Game Pricing. Anyone Remember Phantasy Star 4?

Vyse

Vyse

Gold Member
Reading a lot about game prices and it got me thinking about Phantasy Star 4. When it came out for the Genesis back in the day, it cost $100 for the game in the US. That is around $200 by today's standards.

Not sure how much that hurt sales, but it was beyond my price range back in the day.

Any other games you recall with crazy prices?
 
I paid $80 for Street Fighter 2 on SNES the day it released. Same for Prince of Persia. Equivalent of about $180 today.
 
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I really, REALLY wanted Earthbound when it first released, but it was $90 and that was a bridge too far for me. I tried to justify it in my head by saying it included a free strategy guide.

gtv04zklzr9c1.jpeg


Good thing I held off, cause a few months later I picked it up in the clearance section for $20.
 
Yeah, I usually waited in most of the games back then. Phantasy Star IV, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy VI and more.

I waited a few months or a year before getting them, sometimes used. I did rent a decent amount.
 
Paid 99.99CDN+tx for FFVI at launch (3 at the time). Totally worth it. But now, I don't accept to pay more than 40CDN for games unless I really, really want to play it at launch, prices drop too fast nowadays.
 
Blast processing was the reason for the price hike.😂

Game cartridge were expensive, especially larger capacity carts like PSIV, believe it was 24 Mbit (3MB). Sega RPGs were always pretty expensive though…with PSIV being the highest-priced out of the bunch.

And you know what, it was worth every penny.
 
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ReBurn said:
I paid $80 for Street Fighter 2 on SNES the day it released. Same for Prince of Persia. Equivalent of about $180 today.
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jshackles said:
I really, REALLY wanted Earthbound when it first released, but it was $90 and that was a bridge too far for me. I tried to justify it in my head by saying it included a free strategy guide.

gtv04zklzr9c1.jpeg


Good thing I held off, cause a few months later I picked it up in the clearance section for $20.
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Mercador said:
Paid 99.99CDN+tx for FFVI at launch (3 at the time). Totally worth it. But now, I don't accept to pay more than 40CDN for games unless I really, really want to play it at launch, prices drop too fast nowadays.
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We paid for manufacturing cost to be made up, disc and cases are printed for literal pennies and have since the early 2000s outside of the first year of them becoming available
 
I was dirt poor then - so I sold my games on usenet. Even so - videogames were not as mainstream as now a days, so I never really felt overwhelmed by quantity and length of games - and so I didnt particularly think game price was too high. But in retrospect, yes. It was high.

I did love the heft feel of high capacity cartridges though - and it made it feel worth the price. Used to take them apart and marvel at the IC chips. :)
 
Ehh I think I made my dad pay like $200 to get the importef jap sf2 for my snes. I did soo much begging and justified the price by how he won't have to worry about spending money on the coin op anymore.

Imagine people who had neo geo back in the day thos carts were like $250 a pop.
 
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jshackles said:
I really, REALLY wanted Earthbound when it first released, but it was $90 and that was a bridge too far for me. I tried to justify it in my head by saying it included a free strategy guide.

gtv04zklzr9c1.jpeg


Good thing I held off, cause a few months later I picked it up in the clearance section for $20.
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are those price in US dollar?
 
It's amusing because Phantasy Star IV became one of those games that was always in that bargain bin at Kay Bee Toys.

I remember Sega tried to charge $100 for Virtua Racing on the Genesis. Never knew anyone who paid that though. Everyone in my sphere just rented it. =P
 
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I remember the original Phantasy Star for the Master System releasing at 80 bucks!

Double Dragon for the Master System was another game that was marked up from the usual $50 price point at its release, but not up to $80. Can't remember if it was 70 or 60 bucks.
 
PS2 and Sword of Vermillion were $120 CDN each. PS4 was $95.

N64 games were around $90-100 each.

PS1 games I think were $60. A good price all considering.
 
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FF6 was the most expensive SNES game that I know of, paid $69.99. Most expensive game I bought was Dragon Ball Z import from japanvideogames for SNES. I think my parents paid like $128 C.O.D(cash on delivery).
 
Fun fact. When Super Mario 3 came out for NES, some Canadian independent game shops bought them in the US and brought them over. That was when Canada could get games after the US.

I dont know how much SM3 was in the US ($50 US?), but the shops here were hawking them for $150 CDN.

For you Toronto gaffers. That was good 'ol overpriced Microplay stores.
 
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I only remember the main male character hair is so bad for me, and ended never play it. I heard good things for the story, didnt much appealing me though.
 
