Neff
Member
Exactly. I can't even get mad. I'd spend the bulk of a week's wages on a SNES game back in the day, no regrets.
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Switch 2 costs: $59.99 in 2015 is $80.79 today
- Thread starter howitis3
- Start date
Exactly. I can't even get mad. I'd spend the bulk of a week's wages on a SNES game back in the day, no regrets.
TKOFromTokyo
Member
What's with all these cope posts? Like we've had nonstop posts just licking the boots of a billion dollar corporation and praising them for raising the price of there games lol.
I work in corporate finance for a large public company. I understand how economics work. I’ve seen the inflation impact first hand as well as the impact of the weak JPY and EUR the past several years.
delirium trigger
Member
You could also develop a game with just a few people at a fraction of the budget, which is basically what Nintendo still does. Nintendo is the worst offender with pricing,
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TKOFromTokyo
Member
The reverse! I'm saying that CD manufacturing was way cheaper than cartridge manufacturing. And this shows itself by the price of games on N64 vs PS1 at the time
Even back in the 90s, game prices stopped being over expensive the moment cheaper distribution options came along. But people keep bringing that decade up as a gotcha when it shouldn't be representative of modern game prices in any way.
jesus christ your parents are rich.
I agree with the CDs being significantly cheaper. What you said just didn’t read that way to me.
Housing has just gone up an insane amount. It’s not about being rich. My brother moved to Florida in 2017 and bought a house. He sold it and bought another house and made so much money that his house is worth way more than mine now because I’m in a less desirable state.
Sebastian1295
Gold Member
With all the money they're making from universal theme parks, merchandise sales, upcoming movies sales, software sales etc etc they're making an absolute killing. They were making a profit off of the switch 1 on launch and never reduced the price of it for crying out loud. They're just choosing to bleed consumers dry and take advantage of them and there nostalgia for games like mario, zelda, pokemon, etc.
64gigabyteram
Reverse groomer.
Do Nintendo Switch 2 games have SuperFX and SA-1 chips in them?
DryvBy
Member
That what these people always forget.
ReBurn
Gold Member
I paid that much for several 16-bit games, too. And a few early PS1 titles in the first year or so of its life. I paid $75 for Final Fantasy VII at KB Toys.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I mean, to be fair, a game like FF6 had a budget of between $1-5 million and was considered one of the largest AAA games released at the time. Whereas a modern AAA game can have a budget of over $100 mil.
kazuyamishima
Member
It's bullshit, the same terms of median salary, inflation and more weren't used when Sony raised the prices, but here we are.
I think $70 should have been fine, but freaking mario kart world is USD80 and the Donkey Kong Odyssey game is USD70.
Generic
Member
There won't be a price drop.
ZehDon
Gold Member
Man, propaganda has done a number on people.
Book incoming: publically traded companies are required to produce growth every financial year. Forever. That poses a problem in a tech based industry that has a finite number of customers as Moore's Law comes to an end. In the home console space, the absolute number of customer units purchased really isn't growing. In fact, there's a potential retraction, which I'll get to. So, the only thing Sony can do to grow is to is eat their competitors, like Xbox, which they've basically finished doing. The industry didn't grow, but Sony did, so good for them. But, now that's finished - Sony's won and they're literally top dog with no competitors and they're selling to absolutely everyone who wants to buy. But Sony has to produce growth. Forever. So, if you can't expand, you need to extract. And that's what Sony is doing: extracting as much money from its customers as they possibly can. The most expensive hardware they've ever released, ending console subsidies, raising software prices, raising service prices - they need to produce bottom line growth, even if it means selling less, which is what overpricing does. For example, when Sony hiked PS+ prices, they lost a million users. But, the extra revenue meant that they actually made more money, so that was a win.
Sony raised its prices with the PS5 gen despite posting record profits for several years in a row because it needs to make more money every year. Forever. If they're in the extraction phase, then I'd wager PS6 is going to be a new "most expensive console ever", and their PS6 games will be a new "most expensive games", and so on. Not because of supply and demand, not because of "necessity", but simply because Sony have no way to produce growth except charging more and delivering less.
