• Bronzie@sh.itjust.works
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    9 months ago

    I don’t really think so.

    If you adjust for inflation, historically, it’s very cheap.
    If you compare it to movie tickets, which in essence is 2-3 hours of entertainment for $25, it’s the same story.
    Some games can give you hundreds of hours for close to the same price.

    This excludes games with monthly fees or predatory in-game systems.

    • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      AAA titles have been $60 since the 90s iirc. The difference now, though, is the addition of paid DLC, micro transactions, etc that historically didn’t exist, so I’d say it’s a little bit of a toss up.

      • Peffse@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I always saw the higher $60 games were cartridge-based games, while the CD-ROM equivalent was cheaper. When everybody switched away from cartridges it dropped back down to $50 being the norm until around 2005-2006.

        • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Really? I could swear that the top PS1 games were around $60. Granted this was about 30 years ago when I was a kid, so I could easily be mistaken, I just remember my parents bitching about them being expensive lol

              • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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                9 months ago

                In fairness that looks quite late on in the lifecycle of PS1.

                I remember games coming down in price later on, like they were around £45 and came down to about £30 for new ones.

                  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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                    9 months ago

                    Yeah, they were called Platinum over here. £20 each. Ideal for a younger me, who could never justify full price games and frankly wanted to play the older ones first anyway.

              • otp@sh.itjust.works
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                9 months ago

                I think “around $60” is still accurate. They’re above $50, and they still say that’s the price “*after coupon”.

      • WaybackGuy@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Yeah I remember Donkey Kong Country cost like $60 back in 1994 when it first released. That’s like $100 today adjusted for inflation. Nowadays DLC, the cloud, hardware and the like adds to it, although hardware has always been pricey to an extent.

    • Haru@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is the comparison I end up making. Is it more up front? Yes, but will I get more hours out of it? Yes. Can I pick it up again without any additional cost? Yes. Can I be a goblin and not leave the comfort of my own house? Yes.

    • smeg@feddit.uk
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      9 months ago

      $25

      You mean $2.50, right? That can’t be how much you pay for cinema tickets!?

      • Bronzie@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        Our currency has taken a bit of a hit since covid, so I guess it’s more like $20 today.
        210 NOK when I checked my local price for Dune 2 just now.

        Add in some snacks and we’re way over $30, so hopefully my point still stands.