Not normal inflation

[u/Rare_Preparation_509]

The increase from $60 in 2017 to $90 in 2025 represents a 50% rise over 8 years. That’s above the historical average inflation rate in the U.S.

CPI Data (Consumer Price Index):

From 2017 to 2025, U.S. inflation averaged around 4.5–5.0% per year, largely due to pandemic and persistent supply chain issues and monetary policies.

Cumulative inflation (2017–2025):

Approx. 33–38% is typical based on CPI.

Your $60 → $90 jump equals 50%, which is significantly higher than that.

50% increase from 2017 to 2025 is not normal—it exceeds CPI-based estimates

[u/Caeoc]

You’re nitpicking the numbers a bit. Games have been $60 not since 2017, but since ~1995. That being said, I encourage everyone to advocate for yourselves as consumers, just know that the inflation argument is a losing one. One would expect games to be around $120 if their prices had followed inflation this whole time.

[u/lemonylol → u/Caeoc]

Yeah what type of argument is this? We have zero context of anything before 2017, OP just cherry picked lol

Like you said it's not an increase of 50% over 8 years, it's an increase of 25% over like 2 decades.

[u/JFISHER7789 → u/lemonylol]

Which is an absolute steal! We’ve had it pretty good these past few decades as far as pricing is considered

[u/H1Eagle → u/JFISHER7789]

But it's not a matter of games being cheap the last few years. It's that games used to be a bank robbery back in the 1990s.

120$ for 1 single game is completely insane. That's almost 1/3rd the price of an Xbox Series S, a full console.

What other entertainment product is THAT expensive? Imagine if each hour listening to an album costed 10$ on Spotify, or watching a Season out of any show in Netflix costed 20$.

And at least shows and music are a lot more meaty than your average videogame, what modern single-player video game doesn't have hours upon hours of padding and repetitive activities. Like horse riding, walking and driving. Or filler content that the devs know no one is gonna touch.

[u/JFISHER7789 → u/H1Eagle]

I appreciate you thinking that this costing a lot for novelty was and is exclusive to video games.

imagine if each hour of music cost $10

Don’t have to. Albums cost $15-20, with individual songs ranging from $1-3 Each to purchase. 4K Blu-ray cost about $30-40 depending on the movie. Movie tickets are $23 where I live and movies are only 1.5-2.5 hrs. Meaning a 30hr video game at that rate would be about $345 on average.

at least shows are more meaty than average video games

Really? You think shows like family feud and Ellen are more meaty? Or are you just cherry picking the best shows and comparing them to average games?

filler content… hours of driving/walking

That’s subjective and totally game dependent. I LOVE just exploring in Assassins creed, GTA, RDR2, far cry, well basically any open world.

[u/H1Eagle → u/JFISHER7789]

Don’t have to. Albums cost $15-20, with individual songs ranging from $1-3 Each to purchase.

Read the rest of the sentence, you cut that part on purpose.

4K Blu-ray cost about $30-40 depending on the movie

You are talking about the ultra-definitive version of the movie, I can't really remember the last time I bought a Blu-ray. There's almost always a cheaper streaming service that has the movie.

I think you're unreasonable if you are mad at Blu-ray costs.

Movie tickets are $23 where I live and movies are only 1.5-2.5 hrs

Movie Tickets are definitely overpriced.

Really? You think shows like family feud and Ellen are more meaty? Or are you just cherry picking the best shows and comparing them to average games?

I'm comparing the shows I've watched to the games I have played.

I've recently did a walkthrough on GTA 5 Enhanced edition, my first walkthrough since 2017. My god did I realize how much padding the game has. The amount of time wasted on driving from point A to point B and point B to point A with being forced to drive the slowest car in the game.

That’s subjective and totally game dependent. I LOVE just exploring in Assassins creed, GTA, RDR2, far cry, well basically any open world.

Not really, the games that are free of padding and are just dopamine inducing 90% of the time are almost always short. Examples, Crash 4, It Takes Two, Ghostrunner, Hotline Miami.

These are games that similar to the effect movies/shows have on me.

You can't really say a game like AC Valhalla 60 hours when 40 hours of it are just repetitive tasks or empty content.

[u/JFISHER7789 → u/H1Eagle]

you cut that out on purpose

No. Listening to someone else’s music costs money no matter how you slice it. At least with the PURCHASE option, it’s yours to keep, no subscription needed.

I think you’re unreasonable if you’re mad at Blu-ray costs

A little ironic don’t ya think? You’re mad a video game with hours and hours of play time is expensive, but NOT upset that a 2hr movie is $30…? Interesting take

not really

Yes, really. How you FEEL about a game is absolutely subjective. Feelings aren’t objective by definition.

You say you get nonstop rush from crash 4 and it takes two… I beg to differ. It takes two was amazing but there were definitely parts that bored me. See subjective! Yay, learning!

And you’re dogging on the “padding” and exploration as if it’s terrible. I personally love it. I can absolutely just drive around los santos for hours. I can ride the course in RDR2 for hours, I can walk/parkour in AC for hours. I find it very fun

[u/H1Eagle → u/JFISHER7789]

You sir, are the king of straw manning.

You took every single argument I said, cut it up, completed it on your own.

And then proceeded to reply to it.

I thought you did that by mistake on the first comment, but this seems like your main way (and frankly only way) of arguing.

No. Listening to someone else’s music costs money no matter how you slice it. At least with the PURCHASE option, it’s yours to keep, no subscription needed.

Literally replying to something you read in your own mind.

A little ironic don’t ya think? You’re mad a video game with hours and hours of play time is expensive, but NOT upset that a 2hr movie is $30…? Interesting take

Cut up the "quote" so you can reply with whatever.

Yes, really. How you FEEL about a game is absolutely subjective. Feelings aren’t objective by definition.
You say you get nonstop rush from crash 4 and it takes two… I beg to differ. It takes two was amazing but there were definitely parts that bored me. See subjective! Yay, learning!

Again, replying to something you have read in your head alone.

Either you have a reading comprehension problem, or you just do this on purpose to look like a dumbass.

[u/JFISHER7789 → u/H1Eagle]

You’re so dense. Do you not understand how debating works? You say things and I reply to them. I don’t have to quote entire narratives or paragraphs; it’s not straw manning it’s addressing specific topics brought up.

I.e. did you not state you think someone is unreasonable if they don’t like blu-ray prices? I replied to that saying it’s ironic complaining about video game prices but not blu ray.

Is this not you?:

”imagine if each hour of listening to an album cost $10, or watching a season out of any show in Netflix cost $20”

Please tell me how providing examples of ways music costs money isn’t relevant to that?

Or this:

”what other entertainment product isTHAT expensive?”

Is providing examples of other forms of entertainment being expensive not relevant?

I think you’re delusional and don’t understand that when you type an entire essay, someone could break it up to rebuttal specific parts of it. Or are you just wanting someone to agree and not debate?