Re: Switching to a higher price

On Wed, 9 Apr 2025 10:02:33 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 03/04/2025 15:44, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

There's a lot of news about the imminent (give or take a few months)
release of Nintendo's Switch 2 portable console. Now, generally I
couldn't give a damn about the Switch --I've little interest in
consoles, portable gaming or Nintendo games-- but one factoid did
pique my interest: apparently all future first-party games for the
Switch 2 are expected to retail at least for $70 USD.

>
I do appreciate that prices have to go up but with the current economic
climate I do wonder if they are going to shoot themselves in the foot
with not just game prices but the console itself. Anecdotally when I've
seen them in the wild it's almost inevitable in the hands of a child and
not an adult. With the way tariffs are going the affordability is
probably going to get even worse unless the hardware cost already has it
factored in.

Actually, given the recent economic turmoil, Nintendo's announcement
may have been beneficial. Given that prices are going to rise across
the board, if Nintendo sticks to their guns and stays at $80 they may
come out ahead. Their games might even end up being less expensive now
;-)

But, honestly, an $80 price-tag isn't that ridiculous. It probably
will surprise nobody to learn that one of the things I enjoy doing is
reading old video-gaming magazines, and even back in the 80s and 90s,
a lot of games were selling at that price already. And that's $80 in
80s money (about $150 today). And let's face it, the games we were
paying $80 for back in 1989 were a hell of a lot less complex and
easier to develop than the stuff we're getting today.

     [As an example, look at this page from Computer Game Review
      (June 1992) showing the prices from a video-game discounter.
https://imgur.com/a/zEfezwB
      While the $30-40 range looks attractive and competitive to
      modern eyes, remember that there has been 125% inflation
      since then, (quick'n'dirty math: double those prices and
      round up to get the equivalent in 2025 prices). All of a
      sudden, the $70 price Nintendo is suggesting doesn't seem
      so extra-ordinary. And remember, these prices are from
      a discount reseller; prices in stores were higher.]


Video-game prices have been decoupled from reality for quite a while,
stuck in the $40-60 doldrums long after that price has been able to
pay for their development (hence the rush to monetize the player in
all sorts of other ways). That it's lasted so long has only been
because the scale of the operations has permitted it ("we'll make it
up in volume!"). That $80 game in 1989 might have sold 50,000 copies.
Today it will sell in the tens of millions.

That's not to say I LIKE the idea of paying more, or that I think that
raising prices is the /only/ alternative (backing away from games that
routinely cost $500 million seems a better idea). Certainly I dislike
the idea of paying $80 for a game and THEN having to pay more for MTX
and expansions that used to be included in base games. But I can't
argue the math.

Plus, it's not like I'll actually be paying Day One prices anyway.