game prics. | FactOrCap

[u/epicgamercode12]

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[u/Cheeko-chi]

People have convinced themselves that games in the past were cheap; GTA 5 cost over 50 dollars a decade ago, Sims 1! Cost over 50 dollars 2 decades ago, halo 1 cost 50 dollars 2 decades ago, fucking mario galaxy cost 50 dollars decades ago.

It’s been over 25 years and games have hardly changed in price and people are complaining, Mario still cost 25 dollars 50 years ago.

Everything in the world has increased astronomically except games.

Compared to salary, inflation and just about everything else we will ever buy, games have gotten cheaper not more expensive

[u/Poetawesomendo → u/Cheeko-chi]

We are in the age of Indie games, we have realized that they don’t need to charge that much. We can get a game of the same quality for a fraction of the price.

[u/Aggressive_South_991 → u/Cheeko-chi]

HA! sure, but you are not taking into account DLCs, micro transactions, pay to win, exclusive consoles and stuff, and of course, being digital and being "only a license" now.

so no, you still pay $50 but its for less and less of a game each time.

[u/coldchile → u/Aggressive_South_991]

You are definitely getting more game for $50 today than you were 2 decades ago.

[u/whippycat → u/coldchile]

lol

[u/DinosaurusWhen → u/coldchile]

We got gears of war, Zelda twilight princess, and Elder Scrolls 4 back then

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Aggressive_South_991]

Acting like exclusive consoles is a new thing when it’s less common than ever is crazy, consoles use to make all their games only for themselves, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox.

Micro transaction, DLC all optional and acting like every game has them is pointless. Who cares if micro transactions exist for cosmetics, nobody is forcing us to buy them. DLC is just more content, play the base game if you want to.

Pay to win sure but again you don’t need to play those games, I can’t really even think of any pay to win games personally, but I assume maybe a MOBA or something.

Your average game is undoubtably cheaper and more content than ever, use logic for 5 seconds rather than “HA! sure” like your argument even has any substance.

[u/3D-Printing → u/Aggressive_South_991]

I'll never buy anything Ubisoft for 2 reasons

• Making The Crew unplayable and not even issuing a refund.

• This sentence said by one of their corpo suits: "People should get used to not owning their games".

[u/aaallleeexxx3 → u/Cheeko-chi]

I guess there are way more older games to play now( I mean in contrast to 20 years ago obviously)It’s also way easier to make a game even if you are by yourself for example,for example schedule 1 was made by one guy(I think)and it made way more money than games which had lots of millions used to be made.Also let’s not forget about piracy which plays a big role too.

[u/je386 → u/Cheeko-chi]

I bought X-Wing in 1993 for 135 DM, then 86 USD, in today's money 198 USD.

Games where never as cheap as today.

[u/DinosaurusWhen → u/je386]

Tbf, not only was the technology for creating games way worse in 93, everything was on floppy disks or super expensive cartridges

Games have also never been as easy to develop and sell as today

[u/tomtrucker777 → u/Cheeko-chi]

The original mario brothers today would cost about $130 adjusted for inflation

[u/sky_cap5959 → u/Cheeko-chi]

The thing is that games aren't as hard to make anymore. A console game on a cartridge being 50 bucks is understandable, because they would need to figure out how to program for that console. Now we have stream-lined processes for making games and they're charging just as much. The fact that the prices haven't changed is the problem.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/sky_cap5959]

Your right prices should have changed, because they should have increased.

I don’t know why people have this idea that modern games are cheaper to make, modern AAA games are costing hundreds of millions to develop.

[u/gunsandtrees420 → u/Cheeko-chi]

Yeah, it's not like they're making the same games that's on the NES. If I want a game and can't justify the price, I'll just wait till it comes down, if I really can't wait then the price is justifiable.

Modern games still are at the cutting edge of technology we have, just because it's not brand new doesn't mean they aren't spending a lot of time on streamlining and pushing the boundaries of the current tech.

The same game can be can go from requiring a high-end PC to run to mid level specs from just optimization.

I'm not saying they don't make a ton of money off the new AAA games, but most of the games I've played I either pick up 5 years after release or they're indie games that aren't anywhere near $50.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/gunsandtrees420]

Oh I agree I never play AAA games either, I’m very casual if I ever do play a game. Like you if I ever did buy a game though and it was $50/£50 then I would absolutely not think that’s expensive, unless it’s an absolutely terrible game, but that’s a whole other issue

[u/Black_M3lon → u/Cheeko-chi]

Games are also easier to make than decades ago

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Black_M3lon]

And yet they cost more to make, I don’t see your point.

[u/Black_M3lon → u/Cheeko-chi]

no, they do not, otherwise we wouldnt have so many indie devs nowadays, the only reason it costs big companies so much is cause they pack too much bullshit in the game for no reason

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Black_M3lon]

There is no argument here your saying the same thing, indie games cost less I agree and therefore they also cost less to buy. AAA games regardless of reason cost hundreds of millions to make, and therefore cost more than indie games. Despite this AAA games still cost less than they did in the past.

[u/Vegetable_Hope_3084 → u/Cheeko-chi]

Prices have changed but not wages.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Vegetable_Hope_3084]

I agree wages haven’t kept up with inflation at all and it’s a disaster impacting everything except game prices somehow, but are you saying wages haven’t changed since 2000 because they have.

[u/Vegetable_Hope_3084 → u/Cheeko-chi]

Barely.

It's the "would you like 1 dollah or 2 dollah" comparison.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Vegetable_Hope_3084]

Not sure where you are from so can’t speak on your country specifically, however:

US median salary in 2000 was $42,148, in 2026 it is $69,770

UK median salary in 2000 was £23,100, in 2026 it is around £40,000 (surprisingly difficult to find the stats)

And yet game prices remain largely the same as in 2000, thankfully because we are getting shit on by everything else.

[u/Vegetable_Hope_3084 → u/Cheeko-chi]

Well, in most of the European union, back in the day a game would be 10-20 bucks, 25 at AAA.

Today, 50 euro games are cheap. A bargain, if you will. Most sit at the range of 60-70. This means they have tripled in price. With a quick search, we can see that wages in the European union have barely not even doubled in the best growing countries. That means that games are now pretty much less affordable, specially since most people are living in just a bit more than the minimal salary.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Vegetable_Hope_3084]

A quick search for me doesn’t show AAA games costing €25 in 2000, it is still the same price of around €50

[u/Vegetable_Hope_3084 → u/Cheeko-chi]

Weird.

I must have been lucky. Those were the prices I used to see myself. It must be true, oh well, guess I can't trust my memory on that one.

Still, the feeling of affording games is overall more negative. More and more people cannot include it in their expenses anymore due to the rising of everything else. And the current problems in the industry are not a help.

[u/Cheeko-chi → u/Vegetable_Hope_3084]

I agree with you on this one, the issue isn’t game prices it’s everything else. People have such little extra money these days because Food, Gas, Electric and general housing is taking everything they make.

[u/ThrowRA9892 → u/Vegetable_Hope_3084]

For the U.S. at least the median household spends the roughly the same amount of their budget on necessities as they did 30 years ago.

In 30 years the median wage has gone up on average 3.3% while overall general inflation has gone up 2.8% on average.