Legend of Zelda and other big name NES titles were $60 USD back in the mid to late 80s. That's over $170 today. Average NES games were $40 back then, which is still around $115 today. Discounted $20-$25 games are closer to today's $60-$70 standard edition titles.

Yes, they were cartridges with chips back then, but prices are a lot better now for a game. Today's $100+ games are for the ultra/deluxe editions.

That said, I usually don't buy games at launch unless it's something from like Rockstar.

[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A direct inflation conversion like that is not invalid, but it lacks a lot of context. Games might have been more expensive back then, but everything else was orders of magnitude cheaper. People were buying homes and starting families as young adults back then. Now many in that bracket live check-to-check and struggle to put food on the table. It stings a lot more.

also to clarify: I was using Canadian dollars. Major releases are around one hundred bucks here when adding tax, give or take a little.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip -1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Now do factor in the growth of the market and also the price to produce a physical copy and digital, the market share between physical copy, and also the bonus the CEO get each year.

[–] giantofthenorth@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

So cool thing. Nobody has to care about inflation and we can all be mad and should actively boycott 70$ games so the price goes back to 60$.