I can’t believe my parents spent the equivalent of $125 on me as a 5-year-old. This would have been in 1995, so maybe the price had dropped after being out for 3 years, but still, that’s a lot for immigrant parents to spend on a child.
Has salary growth really outpaced inflation? Maybe over this period but not in the past decade I feel like
only correction I’d apply is put this game at $90 since we are comparing between physical copies here.
This and gas prices have been so due for repricing. Everything gets effected by inflation, I’m fine with these being higher priced.
This confirms my priors of the DS/Wii era of Nintendo being the absolute cheapest to get a bunch of great games. Probably has something to do with the “Blue Ocean” strategy they had during that gen, trying to appeal to casual gamers.
Yeah there was a reason videogame rental was a popular option during the 90’s
I understand now why I had to rent so many SNES games…
It’s amazing that video game prices held pretty much steady at $60 since 2005.
Of course game prices had to go up. Everything else has why would game prices not keep up with inflation?
Yeah, I mean, it’s impossible for this to not come across like bootlicking, but I don’t know what people expect.
Growing up in the 1990s, games felt *outrageously* expensive, even when you consider that cartridge based systems cost a bit less because the cost was so heavily tied up in the games themselves. And that’s all when game development was a comparatively inexpensive process with smaller teams and shorter development timelines. The flipside of that was all the money was made on the sale of the game. The variety of special editions, microtransactions, subscriptions, etc. didn’t exist.
Present day, sure, you have larger install bases (more people with systems that can potentially buy your game), but development teams are *much* larger, individuals cost more, and making games takes far longer…meaning you’re paying those larger teams of more expensive people for a longer period of time.
So, it pretty much leaves with a few realistic choices when it comes to making money:
1. You can charge more for the game.
2. You can subsidize the cost of the game with add-on purchases, or in-game ads, or whatever.
3. You can make lower quality or less complex games by paying for fewer and/or less capable people for a shorter period of time.
4. You can do some mix of the above.
I don’t like the sticker shock either, but that’s really a byproduct of the broader economy than Nintendo individually being uniquely greedy. This chart shows that there is a sense of fairness in the pricing choice. Their console game pricing has stayed essentially the same since 2003 (slight variations away from $80 probably being mostly to setting prices at consumer-friendly round numbers).
The real tragedy is that its been ELEVEN years since the last time a main series mario kart game was released.
The PS5 Pro is cheaper than the PS3 20gb on release day when adjusted for inflation. (PS5 Pro $443, PS3 20gb $499 on Nov 17, 2006)
Damn. I gotta call my mom.
Finding out that my dad dropped 120 on a single game just made me appreciate him that much more, I barely buy games at full price for myself these days.Â
Super Nintendo and N64 game prices were spicy for a kid with a paper route. Really had to think about what I wanted to buy vs just rent for the weekend.
This has been shown a lot. It would be interesting to see how much the total profit & profit margins have changed though. Sales volume would probably be higher than it was back then. Cost to produce the physical games is probably cheaper with inflation, digital copies are basically free to produce, and I expect game development costs would be far higher?
I will never hold a grudge against my parents again for not buying me more SNES games…
*in the USA
The relative values make it obvious, I guess, but there are other countries that use the dollar or the $ sign for their currency.
Is part of the reason that the new game feels *especially* expensive that we’re now used to picking up games for $10 in the Steam sale? Thinking back to when I was a kid before Steam, I definitely bought far fewer games than I do now, but I was definitely paying more for each one.
I said to a die hard Nintendo fan recently that at least you get the finished product at the $90 price point. PC games have figured out how to ship an unfinished game at full cost and then DLC you out of a wallet with Micro transactions. And maybe after a year you might have a full game but at a much higher cost.
The 3 cheapest games are for handheld consoles, which were always cheaper by default
* **Super Mario Kart (Original):**Â 8.76 million copies
* **Mario Kart 8 Deluxe:**Â 67.35 million units
Going drop those here as people keep bringing up video game prices.
One of the reasons the price of video games has not had to increase over time is that video games have much larger audiences and volume of sales. The price of games has held steady at around $70 lets say for top tier games since the mid 90’s. And it has been able to because now they are selling (in this example) to 8x the audience.
