Submitted by Hotspur000 t3_126ossn in gaming
That's around $195 in today's money.
Comments
KC_ToyBeast t1_jebso0s wrote
One thing about the expensive games back in the day, I can't think of a single one that wasn't worth it.
limejuiceroyale t1_jebb2pt wrote
I paid like 90 for secret of mana back in the day. Those RPGs were so pricey since they were pretty niche at the time. The US didn't really have the rpg explosion until ff7, up until then it was still a few amount of people playing.
emi_yagami t1_jea74wn wrote
There used to not be a standard for game prices. This one is particularly high, but a lot of games used to be pretty close while others weren't.
Hotspur000 OP t1_jea9gge wrote
I was just thinking about how many people think today's prices are too high - I can't imagine what they would have thought of this.
MajinBuuMan t1_jea3nhq wrote
Cartridges of that era also use computer chips and have batteries and other electrical components. That would've been a large cost in producing games.
The CD era lowered production costs from dollars to literal cents.
Then digital distribution lowered that cost even further.
FacetiousTomato t1_jeagxdh wrote
And yet digital games usually cost around 50% more than physical...
AznSzmeCk t1_jebg9df wrote
Not to mention the physical probably just comes with a little code that points to the digital distribution anyways. AND NO GAME MANUAL!
thehumungus t1_jeac26h wrote
Still one of the best RPGs of all time, to me.
GalacticDystopia t1_jeal2j5 wrote
Yeah, people these days seems to forget that, when you factor inflation, games are much cheaper these days than they used to be.
Mostly because cartridges were manufactured ROM chips in and of themselves, and any special co-processors or extra hardware needed to run the game beyond what the console was capable of had to be ran from the cartridge.
The best examples of this were the SuperFX chip on SNES and the Virtua Processor for Genesis. These allowed polygonal 3D games like Starfox and Virtua Racing to run on consoles that were never designed to run 3D anything. I remember Virtua Racing especially was an expensive game and the cartridge itself got really hot from the 3D processing workload it ran.
The Phantasy Star games were expensive due to just being much larger than a normal Genesis game, thus requiring extra large ROM chips and reliable save memory.
If I'm being honest, given the complexity of games nowadays, I'm surprised AAA games aren't $100 each.
If you want some real sticker shock, NEO-GEO cartridges were insanely huge and cost about $200 each in 1993. In today's money, that's $416.
Imagine spending 80% the value of a PS5 on every single game...
OlTommyBombadil t1_jebkaai wrote
Games didn’t have microtransactions back then, nor did they have a bunch of DLCs for up to like $40. They are well over $100 if you factor in all the content. And that also doesn’t include the preorder stuff.
If you want all of a game, it is well over $100. Sometimes closer to $200. Sometimes more than that.
The eras aren’t comparable. I hate posts that say stuff like “we should be happy they aren’t more.” That’s horse shit. They’re making billions of dollars, the games are no longer made for gamers as much as they are shareholders. Games should be less if they’re going to nickel and dime customers at every opportunity. But they just went up in price. There is absolutely no defense of what they’re doing now and I’m tired of reading defenses of what they’re doing now.
GalacticDystopia t1_jeblh4b wrote
I never said they should be more. And I'm not defending what they're doing. I was more providing info with a tinge of personal thoughts.
Youre doing that thing that Redditors do when they read something they have a knee-jerk disagreement with and go off on a half-cocked reply. Don't do that.
Hattix t1_jeaybmk wrote
Adjusted for inflation, it grossed around 1/10th that of a moderately successful game today.
The market was a lot smaller back then. The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive sold 33-40 million in total. Putting that into context, the XBox 360 and PS3 both sold 80-85 million units and the three main PS4 models sold 110-120 million, combined.
Today the best games sell to around 1/10th (and the very best, to 1/5th) of the total market, back then it was 1/50th for a strong game, and 1/20th for the best of their breed.
Not only was the market smaller, but people bought fewer games.
Prestigious-Yak4344 t1_jefk9uk wrote
This sorta thing is why we only have 5-6 games per console back in the day! They weren't cheap!
Kataclysm t1_jeacu7c wrote
Reasonably so, but that game was awesome and to this day is still among my favorites.
CrumbleKnuckle t1_jeb286m wrote
Should have been higher. That game is a masterpiece.
LoveUnderWill t1_jeb7yut wrote
I believe the one for the master system was around 90 bucks at Toys R Us when it was released. Part 2 was priced much better at 79.99.
Still-Pattern-6384 t1_jec82xh wrote
Now Phantasy Star New Genesis is a fashion simulator with no gameplay and filled with recycled gachas. But hey, it's free
TurkTurkle t1_jeaclay wrote
Without online/digital stores, local stores were free to price gouge. Especially on hyped new releases.
I paid 85$ for final fantasy 6(us 3) for snes when it was new. And thats only because i convinced my mom to drive to a big mall 30 minutes away. All the local stores wanted $100. Thats $170/200 respectively in 2023 money.