Dear Future Gamer,

It's interesting what was said in FG22 regarding game prices. Now I realise that with today's high-spec machines, developers invest huge amounts of money in new titles... but, N64 apart, the cost of actually manufacturing the finished PHYSICAL product is comparatively small.

Now here's an interesting case... A local shop now sells PC games at around 50 per cent of the normal RRP. These games are all genuine originals. They are all new or newish releases, (for example I purchased Half-Life for £14.99). So why are they so cheap? Well the answer is simply that the pathetic cardboard boxes that publishers insist on using have been damaged in transit.

Surely if the industry can afford to dispose of stock in this way, at such reduced prices then this must tell us something about the prices that they normally expect us to pay. Couldn't they repackage the product in a new box and sell it at full price? Would it make more sense to use stronger packaging? (Perhaps like a video cassette case)?

Well I'm sure someone who works in the industry could provide a good response and put me in my place. Meanwhile... I think I'll continue to enjoy my crumpled box games.

P. Tupman

FG: Well done that local shop is about all I can say. I'm sure there's a large number of gamers who don't give a stuff about the state of the box the game comes in if it means they can get the game (original, of course) for half price. The reason the local shop's able to do this is because of a thing called perceived value. A crushed can of beans in the supermarket is deemed by most to be bad. The contents are perfectly fine, but people are lead to believe that damaged packaging means damaged contents and the same goes for games. People see a damaged box and are then reluctant to splash out full price for the game.