inflation

Even with inflation, games today are cheaper if not the same as games from previous gens.

3DO system was like $600.00 and how about Neo-Geo? Saturn weren't exactly cheap and make even more "costly" by Sega turning into a doorstop so fast.

If you are going to complain about DLC, they are no different than expansion pack from yesteryears. I don't know how old you are but I remember buying expansion for Test Drive for $10- $15.00 and that is back in like 1990's and all you get was basically 4 or 5 new cars. What different between that and current DLC scheme? I am gladly pay $5-$10.00 to extend my games enjoyment.

As someone said above, don't buy what you can not afford. If you are on a budget then game on PC where things are cheaper and price drop more rapidly than console games. Even on console games if you don't need to have it 1st day then you can always find bargain. I was just in used game section last night at my local store and I see last year games like Bioshock for $45.00 , and many other good games of all type for between $30-40.00 some even as low as $15-20.00.

I don't see anything unreasonable about current game pricing. Would I love to have cheaper games? sure anyone would but I don't think the current asking price is too high.

well Sony does offer their Greatest Hits collections (in Japan at least right now), and M$ has it's platinum hits.

Game costs are getting slightly out of hand, yes.

It used to be that I'd go into a game store, look around, and buy a game or two. Now it's at the point where, most times, I'll have to read reviews or hear what people have said about the game, and then decide if its' worth it. Not the same thing at all.

 Lol, thats exactly how I feel, unfortunantly...............

Back in the day all N64 games were over $100 brand new, this was at all stores, NES games were $50 back in the day. Games only cost $60 now. But you can find most games on sale at stores. During the entire PS2 era i only payed full price for about 7 games, out of over 60 games that i owned. I know people who own a 360 with over 20 games and only payed full price for about 5 of them, the other ones were all bought for under $30, some as low as $15.

I think its more expensive but over time-when developing for the system gets much simpler, the time to develop it becomes less costly, which is why nintendo decided to extend the technology to the wii and keep the price for games at 50 bucks. but dev are still a bunch of lazy asses porting PS2 software. I give credit to developers like EA for making MOH: H2 from the ground up for wii. Im suprised MS hasnt added BioShock to the platnimum hits after selling a mil.

of course console games are more expensive because the retailers want a cut of it

This is why I've subscribed to Gamefly for console games. Two and a half to three weeks with Call of Duty 4 was enough to enjoy it and get it out of my system (though I'd still rather have the PC version.. being a FPS and all).

While I'm excited for many games that are coming out, there is no way I'm going to throw down money for each one. Renting them will suit me just fine while I buy the ones that I'm the most excited for (MGS4, FFXIII, most likely any Valve game to name a few).

This is the eternal question... can you make more selling widgets for $5 over cost or $20 over cost? It depends on where the demand and cost curves meet, and it can be very difficult to predict.

I personally prefer the idea of lower margins and reliance on volume, but the big 3 aren't asking me.