"I will not accept this. This is a lie. I never thought an american company could be this way. ms is nice to me."

Listening to people bitch about video game prices cracks me up. Since the NES era, prices on games have increased approx. 20%, which is well below the rate of inflation of, say... every single other product of every single type on the market. Couple that with the fact that production costs have risen by as much as 1000% or more, and it is remarkable that games have remained as cheap as they have.

I have about 30 to 40 N64 games and I never paid more than $40 for a single one.  I bought them all new but I don't think I bought them on day 1 either.  Maybe they dropped in price but as far as I remember, all the games were pretty much $40 brand new and then with GCN, Xbox, and PS2 they all went up to $50 price point.  As for NES, I was about 10 so I didn't buy those.  I played what my brother bought or what I got for gifts.  Borrowed a lot from friends back then too.  But I know for sure that I didn't pay more than $40 for any N64 game in my library.  Just out of curiosity, post which games were $70 to $80 if you can remember any titles.  I'm curious what would have been worth that kind of price.  I know all my Zelda titles were $40 or less for me and all my Star Wars titles too.

I agree bitching about is funny, but on the same token $60.00 per game is Not Cheap not at all . now that's my OPINION

Relative to the price of, say, a DVD, you're right, games aren't cheap.  I just meant cheap relative to the price of the same product 20 years ago.  I defy anyone to find any product that has remained as stable in price as video games have over a 20 year window, especially a product that has seen such a massive improvement in quality and a corresponding increase in production costs.

Absolutely, games have stayed at a steady $50.00 since the NES days up until this generation, regardless of inflation and production costs.

depends on the game/developer.  There isn't one universally adopted online system like on the consoles.  I'd say it's really good for being free.  The absence of a universal online system knocks it down a little bit.  However, there are all sorts of programs out there to help you manage friends and communication, so I would probably rate it up there with live.

@ deadt0m )

yea, that indeed is a remarkable feat, but it's not thanks the video game industries benevolence, but due to it's growth..
once the growth weakens we'll see rising prices for games

Without MS, how awful and expensive would the PS3 be this gen? Think about it.

Pretty much, reading that was a waste of time.   I do admit that if we didn't have all these worthless fanboy articles, there would be fewer things to discuss.