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Hari Seldon
Member
1992 didn’t have tens of thousands of cheap games on steam plus AAA f2p games to compete with. It also didn’t have nearly as many gamers willing to buy games.
Itchy Tickles
Member
I remember seeing some N64 games cost around £70. I remember a good lot Xbox 360 games in the first year or so having games at £70. When I went all digital on my PlayStation due to internet speeds actually being good in my area, games cost for AAA were usually £60 on the PS4. We have been screwed over and charged way more than we get get in return, and no, it doesn't make it OK that's it still happening to us and these companies keep making millions in profits and bonuses.
Cost of living affects us. Inflation affects us and the businesses. Inflation affecting them means they are happy to raise prices to cover themselves, the prices are never lowered to help us. Don't defend companies for being typical businesses who only want to squeeze as much out of you as possible regardless of circumstances.
Cost of living affects us. Inflation affects us and the businesses. Inflation affecting them means they are happy to raise prices to cover themselves, the prices are never lowered to help us. Don't defend companies for being typical businesses who only want to squeeze as much out of you as possible regardless of circumstances.
Finally someone that understands all this. Game/consoles stayed priced low because of the influx of new consumers. We should thank the mainstream and “gamer girl” push that brought in new consumers over the years increasing profits without companies having to gouge.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Going from $60 to $80.79 is a 35% increase.
Looking at my ballpark annual 3% salary bump since 2015, my pay has matched at 35% using a compounded interest calculator. So it's actually in line.
So anyone whose pay has increased about 3%/yr matches.
Looking at my ballpark annual 3% salary bump since 2015, my pay has matched at 35% using a compounded interest calculator. So it's actually in line.
So anyone whose pay has increased about 3%/yr matches.
What’s the point of saying this? So weird. You think businesses price their products on what you make?
Doesn’t matter if you can afford it, never defend price increases.
Dirk Benedict
Gold Member
Switch 2 game prices will hurt it in the long run, imo. I can see myself getting the console, but perhaps even less games than current gen which is the lowest amount I have bought since I started working and paying for my own damned hobby.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
The point is anyone freaking out about the price increase actually goes in line with anyone making 3% wage increase per year for 10 years.
I totally defend price increases as long as it's not illegal or purposely screwing people over taking advantage. Its all about market conditions. Prices go up over time for almost everything (though some things dont seem to for decades like bananas). That's how wages go up. It's a cycle.
You expect people to still be paying $29.99 for a game like in 1982?
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darrylgorn
Member
I have to say, that direct just blew me away. It was like I was getting punched in the face with incredible content, with such volume, I've haven't experienced since the Xbox 360.
I'm fine with the system price, more than fine with it, actually. It's a great price considering the value that this console brings.
Unfortunately, the game prices are what is going to be the biggest challenge moving forward. As much content as there is here, most of the game concepts are iterative and not revolutionary in any way.
That's not a problem but you can't really charge this much and expect the demand to result in incredible sales, it's just not going to happen.
I'm fine with the system price, more than fine with it, actually. It's a great price considering the value that this console brings.
Unfortunately, the game prices are what is going to be the biggest challenge moving forward. As much content as there is here, most of the game concepts are iterative and not revolutionary in any way.
That's not a problem but you can't really charge this much and expect the demand to result in incredible sales, it's just not going to happen.
I don't even pay $70 for any game anymore. I prefer to wait on a sale or couple of month and buy it cheaper. That's is something you can't do with Nintendo. They never lower the prices in anything hardware or software. Breath of the Wild is still almost $60 in Amazon right now.
The PS5 Pro is an option you don't have to buy it. The ps5 base still exist. Also you don't have to pay $70 for a ps5 game at release. Nintento is greedy as fuck. I always have said Nintendo is the Apple in the gaming industry. With Nintendo you don't have an option with their hardware or software. You buy it at the price they say or you don't.
The PS5 Pro is an option you don't have to buy it. The ps5 base still exist. Also you don't have to pay $70 for a ps5 game at release. Nintento is greedy as fuck. I always have said Nintendo is the Apple in the gaming industry. With Nintendo you don't have an option with their hardware or software. You buy it at the price they say or you don't.
