Just Stop! Games Are NOT More Expensive Today

Warp Zoned writes:

"With a generational shift looming for all three console manufacturers, a lot of digital ink has been spilled over the price of games and the belief that… SOMETHING. MUST. BE. DONE. Because didn’t you hear? Games are more expensive now than they’ve ever been. It’s true. I read it on the Internet.

No! Just Stop! YOU. ARE. WRONG."

[SavageKuma]

Well there is egg on my face now. I think the difference is that companies decided to all sell at the same price except for wii. Because looking through that catalog all those games on different systems had different set prices all random.

[Megaman_nerd]

those games were more expensive because they were on cartridge, and in the inside not all of them were the same. Some had additional components to make the graphics look better or memory for bigger save files etc.. When the PS1 came out it made the CD ROM standard and these were much more cheaper to produce than the cartridge and so the prices went down to $50 while N64 games were still being sold for like $80 each.

I mean, how else do you think a rookie brand like Playstaion could have beaten the all mighty Nintendo in its first try? But then the prices went up again this gen because of the higher production costs of game development while the Wii is still like developing for a last gen console.

In conclusion? This article is bad and full of misinformation.

[vortis]

Part of development costs went up this gen, but tools quickly became cheap especially after Epic released the UDK, which dropped development costs considerably (try tens of millions considerably).

I don't completely agree on all your points but you're right about cartidges costing more...(N64 carts were $24 to produce, where as Sony paid $0.03 per CD) so Nintendo had to sell much higher to recoup funds.

Oh yeah, and you're also right about some games costing more because of special tech, like Sonic & Knuckles with its lock-on technology as well as Virtua Racer on the Genesis because of that V-Chip which had it costing about $90 at retail when it first came out.

I also agree that this article is bad and full of misinformation.

[Pozzle]

I can't remember how much games cost back in the NES/SNES era. But I remember when I was little and owned a Nintendo 64, my mum refused to buy me any games that were over $100. So yep, they've always cost a buttload of money. Though this might only apply in Australia. Our game prices are ridiculous over here :(

[Stansolo]

I had street fighter 2 turbo limited edition in the steel tin back in the early 90's and it cost me on the day it was released £59.99. The average cartridge price was around £39.99 which is the same as today. It is a bit of a rip off the price we pay for todays games, back in the good old snes, mega drive days when you brought a game you felt like you were getting something for you money. A lovely boxed cartridge game, it felt special.
Thing is this, shop round for todays games you can get some good deals, I brought forza 4 brand new of amazon for £14.99! Its £24.99 now, trick is keep looking there's bargains out there to be had.

[ryanelittlefield]

I remember way back when Game Players was a magazine, there was an ad on the back for Toys R Us promoting a sale on Sega Genesis games. Sale prices ranged from 69.99 to 84.99. The average was around 79 bucks for games like NBA Jam and Batman Forever. I'm pretty happy with an average $20 price drop. That being said, I do think that developers and publishers need to realize that putting a fair price on a game is a big deal. You don't see Super Meat Boy on a shelf in a store retailing for 59.99. It's priced according to the amount of content it has, and also takes into consideration the amount of development costs.

[geekwithtanlines]

i remember having to save up 50, 60, 70 dollars for NES games... and when the SNES came out, my stepdad went out that christmas and bought me 15 super cheap NES games, some of which were amazing (legacy of the wizard, solstice, the immortal, etc). i'm still paying my own money, which means i hunt for more bargains now, and find myself utilizing amazon's 10 dollar bonus offers a lot. and i spend a ton of money on downloadable games, which are getting better and better every month, it seems like. so yeah, i agree that people should quit complaining :)

[Hicken]

I think it's less that the games are more expensive- and generally, the aren't- but more that they don't seem to have the same value. Back in the day, $60 bought you a game you'd be playing for the next year, if not not longer. Now, 9/10 of the games that come out are destroyed within a week or two, and there's little motivation to go back and do it again.

If the prices were the same, but every game felt like it would last you a few months, I don't think anybody would complain. We seem to have higher quality- at least as far as what technological advances have allowed- but have lost the level of content, mostly.

[vortis]

EXACTLY.

You hit the nail on the had Hicken.

The value of games have dropped despite some of the prices being the same, or cheaper or more expensive.

Hands down WWF No Mercy runs circles around alot of wrestling and fighting games today (with the exception of Tekken, which seems to keep pushing the boundaries on the amount of content Namco can squeeze out of each game). Super Mario 64 is still a heck of a lot of fun and offers up tons of replayability.

Back in the day, beat-e'm-ups were linear and simple but Double Dragon 4 is highly replayable because it's just a really fun game and makes punching people in the face feel good, right and natural.
Can't say the same for beat-e'm-ups nowadays...actually, when was the last beat-e'm-up that came our way? Watchmen End is Nigh?

[Stansolo]

Your so dam right! Well said a bubble vote for you.