Video Game Price History
I remember the first batch of SNES games (1991) costing between $75 to $80. According to the CPI Inflation Calculator that would be the equivalent of $119 to $127 today.
Quote:Original post by MastadonQuote:Original post by Halifax2Quote:Original post by MastadonQuote:Original post by Halifax2
Really...Game Boy Games were $30? I didn't know that, since I didn't have the funds to get a game boy at the time. All I know is that PS1 games cost around $15-25, and Dreamcast games cost about $15-$30. Those were the days, honestly.
Typical PS1 and Dreamcast games were never that cheap brand new. They were priced at $49.99, with the occasional, less popular, games at $39.99. NES games were around $30-$40 new and SNES games were around $50 or more. I remember when I saw Chrono Trigger at Target or Best Buy, and it was $80! N64 games were also typically in the $60-$80 range as well, depending on the game.
The only things cheaper back in the day were the systems and their accessories. Some people bitch about the price of games today when they really shouldn't. They're cheap compared to the past. Adjusted for inflation, games were much more expensive 10 to 20 years ago than they are today. Can you imagine spending the equivalent of $80+ on an NES game?
Edit - Adjusted my NES/SNES numbers a bit.
Well I bought the games from Wal-Mart, and I specifically remember paying those amounts. That's why I thought PS2 games were so expensive when they came out. I even have some PS1 games lying around with the price tags still on them.
Maybe they were in the $40 range, although I do remember some costing $50. Were you buying these games when they first came out? 10+ years ago is a long time ago, so it's possible I'm wrong. :)
Ah yes, that's probably why. No, I didn't buy them when they came out. I was always the person to wait 2-4 weeks for the price to drop or something.
I remember the original Tomb Raider on the Playstation.
It was my first console and I had no idea about the price of games, so I duly went round a few shops as a 9 year old boy with my £5 pocket money, dismayed to find brand new copies of Tomb Raider were retailing at no less than £40 (IIRC).
FAIL. How naive I was back then.
It was my first console and I had no idea about the price of games, so I duly went round a few shops as a 9 year old boy with my £5 pocket money, dismayed to find brand new copies of Tomb Raider were retailing at no less than £40 (IIRC).
FAIL. How naive I was back then.
Quote:Original post by Halifax2
Really...Game Boy Games were $30? I didn't know that, since I didn't have the funds to get a game boy at the time. All I know is that PS1 games cost around $15-25, and Dreamcast games cost about $15-$30. Those were the days, honestly.
I'm pretty sure the "Greatest Hits" series were that cheap. And by the end of the PS1 there were a *lot* so maybe thats why that number sticks in your head. But first runs of good games weren't that cheap. I remember paying $50+ for FF7 the first week it came out.
Quote:Original post by necromancer_df
Spectrum games, £2.99.
ha yeah, or buying a bin liner full of games for like 20 quid out of the paper
Quote:Original post by Halifax2
Really...Game Boy Games were $30? I didn't know that, since I didn't have the funds to get a game boy at the time. All I know is that PS1 games cost around $15-25, and Dreamcast games cost about $15-$30. Those were the days, honestly.
really? I don't ever remember video games being that cheap.
I think I remember NES games being in the 30+ dollar area.
I remember, and will prolly never forget this for some reason, I bought Phantasy Star 4 for the Sega Genesis for something crazy like 104$$ in a store. I think it was at a 'the Whiz' (the one store that was around that really carried much video games. EB was around in those days I think but there was like only one of them in some far off mall... now they are on every corner... holy shit I feel old...)
Back in those days, RPG games cost so much more to make then other games (even the cartridge was more expensive to manufacture), so sometimes they would have to mark up the prices huge$$ by the time the game was released to make their money back.
I think I remember paying a lot for Shining Force 2 as well. All the RPG games were more money back in those days...
I remember my cousin paying $100 for Super Mario 3 when it first came out. I seem to recall the average NES game would sell for $60 to $70 at the time. I think I paid about $60 for RPGs like Wasteland and Bard's Tale 3 for the C64 when they hit the shelves. More recently I just paid $60 for Fable 2.
Once in awhile I've gone into retro game stores and it seems that any of the games that are worth purchasing tend to be priced at least at what you'd have seen them when they were new. I think it's generally to do with their rarity.
It makes sense that cartridges would be more expensive to produce than disks because they have more components that require more complicated assembly. What's there to making a disk... magnetize a piece of plastic? make a lazer zap a piece of metal in a circle?
Once in awhile I've gone into retro game stores and it seems that any of the games that are worth purchasing tend to be priced at least at what you'd have seen them when they were new. I think it's generally to do with their rarity.
It makes sense that cartridges would be more expensive to produce than disks because they have more components that require more complicated assembly. What's there to making a disk... magnetize a piece of plastic? make a lazer zap a piece of metal in a circle?
I remember buying Atari 2600 games for 9.99 and 19.99 around 1987, when I was around 7 years old.
Most older games are cartridge based, making them far more expensive to distribute than today's games, which are just burned onto a CD or DVD for a few cents. Just about all decent Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games were $50 or more.
The most expensive game I've ever owned was one I pick-pocketed from a department store when I was about 10 years old. It was Phantasy Star IV for the Sega Genesis. I got it for free, but it cost everyone else about $80.
Most older games are cartridge based, making them far more expensive to distribute than today's games, which are just burned onto a CD or DVD for a few cents. Just about all decent Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games were $50 or more.
The most expensive game I've ever owned was one I pick-pocketed from a department store when I was about 10 years old. It was Phantasy Star IV for the Sega Genesis. I got it for free, but it cost everyone else about $80.
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Quote:Original post by Kest
I remember buying Atari 2600 games for 9.99 and 19.99 around 1987, when I was around 7 years old.
I’m surprised that they were that much. I thought that after the Video Game crash in 1983 the Atari game prices plummeted. I remember in 1986 or 1987 when I was about 3 years old my parents got me and my brother a huge box full of Atari games. I can’t imagine that they would have even paid $5 for each game in the box.
Btw, I remember hearing that Atari had huge loses from Pac-Man. They made 12 million cartridges and sold 7 million. This makes me really curious as to how much it cost to make and what the mark up was. My initial expectation would be that they would have at least come up even. But maybe they only sold a small bit of that for a profit and then lowered the price and sold the rest at a huge loss.
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