Actually, he is being very misleading, everything considered. I actually bought a Genesis game that was almost 80eur(converted) at the time, one of the few extra expensive, but these were *cartriges*. These had an additional cost on top, which increased with capacity used also.
Many games are now distributed digitally, with reduced middleman and shipping and handling costs.
What also enables further price stability is the fact that a AAA game in the 2000s was a success if bought in the 200-300k unit range. Today? Many sell 5 or 6 million units within weeks, some average 10 million over multiple platforms. So, of course you would spend more in producing said titles.
For instance, HL1, a game which was regarded as one of the best games ever released:
"According to Newell, Half-Life was budgeted with the expectation of lifetime sales of around 180,000 copies.[74] However, it was a surprise hit.[74] In the United States, Half-Life debuted at #8 on PC Data's weekly PC game sales chart for the November 15–21 period, with an average retail price (ARP) of $49....
In January 1999, Half-Life debuted at #3 on Chart-Track's PC game sales rankings for the United Kingdom,[86] and remained in PC Data's weekly top 10 for the entire month, peaking at #4.[87][88][89][90][91] By January 19, after two full months of availability, global sales of Half-Life surpassed 500,000 units."
HL went on to sell much more over the years due to mods and after price drops, but they were budgeting a game like that for 200k units. In 5 years, Quake 2 (1997) had sold 2 million units. Halo 2 sold 2.4M in 24h.
Wind it further and see Call of Duty sold 4.5M in 10 years, but MW1(2013) sold 15M in six years. MW reboot (2019) sold 30M in 2 years! Absolutely staggering increase in sales.
So, I would say games *were expensive* way back in the 90s and 200s, perhaps driving further piracy and now have been at a price where more people can buy them and still drive multiples of the sales they enjoyed.
Same for console hardware. For the UK, minimum wage increased 220% from 1999 to 2019 but console prices have increased some 66% for similar hardware capabilities.
This is good, technology is inherently deflationary and that is how the world keeps evolving, otherwise we'd still be using very slow computers with text prompts.
Many games are now distributed digitally, with reduced middleman and shipping and handling costs.
What also enables further price stability is the fact that a AAA game in the 2000s was a success if bought in the 200-300k unit range. Today? Many sell 5 or 6 million units within weeks, some average 10 million over multiple platforms. So, of course you would spend more in producing said titles.
For instance, HL1, a game which was regarded as one of the best games ever released:
"According to Newell, Half-Life was budgeted with the expectation of lifetime sales of around 180,000 copies.[74] However, it was a surprise hit.[74] In the United States, Half-Life debuted at #8 on PC Data's weekly PC game sales chart for the November 15–21 period, with an average retail price (ARP) of $49....
In January 1999, Half-Life debuted at #3 on Chart-Track's PC game sales rankings for the United Kingdom,[86] and remained in PC Data's weekly top 10 for the entire month, peaking at #4.[87][88][89][90][91] By January 19, after two full months of availability, global sales of Half-Life surpassed 500,000 units."
HL went on to sell much more over the years due to mods and after price drops, but they were budgeting a game like that for 200k units. In 5 years, Quake 2 (1997) had sold 2 million units. Halo 2 sold 2.4M in 24h.
Wind it further and see Call of Duty sold 4.5M in 10 years, but MW1(2013) sold 15M in six years. MW reboot (2019) sold 30M in 2 years! Absolutely staggering increase in sales.
So, I would say games *were expensive* way back in the 90s and 200s, perhaps driving further piracy and now have been at a price where more people can buy them and still drive multiples of the sales they enjoyed.
Same for console hardware. For the UK, minimum wage increased 220% from 1999 to 2019 but console prices have increased some 66% for similar hardware capabilities.
This is good, technology is inherently deflationary and that is how the world keeps evolving, otherwise we'd still be using very slow computers with text prompts.