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UltimaKilo
Gold Member
Deflation would lead to a world depression. The problem is the overspending of governments and massive debt, which leads to currency printing and the manipulation of interest rates. It’s like adding more water to soup: it becomes diluted.
That being said, if the market stopped buying new games at these crazy prices, the publishers will have to find more creative ways to bring down the price (you may dislike that solution too).
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I dont think the $80 price for some games will matter at all. Gamers complained about $70 games. Didnt seem to affect sales. Gamers complained at mtx nickel and diming. Sales still there.
Switch Joycons were cheap plastic pieces of junk ($100 CDN). Just about every Switch owner I know has a bunch of them. Nintendo gamers seem to have no problem buying first party games at regular price even 5+ years later.
I think what could be a bigger problem is the hardware costs. Nintendo systems (console and handhelds) have always been dirt cheap. But at $450 US it's not only getting up there, but surprisingly right there toe to toe with PS5 and Xbox.
Switch Joycons were cheap plastic pieces of junk ($100 CDN). Just about every Switch owner I know has a bunch of them. Nintendo gamers seem to have no problem buying first party games at regular price even 5+ years later.
I think what could be a bigger problem is the hardware costs. Nintendo systems (console and handhelds) have always been dirt cheap. But at $450 US it's not only getting up there, but surprisingly right there toe to toe with PS5 and Xbox.
I’d love to hear your definition of “screwing people over” and who is/isn’t doing it.
Not that games were 29 in 1982 but if they were of course I’d want that. Do you not see the issue with forever price increases?
Did you “earn” that 3% increase? If so, are happy to admit that it’s worthless now as things have gone up in price?
If you didn’t earn it and it was given as a pitty “inflation pay rise” then what’s the point? So you could give it back to corporations for their EOF shareholder report?
You do see how prices increasing for the sake of increasing is detrimental, yes? So again, defending these increases is dumb.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
It's a cycle.
People want more money vs getting zero pay increase, then prices go up. Money doesn't grow on trees where people's wages go up annually and prices stay the same forever. That's life and business. McDonalds burgers used to 15 cents. Now it's probably $6.
Pay bumps with price increases are more beneficial as a whole because when wages and prices go up, at some point most people will start gaining/saving because not everything they buy goes up 35% nor do they purposely spend all their income on stuff that goes up in price leaving the with zero money.... unless they are broke or have a lousy job.
I'll give you an example of income vs prices vs carry costs. My salary has gone up 35% in 10 years. My mortgage zoomed up from 1.5% to at one point I think 6%. Now back down to 3.7%. Prices for stuff has gone up too.
So how is it I'm saving more money now than before Covid when inflation and prices start ramping up? Easy. Just by lucky timing I paid off my car in late 2000 or early 2001. And I never max out my income buying stuff. So any pay bump I get from the company is great and boosts my savings.
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ZehDon
Gold Member
You'll probably need to clarify the latter condition here because it's a little vague and would seem to call out Sony - and Nintendo's - current pricing models.
Sony were literally making record profits when they decided to up their software prices. Not revenue - profit. They were literally making more money than they'd ever had before - at least from PlayStation - when they increased their PS+ prices. PS5 sales were tracking ahead of PS4 sales when they increased the cost of the hardware.
As best as I can see, Sony increased its prices for no other reason than because they know what studies have also shown: their customers have money for them to take.
cman
Member
Read the Switch 2 price in japan is $330 alas it's Japanese Language only.
The ‘Domestic Only’ console will retail for a cheaper price (49,980 yen, or $334) and will only have Japanese as the console’s language setting, and the only Nintendo account that can be linked will be one created with the country/region setting set to Japan.
The ‘Domestic Only’ console will retail for a cheaper price (49,980 yen, or $334) and will only have Japanese as the console’s language setting, and the only Nintendo account that can be linked will be one created with the country/region setting set to Japan.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
For me, if a company wants to charge XXX price go ahead. Illegal stuff is obviously a no no.
As for legal price setting that is shady, I'd lump in stuff like copying competitors (gas stations all setting the same price in a neighbourhood to the decimal place), I remember reading vending machine companies wanted to adjust pricing daily to take into account if it's a hot day since it can be controlled digitally, or a store setting a much higher retail price than what the supplier recommends and then doing PR saying their price is going up because the manufacturer is jacking up the price. Ya, we increased the costs 8%, dont make it look like were the bad guy if you increase it 18%. Youre pocketing bonus bucks and blaming the supplier.
