Game Prices in the 90's

[SG854]

Saw these pictures at a Twitter thread from a Toys R Us catalog.

Don't forget to count inflation. $70 dollars for MK3, NBA Hangtime, and Street Fughter Alpha 2 was about $110 to $125 in today's dollars. And count the fact that minimum wages were alot lower in the 90's. Games were a struggle to afford back then.


Disc games for ps1 also seems to be cheaper then cartridge games. And some games have a coupon price applied to them, normally more expensive.

 

[mightymuffy]

Don't forget to count inflation. $70 dollars for MK3, NBA Hangtime, and Street Fughter Alpha 2 was about $110 to $125 in today's dollars. And count the fact that minimum wages were alot lower in the 90's. Games were a struggle to afford back then.


Disc games for ps1 also seems to be cheaper then cartridge games. And some games have a coupon price applied to them, normally more expensive.

CDs cheaper than cartridges, well who'd have thunk it..... The switch to disc based media did allow for cheaper prices, and the ability to target more people that not only noticed games were now more mature, but also more affordable... thus the games market grew to a larger extent than the Gen/SNES could ever hope to achieve.
= more money

Hell you can go back to the Atari VCS where a copy of Superman would set you back $40, that was 1980: so the prices you're showing were comparatively cheap there... Now a case can be said for incremental rise per gen, starting with the PS2 era, which MIGHT have resulted in less of an outcry at the PS5 software rrp, but would a $10 per game hike have made the PS2 still as popular as it was (and therefore the games market as large as it currently is?). I very much doubt it.

 

[Deleted User]

games were more expensive but they also didn't massively overmonetize after you already bought them, as well as launching incredibly broken making you wait up to a year before the game is actually playable. it's either it's playable or you sue the company for releasing a broken game since they can't really patch it lol

 

[DaFixer]

Funny to see those old pictures.
I remember that back in the day N64 where more expensive then Playstation games.
Because off the memory chips.