do you really think it´s expensive? What do you expect?

so so..

It may be a case of short term gain vs. long term gain. So, for now selling games ultra-cheap may be overall beneficial, as lots of people are hoarding cheap games like madmen, that they will probably never play. Me included. I quite often buy Humble Indie Bundles without even recognizing any of the games, just because they were so cheap. I don't know if it good to the industry overall that the likes of me buy crappy games too, paying exactly the same as for the games we actually end up liking. Maybe it would be better if we didn't buy the crappier games at all, and spent more money on the good ones?

But it may be this turns against itself in the long run, if many people start questioning whether they should buy yet more $1 games on top of thousand other similar (indie) games they already have. And at the same time, they also feel it would be mad to pay over $5 for any game, indie or AAA. So the damage has already been done on how much people value new games, after they are used to getting five indie or even AAA titles for $1. It wasn't that many years ago when I felt that getting a bit older PC (retail) game for mere 9€ is ridiculously cheap.

People's game budget being spread more evenly is indeed good news to indie games, but bad news for higher profile games that cost more to make. But, maybe some makers of ultra-expensive AAA games still need a cold reality check, considering how ridiculously expensive some games apparently are to make. Maybe they shouldn't be.

It also seems game developers are trying to find ways to increase their revenue, even if they sell the base games ultra-cheap. Like, selling dozens of micro-DLCs that cost much more than the base game, or in-game micro-transactions, etc. etc. The recent Paradox Humble Bundle was a good example of that IMHO, pretty much all games without any DLCs. They are merely the hook and bait, a bit like how World of Tanks being "free" is the bait.

^This. I do often wait for sales, especially considering my game backlog, but it's hard to argue that the entertainment you'll get from something like Neverwinter Nights isn't worth as much as an afternoon at the movie theater.

Which is why it's a rarity for me to buy bundles at all. What's the point of me wasting my hard-earned money on games I'm not expecting to play anyway (doesn't matter how little the amount)? As we like to compare game costs to meal prices around here, at that point I'd rather spend that money on some good food/drink instead. Hell, I'd at least get some enjoyment out of that.

Didnt read the whole thread but guessing this has been said already. Paying full price, EVERY game is too expensive. Play games you already own until games are 60% off or more and come down to a price you're willing to pay and then no. So in that regard, GOG games are not too expensive.

I think they are priced right for old games that contain a lot of value compared to some of the new AAA games that last what 6 hours. If you feel the price is too high then wait for the sales but i find that $5.99 is about right for a lot of the games. Remember these games do take time to get t work on modern pc and you get a lot of extras that you dont get on steam or elsewhere and they are DRM free which is worth the price alone.