Did anyone even give a legit reason as to why 9th-gen game prices moved from $60 to $70?
It's not as if they need a reason, but in this case it is probably motivated by inflation. That's an approximate ~17% increase. Since $60. I can't remember when $60 pricing became the norm, but between the 7% annualized average in 2021, and the fact that we are on track for an 8% average in 2022, that results in 15.56% for just those two years, do we are almost there.
In 202 the average number was 1.4%, and in 2019 it was a more normal 2.3%
According to CPI-U we get from $59.99 to $69.99 with inflation alone from just Feb 2019 to Aug 2022.
The funny part is I'm not convinced we are being over-charged for games from a historical perspective.
In this scan of the
1991 Electronics Boutique catalog you can see that Sid Meier's Civilization (the original) cost $45 when it was launched, and it was pretty typical for a new game.
That is $99 today adjusted for inflation.
The most expensive game in that catalog was a tie between Wing Commander II and F117A Stealth Fighter 2.0, both at $59.99. That's ~$132 in today's money.
What's even scarier, check out some of the list prices.... $79.95 for a game in 1991 dollars is $176 today. (though it is unclear if anyone actually paid list price or if they were just there to make it look like you were getting a good deal)
Either way, adjusted for inflation, the price per title is way way down since 1991.
Then again, games today have digital distribution which even with Steam's cut is WAY cheaper than the old model. There are no pressed CD's or floppies, no printed manuals or boxes, no trucking the stuff around the world, no warehousing costs, no retail markups, etc. etc.
That and the PC games market is WAAAY larger today than it was in 1991, and many titles are cross-platform, so the development costs get spread out over vastly larger numbers of buyers than in the past.
So many more buyers, and much much smaller per unit cost should be keeping prices in check, but at the same time development costs have been going theough the roof. Games were much simpler then. Less detailed models (in most cases just 2D sprites) little to no voice acting, simple music, and no celebrity voice overs.
A AAA game can have a bigger budget than a blockbuster movie these days, but still with the near zero unit cost, and huge number of buyers, the equation should still work out in favor of affordable pricing.
In the end, the costs have very little to do with pricing. The price of a product - after all - is what people are willing to pay for it, and time and time again we have been shown that gamers are impulsive "gotta have it" ADHD types with no discipline and no principles, and this allows the industry to take advantage of them.
They have - of course - found a way to have it both ways. They sell to the ADHD kiddies on launch at full price, and then sell to the more reasonable people during sales a few months or more later.
