Game Prices — a Historical Perspective

The Opposable Thumbs blog scrutinizes the common wisdom that video games are too expensive, or that they're more expensive than they were in the past. They found that while in some cases the sticker price has increased, it generally hasn't outpaced inflation, making 2010 a cheaper time to be a gamer than the '80s and '90s. Quoting: "... we tracked down a press release putting the suggested retail price of both Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 at $69.99. [Hal Halpin, president of the Entertainment Consumer's Association] says that the N64 launch game pricing only tells you part of the story. 'Yes, some N64 games retailed for as high as $80, but it was also the high end of a 60 to 80 dollar range,' he told Ars. 'Retailers had more flexibility with pricing back then — though they've consistently maintained that the Suggested Retail Price was/is just a guide. Adjusted for inflation, we're generally paying less now than we have historically. But to be fair, DLC isn't factored in.' He also points out all the different ways that we can now access games: you can buy a game used, rent a game, or play certain online games for free. There are multiple ways to sell your old console games, and the competition in the market causes prices to fall quickly."

Comments

Horse Fucking Shit

[sexconker]

1: Nobody with a brain ever fucking paid more than $50 for a game. I don't give a shit if it was Chrono Trigger or some allegedly expensive N64 game. All you had to do was look in the Sunday newspaper, find an ad for the game from some shop listing it for $50, and then take the ad to your retailer of choice for a price match. Invariably there was a shop selling the game for $50, or at least erroneously advertising that they did.

2: Video games are software. The market has fucking exploded since the 80s and 90s. The sheer volume of sales should mean prices would be a fraction of what they were before. While games have gotten more expensive to make, the expensive cartridges are gone, the instruction manuals are black and white, short, and even disappearing, and many games are delivered digitally. The per unit cost of a game has fallen dramatically. If your $100,000,000 game bombs, then perhaps you should have focused on making a good game instead of advertising and hype.

3: "Adjusted for inflation..." is just a bad troll. Until my salary is adjusted for inflation, the phrase is just a fucking insult.