I remember having my mind absolutely split in two after you fight Zio and the larger scenario was revealed. An absolute classic.

And I beat it on the SEGA Channel!
 
I paid $99.99 for it. I recall story that Barnie was the one who hate jrpg and made it that expensive... ios that true, I personally think it got much better story then Final Fantasy VI. The next i paid so much for a game was Chrono Trigger.
 
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danklord said:
I remember having my mind absolutely split in two after you fight Zio and the larger scenario was revealed. An absolute classic.

And I beat it on the SEGA Channel!
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We got to fight not 1, not 2 but 3 Dark Force, then fragging Lassic. AND we got a female lead who die before FFVII. Let face it, PSIV was beyond its time.
 
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Street fighter 2 for the SNES was 250 guilders back in the day. Which translates to roughly 120 euros.
Normal games were anywhere from 125 to 150 guilders.

It was INSANE!
 
$90 or so, Worth every fucking penny.. Cartridges felt like they were built to last, games were usually complete and worked. Save ram and large size, beautiful game. Times were different then.
Manual too. Omg.

Sega with the cardboard box though, dam you Sega. Clam shell would have been perfection.
 
Vyse said:
Reading a lot about game prices and it got me thinking about Phantasy Star 4. When it came out for the Genesis back in the day, it cost $100 for the game in the US. That is around $200 by today's standards.

Not sure how much that hurt sales, but it was beyond my price range back in the day.

Any other games you recall with crazy prices?
Click to expand...
A high-quality game that was complete and tested. With no DLC or microtransaction bullshit tacked on.

Worth the money, if you ask me.
 
Yes, I remember.

What most people conveniently forget is that supply was magnitudes more limited than today when you can, you know, just download the game data in literally infinite quantities. Data which, I may add, is not stored anymore on expensive ROM cartridges that publishers have to buy in advance from the only company that makes them and that may have interests in keeping supply limited for certain games. Chip/memory shortages also happened.

There's a very precise reason why game prices went down significantly when entirely CD-based systems hit the market, and why games not stored on cartridges were already less expensive when your Genesis/SNES JRPGs cost you all the gift money you'd get all year and some.
 
I bought Phantasy Star IV on release, as I recall I paid $80 for it, equivalent of $160 today with inflation. Worth every penny.

I think Chrono Trigger was $70 when I bought it new. Crazy that Earthbound was $90 some places, I had forgotten that. I guess it came in a giant Box with a huge game guide and scratch and sniff stickers so that feels like a modern day collectors edition almost.

I remember Neo Geo games being $200 - $300, I grew up in a pretty affluent circle and knew no one who was spending that much. Also never knew anyone who owned a 3DO or a CD-I. One of the richest kids I knew had a SNES at launch with Pilot Wings, Mario, and SimCity and I thought he was ballin.
 
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Vyse said:
Reading a lot about game prices and it got me thinking about Phantasy Star 4. When it came out for the Genesis back in the day, it cost $100 for the game in the US. That is around $200 by today's standards.

Not sure how much that hurt sales, but it was beyond my price range back in the day.

Any other games you recall with crazy prices?
Click to expand...

Beyond Oasis was also $100 when it released
 
Vyse said:
Reading a lot about game prices and it got me thinking about Phantasy Star 4. When it came out for the Genesis back in the day, it cost $100 for the game in the US. That is around $200 by today's standards.

Not sure how much that hurt sales, but it was beyond my price range back in the day.

Any other games you recall with crazy prices?
Click to expand...

Virtua Racing was also $100 due to a special FX chip in the cartridge. It was impressive as hell for a Genesis game, and looked great on Nomad.

Back then there were some pricey games due to higher memory being used on the cartridges. Games initially started off at 4-meg, but Strider ushered in 8-meg at $75. By the end of the generation we were looking at 16 Meg games (can't recall if we hit 32 megs). But high Megs was a selling point with SNK using it to market their $200 Neo Geo games.
 
I remember when you went looking for a game and the reseller told you he didn't have it but a friend of his in another store had it. By the time you arrived at the other store, the goddam first reseller had called his friend to tell him you were coming and to up the price for the game you wanted...
I remember how imports game would cost sometimes 10 times their real value when only one store had a specific one.

Before it was the reseller's greed and his capacity to sell a game that dictated the price, now it's the publisher's greed. Both are cunts, but the publisher has the added cuntness that every cunt working there can hide behind the corpo facade, at least everyone knew which reseller were doing what...
 
