Hmm... most games, no. There are a few that I think are worth $50, and ironically, many of them were released at less than $50! (I'm looking at P3FES for $30 and P4 for $40. And there's a slew of handhelds also.) But if you're going to tell me that a $50 game will last me 8 hours, I'm going to wait for a price drop. I have made mistakes on this in the past, though, thinking a game is worth it, only to find out that it was severely disappointing and/or short.
To counter a few of the things brought up in this thread. First, yes, I remember when games were more than $50. Heck, on the SNES, FF3 (now 6) was $80 new. I picked up a used copy for $50, and it was definitely worth it. But even then, most of the games weren't worth the $50-60 that they were. And the problem was exasporated on the N64. (I maintain that Quest 64 was the worst $70 I spent on a game.)
And then we have entertainment dollars and value. Yes, I would rather have 10 great hours over 20 mediocre hours. But there is a limit still to what I will pay for those hours. People have mentioned movie tickets, which I think are the absolute worst entertainment value. The last movie I saw in theaters was Star Wars Ep 1, and that was in a second-run theater for $1. But I'm not paying $11 for 1.5 hours of entertainment. However, I do still get hit hard with anime. Nowadays, I pay about $32.40 for about 5.5 hours. Better than the theater, but not by much. If I wanted sheer value alone, there's cable TV. A decent (not overstuffed) plan is $60/month. Allowing an average 30 days in a month, and 2 hours a day average, that's $1/hour, which I can make even cheaper by watching more! However, that's not really a fair rate, so I'll stick with what I pay for anime- a $50 game then should give me at least 8.5 hours. But I can't count on all those hours being amazing, coupled with the fact that things can take a downturn, or it can just not live up to what I expected. So I want a discount for buying that much entertainment up front. (Buying in bulk discount?) Now I expect 10 hours. Most games can't generate that much enthusiasm for me, and thus, aren't bought.
This doesn't mean that I set $50 as an absolute, however. There are a few games that just offered so much fun that I pay a sizable chunk for them, and they were worth it. From $67.50 for Persona 1 on PS1, to $135 for Suikoden 2, they aren't purchases I regret.
But there's one last category- the collector's game. Some of these are worth $50 just to have. My personal example for that is the Japanese playable demo cartridge of Chrono Trigger. In another case, you may be 1 or 2 Virtual Boy games away from having the entire library. They won't give the entertainment price, but damned if they don't make the collector in you feel good!
