There are a few problems with the inflation argument:
- the $50 to $60 increase was done suddenly. That's a 20% increase in one year, which feels too sudden to gamers.
- a big part of the cost of games in the 90s was the cartridges, optical media made those costs much cheaper.
- with online distribution becoming more popular, two things are happening: the value of games is decreasing (since there's no resale value) and publisher's profit margins on each copy increase since retailers don't get a cut.
In short, I believe it's perfectly possible to keep prices where they are, especially if the exponential increase in development costs stops (which should have already happened in this gen, but didn't for the HD consoles resulting in a troubled industry).
My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957
