• Tool: R, ggplot2
  • Sources for prices: Mostly Wikipedia. Launch prices are trivial to find. I used a public inflation adjustment tool to calculate the 2025 USD price.
  • Source for median income growth: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

This means that adjusting for inflation is the more conservative adjustment compared to adjusting for income growth. This chart is US only and the trend seen here will likely not apply to other countries.

Posted by provoking-steep-dipl

13 comments

  1. I would like to see one that includes single year operating costs that has GameGear including battery expenses. You may need to change the graph to log scale.

  2. I wanted a 3DO so bad back in the day, but I couldn’t justify the cost of it. But the arc of history bends toward justice, and its best game (Star Control 2) is freeware now.

  4. That awkward moment when thr original Xbox cost more than a Switch 2.

  5. you still aren’t going to convince me to buy a Switch 2 or PS5 Pro.

  6. Launch prices are one story, but console prices have increased this generation for the first time in a long time. Previous generations of consoles became cheaper over time but we are seeing the opposite now. PS5 and Xbox Series X were cheaper at launch. Nintendo is trying to keep Switch 2 from increasing but it likely will happen at some point. 

  9. It really makes the Xbox naming scheme looks so dumb seeing them in order next to Playstation’s number schemr.

  10. My friend had both thr Neogeo and 3DO. He let me borrow his 3DO because I’m addicted to Star Control 2. I still have it in my closet.

  11. The PS5 at $500 is cheaper than an inflation-adjusted NES. Yet gaming feels more expensive because the *ecosystem* changed – now you’re paying for subscriptions, DLC, and microtransactions.

    The hardware got cheaper, but they monetized everything around it!!!

  12. Yes, the 2600 Atari was expensive. Only knew a few people with it

Comments are closed.