What some of you dont know is that if you see a jacked up price and fume at the supplier, guess what? That thing you bought that went from $10 to $13, we might had suggested $11 or $12 maintaining their profit margins. But they see dollar signs and jack it up an extra buck. I have almost never seen a store purposely sell the product at a lower price the sales guys recommend. Its either same price or higher.
So whenever you see store CEO Bob saying prices going up due to sketchy suppliers, never believe it. They juice up the prices even more. Price increases also happen because stores force down additional fees and rates against suppliers.... 1% here, 0.5% there, etc.... So add it up over time.
These kinds of examples are technically legal. And even though I'm all for capitalism, it gets to a point for me pricing gets pretty stupid.
How good pricing is also subjective anyway for any consumer. Whats a good or bad price? If something is sold in stores for $20, does that mean the guy who wants it only pay $15 or cheaper or another guy loves it and is willing to pay $25 or more, are they wrong?
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LRKD
Member
I hate how many idiots are defending $80-90, and I hate the bastards at the top trying to squeeze me for more money, when they are already squeezing online money, squeezing microtrashactions, and nowadays fuckign megatrashactions with $20+ skins and shit.
Games can and should be cheaper. they make up the money in PLENTY of other ways, AND it's not my fault they are retards who haven't cheapened the process in plenty of ways they easily could. Development is literally easier than ever, stream your pipelines, fire your bureaucratic busy bodies, fire your incompetent employees. and fucking drop the prices of the games.
Never going to happen, but on the flip side, I still haven't bought a single game for the new 'standard' $70, and if you think suddenly, I'll go even higher? you are mistaken, I can wait years for the games, I got plenty of other cheaper games to play in the meantime. But I know the retard normies have no will power, and my bitching is useless, they all have been buying $70 games. Maybe since it's Nintendo, people will push back for a while, after all people let the Wii U, and (at first) the 3DS fail. But you all already let me down with $70, so really, I won't be surprised to see little real push back again.
Games can and should be cheaper. they make up the money in PLENTY of other ways, AND it's not my fault they are retards who haven't cheapened the process in plenty of ways they easily could. Development is literally easier than ever, stream your pipelines, fire your bureaucratic busy bodies, fire your incompetent employees. and fucking drop the prices of the games.
Never going to happen, but on the flip side, I still haven't bought a single game for the new 'standard' $70, and if you think suddenly, I'll go even higher? you are mistaken, I can wait years for the games, I got plenty of other cheaper games to play in the meantime. But I know the retard normies have no will power, and my bitching is useless, they all have been buying $70 games. Maybe since it's Nintendo, people will push back for a while, after all people let the Wii U, and (at first) the 3DS fail. But you all already let me down with $70, so really, I won't be surprised to see little real push back again.
ZehDon
Gold Member
Ok, that's pretty clear.
I disagree, of course. If a company charges $X and is making more money than they ever made before, and then decides to charge $X+50% because fuck you, that's where I walk away and encourage everyone else to follow. Sony pushed me out because record profits simply weren't enough for them, and Nintendo are about to make games for children that cost AUD$110.00. Is price gouging legal? Sure - bar necessities - but that doesn't make it OK in my book.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
When it comes to pricing, the biggest obstacle you'll always get is simply whatever price is accepted by the market. And if the masses are open wallets, then the company jacks it up and you get lumped with the price increase. That's why games prices went to $70 US. Everyone bitch and moaned about it. And $70 was started off by some game companies and then spread. And gamers accepted. So now $70 is the standard. Just like gamers accepted games with tons of mtx, big patches, giant files taking up HDD/SSD space etc...
Gaming seems like such an amped up industry of "gotta play it", the general customer base always seems to give in. All companies need to do is give it some time and it'll even push through.
