Donkey Kong Bananza being $70 even though its a big game made by the 3D Mario team shows that only the few very top Nintendo franchises could get $80 games, everything else will be $70 (The industry standard price since the PS4 generation).

We will see and again, my point was about being priced out of gaming. The $80 is just an example of that. The main point is about how many people like me there will be even as the companies make record profits. And will the extra money benefit the workers as well? We know Nintendo employees are treated well but those are an elite few. Nintendo employs a lot of contractors that are treated shitty. I gave the example of wwe because poorer wrestling fans are being priced out of live events too. 

Not since the ps4. It started more towards the start of the ps5 gen. And again, the point is about being priced out of gaming. 

You aren't priced out of gaming when you know months in advance that there's going to be an $80 game you want; of which there will be very few to begin with. Putting aside a few dollars more than you used to cannot possibly be a problem.

Your comparison with WWE cannot be serious. Fans of that have to pay $100 or more for a one day event whereas gamers still pay less for something they can enjoy over and over again. You could also cite football where ticket prices in Europe have kept increasing over the years, but again, the situation is so far removed from how video games work. Are fans of sports and pseudo-sports priced out of their fandom? Yes, absolutely. That's real. But video games? You must be kidding.

A select few games (only one so far) being $80 (and only physically, even MK World is still $70 digitally, or $50 with the bundle) isn't that big of a deal, it's only $10 more than games have been for years now which isn't a lot.

It seems like only the gigaton titles like Mario Kart or the next mainline Zelda will be $80, and we typically only get like one game on that level per year or less, an extra $10 over a year is nothing.

In the 90s, an SNES game could cost you the equivalent of over $100 USD in today's money, and you could beat most of them in a couple of hours. Games back then were also far, far cheaper to make.

It's something of a miracle that games stayed roughly $60 for decades while both inflation and rising development costs continued to mount; it was inevitable that prices would increase eventually, and if it wasn't Nintendo someone else would have pulled the trigger anyway.

Speaking as someone who spent around $4000 for WrestleMania weekend this year (SmackDown, NXT, conventions, a shit ton of merch, and both nights of WrestleMania) in VEGAS of all places, this is not even remotely close to the same thing. 

I'm still hurting from the money I spent on that one weekend, and now they're going back next year?!? I already know I'm not going to be able to afford that!

Meanwhile, paying an extra $10 for a new 3D Donkey Kong, Splatoon, Fire Emblem, or Xenoblade, and an extra $20 for Mario Kart, 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, and Smash Bros? C'mon now.

At the end of the day, it's not I personally wouldn't understand the struggle faced by a good subset of people who do buy into the ecosystem. It's definitely a bit pricier now than it used to be. But seriously, the hobby should not take financial priority first over one's lifehood. 

Anyway, I'm glad that I can afford about whatever I want in gaming without breaking the bank because of my sound financial decisions, despite the increase really. 

Otherwise, yeah ... Entitlement and first gamer world problems related to pricing is truly a gamer moment, heh ?

Im glad you could do that. I can't afford to buy a Nintendo switch 2 or its games.

I am priced out of gaming when I could afford to buy the once generational console before and now I can't. Games back in snes days went on discount earlier as well. So did consoles. Now consoles might increase in price over a generation instead of decrease, like the ps5. And currency is a matter of factor as well. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft nor others price their games according to the local currency unlike steam. $10 is huge in India for example. I get you all like to defend your favourite video game company and get all defensive, but I am not some rival video game fan or whatever in the team sports thing.

I have bought all the Nintendo consoles for generations. I can't buy switch 2. This is the reality of the situation.  You can do with it what you wish but you can't tell me something isn't there when it is there and its happening to me. 

People really are ruthless when you try to explain something that is not in their purview. Like this is team sports behaviour many people make fun of "Sony ponies" for. Im glad people have money here but I was talking about poorer fans, not people who don't even feel the difference and can afford it easily.