Fairplay, fronted publicly by British games journalist Stuart Campbell, has claimed on its website that games in Britain are vastly, artificially overpriced and that the current state of affairs is damaging the UK games industry. Hit this to take a look at the campaign manifesto.

"The videogames industry most resembles a terrified cat stuck up a tree that nevertheless scratches at you with its claws when you try and rescue it," said Campbell.

"We believe the main reason for most of the opposition we're getting is a fear of failure... There's a comforting expectation of failure. Developers and publishers alike are able to blame the fact that 95 percent of games lose money [on] an unbalanced, hit-dominated industry," he added.

Fairplay is suggesting that the price of games be reduced to around £20. Games software currently retails at anything up to £45. Campbell believes that a drop in the price of games will increase sales in software in Britain and lead to a general increase in the standard of games.

"The situation that we propose is a far more merit-based thing, where good games and well-managed companies will do well and badly managed ones won't," said Campbell. "Obviously they're rather scared of that."

As an opening salvo, Fairplay is suggesting people abstain from buying games during the week of December 1-8, a key time for the games industry. Campbell said that if support for the campaign is sufficient, Fairplay will call for more direct action from the consumer.

"If we get the public support then we will absolutely hurl that public support at the industry time and time again until it works, because the public can stand it a lot longer than the industry can," he said.

ELSPA chief Roger Bennett has dismissed the campaign as "a storm in a teacup".

"[That's] complete and utter nonsense," he said when asked to comment on Fairplay's claims that games are overpriced, people are being ripped off and the whole situation is damaging to the British games industry. "Games have reduced in price since 1996, [when] the average game price was £31.90. The average game price last week in the equivalent week was £21.00.

"There's a whole wide range of price points people can buy at."

Bennett went on to slam views that the price of games is ridiculous when compared to the costs of movies and music.

"There is absolutely no comparison at all, product by product in terms of its creative content and in terms of its investment and in terms of planning required," he said.

But when charged with the accusation that games are a rip-off, Bennett finally lost patience.

"Look, let's get one thing absolutely straight," he ranted. "It's perfectly legitimate for people in this industry, for the people that make the games, those that distribute [them] and those that sell them to earn a crust.

"Are you suggesting that the film industry, the video industry and all those, that the prices should come down? There's 50 hours worth of value in a game, as compared to what in a film or a video?

"The whole thing is a non-event as far as I'm concerned."

Fairplay had quoted British developer Peter Molyneux as saying that games were overpriced on its website. The quote has now been removed after the Lionhead legend complained.

A spokesperson for the developer was philosophical on the matter.

"To use someone's quote that they said six years ago and not even ask if they can use it; it's a little bit bad isn't it?"