Just about every DVD/BR has an ethernet port so you can do updates or run a Netflix app. Let's say every DVD/BR maker back then INCREASED the price of hardware over time, required an internet connection, required patch updates, and nickel and dimed customers saying if you want some buttons or functions activated you got to connect and pay an additional $10 per feature. And on top of it, movies went up in price so any movies still getting a disc copy now have them priced at $50 or $60. And any bonus features you want unlocked costs $5 each. There is no way a typical movie watcher would stand for this shit.
BUT, a gamer will tolerate it.
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ProtoByte
Weeb Underling
It's normal because the past 30 years of economic policy around the developed world has been to print money and put it in the hands of people who don't know how to spend properly. Coof just accelerated everything.
The foundations of the housing crisis were laid when the Clinton admin forced banks to give out loans to people who would never be able to pay it back. When people say that "everyone was able to afford a house in 19XX" they fail to mention that those houses were not 2500 sq ft on the suburbs of major and highly saturated metro areas.
A terrible savings ratio and an aging population that is getting older than ever will do that. When retirement became an institution, we were on the population climb and people were not living to their mid-80s.
Get money and save up, and/or get money and have kids who will be willing and able to take care of you.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I dont know the details, so I'm taking a guess here but I get a feeling the avg US person is simply in stupid debt due to little control. And this goes beyond stuff like uninsured medical bills or college tuition or mortgages.
In general, I'm pretty sure the US compared to other western countries has low income and capital gains taxes, low good/sales tax, good wages, low prices, and you can even deduct mortgage interest which only a handful of countries in the world allow. So on paper, Americans have a leg up on some costing and wages. But there always seems like an image the avg US person is broke and in giant credit card debt buying too much shit.
Negotiator101
Member
Is the tech being used justifying the price tag?
BbMajor7th
Member
The other problem is that Nintendo prices never really drop. The Last of Us Part II (2020) on PS4 is £34.99 digitally (and has a free PS5 patch for 60fps). Breath of the Wild (2017) is still £59.99 and the 60 FPS patch'll cost ya.
cormack12
Gold Member
Unless it's measured in terms of a portion of people's available Income none of this matters. Even inflation adjusted, $80 is a bigger bite out of the same quantity of money due to rising costs, less disposable income etc. and then there is the value proposition. Xbox look to have a handheld coming, playstation will be building on the portal and there will be a plethora of PC based handhelds too.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
A fact of life for economies with fake, fiat money, you mean. Inflation, as is used since decoupling from gold, is a sanctioned method of stealing from you and that's it.
Trilobit
Absolutely Cozy
I also think that games were way overpriced during the NES and SNES era and it's not something we should hold up as some kind of standard to follow. There's also the economy of scale that should keep prices down due to gaming not being nearly as niche as it was back then.
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BacklashWave534
Member
Since we have a bunch of economists here do one for bloat in the industry from 2015 until now. Also explain how Larian was able to make a game of the year title with a small team. The bubble is about to burst for the games industry.
100% right about game price increases & wage increases in here. It's tough out there. Both Nintendo & customers have to do the best they can with what they have.
Nintendo at least as of the Wii U & Switch never dropped the prices nor on 1st parties. I certainly think they could do that because Sony/MS at least used to with hardware & still do with games.
I'm either gonna laugh or cry if this console is still $450 in 8 years.
Nintendo at least as of the Wii U & Switch never dropped the prices nor on 1st parties. I certainly think they could do that because Sony/MS at least used to with hardware & still do with games.
I'm either gonna laugh or cry if this console is still $450 in 8 years.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
What I find most interesting is how all of the physical buyers that would proudly proclaim how their Nintendo games retained value, screwed themselves into paying more money.
Nintendo heard you loud and clear. Don’t be fooled into thinking the digital copy is discounted. It’s your physical game that’s been marked up, because of that strong Nintendo resale value you gushed about. You’re now paying for that.
Nintendo heard you loud and clear. Don’t be fooled into thinking the digital copy is discounted. It’s your physical game that’s been marked up, because of that strong Nintendo resale value you gushed about. You’re now paying for that.
I think there will. Even Nintendo has to follow the market, and I don't think the market is going to buy in like they did Switch 1.
StereoVsn
Gold Member
It might be more. See OLED Switch and PS5 pricing. And in US throw Trump’s tariffs on top.
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