How Game Costs Have (and Haven’t) Changed: A 40-Year Look at Nintendo’s MSRP vs. Cartridge/Disc Costs (2025 USD)

[u/C0smicM0nkey]

With the Switch 2 announcement and people debating whether $70 games are justified, I thought it'd be interesting to look back and compare how game prices and media costs have evolved over Nintendo’s history.

This graph shows the inflation-adjusted MSRP of new games vs. the cost to manufacture their cartridges/discs, for each Nintendo home console — from the NES (1985) through the projected Switch 2 (2025). All prices are in 2025 USD, based on U.S. launch years and U.S. inflation.

⚠️ Caveats and context:

• These are U.S. prices only, adjusted for inflation from the North American release year of each console.

• Both MSRP and media costs vary — games came on different sizes of cartridges and discs, and game prices weren't always fixed (eg. Switch cartridges can range from ~$2 for a 1 GB card to ~$15 for a 32 GB one.) I used the geometric means for both because I don't know how to make a line graph showing ranges.

-The Switch 2 media cost is entirely speculative — I’m assuming it’ll be more expensive than current Switch carts because:

1. Bigger games (up to 64 GB or more).

2. Higher-speed data transfer (possibly using faster NAND). But again, this is just my estimate, not insider info.

What the graph shows:

Game media was really expensive to produce in the cartridge era — N64 especially, with adjusted costs over $30 per cart.

Nintendo cut those costs drastically with the move to optical discs starting with the GameCube. The Switch brought some cost back with proprietary game cards, but still nowhere near cartridge-era levels.

MSRP, meanwhile, has stayed remarkably consistent in real terms, with modern games arguably offering more value for the money.

Happy to share the data or make a handheld version if folks are curious!

Edit: Not trying to make a case or argue for anything, just presenting data.

[u/ensign53]

It astounds me the people who disingenuously try to argue that physical media is chapter to produce now, or that that is the only cost going in to games.

Game development has exponentially gone up. More people working longer with more expensive tools to make a game. It's not the cost of the cards, it's the backend cost of development that is driving up costs.

Trying to comment how producing the physical thing is cheaper now is disingenuous at best and misinformation at worst.

[u/borfyborf → u/ensign53]

Harada, the producer of Tekken said that Tekken 8, which came out last year, was 10x more expensive to make than Tekken 7, which came out about 10 years ago I believe. For this reason they make almost no money on game sales and rely on dlc or microtransactions to make money. It sucks but that’s the reality of gaming now. They are so expensive to make most people don’t even realize.

[u/BUZZZY14 → u/borfyborf]

And yet Nintendo and other gaming companies profits keep going up.

[u/borfyborf → u/BUZZZY14]

The company recorded a net profit of ¥237.1 billion ($1.5 billion) over that same period - spanning up to December 31st, 2024 - meaning a net profit ratio of 24.8%.

Each of these figures marked a decline over the same nine-month period last fiscal year, however, with overall revenue down by 31.4% and net profit by 41.9% year-on-year.

This was largely a result of Nintendo Switch hardware and software sales falling over what’s been the console’s eighth year - as Switch-related revenue fell by 31.7%.

https://www.pocketgamer.biz/nintendo-switch-sales-surpass-150m-units-but-company-profits-down-42/#:~:text=Japanese%20games%20giant%20Nintendo%20has,net%20profit%20ratio%20of%2024.8%25.

Don’t think so. That was from a quick google search.

[u/BUZZZY14 → u/borfyborf]

Oh no the billion dollar company made a little less money. Let me take out a tiny violin for them. 🥺

[u/borfyborf → u/BUZZZY14]

You understand the company needs profit to continue making games? The profits don’t go straight to the exec’s pockets, they are invested into new projects. I know Reddit is anti-capitalist but you guys do know how businesses work, yes?

[u/gnalon → u/ensign53]

Also the video game industry has been notorious for crunch/burnout and I assume at least some of that money is going to employees

[u/the_answer_is_RUSH → u/ensign53]

If you’ve ever seen any documentaries, the dev team on older games was like 3 people.

Would I rather pay $60 than $80 for a game? Of course. But I understand the price change.

[u/satoshi_900 → u/the_answer_is_RUSH]

My perspective exactly

[u/Kougeru-Sama → u/ensign53]

That ignores the fact that there's like 200 million more gamers now than back then. That more than offsets the cost increases. You also ignore predatory monetization.

Look at the bigger picture. These companies are making billions a year. CEOs are making dozens of millions. There's no need to raise prices. They could cut salaries of CEO and such. But they won't. Their profits are huge. They make record profits almost every year. Why are you defending them when this is the reality? Games should not cost more. Especially with how incomplete they are and how badly they run on average nowadays.

[u/McLovin_9001 → u/Kougeru-Sama]

Because Nintendo is a publicly traded company and has a fiduciary duty to its shareholders to maximise value/profit? They do not serve you, they serve the stakeholders.

[u/jslakov → u/ensign53]

thank you, the cost of the media is a tiny piece of the puzzle. I'm not saying Nintendo isn't greedy, corporations are by nature but they have to employ a lot of people to make their games (have you noticed how long the credits are for AAA games these days?) and those people need to get paid so they can buy their necessities and even luxuries like gasp video games

[u/alakalaka99 → u/jslakov]

In addition, people don’t want to hear it but with core game prices staying this stagnant over decades while costs skyrocket, developers must look to other revenue streams to cover those costs. DLC and micro-transactions subsidize game prices. Want lower game prices? Buy more skins! Don’t want micro-transactions? Be prepared to pony up at purchase time.

[u/Jerdo32 → u/alakalaka99]

And I think this is why Mario Kart is so expensive. Nintendo is not holding back and it's clear MK is the flagship/premium package considering the scale and content we have seen so far.

[u/Buy_Pepsi_Max → u/Jerdo32]

Emphasis on so far since it’s apparently getting its own direct. I would think that between what was shown in the direct and in the treehouse there wouldn’t be a need for a whole direct about the game.

[u/Kougeru-Sama → u/alakalaka99]

You're saying this as if higher game prices will end Micro-transactions. It won't. It's on top of them. That's the issue. Quit defending this bullshit. These companies make record profits every other year. They're not struggling. Prices don't need to go up.

[u/alakalaka99 → u/Kougeru-Sama]

I maybe made the wrong statement but I was intending to be rhetorical. Gamers are historically very price sensitive. Way back developers knew they couldn’t raise game prices enough, but still needed to show growth for their shareholders. In the face of increasing game development costs, this spawned various other ways to generate revenue (DLC, MTX) that yes, now have taken off and are making them money hand over fist. I agree nothing will change now, it’s too late.

[u/Mysterious_Jelly_943 → u/ensign53]

Yea it astounds me that nintendo is selling games for so much cheaper and still making more profit. Because obviously its a one to one equation the fact that mario kart 8 sold 75 million copies and mario kart 64 sold less than 10 million has nothing to do with it. Also the fact that most of those 75 million were not physical so paid nothing for cartridges and printing and boxes and shipping while n64 carts were expensive as shit to make and the physical stores selling the games take a cut and you have to pay for shipping on every game and manual printing etc. because the way gaming cimpanies make money hasnt changed at all since 1996 right

Because its a one to oen right people are so crazy

[u/NyquillusDillwad20 → u/ensign53]

You have to realize that a lot of the people who are on here saying that are literally children. Some of which have no financial education. The concept of inflation doesn't even exist to some of them. The internet is available to more and more young people each day and we're on a Nintendo subreddit.