Chanur
Shit Posting Professional
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I think it has to do with two things. The original prices were jacked way up because of a monopoly and the costs to deliver the games got way cheaper due to disc and digital transition.
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General Gaming News and Discussion
- Thread starter Wintermute
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Control
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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There were always multiple consoles though. And the console makers didn't dictate the prices for 3rd party games. They added on licensing charges which combined with cart and distribution costs set an effective price floor, but even with that, there were still $20 games and $80 games. They were just charging what the market would bear, no problem with that, but Jesus Christ at the ROI.
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Wombat
Trakanon Raider
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To be clear, cartridges were extremely expensive by modern standards, and took forever to get made. That was literally the original point and timing of E3 - Toys R Us, Kmart, Kaybee, and whomever else existed back then would see the game at E3 in the summer, order 50k/75/30k each, and that would determine the publisher's initial cartridge manufacturing order, which hopefully would be made in time for Christmas.
God forbid if you wanted larger than average roms - those NeoGeo games were $200 to $300 in 1990 dollars (~$500 to $700 in today's dollars), and even the large SNES-era RPGs creeped into the $70 range (like ~$150 now).
Obviously the much cheaper disc printing costs and then downloads helped manufacturing costs, keeping game costs below inflation rises, and then DLC 'subsidized' the initial prices, but even the 360 era saw costs bump up to $60. Costs have continued to rise, for one single reason - art. All those unique art assets add up quickly, and those have been what have driven game costs. The industry saw some success in offshoring that work to places like Singapore and China in the 360 era, but even those costs per manhour have caught up, and game prices have risen accordingly.
God forbid if you wanted larger than average roms - those NeoGeo games were $200 to $300 in 1990 dollars (~$500 to $700 in today's dollars), and even the large SNES-era RPGs creeped into the $70 range (like ~$150 now).
Obviously the much cheaper disc printing costs and then downloads helped manufacturing costs, keeping game costs below inflation rises, and then DLC 'subsidized' the initial prices, but even the 360 era saw costs bump up to $60. Costs have continued to rise, for one single reason - art. All those unique art assets add up quickly, and those have been what have driven game costs. The industry saw some success in offshoring that work to places like Singapore and China in the 360 era, but even those costs per manhour have caught up, and game prices have risen accordingly.
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Fogel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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There are a lot more buyers now then before. Games used to be a niche market, now everyone and their mother has either at least 1 of an xbox, pc, or PS in their house. More games sold + lower overhead from discs/digital helps keeps prices down now. For most games, a million sales was a huge milestone, now its almost expected.
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Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I want to say FF3(6) and Chrono Trigger were both like 80 dollars back in the 90s. I remember because my dad had like a mental number of around $200 for the total price of the "family" things he would purchase around Christmas. The years those came out we only got like 3 SNES games, while other years we got like 4-5.
Around the time Chrono Trigger came out those sort of became 'my' presents for the year. My siblings would get a bunch of other shit but the games would basically be the ones I was talking about or whatever. In 1996 I got nothing from any family member, but instead got a little 19" TV, a Playstation, and two gift cards for $50 from SoftwareEtc/Gamestop. No more video games for the 'family' from then on.
Around the time Chrono Trigger came out those sort of became 'my' presents for the year. My siblings would get a bunch of other shit but the games would basically be the ones I was talking about or whatever. In 1996 I got nothing from any family member, but instead got a little 19" TV, a Playstation, and two gift cards for $50 from SoftwareEtc/Gamestop. No more video games for the 'family' from then on.
Hateyou
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Captain Suave
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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For reference, inflation-adjusted game prices:
Game market size, I think NOT adjusted for inflation. The PS2 era drove a huge market expansion.
Game market size, I think NOT adjusted for inflation. The PS2 era drove a huge market expansion.
Rezz
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Ah, just that they were effectively gifts for me, but under the guise of being for the whole family. Stuff like Brainlord, Ogre Battle, SimCity (our PC was... not capable, at the time) etc. that my siblings and parents obviously weren't into.