A second is that you just drove a much larger number of people than in 1995 to buy your console and then more of your games. Its way more common now for people to buy a console for 2-3 specific titles, which would have been unheard of in 1995 because no one had loyalty to Smash Bros or Call of Duty or anything.
A third is that it doesn’t really “cost” much to distribute digital content anymore (now that we don’t have as many disks/cartridge’s). Internet says about $15 to make a cart back in 1995.
Basically, we are still selling video games… but its such a different world, other than remarking how much games cost back then relative to income, its basically apples to oranges at this point.
Yeah but you could buy games second-hand for a significantly cheaper price back then. You can’t do that now.
Yeah, 2 games a year is about the most I could ever hope for, and that would be a lucky year.
Game rentals on weekends though helped with the variety issue, but you would really vet a game before purchasing. A few other factors though, you could get games used, you could swap them with friends at school, you could borrow your friends games. There were ways to cheaply get access to a larger pool of games that don’t exist now.
Like I never owned the original Mario Kart, but I probably put more hours into it than games I actually owned. It became strategic to not purchase games you had access too.
As soon as they announce the price, the fandom goes into copium mode. The difference is cost of living and disposable income, there was way more prior to 2008
Nintendo doesn’t reduce pricing either. Probably still $125 to get that OG
This is nit picky, but evenly spaced bars give the impression that releases are evenly spaced through time when they aren’t. Two options to address this:
1. A line graph with annotated points
2. Stick with bars, but reserve a slot for every possible year (several would be empty)
Inflations a stupid metric to use.
Use hours at minimum wage or cost compared to median salary.
I don’t care how many bananas I can trade for Mario cart, I care how much it costs relative to my salary.
Spoiler: Salaries have not kept pace with inflation
The statement “salary growth has outpaced inflation” is a bit misleading no? Like yeah, if you quit your job every year and go find a new one your salary would outpace inflation, but if you stay at the same position your salary falls behind inflation pretty quick (in the US).
Maybe I’m just working shitty jobs where I’m not getting a raise every year?
Needs minimum wage superimposed for some perspective.
So, it’s confirmed. 1997 was the pinnacle of video gaming.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is $107 in today’s dollars when you include the entire game.
It’s not as simple as that but w/e
the red on the packaging for NS2 is too much
One very important factor that we need to include in this conversation is the rate of increase of minimum wage (or lack there of) throughout the same time frame.
It’s not that games shouldn’t increase in price, it’s just that the portion that games (and/or anything that can be considered leasurely) are taking a bigger portion of a monthly wage as time goes on.
It’s slowly becoming a luxury to some, that’s the main issue here IMO.
Edit: Im not only talking about the minimum wage of a specific country. Since not all countries had their wage outpaced their inflation.
What’s the inflation adjusted mean income in 1992? And what’s it today?
Wait Mario kart 8 came out in 2014 and its the last one? Dafuq
Game case spotted, should be $90 on this graph. Digital downloads are not purchases in the same way the rest of the games on this graph are, since access can be revoked and the download servers can be shut down.
Nice try Nintendo lol
“Note: Salary growth has outpaced inflation” mhmmm. Sure.
It doesn’t matter becauae I don’t perceive it’s value as being kept up with inflation.
I bought most pf my tabletop rpg books in the 2000s. I will not pay more money for it now when independent’s can still offer it at thoses prices.
Salary growth has outpaced inflation my ass. Maybe if you’re looking at salary only and ignoring wage labor
Now compare how the market has grown which explains why games went down in price because the industry grew which eased pricing due to a larger market and more available cheaper tech. Not to mention exports and manufacturing costs reducing due to digital media’s growth.
Games are only getting more pricey due to execs, publishers and shareholders stuffing their wallets.
Now do a two-dimensional chart that also includes the buying power of the average person over the same timespan.
Might be a little more enlightening.
buuuuulllllllllshiiittttttttt
dont support an $80 nintendo game bruh. nintendo games, despite the power of this new console, arent even up to par with current gen functions- so why the fuck should we pay significantly more for games on switch- or even pay on par to games- compared to paying for games that are developed for systems that are capable of utilizing the current standard of full graphical extent?