Kokoloko85 said:
We barely bought games as kids. It was all about the rentals and handovers lol. Plus swops with friends
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I remember renting Dragon Quest for the NES (think it might have been Dragon Warrior before they had to change the name) from a small independent game store. Thought I could try and beat it over the weekend. Dude kept calling me for the game back. Ended up finishing it. Thus my love of turn based RPGs was born.
 
Bought Phantasy Star IV used, still one of the greatest RPGs ever.

I remember having my parents buy me La Légende de Thor at launch, full price. It was very expensive, but it remains one of the best games on MegaDrive to this day and I loved every second. Replayed both games to completion recently on the NSO with the MegaDrive controller from Nintendo.
 
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From nes through ps2, I lived in an area that didn't have many options for purchasing games. The store we went to only got the more major titles and when they were gone, they were gone.
 
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Living in Argentina I'm used at paying extra. MK2 on launch week for SNES was 140 bucks, Chrono Trigger was 105 maybe a month after release, Final Fantasy VI was 95 like 6 months after release and Secret of Evermore was 90, probably within 6 months of release too. I remember reading the PS4 reviews and looking at the graphics and wanting to play it but could only afford one console and one new game per year so had to endure it with CT and FF6.

Illusion of Gaia / Illusion of Time was dang expensive, I remember reading that in Spain everyone was hyped because it was one of the few RPGs at the time coming in Spanish for SNES (later Secret of Evermore would be translated too).
 
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I grew up poor, and back in the cartridge days I got almost all my games second hand from flea markets for under $10 so I was genuinely unaware of how much games cost in a store. I remember the original Phantasy Star (which was $80 in the store) being $15 and that being the most expensive game I had ever seen, and having to get an advance on my allowance just to get it.

Because I got games on the cheap, I always had more games than any of my friends. I was really unaware of retail costs until I was a teenager.
 
Im pretty sure the Genesis version of Batman was crazy overpriced back in the day, like $100 or close to it.

Toejam & Earl was ALWAYS $60 at my Toys R Us.
 
I remember my granny got me Mega Man 5 for NES. I picked it out of a JCP catalogue, it was $90 (USD).

Before PS1 came out, lots of games were very high.
 
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Those of us that grew up in that time are all aware of the prices. But that's because of the extra chips and memory that was put into the cartridge.

That's why when the CD format came to fruition games would plateau at $49.99.
We all knew that was gonna happen cause Ed at EGM told us so lol

I paid $69.99 for Street Fighter 2 on the snes in 1992 while working at McDonald's getting paid $3.15 an hour as a 15 year old.
I paid $79.99 for FF3(6) in 1994 for the snes..
 
jshackles said:
I really, REALLY wanted Earthbound when it first released, but it was $90 and that was a bridge too far for me. I tried to justify it in my head by saying it included a free strategy guide.

gtv04zklzr9c1.jpeg


Good thing I held off, cause a few months later I picked it up in the clearance section for $20.
Click to expand...
Bro... I paid 25 bucks for the big box Earthbound with the guide. Game looked shit to me, till someone let me borrow it. By the time that happened the game was in the bargain bin with a bunch of the same. Shit, imagine having the foresight to buy all of them, for some crazy reason, horde and keep in dark, cool, dry place, till now and...
:https://www.ebay.com/b/EarthBound-Nintendo-SNES-Video-Games/139973/bn_7349389
 
My most expensive game was Mortal Kombat Trilogy N64. It was $70 USD. I took it home, played for 20 minutes and realized it was terrible. I took it back to Best Buy. They didn't want to refund me, but I eventually convinced them to give store credit.

Kokoloko85 said:
We barely bought games as kids. It was all about the rentals and handovers lol. Plus swops with friends
Click to expand...

I had an NES case when I was a kid. It held ten games. By 1995, I hadn't even filled that case.

Everything was rented or borrowed back then.
 
Phantasy Star IV must be on like 20 platforms as part of Sega collections, so I don't see the point in buying an old cartridge - even as a collector.
 
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cash_longfellow said:
Final Fantasy 3 pre order on snes was $79.99 for me in the states.
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This makes no sense. I bought mine on release day for $65 from Babbage's in Ohio. There were no SNES games that cost more than this.

I distinctly remember this, because I traded it back in for a measly $35 store credit a few weeks later. (I didn't like the game)
 
Shake Your Rump said:
This makes no sense. I bought mine on release day for $65 from Babbage's in Ohio. There were no SNES games that cost more than this.

I distinctly remember this, because I traded it back in for a measly $35 store credit a few weeks later. (I didn't like the game)
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I think it might have been the extra money just for a pre order hold. It was definitely $79.99 at that point though, but it's possible the $20 came back at pick up. Think it was Electronics Boutique.
 
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