To clarify, the gifts that were labeled for me were like chemistry kits and science textbooks (I shit you not; I got a textbook on geology from my grandparents and it was assigned reading like two years later in class. Without the video games my gifts fucking sucked, from like 9 onwards) so my dad basically was like "Here, I bought some games for the family. They just happen to be exactly what Rezz would have wanted."
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first off your chart is bullshit. Claims to be 2024 inflation numbers but only goes through 2020. This is false. Games were not $85 in 2020 they were 60 bucks. If you want to adjust 60 2020 dollars up to 2024 then you need to apply the real inflation numbers and not the fake numbers used to hide the shambles bidenomics hit us with, so 100% inflation.
So in 2020 games were ~$120 in 2024 inflation adjusted dollars, and that curve applies all the way back.
Games were like 120-150 dollars to start and started to sink in price as consoles became more popular and especially when they swapped from cartridge to disc and then digital, but still around $120 by 2020.
They quickly rose to 70and are now 80 bucks in 2024 dollars so there's been a drop off sure but its not nearly as pronounced as your chart would indicate
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Tasty The Treat
Molten Core Raider
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Now make a graph that acknowledges the shift from physical to digital sales, and includes all the "deluxe, gold, platinum, ultimate" editions all the big publishers like to sell their AAA games with.
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Captain Suave
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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It's making a comparison of launch title pricing (exactly which titles, I'm not sure). The PS5 launch was 2020, so that was the last data point as of the analysis time in 2024.
As far as the rest, if you think there's something importantly different feel free to link some data. I think whatever you find will tell directionally the same story.
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not sure what you mean, I did this already?
games that game out in 2020 cost 60 dollars. 60 dollars adjusted to 2025 prices is 120 dollars. "omg games that cost 29.95 back in 1995 is like 120 dollars in today's money!"
dude games that cost 60 dollars 4 years ago is 120 dollars in today's money. you aren't saying as much as you think you are.
Hateyou
Not Great, Not Terrible
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This just sounds like a redneck exaggerating inflation cause they’re overly butthurt about it. It’s more like 20-40% depending on what goods you’re looking at. It’s not 100% and definitely not across the board like you’re insinuating.
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TBT-TheBigToe
<Rickshaw Potatoes>
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Caeden
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I feel the DEI, politicization, and the shit quality we deal with now originate in part from the expansion the PS2 era brought. I can’t find a single average console player that has played, say, Expedition 33. But those fucks all have GTA, COD, and Madden. Not necessarily saying those games suck. Several entries are considered classics or top flight, but I enjoyed the hobby better in some respects when it wasn’t this blown up.
Captain Suave
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
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That's not data, that's you pulling numbers out of your ass. And I'm talking about the trend since the 80s, not just the last few years.
Denamian
Night Janitor
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Hateyou
Not Great, Not Terrible
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There are several posts from people here in the monitor thread and random other threads that say buying an LG OLED TV for a monitor was their single most impactful pc upgrade ever. Do it.
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INTHEMIDSTOFLIONS
Golden Squire
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The biggest hesitation I have is using it for excel and other work tasks because I work remote. Just wondering how it is for both gaming and that.
its wild how expensive monitors are compared to their tv counter point
32” OLED LG Monitor with latency is $1200 (or get the MSI one for $800)
vs
42” OLED LGC4 monitor with 1ms latency is $800.
personally, I can absolutely tell the difference between 8ms latency and 1ms. But I doubt I can tell the difference between 1 ms and 0.03ms latency. Once I switched to a monitor with 1 ms latency, I could never play on my Sony x90j again with its 8ms latency. Its so noticeable that it’s just unplayable now.
however, I wonder if upgrading to an OLED monitor is better than a new GPU. I’ve got the budget for a new gpu (5070 ti or a 9070) or a new OLED monitor. Not sure which one I want to dive into.