| Shadow1980 said: The games industry did used to be more flexible with pricing. New NES games usually ran from $35 to $50 (and older ones tended to be towards the cheaper end of that range than ones later in the generation). New SNES, Genesis, and N64 games ran from $50 to $70, while PS1 games ran from $40 to $60 (though most $60 PS1 games were early titles, and $50 was the normal upper tier price starting around 1997). But after the turn of the century pricing became far more standardized. Most new titles in the sixth generation ran for $50, and $60 has been the standard for most new titles for the last decade. There are some budget titles that go for $50, and $50 was also the standard for the Wii, but those are the exceptions to the rule.
Of course, those prices are not adjusted for inflation:
But should the industry go back to more flexible pricing for new AAA titles? It's hard to say, really. Without knowing the exact reasons for past flexibility, we may never know for sure. Factors with a large degree of subjectivity like how long the game takes to complete will likely never be part of the equation (and FWIW most games in the 8-bit & 16-bit eras were very, very short by today's standards despite costing considerably more on average at retail than today's games and costing only a tiny fraction of today's budgets tomake). Most AAA games are rather big-budgeted, but there is some flexibility in those budgets and thus budgets could be a metric. There's a lot of other factors at play. Advertising budgets, sales expectations. It's certainly something worth considering. In terms of relative proportion, the NES price range of $35-50 is about the same as the SNES/Genesis/N64 range of $50-70. Considering $60 is the average today, a $50-70 range could work. I also wouldn't mind lower-budget "double-A" games becoming a thing. In terms of budget they could fit between low-end AAA games and high-end indies, and they could cost $40 per copy. Of course, there's a big difference between "should" and "will," and the industry doesn't really have much incentive or practical reason to change the status quo. |
Sony tried experimenting last gen with $40 Sly Cooper, $30 Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, and $40 Puppeteer. They are also listing the new Ratchet and Clank as $40. So hopefully they get rewarded for this model as Sly and Puppeteer were unfortunately bombas despite being fantastic games.
I am Iron Man
