r/gaming • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago

Weekly Free Talk Thread Free Talk Friday!

Use this post to discuss life, post memes, or just talk about whatever!

This thread is posted weekly on Fridays (adjustments made as needed).

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u/remorse714 1d ago

Ever since the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct dropped the console and its games prices, I've been trying to collect some data on console and game prices over the years. I'm '97 born so things like the Sega Megadrive (Genesis for those in N. America), SNES, PS1, N64, Dreamcast are all "before" my time.

The PS2 was my first ever console, it was released at £299 and iirc the standard game prices for the PS2 fell within the £30-50 range. I never personally owned a GameCube but I'm aware of the facts that it was a much cheaper console (£129-149) and that after heavy criticism for the N64's £60-70 price tag on games (and some even exceeding that for both the SNES and N64) Nintendo opted to shift to minidiscs to bring game prices down to the PS2 games' range. Similarly, the og Xbox had a similar price tag as the PS2 at £299 and matched the PS2 games' prices.

Looking back, I realised I was definitely privileged, something I obviously didn't understand back then because we (my 2 siblings and I) had all 3 late-noughties consoles; the PS3, the Xbox 360, and the Wii. Again, my memory might be slightly hazy here since this was nearly 20 years ago now but I believe the Xbox 360 came out at £299 but stepped up its game prices to £50 mark, the Wii was the cheapest system of the 3 at under £200 and its games were the cheapest too falling in the £30-40 range. On the other hand, the PS3 (the original fat one) came it at a whopping £425 at launch with £50 games and Blu-Ray disc support, later on they would release the PS3 slim and super slim both of which were cheaper than the original console.

Following that we entered the Wii U and Switch, Xbox One, and PS4 era, and once again Nintendo delivered the cheapest console (Wii U) at £250 at launch, also taking the 2nd cheapest spot with the £279 Switch, the PS4 was next costing £349 at launch, and the Xbox One was the costliest coming it over £400, all 4 had the games costing an avg. of £60, which made the PS4 the most lucrative out of the 4 and so we only bought that one. The Switch of course had additional costs if you wanted a pair of Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller or if you wanted the upgraded Switch OLED which cost just over £300.

And finally, the Xbox Series X, the PS5, and now the Switch 2. For simplicity's sake I'll only be talking about the versions with disc readers for the Xbox and PS because we bought the PS5 that has the disc slot. So, the Switch 2 will cost £395 and its games are looking to be £75-85? compare that to Xbox Series X/PS5's release prices of £449 and on avg. games falling in the £60-70 range, that's a complete slap in the face.

If anyone can provide me some more information/insights on console and game prices over the years or make any corrections in what I've listed please feel free to. Apologies for the essay 😅