There’s been talk about the price of games. Some say games are getting too expensive, while some say that games are cheaper than before. The thing that people always talk about is inflation.

You will see ads for games in the 4th and 5th generation that cost $60-$90, and they’ll tell you how much that would be today. The issue with that is the generation after the price was standard at $50.  There were several financial issues that caused inflation in the 1990s, and prices went lower. Even before that on PS1, most games were $40-$50. Then they may respond and say the games were high because of cartridges. Ok yes, when third parties went to N64, they were usually $15-$20 more. 

The other way people talk about inflation is the games are now cheaper. One issue with that is it’s not a linear line. Games have gotten more cookie cutter, copy paste, features have been removed and they’ve been replaced by open worlds. It’s understandable if we were getting the same products we were years ago, but there’s a problem with that.

One thing that’s strange is only game prices are talked about during talks about inflation. Games today have microtransactions, that can make more money than the game does from sales. Many paid games have tried to use free to play structures. They use battle passes, two tier currencies and strange amounts of currency when you buy it. They try to make where if you have some currency left over, it might not be enough to get something else. So you have to buy more and have more left over.

Earlier we talked about stuff being removed from games. Awhile ago you had games come with ways to make your character your own. Now uniforms, shoes, armor and other stuff are being sold as microtransactions. There’s been single player games that created a level grind and gave you the option to buy time savers or experience boosts. This gave you the leveling progression the game was supposed to have.

Everyone has been talking about digital sales, and how going all digital makes sense. For a $60 physical game, companies would make $22-$27 off them. Now with a $60 all digital your making $42, a $70 game you make $49. If you own the store you make everything.

Game companies make more money than ever. Their budgets are bigger than ever. They use microtransactions and digital sales to not feel the effects of inflation. But want to raise prices of the game with inflation being an excuse.