Edit: Some salty commenters here. This isn’t my graph, just one I grabbed. Notes aren’t mine.
I’m a huge proponent for inflation adjusted livable minimum wage- which should be close to $30 an hour these days. Also hugely worried about our housing cost trends.
I’m only pointing out that expecting games to cost 40-60 for life is a little silly- yall still paying $.10 for a loaf of bread? I remember when games inched from $40 to $60 and everyone lost their minds- no one complains about it anymore. Don’t wanna pay retail? Wait for sales, bundles, used copies.
Edit: these notes have been addressed in OP’s post
Note: Salary growth has outpaced inflation.
You know what else has outpaced inflation? The cost of living. Purchasing power for middle and lower class people is far less than what it used to be. “Inflation” doesn’t account for that.
Volume of video game sales has changed monstrously over the years as it moved from a niche hobby to mainstream
SNES Mario kart - 8.76 million copies sold worldwide
Switch Mario kart 8 - 67.34 million copies sold world wide.
SNES mario kart (inflation adjusted) earnings - 1,095,000,000
Switch Mario kart earnings - 5,252,520,000
Game dev budgets have obviously exploded in that time and nintendo doesn’t disclose their budgets but on average its estimated snes titles got about 1-2 million and switch/wii u titles got 30ish million. That’s a sizable increase in development that wildly outpaces inflation, for sure, but their earnings obviously did too.
Snes carts were $20-60 not including license fees without the game. They also had a 100% markup at retail. Small 8GB switch carts are about $10 with $12, including licensing, and have a 40% markup. The take home for a publisher was $2-5 for snes and should be $18 for a switch game on the small cart on $60 at retail. Digital take home is $40. Comparing the take home price for the consumer is disingenuous. It is especially bad when we are not comparing to Gameboy and includes optical media when it is essentially free with the box.
The publishers are getting a minimum 9x more take home now on the expensive switch carts and licensing. Thr wiiu and ps4 were more like 11-12x with the ps5 and digital switch games even more. Those far outback inflation and even outback the increase in dev costs most of the time.
The thing that graph doesn’t take into account is barely anyone paid full price for those older games. Games used to lower prices to increase sales volume and those sale prices are significantly less than $80 even accounting for inflation.
Edit: Some salty commenters here. This isn’t my graph, just one I grabbed. Notes aren’t mine.
I’m a huge proponent for inflation adjusted livable minimum wage- which should be close to $30 an hour these days. Also hugely worried about our housing cost trends.
I’m only pointing out that expecting games to cost 40-60 for life is a little silly- yall still paying $.10 for a loaf of bread? I remember when games inched from $40 to $60 and everyone lost their minds- no one complains about it anymore. Don’t wanna pay retail? Wait for sales, bundles, used copies.
Edit: these notes have been addressed in OP’s post
You know what else has outpaced inflation? The cost of living. Purchasing power for middle and lower class people is far less than what it used to be. “Inflation” doesn’t account for that.
Games are also much easier to distribute now than they ever where, saving cost.
True- but they cost like 1000x more to develop too.
Maybe not 1000x more, but that’s fair too.
this argument is so fucking dumb
Volume of video game sales has changed monstrously over the years as it moved from a niche hobby to mainstream
SNES Mario kart - 8.76 million copies sold worldwide Switch Mario kart 8 - 67.34 million copies sold world wide.
SNES mario kart (inflation adjusted) earnings - 1,095,000,000 Switch Mario kart earnings - 5,252,520,000
Game dev budgets have obviously exploded in that time and nintendo doesn’t disclose their budgets but on average its estimated snes titles got about 1-2 million and switch/wii u titles got 30ish million. That’s a sizable increase in development that wildly outpaces inflation, for sure, but their earnings obviously did too.
Snes carts were $20-60 not including license fees without the game. They also had a 100% markup at retail. Small 8GB switch carts are about $10 with $12, including licensing, and have a 40% markup. The take home for a publisher was $2-5 for snes and should be $18 for a switch game on the small cart on $60 at retail. Digital take home is $40. Comparing the take home price for the consumer is disingenuous. It is especially bad when we are not comparing to Gameboy and includes optical media when it is essentially free with the box.
The publishers are getting a minimum 9x more take home now on the expensive switch carts and licensing. Thr wiiu and ps4 were more like 11-12x with the ps5 and digital switch games even more. Those far outback inflation and even outback the increase in dev costs most of the time.
But isn’t it easier if I just ignore the nuance of economics and just place all the blame for my unhappiness on corporate greed?
I think it’d also be interesting to see the total production cost of each Mario Kart, and a total sales/revenue generated by each game.
I don’t see Diddy Kong Racing on there which is really the only one you need anyway.
Diddy Kong Racing is the GOAT
The thing that graph doesn’t take into account is barely anyone paid full price for those older games. Games used to lower prices to increase sales volume and those sale prices are significantly less than $80 even accounting for inflation.