Games Are Cheaper* Than They’ve Ever Been | Extra Credits Gaming

Did you know that right this very moment we are paying less than anybody has ever paid for video games? That they are currently cheaper than they have ever been. Now, I can hear you all being like, "That absolutely cannot be right." because I had the exact same reaction. Honestly, when James brought this up, I couldn't believe it. And at first he couldn't either. But then he told me how he found this great Ars Technica article on the subject from a few years back and that he reacted so violently to it that he spent all night digging up historical game prices and inflation data, ran those numbers, and yeah, sure enough, it was true. But it sure as heck does not feel true, right? So, let's dive in and unpack how this could possibly be and why despite all the data, games costing the least they ever have is still so hard to swallow. Thanks so much to Factor for delivering me great meals right to my door so I can spend less time cooking and more time playing games.

Okay, y'all. So, who's excited to talk about inflation, huh? Wait, wait, wait, don't go. Don't go. Because I promise you here and now two things. One, that breaking down inflation is very important to understanding our perception of the cost of games. And two, that we're going to have some fun images of your favorite video game characters walking y'all through it, okay? All right, you know how we do. Thanks for believing in us. Okay, if you think of the beginning of mass market home video games starting in, say, 1982 when the Atari 2600 came out, well, a dollar back then was worth a lot more than a dollar today. Specifically, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was worth 325% more. So, when game cartridges first came out at around 25 to 30 dollars, they were actually selling for what would roughly be around 90 dollars today. And when prices jumped to 50 dollars in the '90s with the advent of the Genesis and Super Nintendo, well, those were actually probably the priciest games we've ever gotten. In today's dollars, they'd cost you well over 100 bucks, and both Link to the Past and Sonic & Knuckles were totally

worth that price. Do not at me. Then the great disc revolution happened. Instead of having to buy pricey cartridges containing expensive hardware, instead of having to ship bulky boxes with a fat hunk of plastic in them, now games could fit in a jewel case and be written to a CD. This lowered production costs by a lot, and as the console wars heated up and Sony and Microsoft duked it out for who would have the dominant home console, something unheard of happened. Get this. Those savings actually got passed to us, the consumers. Instead of raising prices with inflation, the standard game price remained the same. The industry then started to get wary of the idea of charging more. They thought the consumers might revolt. Actually, there were all sorts of think pieces back then about how charging $60 for a game would destroy the industry. So, for years, other ways to cut corners were found. Disc manufacturing prices decreased. Boxes became packed with less and less goodies. Manuals were shrunk from 50-page tomes to five-page leaflets. Maps no longer came as special

inserts, and the price held. Then digital started to take off, and even though making games was becoming more and more expensive, prices just barely crept up to that $60 mark. Because despite the platform fees, being able to sell digitally was faster, cheaper, and eliminated a lot of the risk of ending up with too large or too small of a print run. But budgets for a true AAA game began to balloon for reasons we will get into in a future video, and the real return on that $60 price point was shrinking every year as wages grew with inflation and as that number didn't change. So, what did the industry do next then? Well, it began to bat around the four most dreaded words in gaming: new ways to monetize. They were slinging pre-orders. They were slinging collector's editions. They were slinging DLC, microtransactions, the list went on and on and on. So, for years more, we didn't cross that feared $70 plateau. Meaning that by 2020, games

were almost half of the price they were in the '90s in income-adjusted dollars. The percentage of a paycheck that it took to buy a game was at an all-time low. Now, we don't have great data for the last couple of years, but even though it looks like prices have begun to creep up a bit, and even with $70 finally being the standard price point for a triple-A game in 2024, again with inflation, we're still willing to bet we're paying the least we ever have or just very, very close. I mean, at most, the $70 price point is basically an adjustment back to 2010s levels, but I digress because no matter what, it still doesn't feel that way, right? It feels like games are so expensive now. Why is that? Look, the truth is I don't have an empirical answer because there's just not a lot of great data out there on feelings, but I do have some conjectures. First off, it's just expectations, right? We've managed to hover at the $60 price point for so long that it feels like the price of a video game, and instead of creeping up a dollar each year for a decade, we're

