America finally defeats the Japanese

[BrawlMan]

Technically it was underpriced by about $230 or so but yeah

Correction he got his for $300 at the time. The $50 was a two year warranty.

Sure it was basically a Cadillac of a console with stuff like Linux, full backwards compatibility and a Folding @ Home research app, but they had to fight tooth and nail, offer free online, and have their first party devs squeezing blood from rocks to make their exclusives stand out enough to gain steam and solid footing again. The clever ad campaign with what’s his name didn’t hurt either.

Kaz and Mark Cerny were a godsend in terms of leadership. Not so sure about Shawn Layden though.

I can appreciate that to an extent and the individuals who tried. It still does not change the fact that Sony higher ups did nothing or somewhat mocked 3rd party developers asking for help. While usually being more than helpful for 1st party guys, the 3rd party guys might as well had gotten a big right up the ass. The free online went bye-bye during 8th gen, because Microsoft charges for online, and so can we. The PS+ went from $50 to $60 when they promised not to do it. They still have not done price drops on their controllers since the PS2 era, because Microsoft rarely ever bothered. The same applies to Nintendo too when it comes to price dropping nearly nothing. And now Sony & Microsoft is going to be charging $70 up the fucking wazoo and claiming games are expensive to make. When I last checked the whole games can range anywhere from $40-$100 was the cartridge days. Those days are long gone. Sony started the standard $50 with PS1 games and it fucking worked. It was a nice and even balance. The first price hike was justified because we're going in HD. Even back then when I found out about it, I still called it bullshit. The fact that you're not even getting the full package in most of the AAA gaming space, sours it even further now.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Correction he got his for $300 at the time. The $50 was a two year warranty.



I can appreciate that to an extent and the individuals who tried. It still does not change the fact that Sony higher ups did nothing or somewhat mocked 3rd party developers asking for help. While usually being more than helpful for 1st party guys, the 3rd party guys might as well had gotten a big right up the ass. The free online went bye-bye during 8th gen, because Microsoft charges for online, and so can we. The PS+ went from $50 to $60 when they promised not to do it. They still have not done price drops on their controllers since the PS2 era, because Microsoft rarely ever bothered. The same applies to Nintendo too when it comes to price dropping nearly nothing. And now Sony & Microsoft is going to be charging $70 up the fucking wazoo and claiming games are expensive to make. When I last checked the whole games can range anywhere from $40-$100 was the cartridge days. Those days are long gone. Sony started the standard $50 with PS1 games and it fucking worked. It was a nice and even balance. The first price hike was justified because we're going in HD. Even back then when I found out about it, I still called it bullshit. The fact that you're not even getting the full package in most of the AAA gaming space, sours it even further now.

This kinda helps put things into perspective -

The Cost of Gaming Since the 1970s | TechRaptor

The cost of games is a debate that comes up quite regularly, so we took some time to analyze the cost of games now vs the 1970's.

techraptor.net

Now admittedly, wages haven’t exactly kept up with inflation, but the work pool is a hell of a lot larger now too, similar to the size of development teams working on modern games. Looking back, it’s pretty tough to justify SNES games costing nearly $120 in today’s dollars. Makes it kinda seem like gaming was a luxury hobby back then.

 

[BrawlMan]

Looking back, it’s pretty tough to justify SNES games costing nearly $120 in today’s dollars. Makes it kinda seem like gaming was a luxury hobby back then.

SNES RPGs got it the worst when it came to pricing back then. Genesis RPGs too, though not as much. Those games would cost $90.00 to $100.00

I rememeber finding these scans of old Sears catalouges and one of them had the holiday launch of the genesis. When Golden Axe first released, the game was $79.99. A game that can be beaten in half an hour if you are good enough. Most of are Sega games we got on a sale. This was at it's worst in the N64 era, because while most PS1 games costed $50 or less, you did not know what the price would be for N64 games. Some would be $50, others would be $60, and others would be sometimes $70+. Once again, especially the rpgs.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

SNES RPGs got it the worst when it came to pricing back then. Genesis RPGs too, though not as much. Those games would cost $90.00 to $100.00

I rememeber finding these scans of old Sears catalouges and one of them had the holiday launch of the genesis. When Golden Axe first released, the game was $79.99. A game that can be beaten in half an hour if you are good enough. Most of are Sega games we got on a sale. This was at it's worst in the N64 era, because while most PS1 games costed $50 or less, you did not know what the price would be for N64 games. Some would be $50, others would be $60, and others would be sometimes $70+. Once again, especially the rpgs.

I think the highest priced ones also had that expansion pack thing, because there were so many MB’s in those carts. Off the top of my head I remember paying I think $80/pc for Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, Perfect Dark and KI: Gold. All were great games, but geez Nintendo. That’s what made PlayStation’s/Saturn’s CD format so appealing, being way cheaper with way more data capacity.