45 comments
Source: Wikipedia
Tool: Google Sheets
Inflation adjusted salaries: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
I can’t believe my parents spent the equivalent of $125 on me as a 5-year-old. This would have been in 1995, so maybe the price had dropped after being out for 3 years, but still, that’s a lot for immigrant parents to spend on a child.
Has salary growth really outpaced inflation? Maybe over this period but not in the past decade I feel like
only correction I’d apply is put this game at $90 since we are comparing between physical copies here.
This and gas prices have been so due for repricing. Everything gets effected by inflation, I’m fine with these being higher priced.
This confirms my priors of the DS/Wii era of Nintendo being the absolute cheapest to get a bunch of great games. Probably has something to do with the “Blue Ocean” strategy they had during that gen, trying to appeal to casual gamers.
Yeah there was a reason videogame rental was a popular option during the 90’s
I understand now why I had to rent so many SNES games…
It’s amazing that video game prices held pretty much steady at $60 since 2005.
Of course game prices had to go up. Everything else has why would game prices not keep up with inflation?
Yeah, I mean, it’s impossible for this to not come across like bootlicking, but I don’t know what people expect.
Growing up in the 1990s, games felt *outrageously* expensive, even when you consider that cartridge based systems cost a bit less because the cost was so heavily tied up in the games themselves. And that’s all when game development was a comparatively inexpensive process with smaller teams and shorter development timelines. The flipside of that was all the money was made on the sale of the game. The variety of special editions, microtransactions, subscriptions, etc. didn’t exist.
Present day, sure, you have larger install bases (more people with systems that can potentially buy your game), but development teams are *much* larger, individuals cost more, and making games takes far longer…meaning you’re paying those larger teams of more expensive people for a longer period of time.
So, it pretty much leaves with a few realistic choices when it comes to making money:
1. You can charge more for the game.
2. You can subsidize the cost of the game with add-on purchases, or in-game ads, or whatever.
3. You can make lower quality or less complex games by paying for fewer and/or less capable people for a shorter period of time.
4. You can do some mix of the above.
I don’t like the sticker shock either, but that’s really a byproduct of the broader economy than Nintendo individually being uniquely greedy. This chart shows that there is a sense of fairness in the pricing choice. Their console game pricing has stayed essentially the same since 2003 (slight variations away from $80 probably being mostly to setting prices at consumer-friendly round numbers).
The real tragedy is that its been ELEVEN years since the last time a main series mario kart game was released.
The PS5 Pro is cheaper than the PS3 20gb on release day when adjusted for inflation. (PS5 Pro $443, PS3 20gb $499 on Nov 17, 2006)
Damn. I gotta call my mom.
Finding out that my dad dropped 120 on a single game just made me appreciate him that much more, I barely buy games at full price for myself these days.Â
Super Nintendo and N64 game prices were spicy for a kid with a paper route. Really had to think about what I wanted to buy vs just rent for the weekend.
This has been shown a lot. It would be interesting to see how much the total profit & profit margins have changed though. Sales volume would probably be higher than it was back then. Cost to produce the physical games is probably cheaper with inflation, digital copies are basically free to produce, and I expect game development costs would be far higher?
I will never hold a grudge against my parents again for not buying me more SNES games…
*in the USA
The relative values make it obvious, I guess, but there are other countries that use the dollar or the $ sign for their currency.
Is part of the reason that the new game feels *especially* expensive that we’re now used to picking up games for $10 in the Steam sale? Thinking back to when I was a kid before Steam, I definitely bought far fewer games than I do now, but I was definitely paying more for each one.
I said to a die hard Nintendo fan recently that at least you get the finished product at the $90 price point. PC games have figured out how to ship an unfinished game at full cost and then DLC you out of a wallet with Micro transactions. And maybe after a year you might have a full game but at a much higher cost.
The 3 cheapest games are for handheld consoles, which were always cheaper by default
* **Super Mario Kart (Original):**Â 8.76 million copies
* **Mario Kart 8 Deluxe:**Â 67.35 million units
Going drop those here as people keep bringing up video game prices.
One of the reasons the price of video games has not had to increase over time is that video games have much larger audiences and volume of sales. The price of games has held steady at around $70 lets say for top tier games since the mid 90’s. And it has been able to because now they are selling (in this example) to 8x the audience.