hitting that new jump all at once, leading us to really notice. Second is that none of the new ways to monetize are going away with this price hike. Look, if a publisher said to us, "Our game's got a $70 sticker price, but there's no in-game purchases, and all the DLC is free." I'm betting people would be a lot more accepting. But instead, the consumer is being told, "Hey, game's now $70, and you got to pay for new game plus." Which makes us, the consumers, feel like garbage, even though to be fair to the industry, there's no way that $70 price alone is going to cover most of the budgets of a modern triple-A game, for better or worse. But again, man, does it feel bad when they ask you to pay for the car, and then they tell you that you have to buy the keys separately. So, maybe there's some messaging to work on there. Third, indie game pricing structure. Because indie games tend to do their own thing when it comes to price point. They remind consumers that games could cost less. Now, there's a lot of reasons for this, of course, with most of these games costing far less to build, but it

serves as an anchor point in our minds, you know? Plus, it sort of rankles when you go, "I spent 78 hours on Vampire Survivors and paid a dollar for it, while I played something like, say, Redfall for an hour and a half, paid $70, and didn't enjoy it nearly as much." Because even though your whole rational brain knows that Vampire Survivors cost way less to make, it is still true that dollar for dollar, Redfall didn't give you anything like the entertainment value that Survivors did, and that's how our brains want to compare them. So, as individuals, maybe it's worthwhile to look at that specific value prop and vote with our wallets towards things we enjoy accordingly. Then, of course, you got things like Baldur's Gate 3. That beast feels triple-A. Heck, it feels a lot more triple-A than a lot of traditional triple-A games, but it came out on Steam at a $60 price point. So, why can't these other games that look worse and have nowhere near the content do the same? Again, that's what my lizard brain is always asking before I look at pricing models, early access, etc. Finally, it's timing. Coming out of

COVID, the whole world experienced massive inflation. Now, even though we in the US have had it lighter than most, it did bite into everyone's pocketbook. So, this is all happening at a time when our entertainment being more expensive, justified or no, seems like a little bit of a slap in the face. So, yeah, those are just some thoughts, some musings, if you will. But, like, do you think I'm crazy? Am I the only one that feels like video games are more expensive today, despite all the data to the contrary? Also, I'd really just like to know what reasons for that you all think we missed. So, please, let us know what you think. And Zoey just came in here to remind me that maybe I should just start shopping on itch.io. But, my mama did teach me, you never go shopping on an empty stomach. And that goes double for video games, okay? Good thing I can get a great tasting meal ready super quick thanks to Factor. Factor, of course, being my favorite ready-to-eat meal delivery service that I've been using for a year and a half now. Each of their meals is ready in just 2 minutes with no mess, no prep, and my absolute favorite, no cleanup. Just really great food ready

when I have time to eat it. It's seriously the least stressful part of my day and I'm actually super thankful for it. Each week I get to review Factor's rotating menu and pick what I'm feeling from their tons of seasonal meals and add-on options. Things like cold press juices, protein shakes, wellness shots, and smoothies which continue to smash my expectations. They have so many options to choose from, I can always be sure that everyone in my household gets the food that they love fast. And with spring in full swing, I went with their spicy sweet potatoes and peanut sauce, which has now become one of my absolute new faves. I'm going to be reordering that one. And since I didn't have to cook a whole meal from scratch, I was actually able to camp the PlayStation Direct site and finally snag a PlayStation Portal at cost. Haha, take that, you filthy scalpers. So, head to factor75.com or click the link below and use our code extra credits 50 to get 50% off your first Factor box and 20% off your next four boxes. Wait, for real? Heck, yeah. So, now it's tasty task time. Get fast and flavorful meals at a deep discount right here. And then once dinner is done, check out our next sweet selection here. Thank you so much to Ahmed Zia Turk, Angela Valenciana, Arclight Games,

Dominic Valenciana, Ilknur, Izzy Coin, Joseph Blame, and Kuyakoy for being the absolute best legendary patrons.