$70 games ‘will go the way of the dodo’, believes Saber CEO. The former interim Embracer COO believes developers will move to reduce risk and costs (www.videogameschronicle.com)

submitted 4 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works

43 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 55 points 4 months ago

I would never pay that much for a game. I just wait a couple of years and buy them when they go on sale for under $20. I'm not going to pay a premium just to be a beta tester.

[-] tal@lemmy.today 16 points 4 months ago

For context, here's what prices ran for NES games:

https://www.33rdsquare.com/how-much-did-the-nintendo-entertainment-system-cost-in-1986/

Here were some of the most popular titles and their prices in the mid-1980s:

Super Mario Bros – $40-50

The Legend of Zelda – $45 when new

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – $42 initial price

Metroid – $35 at launch

Kirby‘s Adventure – $39.99 original MSRP

I'm going to adjust for inflation to 2024:

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

Super Mario Bros - $115.36-$144.20
The Legend of Zelda - $129.78
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - $121.13
Metroid - $100.94
Kirby's Adventure - $115.33

[-] usrtrv@lemmy.ml 29 points 4 months ago

Comparing prices directly like this is almost irrelevant imo. And doesn't really dictate what the price of games should be.

Reasons old games should be pricier:

Hardware involved (cartridges/electronics).
Total number of customers were smaller, you have to subsidize development with less total sales.

Reasons why new games should be pricier:

Development has inflated to hundreds of people and multiple years (instead of dozens of people and multiple months)

But at the end of the day, business just price what the market will bear. It's only indirectly related to the cost of production. The margins on some games are insanely high compared to others.

[-] mister_newbie@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 months ago

Don't forget distribution. It costs money to make a nice cartridge. It costs money to stamp a CD and put it in a pretty box. And that cost applies for every. single. copy.

Now compare that to digital distribution...

load more comments (9 replies)

this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024

83 points (97.7% liked)

Games

16175 readers

613 users here now

Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)

Posts.

News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
No humor/memes etc..
No affiliate links
No advertising.
No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
No self promotion.
No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
No politics.

Comments.

No personal attacks.
Obey instance rules.
No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc..)
Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.

My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.

Other communities:

Beehaw.org gaming

Lemmy.ml gaming

lemmy.ca pcgaming

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works