A second is that you just drove a much larger number of people than in 1995 to buy your console and then more of your games. Its way more common now for people to buy a console for 2-3 specific titles, which would have been unheard of in 1995 because no one had loyalty to Smash Bros or Call of Duty or anything.
A third is that it doesn’t really “cost” much to distribute digital content anymore (now that we don’t have as many disks/cartridge’s). Internet says about $15 to make a cart back in 1995.
Basically, we are still selling video games… but its such a different world, other than remarking how much games cost back then relative to income, its basically apples to oranges at this point.
Yeah but you could buy games second-hand for a significantly cheaper price back then. You can’t do that now.
Yeah, 2 games a year is about the most I could ever hope for, and that would be a lucky year.
Game rentals on weekends though helped with the variety issue, but you would really vet a game before purchasing. A few other factors though, you could get games used, you could swap them with friends at school, you could borrow your friends games. There were ways to cheaply get access to a larger pool of games that don’t exist now.
Like I never owned the original Mario Kart, but I probably put more hours into it than games I actually owned. It became strategic to not purchase games you had access too.
As soon as they announce the price, the fandom goes into copium mode. The difference is cost of living and disposable income, there was way more prior to 2008
Nintendo doesn’t reduce pricing either. Probably still $125 to get that OG
This is nit picky, but evenly spaced bars give the impression that releases are evenly spaced through time when they aren’t. Two options to address this:
1. A line graph with annotated points
2. Stick with bars, but reserve a slot for every possible year (several would be empty)
Inflations a stupid metric to use.
Use hours at minimum wage or cost compared to median salary.
I don’t care how many bananas I can trade for Mario cart, I care how much it costs relative to my salary.
Spoiler: Salaries have not kept pace with inflation
The statement “salary growth has outpaced inflation” is a bit misleading no? Like yeah, if you quit your job every year and go find a new one your salary would outpace inflation, but if you stay at the same position your salary falls behind inflation pretty quick (in the US).
Maybe I’m just working shitty jobs where I’m not getting a raise every year?
Needs minimum wage superimposed for some perspective.
So, it’s confirmed. 1997 was the pinnacle of video gaming.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is $107 in today’s dollars when you include the entire game.
It’s not as simple as that but w/e
the red on the packaging for NS2 is too much
One very important factor that we need to include in this conversation is the rate of increase of minimum wage (or lack there of) throughout the same time frame.
It’s not that games shouldn’t increase in price, it’s just that the portion that games (and/or anything that can be considered leasurely) are taking a bigger portion of a monthly wage as time goes on.
It’s slowly becoming a luxury to some, that’s the main issue here IMO.
Edit: Im not only talking about the minimum wage of a specific country. Since not all countries had their wage outpaced their inflation.
What’s the inflation adjusted mean income in 1992? And what’s it today?
Wait Mario kart 8 came out in 2014 and its the last one? Dafuq
Game case spotted, should be $90 on this graph. Digital downloads are not purchases in the same way the rest of the games on this graph are, since access can be revoked and the download servers can be shut down.
Nice try Nintendo lol
“Note: Salary growth has outpaced inflation” mhmmm. Sure.
It doesn’t matter becauae I don’t perceive it’s value as being kept up with inflation.
I bought most pf my tabletop rpg books in the 2000s. I will not pay more money for it now when independent’s can still offer it at thoses prices.
Salary growth has outpaced inflation my ass. Maybe if you’re looking at salary only and ignoring wage labor
Now compare how the market has grown which explains why games went down in price because the industry grew which eased pricing due to a larger market and more available cheaper tech. Not to mention exports and manufacturing costs reducing due to digital media’s growth.
Games are only getting more pricey due to execs, publishers and shareholders stuffing their wallets.
Now do a two-dimensional chart that also includes the buying power of the average person over the same timespan.
Might be a little more enlightening.
buuuuulllllllllshiiittttttttt
dont support an $80 nintendo game bruh. nintendo games, despite the power of this new console, arent even up to par with current gen functions- so why the fuck should we pay significantly more for games on switch- or even pay on par to games- compared to paying for games that are developed for systems that are capable of utilizing the current standard of full graphical extent?
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