New Price Points of Video Games - What are your thoughts?

[BLUEVOODU]

There have been recent increases in game prices.  IE many Nintendo, Xbox and Playstation games are jumping to $79.99.  Not all manufacturers are following this structure... IE Sega.   However, certain games (Such as Switch 2 games) can or will charge for upgrades from the Switch 1 games to make them Switch 2 compatible.

What are your thoughts on the whole pricing strategy at this time?

I grew up on NES and Super NES games... where the game prices started getting VERY high.  Adjusted for inflation, many of the company arguments revolve around "it's cheaper than it was in the 90's... so it's time for an increase."   Do you agree with these sentiments?  I remember those days and the amount of games per person were MUCH less.  Plus, they had some value to the resale if they needed to sell a game.  Not digging on digital distribution, but there is 0 recoup value on digital distribution games... a big difference between the on-going analyses in price differentials.

What are your thoughts?  Post it up!

[Grindspine]

I remember the top tier Nintendo games being $49 to $59 on release back in the nineties. Yeah, games were super expensive then. The fact that games held that lower price on the move to digital hurt less on moves to distribution like Steam. Prices are catching up hard though.

[retro junkie]

The $80 price tag makes me feel like a kid again. Like....I need parents to buy me a game.    This is totally out of my price range even though I have paid $80 for a game. But that was a special moment. I purchased an N64 game for $80 some years ago, Bangai-O. At the time it was going for $150-$200. I have it in the box with the booklet and it is now worth, cart alone, $300, in box with booklet, $400, or $85 just for the booklet. It was one of those treasures in gaming, I love the game. And found that the game was one of those defining moments for the N64.
When I came into gaming during the Sega Genesis years, before the SNES was released, I quickly discovered that my local K-Bees reduced the price of the older games in their store. This fed my gaming addiction. I never paid the full price again. Sadly we do not have those stores anymore. And the collector's market has effected a lot of prices of AAA titles. Glad I got mine back then.....
I have a lot of mixed feelings about the direction of modern gaming and my love of physical media. But I also have both feet into retro gaming simply because that is where I find my fun when it comes to games. The influence of arcade flavored games are what hooks me. And the early years of video games it was all about those types of games. And the early consoles was all about physical media, collection packs with extra stuff, pixel sprites, great animation, maps included in the box. I have Lunar 1 and 2 collector editions for PS1 packed with goodies. I am not sure you would ever see something like that produced in this and the coming generation of video gaming. I don't like the idea of digital downloads being the main focus of supplying the games to a console, key or no key. Even though they keep telling us that has been the trend in modern gamers.

Having said all of this, my last generation cut-off point for purchasing a console was Playstation 3, XBOX one, and Switch lite.

I am finding myself at the point of no return. At the point of no return to modern gaming.

There is a live homebrew community producing games for the Sega Genesis, NES, and Gameboy. That is where my money has been going recently. I have a new Genesis game being shipped to me this month, ZPF.

[BLUEVOODU]

I had a whole response I was writing and lost it.      This will be the shortened version.

Neo Geo cart games back in the day were super expensive as well... while SNES games were in the $49-69 range, they were going for $150 each.  There was a Genesis racing game (Virtua Racing) with the SVP (Sega Virtua Processor) chip that I think debuted for $99 if my memory serves me right.  I remember back in the day... I was like "$100... what the heck?!"  Star Fox with the SFX chip was $59.99.  Those were expensive... but I do remember some sales... also remember mowing many yards to purchase more LOL.    N64 games jumped up to the $75's if I remember those right.

Thank you for the heads up on Bangai-O.  I have one excellent in box... I might look to lighten the collection soon.  We will see.

It is awesome to see the home brew communities. I was trying (way back on the old store) to give a platform for home brew communities to launch titles for different systems.  It didn't work out at the time - long story... but it was an interesting run at the concept! Glad to see they're still live and well.

$80 for Mario Kart world is a bit pricey... though the arguments for inflation aren't wrong... it still doesn't take away the sting of the game prices.

[Mai Valentine]

Since I got divorced in 2020 I've had to budget money more carefully so even at the older prices I was really only buying maybe one or two games a year. I don't really see that changing. I also won't have a new console so I generally will have to wait for PC releases anyway, and by the time they come out on PC they're usually a little cheaper.

[BLUEVOODU]

@Mai Valentine I'm sorry to hear that... that's rough.  I hope it gets better for you soon.

yeah, they definitely go cheaper on the pc side.  That's why I liked Steam and other platforms so much.  I liked them too much, my backlog is stupid...

[retro junkie]

Do we value a game more if it is a physical hard copy than it just being digital? Or is that just a matter of personal preference? (Me asking this out loud knowing I have several 3DS games that are still sealed.) I have found that I tend to not play a game as much if at all that I have purchased as a digital download. And the only time I did purchase digital downloads was during the heyday of the 3DS.

[Mai Valentine]

A digital copy should cost less than a physical copy since they don't have to factor the same manufacturing cost into it. If a digital copy isn't cheaper or doesn't offer anything that you can't get with a physical copy, the physical copy is worth more in the sense that you have a tangible product (that you can sell later if necessary). At least that's how I look at it.