Comparison of 1996 game and console prices to today.

[SvennoJ]

-CraZed- said:
Even without inflation gaming was just more expensive back in the 90s. Gaming has actually gotten cheaper. I bought games that were anywhere from $60 to $80 back then on a summer job income as a teenager. Or rented games.

And while the mainstream systems may have cost less when they launched there were other systems, Neo-Geo and CD-I for instance, that went for as much (or more) as the PS3 did.

Today's gamers have it made.

Depends how honest you were back then. There was hardly any drm, Amiga 500 and PC copy parties were a regular thing where I grew up. Bring a box of empty 3.5" disks and some games, go home with a ton of new games. C64 all you needed was a dual cassette deck. I did not start buying games until I was 18, been gaming since I was 6.

It has become cheaper, I do remember one store shamelessly asking 100 Euros for import Nintendo games.
The Amiga 500 started at $699 in 1991 btw, pc prices were in the $3000-$4000 range.