Nintendo cartridges for the NES cost 29.99 in 1987, $30 in 1987 adjusted for inflation is $84.45 today.
People need to quit comparing game prices from the 80s/90s to today.
Games back then were on cartridges that were expensive to produce. Gaming was also a far smaller market than it is today and the only money publishers would generate is games sold at retail, with the retailers taking a cut of course.
Nowadays the market is far larger. Physical games are cheaper to manufacturer. Publishers sell games digitally, further reducing costs. Plus there are other revenue streams like DLC, MTX, Season passes etc.
£80 per game is a lot of money for most people in 2025.
Wages have not just kept up with inflation but outpaced them. For all the complaining about "muh record breaking profits", there are record breaking wages to go with it which is pumping more money into the system.
Not really true.
Looking at my own country in the UK.
In some sectors and regions, yes—especially in tech, finance, and parts of healthcare, wages have outpaced inflation. But for the median worker, particularly in the UK and much of Europe, real wage growth has been sluggish and often barely keeping pace with inflation since COVID, or in some cases even falling behind.
Low and middle-income workers have been hit hardest by cost of living increases. In the UK and the rest of Europe, we're living in a cost of living crisis. I earn far more money now than I did pre-Covid, but I feel pooer. Everything has shot up at a record pace. Energy bills, water bills, cost of food etc has been rising at a record pace since Covid and most people are struggling to get by.
I mentioned this in another thread, but it has gotten so bad in the UK that we have radio stations asking people to donate money so families can feed their children. In the UK. One of the richest nations in the world, and we have children starving. This isn't normal in a first world nation.
When the cost of living has skyrocketed since COVID, spending £80 on a single video game feels like a luxury most people simply can't justify.