The introduction of microtransactions changed the way video games developers, publishers and government regulators looked at the industry forever. And, yes, we’re doing DLCs. Even though a price point seems to have been denied, the price points remain expensive to have been studied and studied. If we were to ask you, what does the best price tag for a video game cost for you? What would you consider a fair price for such a game like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PS5 and Xbox S/X, but it came out on May 18, 2015 – what would you consider a fair price for?

We don’t say that companies shouldn’t be criticized for selling too many postlaunched content. However, some of them deserve the best of the doubt.

Keep on reading the short version of this news.

A vast majority of gamers protested against the price hike of 10 dollars to the actual price of games in recent years. At that time, 60 dollars were considerate the free start price after Sony and Microsoft, the newest era of the Xbox 360 / PS3. The rest of the industry, including Nintendo, had no choice but to follow suit when the biggest players appeared to have reached a new price point.

Interestingly enough, video games were actually cheaper than $60 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and this was largely due to the original PlayStation. Sony forced devs to sell some games for $29.99 at the start, while others were sold for $39.99 and AAA titles went for $49.99. After a few decades of buying the most expensive titles, Nintendo decided to sell it for 74.99 dollars.

As seen on this picture, recently I posted a post that has been in the spotlight (and quite frankly, it was a point of discussion over the internet), the likes of Doom 64, Turok, and Gretzky’s 3D Hockey sold for 74.99 dollars. Between now and now the cheapest games like Mario Kart cost 9.99 euros. On average, the original PlayStation had cheaper titles, and arguably even better ones. It’s no surprise – the original PlayStation outsold the 64 of Nintendo by a big margin (102,49 million vs 32,93 million).

Based on these prices and adjusted for inflation, today’s games “should” sell for at least $60 and $150 at all. He isn’t quite in a solitary situation.

While most games can provide at least a dozen hours of entertainment, paying 70 dollars for the base game doesn’t sound too expensive.

The argument could be made that games were at the time had everything on the first day and you didn’t need to pay extra for expansions and DLCs, and this is largely true but not always the case. Now, you were able to buy and sell games. Since the game’s prices were stable as the other commodities are, paying $150 for a copy of the game, or a physical copy that you could sell, trade, and other collectible items, bonuses in-game, as well as a future game-content.

For example, Elden Ring was awarded the GOTY last year and was considered as the GOAT of gaming, and for only a digital copy. Digital Deluxe edition costs 9.99 dollars, up from the beginning of the season. Finally the most expensive version, the Collector’s Edition, quickly sold out without selling for 889.99 dollars. In exchange, you can buy a copy of Elden Ring, a unique steel book, a 40-page hardcover artbook, a digital copy of the soundtrack, and a 9-inch figurine of Malenia’s most infamous boss.

Other similarly compelling games such as God of War: Ragnarok, priced at the same price as its most expensive edition (the one with a 16-inch replica of Thor’s hammer, among others) going for 260 dollars.

Gaming companies are getting it harder to finance their upcoming projects.

It isn’t easy to forget that the more expensive variants of today’s games, when adjusted against the current prices, come with a lot of content, except the base game. These are limited edition collectible versions for an enthusiast – and not all gamers. Many of us can afford more than $100,000 to get everything that the game has to offer, including a game-book copy.

Today’s video games aren’t expensive – they are cheap.

Even if you consider that some games pack extra content separately, game will almost certainly have to sell for double their current sticker price to match the selling price of games throughout the 90s if adjusted for inflation. To get worse, today’s games cost more and take longer to make. You can also see that, from start to finish, you also have additional expenses such as advertising, publishing, and postlaunch support.

Jason Schreier recently mentioned that starting a new big budget from scratch would literally take up the majority of the current decade, and the game is likely to be ready for the next Xbox and PlayStation console. As soon as it is known that the PlayStation 6 will be in 2028, this means that developers will spend at least the next five years full-time on a video game only so that they may be criticised for selling it for $100.

In such a depressing market, with rising costs and losing revenue, it’s no surprise that so many video game company deals are happening right now and right.

The point we want to make here is that when video games didn’t catch the tick, we shouldn’t be too quick to call out studios for selling more content to make more money.

If we want to give the games we love at full price, it’ll be best to support them.

But if you insist that $70 is enough for a copy of a new game, don’t worry. Microsoft and Sony both have the Xbox Game Pass and the PlayStation Plus. Of these just for two full games, for each year you pay the bill, one will get access to a tinload of video games to a full of cost, some of which are available immediately after launch.