$70 Games? Why the Next-Generation Prices Are Cheaper Than They Seem

When it comes to prices, gamers can be very fickle. Many gamers won’t hesitate to drop hundreds of dollars on fancy new systems, cool accessories, and collectible gaming paraphernalia. At the same time, the prospect of paying extra for the video games themselves causes quite the uproar!

That’s exactly what happened when both Sony and Microsoft dropped a pricing bombshell on us. It looks like $70 (or $69.99) will be the new industry standard price for games. This is up $10 from the $60 (or $59.99) industry standard price of the past 15 years. The news originates from the announcement that NBA 2K21 will cost $70 for next-gen consoles (while remaining $60 for current-gen).

While the price increase may sound like a big jump, it’s not. In fact, for longterm gamers, these prices are cheaper than they seem! Here is the history of gaming industry prices.

All about inflation

To understand game prices throughout history, you must first understand inflation. The depressing truth is that a dollar was worth a lot more in the 1980s and 1990s than it is now. Thus, the game prices that seemed cheaper in the past may not have actually been cheaper.

For example, $59.99 was a pretty common price for games on the Sony PlayStation or Sega Saturn. But if you account for inflation, that $59.99 you might have spent back in 1997 would be nearly $96 in 2020.

We’re going to highlight several price comparisons in this article and adjust for inflation. But if you want the TL;DR version, gaming has been cheaper for most of the last decade than it was in the decades before. And even with the next-gen price hike, we may be coming out ahead!

Gaming’s early years

The early years of gaming were a bit like the Wild West. Game creators often stole as much as they invented, and there was no single idea of what a video game could be. On top of that, there were no standard prices, either.

In 1976, it cost about $100 to bring Pong into your home. But if you account for inflation, that $100 is equivalent to over $450 today!

Things got a bit better with the advent of the Atari 2600 and other home consoles. However, game cartridge prices varied dramatically. You could pick up Activision’s Tennis from Sears for only $19.99 in 1982. While that sounds like a good deal, the cost would be over $53 today.

And some games were even more expensive. B-17 Bomber on the Intellevision cost $39.99 at the time, which would be over $106 today!