People don't like hearing it, but it's actually true, and I have the numbers (and personal experience) to back it up.
Think about what you consider the best the game industry ever was. You're probably thinking somewhere between the SNES/Genesis era and the PS2/Gamecube era, right? Games were way, way more expensive back then. A high profile PS2 game was $50 new back in the early 2000s. Adjusted for inflation, that's $80.
"But what about DLC and microtransactions!" you argue. Oh, you mean like expansion packs? Warcraft 3 was sixty dollars in 2002, which is a hundred bucks today. Add in TFT and you're looking at nearly 200 dollars. Were you complaining about that? Why was Warcraft 3 totally worth it when today the exact same thing is a cynical, corporate cash grab?
How about Street Fighter 2? That game had three different versions on the SNES alone, and they were no different from DLC today. Street Fighter 2 was a hundred fifty dollars in today's money, and that's just the first version which had a whopping eight characters. If they released a fighting game with eight characters for $150 today you'd be rioting in the streets.
Most of you are going to get mad about it, but you know I'm right. The only reason you remember games as being a "better value" is because your mom used to buy them for you. Unless you were an adult in the early 2000s, you don't get an opinion on whether or not games are too expensive nowadays, because they objectively are not.
EDIT: Gonna get this out of the way before anyone has the chance to even bring it up. No, I'm not saying Calla Duty 41: War of Wars is worth $100. But I am saying that modern masterpieces like Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, Doom Eternal, etc. are. I was willing to pay a hundred bucks for a fantastic game back then, and I still am.
Let's put it this way: Why was the content of Final Fantasy 6 - the actual game itself - worth $150 dollars, but Final Fantasy 15 is only worth $60 despite having a hundred times the complexity and content?
Let's put it this way: Why was the content of Final Fantasy 6 - the actual game itself - worth $150 dollars, but Final Fantasy 15 is only worth $60 despite having a hundred times the complexity and content?
Final Fantasy 6 was released to a much smaller market on a format that cost significantly more to distribute.
There's no meaningful way to compare the video game industry today to the video game industry in the '90s.
We don't make any more money than we used to back then. And when game prices go up, I have more important things to spend that money on. So they don't get ANY money from people like me and can just eat shit and die.
This is why, for example, Trump's strategy increased tax revenue by lowering taxes. The taxes were lower, so more people were willing to pay rather than move offshore or hide assets. Or put simply, pinging two people for 50 dollars each is less money than pinging 6 people for 20 dollars each. Because at the 20 dollar price point, many more people were willing to buy.
The average salary in 1990 was 20k and now it's 53k. We make more money that isn't worth as much. So yes there is an argument to be made that the standard $60 price point is outdated due to inflation and the price should go up.
That doesn't really take into account how much those damn carts cost to make vs digital distribution.
Let's put it this way: Why was the content of Final Fantasy 6 - the actual game itself - worth $150 dollars, but Final Fantasy 15 is only worth $60 despite having a hundred times the complexity and content?
Because the industry still had growing pains and charged what they think their game was worth. It wasn't until until Gen 7 with online connectivity and normies flooding the hobby that the "$60 standard" was cemented into public consciousness. From then on, it became quantity > quality, copies sold over revenue.
And for all of your durr-hurring about MUH INFLATION ADJUSTED DOLLARYDOOS, you forget video games are a luxury. Unless you're so fucking old you remember voting for Jimmy Carter, stagflation is a bitch. The games industry will have to seriously wrestle with increasing MSRP when people are paying $20 for a dozen eggs or $1,300 a month for heat.
People don't like hearing it, but it's actually true, and I have the numbers (and personal experience) to back it up.
Think about what you consider the best the game industry ever was. You're probably thinking somewhere between the SNES/Genesis era and the PS2/Gamecube era, right? Games were way, way more expensive back then. A high profile PS2 game was $50 new back in the early 2000s. Adjusted for inflation, that's $80.
"But what about DLC and microtransactions!" you argue. Oh, you mean like expansion packs? Warcraft 3 was sixty dollars in 2002, which is a hundred bucks today. Add in TFT and you're looking at nearly 200 dollars. Were you complaining about that? Why was Warcraft 3 totally worth it when today the exact same thing is a cynical, corporate cash grab?
How about Street Fighter 2? That game had three different versions on the SNES alone, and they were no different from DLC today. Street Fighter 2 was a hundred fifty dollars in today's money, and that's just the first version which had a whopping eight characters. If they released a fighting game with eight characters for $150 today you'd be rioting in the streets.
Most of you are going to get mad about it, but you know I'm right. The only reason you remember games as being a "better value" is because your mom used to buy them for you. Unless you were an adult in the early 2000s, you don't get an opinion on whether or not games are too expensive nowadays, because they objectively are not.
EDIT: Gonna get this out of the way before anyone has the chance to even bring it up. No, I'm not saying Calla Duty 41: War of Wars is worth $100. But I am saying that modern masterpieces like Elden Ring, Breath of the Wild, Doom Eternal, etc. are. I was willing to pay a hundred bucks for a fantastic game back then, and I still am.
Let's put it this way: Why was the content of Final Fantasy 6 - the actual game itself - worth $150 dollars, but Final Fantasy 15 is only worth $60 despite having a hundred times the complexity and content?
Final Fantasy 6 was released to a much smaller market on a format that cost significantly more to distribute.
There's no meaningful way to compare the video game industry today to the video game industry in the '90s.
We don't make any more money than we used to back then. And when game prices go up, I have more important things to spend that money on. So they don't get ANY money from people like me and can just eat shit and die.
This is why, for example, Trump's strategy increased tax revenue by lowering taxes. The taxes were lower, so more people were willing to pay rather than move offshore or hide assets. Or put simply, pinging two people for 50 dollars each is less money than pinging 6 people for 20 dollars each. Because at the 20 dollar price point, many more people were willing to buy.
The average salary in 1990 was 20k and now it's 53k. We make more money that isn't worth as much. So yes there is an argument to be made that the standard $60 price point is outdated due to inflation and the price should go up.
That doesn't really take into account how much those damn carts cost to make vs digital distribution.
Because the industry still had growing pains and charged what they think their game was worth. It wasn't until until Gen 7 with online connectivity and normies flooding the hobby that the "$60 standard" was cemented into public consciousness. From then on, it became quantity > quality, copies sold over revenue.
And for all of your durr-hurring about MUH INFLATION ADJUSTED DOLLARYDOOS, you forget video games are a luxury. Unless you're so fucking old you remember voting for Jimmy Carter, stagflation is a bitch. The games industry will have to seriously wrestle with increasing MSRP when people are paying $20 for a dozen eggs or $1,300 a month for heat.