Game Pricing Trends Examined

jvm writes "Over at Curmudgeon Gamer, there's a new article, 'A Preliminary Game Price Study', that tries to address the question 'How does the price of a $50 game drop after its release?'. Data, graphs and discussion are provided for almost fifty games across the three big consoles (PS2, Xbox, GameCube) over a span of nearly six months. Among other observations, two price drop periods are noted since the beginning of 2004, and for this data set it appears that Xbox games were discounted more on average than GameCube and PS2 games."

Comments

Interesting

[The-Bus]

The short- and medium-term price of games is examined, but I'd be interested in the long term. Nominal prices have been in the $40-60 range for as long as I can remember (1980's for NES), and there was a period in time where SNES games were much, much more expensive (Mortal Kombat clocked in "on sale" for $69.99 IIRC).

Now, in the past 10-20 years, inflation has taken a bite out of prices, so real prices have gone down significantly. That $50 example (let's call it Marble Madness) costs about $81 today, accounting inflation! The Mortal Kombat cartridge would be almost $90! Can you imagine shelling out $90 for a cartridge game let alone one as awful as Mortal Kombat for the SNES? (This doesn't include you, Neo-Geo home system owners).

Of course, over time, the real price of video game software approaches zero as most games that are 10-20 years old command $1-5 in the bargain bin. Video games just need to sell extremely quickly and expensively to make vast profits... other profits are eked out slowly over time as nominal and real prices are reduced.

Re:Interesting

[dogbowl]

I recall games in the 80's as being around the $30 range. I *distincly* remember saving up 30 bucks to buy Mike Tysons Punch Out and Zelda.

Furthermore, a number of sealed atari games that I have (pre-crash) are priced around $30. (Post crash ones are often in the $5.00 -$7.00 range!)

I do remember some carts being high though. I think the $70 ones came around in the Super NES days.

Competition is good

[superpulpsicle]

I'd have to say as much as I want one console to completely beat out all competitors to make consumer decision easy... competition does keep prices low.

With 3 consoles in the market the games are cheap. With 2 consoles left, you might see games hover alot longer at $40. With 1 console left, you're done. Back to the 80s NES days where megaman costs $50 for years and years.

Rate of price drop relative to genre

[Argon Sloth]

I think it would be interesting to take a look at the impact a game's genre has on its price drop. I'd assume that sports titles would drop much sooner and by a larger fraction, than a RPG.