Comparing prices directly like this is almost irrelevant imo. And doesn’t really dictate what the price of games should be.
Reasons old games should be pricier:
Hardware involved (cartridges/electronics).
Total number of customers were smaller, you have to subsidize development with less total sales.
Reasons why new games should be pricier:
Development has inflated to hundreds of people and multiple years (instead of dozens of people and multiple months)
But at the end of the day, business just price what the market will bear. It’s only indirectly related to the cost of production. The margins on some games are insanely high compared to others.
Don’t forget distribution. It costs money to make a nice cartridge. It costs money to stamp a CD and put it in a pretty box. And that cost applies for every. single. copy.
Comparing prices directly like this is almost irrelevant imo. And doesn’t really dictate what the price of games should be.
Reasons old games should be pricier:
Reasons why new games should be pricier:
But at the end of the day, business just price what the market will bear. It’s only indirectly related to the cost of production. The margins on some games are insanely high compared to others.
Don’t forget distribution. It costs money to make a nice cartridge. It costs money to stamp a CD and put it in a pretty box. And that cost applies for every. single. copy.
Now compare that to digital distribution…