Hold on, the most expensive games right now are around $70? Far be it from me defend game studios, but I distinctly remember spending like $50-$60 on N64 carts like Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time back in the late 90s. That’s almost like, price deflation since then.
Gaming used to be much more of a niche product than it is now. Bigger market means more potential sales and economies of scale. Also products based on new tech tend to get cheaper over time - compare the price of the first cell phone to a top of the line flagship phone today, etc.
Game development technology has also come a long way since then. 3D modeling and animation and game design and stuff are all probably a lot easier to do with all the fancy desktop software now available (and super fast computers).
Also it's entertainment and there's an incredible amount of competition for entertainment stuff. Games aren't food or housing.
They're easier, but the standards are a lot higher, and the number of people working on modern AAA games is staggering. All the roles in a very high-production game from the 2000s (the kind that would split modeling, texturing, animating, or gameplay programming, graphics programming, menu programming) are now whole large teams.
Well they can't simply raise prices by the inflation since people wouldn't buy games if they were too expensive. Also most big budget games make a lot of money from other sources besides the box price.
Hold on, the most expensive games right now are around $70? Far be it from me defend game studios, but I distinctly remember spending like $50-$60 on N64 carts like Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time back in the late 90s. That’s almost like, price deflation since then.
Gaming used to be much more of a niche product than it is now. Bigger market means more potential sales and economies of scale. Also products based on new tech tend to get cheaper over time - compare the price of the first cell phone to a top of the line flagship phone today, etc.
Game development technology has also come a long way since then. 3D modeling and animation and game design and stuff are all probably a lot easier to do with all the fancy desktop software now available (and super fast computers).
Also it's entertainment and there's an incredible amount of competition for entertainment stuff. Games aren't food or housing.
They're easier, but the standards are a lot higher, and the number of people working on modern AAA games is staggering. All the roles in a very high-production game from the 2000s (the kind that would split modeling, texturing, animating, or gameplay programming, graphics programming, menu programming) are now whole large teams.
The market grew and people aren't willing to spend more.
Well they can't simply raise prices by the inflation since people wouldn't buy games if they were too expensive. Also most big budget games make a lot of money from other sources besides the box price.