Why Video Game Prices NEED to Change
An Overview
Video Game prices have been going down year after year when adjusted for inflation. That begs the question of why is this happening, especially when video games are getting more and more expensive to produce.
The Data
For some perspective and overall background knowledge, I have formed a chart that takes data from here over the historical prices of action video games.
| 1982 | $34.99 | $84.33 |
| 1988 | $44.99 | $88.63 |
| 1990 | $67.95 | $120.95 |
| 1992 | $59.99 | $99.58 |
| 1993 | $64.99 | $104.63 |
| 1996 | $59.99 | $88.79 |
| 1997 | $79.99 | $115.99 |
| 2000 | $79.97 | $107.96 |
| 2003 | $49.99 | $63.49 |
| 2006 | $49.99 | $57.99 |
| 2008 | $59.99 | $64.79 |
| 2010 | $59.99 | $64.19 |
As you can see, the price of video games has been going down. The key here is that we need to take inflation into account. A video game from 1982 would cost $84.33 today. A video game sold in 2010 shows that a video game costs $60 at retail and is now valued at $64.19 today.
The price of video games has remained constant at $60 since 2008. While the data set does not have the numbers for years after 2010, as I am sure everyone knows, games are still $60 at retail. This is a real issue because, as the data shows, the cost of a game at retails never remains constant for more than a few years. It has been over 10 years since the last price change.
This is a Real Issue
The main issue that I see is that video games have gotten exponentially more expensive to make since then. We have gone from low resolution to 4k and beyond today. Yet, the retail price has stayed the same. This leads to the problem of video game companies finding other ways to supplement production costs, which I will get into later.
Consequently, the issue of how we fix this is brought up.
This Issue Causes this Other Issue
Fun Ensues
The static video game retail prices has caused video game producers to find other ways to supplement the massive cost of making a triple A video game. We have paid DLC, expansion packs, and loot boxes.
This leads into the debate of the ethics of selling what is essentially a half-baked game at full price to consumers. I do not want to delve into that rabbit hole in this post. If you would like me to cover it in the future, make sure to upvote this post and follow me on my Steemit and my Twitter to let me know that you want to see that.
Shameless plugs aside, I will pivot to what I propose to fix this issue and hopefully halt the need of these supplements for producers.
The Fix
Simply raise the price of video games. Simple as that. If we raise the price to $70, we will still be paying the least amount of money that we ever have been, excluding the current $60 trend. Furthermore, even if we raise it to $80 a game, we will still be paying the lowest price ever.
If we raise the price by $10 or $20, I firmly believe that game companies will have not need for loot boxes, DLC, or lootboxes. With that being said, there is a counter argument.
The Counter Argument
"Please Pay $0.99 to Open the Next Post
that has a chance of being this very post.... "
In all seriousness, if you want me to cover the opposing argument to this, please upvote this post and resteem it! Helps out a lot and you'll get to see a little bit more of my content! If you want to go read a lot more of my content, make sure to follow me, @N1ghtmareT, both on Steemit and my Twitter
Make sure to follow @gagegaminggroup for more content as well!
Article written by N1ghtmareT
Congratulations @gagegaminggroup! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPHi, do you want to earn money $$$ while playing a game?
Check my post to find out more:
https://steemit.com/ethereum/@stevekelly/who-wants-a-chance-of-making-thousands-of-dollars-in-ethereum-aethia-join-now-or-never-last-12-hours-free-eggs