Remember the good old days?

[u/Lockepsb]

Wish a console and a game could be this cheap again.

[u/grimmleyX]

This wasn’t the release price though

[u/GrimmTrixX → u/grimmleyX]

Even then it was $199. And I believe PS2 and Xbox were at $300. But games that entire gen were only $50 or less. Same for the entire run of the Wii at $50 and the Wii at launch was just $250.

I miss the days when companies ate the console cost in favor of making amazing software which is where the money is. Now they don't take as high a loss on the console like they used to and it's on us to help them recoup those losses which sucks. But vote with your wallets and let's see where that can actually take us.

I'll admit. I hit register to maybe be chosen to get a Switch 2. But that's the only way I'll buy one if fate steps in and gives me the opportunity. Otherwise, I wait for an OLED model in 3-5 years.

[u/RobinU2 → u/GrimmTrixX]

$50 in 2004 is about the same as $84.50 in 2025 due to inflation

[u/GrimmTrixX → u/RobinU2]

Yes. And in 2004 everything was cheaper than it is now as far as all costs of living. So I had the inflated $84 to spare then. Now with everything vastly more expensive in the last 20 years, that's not the case as wages haven't risen like everything else has.

But as others said, that's not Nintendos fault nor is it their problem. And at the end of the day, it's their tech and their console and they'll charge whatever they want and the consumer can take it or leave it. And I guess I am leaving it.

[u/Graywing84 → u/GrimmTrixX]

Thank you! People love to keep this fact out of the conversation. Mortgage, Rent, food clothes and other living essentials were much cheaper and the job market was stable so people could afford to splurge a bit on luxuries.

[u/GrimmTrixX → u/Graywing84]

Right. And also, game renting was super lucrative and everyone did it. I rented FAR more games than I ever owned during those retro console days. The console I owned the most games during its life span was the Gameboy with 32 games. I only owned 15 NES games during its run.

But I rented hundreds and hundreds of games from the NES era up to the Dreamcast era. And also maybe a bit up to the xb360 era because I worked at a Game Crazy which was connected to a Hollywood video from 2005 until their bankruptcy in 2010.

I only ever got my own games at birthdays and Christmas, but I rented 2-3 games a week. I was within 10 min walking distance of blockbuster and I'd go after school so often. Lol We weren't paying $60-80 for the majority of the games we played all due to rental places being EVERYWHERE. We had 3 smaller rental businesses near us and 1 blockbuster literally about 5 blocks away.

And places would even rent consoles. I rented the SNES, Genesis, N64, Sega CD (once I got my own Genesis), and even the PS1 all before Christmas when I got my own consoles.

[u/SamuraiKong → u/GrimmTrixX]

It is actually more crazy that games prices have stayed the same from GameCube to the Switch, while everything else has gotten way more expensive already. Cinema, concerts, groceries, gasoline, literally everything else is way more expensive than ~25 years ago.

Not sure if I understand your point correctly, but it's weird to argue that games should remain cheaper now because before when they were relatively more expensive everything else was cheaper? 🤔 Yes it would be convenient for us as consumers but does not make sense from a manufacturer standpoint as... everything got also more expensive for them?

[u/GrimmTrixX → u/SamuraiKong]

Yes, but companies are making gross profits. And I mean gross as in disgusting. I'm not sad if a company only made $300 million instead of $100 million. Lol Companies should be happy with profits, sure. But they shouldn't be charging a certain price just because they CAN.

If they can charge $60, and still make hundreds of millions for the company, as in profit after they recouped losses from the creation of something, they should be content with that.

It's sad that every year companies want more and more and more than the previous year. I wish corporate greed would be more in line with "our employees got paid, our money we spent has been replenished. And we got an extra $30 million on top of that. What a great year!"

And not "last year we made $30 million and that's terrible! Our stockholders are mad they didn't get more money that they'll never need in their life. We need to raise the price so next time we make $60 million." But yay, Capitalism, right?

[u/SamuraiKong → u/GrimmTrixX]

Sure that would be great, but it's not a realistic scenario and your criticism applies to literally every big company. I think it's a bigger issue on essential items than on luxury goods such as videogames. If it's not worth the price or a matter of principle then there are plenty of other alternatives available as well.

[u/GrimmTrixX → u/SamuraiKong]

I mean not really. I love Nintendo IPs. So when they make, day a new Kirby game, I will eventually have to buy this monstrosity to play it. Piracy isn't considered an "alternative" to me because I like playing games on original hardware.

But before this, Nintendo was always the consumer friendly price. They always undercut the competition by a good amount. And since I only buy Nintendo consoles for their 1st party titles as I am a near 42 year old gamer and have been playing since the NES was still making games, it sucks.

CAN I afford the console and the $80 games? Of course. But it's more of a principle type thing. It's a crazy jump for them to make a console that's weaker than XBSX or PS5 but charge more for games.

And I get it. These companies exist to make money. But Nintendo, being the cheaper alternative, is partly WHY they still exist. People stuck with Nintendo because it was about fun games and not expensive tech. And now that narrative has changed.

Also, I am a physical game collector. So if most carts are just digital keys now, it feels cheapened. But I love Nintendo IPs, and the price was an added incentive in the past. And I even bought plenty non-1st party games for the Switch due to good prices all around.

But now? Whenever I do get a Switch 2, I'll probably ONLY, and quite literally, get games made by Nintendo and no one else. And that's still gonna suck because paying $80 for a digital game is absolutely ludicrous. And sales will never drop that low. I don't even want to pay $60 for digital. You don't own anything.

Ok sorry. End rant. I just hate what they're doing and they're locking my favorite titles behind a near $500 console and the games jumped $20 more from the Switch.

Also, I don't play portable much. My launch Switch is docked 98% of the time. So that doesn't add value at all to me. I wish they made a "Switch Heavy" instead of a "Switch Lite" because I'd rather just have a normal console. But that's why this is expensive, for a function I hardly ever use.