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Chart the changing cost of games?

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    Chart the changing cost of games?

    Why did games jump in price?
    On the C64 they were ?1.99 or ?10
    Was it the leap to cartridges (expensive to manufacture) that made the prices leap to ?30-40?
    When did the leap happen. I don't remember.
    Can anyone have a stab at charting av game cost for each gen?

    #2
    8bit games on disc cost a bit more too, I think a lot of Spectrum games were 7-8 pounds for a while but (floppy) disc games were advertised for ?12 or something, maybe more. Can't remember accurately, old game ads would help. Certain cassette titles started costing more in the later years I'm sure, 10 or thereabouts. After cartridges, rather than prices going down as was promised due to cheaper media, CD games cost pretty much the same as cartridges I think, on the 16 bit formats. Edit- also, weren't Atari ST and Amiga games quite a bit more than the 8bit games, still being released at the same time?
    Last edited by monel; 30-03-2012, 07:57.

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      #3
      Used to buy Spectrum cassette tape games for 50p at W.H.Smith

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        #4
        I think there was a time when self published games where pretty cheap say about 50p but there where still higher quality games that where about ?7 upwards this would have been around the late 70s to early 80s. In the mid-80s the carts took off really (NES,Master system) so the price would have reached about ?40 on those then climbed when going forward toward the SNES era. I think the most expensive game I bought was Turok on the N64 in 1997 it was ?70 and that was without the memory save pack.

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          #5
          And now I feel really old, thanks :P

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            #6
            Before the C64, Atari 2600 games were *really* expensive. It's the manufacturing cost, I think.

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              #7
              Originally posted by shinobi7000 View Post
              also, weren't Atari ST and Amiga games quite a bit more than the 8bit games, still being released at the same time?
              IIRC I seem to remember paying ?20 odd for Atari ST games, and trying to pick up bargains at the computers fairs because of the increased prices from the C64.

              Those extra 8-bits cost money.

              Originally posted by Jay View Post
              Before the C64, Atari 2600 games were *really* expensive. It's the manufacturing cost, I think.
              http://old-video-game-ads.tumblr.com/ the Atari 2600 advert in there shows "Cartridges from ?18.95" so at the time pretty pricey.
              Last edited by MartyG; 30-03-2012, 09:14.

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                #8
                So the reason for the price hike to ?40 - was that because of the expense of the carts?
                And then the price never fell down again when it went to CDs.

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                  #9
                  I remember buying Phoenix for the Atari 2600 around '82 for ?30 from John Menzies before the prices dropped right down for the home computer boom.

                  Were Ultimate responsible for the single game on a cassette price hike to a tenner or were there other examples before that? If there are I can't remember them.

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                    #10
                    Ultimate hiked their price when they changed from the standard cassette case to the larger boxes, they were certainly one of the first to do so.

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                      #11
                      It's not just the cost of the media, it's the overall cost to develop the product.

                      Many of the games for the old skool computers were code by just one or two guys in their bedrooms. Whatever money they made was theirs. Move on to the 8-bit consoles and the development teams now consist of, say, 5 to 8 people all working for a real business with real overheads. Nintendo's rediculous licensing costs really didn't help either. Over the following generations development teams had to grow in size and now we're at the point today where they can span a couple of countries and consist of 250 people or so.

                      There's also the huge marketing costs to consider in this now very competitive market.

                      What I find interesting is resurrection of 'bedroom coding' via iOS. It would appear that it is possible to develop a game yourself, sell it for a couple of quid and still make a profit. Obviously you'd still need to consider marketing costs and Apple's 30%, but it shows how cheap games can be without the involvement of retailers, publishers and other middlemen that want their cut.
                      Last edited by _SD_; 31-03-2012, 01:36.

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                        #12
                        I recall PS1 games being ?30 on release.

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                          #13
                          Yeah its not just the cost of the media, though as I said the ROM generation was very costly (much more than today) its other costs including inflation and actually the team sizes have quadrupled at least in this last generation from the SNES/PS/PS2/Gamecube days. However I am not sure the teams need to stay as big as they are.

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                            #14
                            i remember with spectrum games many were made by just one or two people like the oliver twins

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                              #15
                              Bedroom coding never went away, but I do get the point re: IOS games.

                              Ignoring a couple of blips the video game industry has grown (taken more revenue) every year for the last 30 years, from a couple of $billion in the yearly 80s to I think about $80 billion now and the prediction is that it'll carry on growing. I imagine that's why the prices haven't gone up for so many years. Supply and demand. Sell more copies and you can sell for less cash?
                              Last edited by Brad; 30-03-2012, 14:02.

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