For those that don't know or do not remember. Cartridge based games had no set price. Back in the 8-bit/16-bit/N64 days, any game could range from $40-$90 or $100. RPGs tended to be $90-$100. Neo Geo games were even worse, because you were literally getting the arcade board in a big ass cartridge. Those games could go anywhere from $100.00 (the cheapest you could possibly get) to $350+. Think about that. Yeah.
Sony is the one that started the standard $50 price tag and it was fair and usually reasonable. Then the HD era happened and everyone wanted $60. I called bullshit on it back when I was 17, and that still stands today. I remember some Game Stop employee was trying make pathetic corporate apologizing excuses for the first price hike. Those used to be full games until corporate greed happened, and most were nothing but shell prices or boringly bare minimum entry. The whole inflation excuse for the last two gens is bullshit, because games are cheaper to make, but the big boys at top want it all and make up any bullshit to get it. But they keep making the same "Games are expensive or too expensive to make" and then keep getting all of these bonuses, giving nothing to those making the game, while crying wolf and playing the fucking victim. It's pathetic. Especially when most of the games ain't worth the disc they're printed on in AAA industry.
Especially since these days the vast majority of games are sold digitally, which removes all the costs involved with an actual physical disc or cartridge. This means that the overhead expense for any individual game is much much lower now than it used to be and has been for a long time. The overhead is even less if they sell the game from their own online stores instead of having to give a kickback to Steam or Epic or whatever.
The cost of video games of all kinds and platforms should have plummeted the moment that this became possible for this reason. However, most stores for digital downloads will sell games for just as much as they would if you went to a brick and mortar store to get them. Also, since they can make copies in potentially infinite quantities with so little comparitive cost per unit as to effectively be no cost inflation effecting the overhead isn't a factor. The reason they didn't lower the price after digital downloads became possible and are now looking to raise the price further is because they are greedy and think they can get away with it which they can, pure and simple.
Graphics are also the biggest development expense by far for video games. The game industry should be freezing graphics where they are and focusing upon making that same level of graphics faster, cheaper, and easier instead of continually trying to jack the graphics up. Some of the most graphically intensive games even just this generation are very close to photorealistic as it is, they can't make it much better than it is now. I fully expect that when they have actually reached that level within a console generation or two they'll start doing exactly that since there's nowhere left for them to go.
However, they're not going to stop increasing graphics like would be sensible, because the industry cares only about catering to casual gamers. The industry knows that casual gamers by definition don't actually care at all about the quality or even price of the games they are playing, only about having something to pass the time. Therefore they keep jacking up the graphics because they know the only thing that matters to their actual target audience is whatever is shiny enough to catch their attention.
People like us who actually give a damn about the quality and price of their video games haven't been the target audience for a long time, if we ever were. People love to say "JUST DON'T BUY IT THEN!!!" but we already do until because of casual gamer support it becomes industry wide and as such we end up having no actual choice in the matter but to buy if we still want to play video games at all. The industry can get away with blatant exploitative business practices because casual gamers support it and the rest of us get royally screwed over because of these people. We'll whine, complain, and boycott but in the end the industry just doesn't give a crap about us.
en.wikipedia.org
