There's many factors affecting the cost of gaming- but how do you think this will change into the 8th generation?

- Development costs

- Price of games

- DLC

- Price of hardware

- Price of controllers

I'm expecting development costs to rise for at least the first couple of years of the generation, which could lead to more expensive games - although I think that prices of games will remain pretty similar to what they are now to prevent them being prohibitively expensive. The price of hardware I don't imagine will be more than what the 7th gen was - the PS4 definitely won't be $599; probably safe to expect $300-$450 consoles in the 8th generation, I reckon. DLC will be even more widespread than it was last generation, since the WiiU will also be in a position to distribute digital goods- I don't expect the average price of DLC to increase however. The WiiU controllers could definitely prove expensive, but it depends on what technology they end up using, so we'll have to wait until E3 for that one

What do you all think? 

nope

For the most part games have gone up $10 for the last couple of gens, right? I remember $40 PS1 games, $50 PS2 games, and now $60 PS3 games. I know Wii does $50 and N64 was $50 too or something. Anyway, now with DLC and digital distribution methods games might stay at $60. They might even be more accurately priced, like Vita games run a gambit of pricing schemes. Some games today launched at lower price points, like Catherine. I hope we see that next gen.

Console prices will be around the same if not cheaper as for inflation. I see $300 to $500 consoles next gen. BTW because I see some much misinformation out there, PS3 launched at $499 20gb and $599 60gb. Really people should be saying $499. Hopefully $499 is the ceiling for next gen's high end model price point or they should just get rid of large internal hard drives and just put in a small SSD and let us buy external, even their marketed brand external.

Wii U is under scrutiny for their controller obviously but there is no way it will be over $100. Controllers won't be that great of a source of revenue for them as controllers are normally. As for the other companies, we have no idea what they are planing on doing. (lol, Sony could even have Vita's as their next controller, but even if production costs went down and it had a redesign as well as double battery life it'd still be expensive. That and it would be a strain having accounts across devices. Maybe a stripped down version that's non-portable and designed more like a daulshock, but that would be the same boat Nintendo is in. Probably just a new daulshock model)

Development costs will go up for big games, but online distribution has made plenty of lower cost amazing games so we will see variety.

I buy less games now than I used to, and rarely purchase DLC, so if anything gaming's become a lot cheaper.

Also, iphone/tablet gaming is super cheap unless you go crazy with your spending.

I think that if they want to keep gaming a household thing then, no. If they want to keep gaming for the masses then, no. If they want to limit gaming then, yes. Simple as that. Which would you think Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft will choose next gen? The one that makes them popular and accessible, so, again, no.

I thought I remember hearing that each Wii U unit will only support one tablet controller. All local multiplayer games will use 1 tablet and the rest will be with Wiimotes. I don't know how much truth is in this, has Nintendo confirmed support for multiple controllers for one console? Because it seems like those controllers will be too expensive. Can you imagine having to pay upwards of £50 for each of those things, it would be insane.

No, I expect it to be cheaper for me since I'll likely be mostly PC gaming.

I think most games will remain at the $60 standard, but I wonder about Nintendo's 1st party games. They've been $50 since the Gamecube but back in the N64 days they were $60 (Goldeneye launched at $70), so they may take this opportunity to hit $60 once again.

There have been games here and there in the past that have been very expensive: Back in the 8-bit era, Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System retailed for $70 ($80 at some retailers), and its Genesis sequel was $70 as well. And don't even get me started on Neo Geo game prices, which were around $200 each...

Yes I do. It seems pretty inevitable.

It's always been expensive, but it's pretty inexpensive if you simply wait for price drops.