• Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
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    2 days ago

    The thing that is incredibly frustrating for me is the rising cost of games. Nintendo of all companies is starting the big push for raised game prices. Frankly, I can’t afford that. It was a stretch for games prior to this. But now I can’t justify it.

    Games are currently $80 CAD. In some rare cases $90CAD. If they were bumped up by inflation from 2019 to today. Games would roughly be $96.Still hurts, but alright, sure, I get it.

    But Nintendo wants to jack up games to $115 CAD. That’s a massive jump of $35 or 43% if my math is correct. And somehow, people seem to be able to afford this? It feels like I’m trapped in some kind of bubble where I’m just working poor while everyone else is making their money somehow go much further than I can.

    I’m working full time, but I am supporting my family. I don’t have kids. I make well above minimum wage. I just don’t get how people are making this work unless they’re all just taking on extreme levels of debt

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      2 days ago

      The top 10% of the population now accounts for over 50% of all economic activity. They have a level of income and reserved cash that is hard to comprehend and that just starts at $250,000 US salary and goes up from there.
      Those people are spending so freely and so completely it’s practically the entire economy and we are forced to compare ourselves to them.

      The extra annoying part is that in a population of 350million people in the US, 10% is still about 35 million people. So there is more than enough of them to compare to and for companies to aim at.

      The 90% of us are the working poor and it’s not that others are stretching their money more they either just don’t notice or care to look or have decided they have enough to spend freely without any consideration of whether they can afford it.

    • smeg@feddit.uk
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      2 days ago

      Resist the FOMO, don’t buy a game just because it’s brand new and they paid for enough marketing that everyone’s talking about it. Go through your backlog, replay your favourites, find some cheap indies or second hand classic or free giveaways. Nobody can force you to pay through the nose for games and there’s more choice than ever before!

      • Megaman_EXE@beehaw.org
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        2 days ago

        Oh for sure. I usually wait 1-3 years before buying games so that I can grab em on sale. It’s really quite rare that Nintendo games go on sale, though. So it’s kinda tough when you want to eventually play them.

        I’ll sometimes buy games new, but as it is, most of my purchases are during sales. I’ve been mostly playing old titles. It just surprises me when I see statistics of Nintendo running out of pre-orders etc.

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      The game prices I’m ok with. When I was a kid, video games cost $70 CAD, and that’s almost $200 now. I’m perfectly OK with going back to buying fewer games. I have too many of them I shouldn’t have bought in the first place.

      I’m wildly upset with the console price, in no small part because Nintendo and other electronics manufacturers seem to be trying to smooth over the shock of Dorito Don’s tariffs by increasing prices globally.

      The Americans made their own bed. I’m not willing to lie in it with them.

        • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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          1 day ago

          Oh man, 2011… I’m a millennial, and even I was already out of college in 2011. My ‘kid’ games were $80 USD in the 90s. Here’s an article from 2014 that someone made about how insane N64 game prices were.

          Star Fox 64 – $79.95 (Source: GamePro #106) - 1997

          GoldenEye 007 – $69.95 (Source: GamePro #108) - 1997

          Super Mario 64 – $66.99 (Source: GamePro #97) - 1996

          According to the CPI Inflation Calculator, $80 USD in 1997 is $160 today.

        • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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          1 day ago

          It’s a different example but Super Street Fighter II for the SNES was CAD$99.99 in the 1994 Sears Wishbook which is CAD$191 in today dollars.

        • tal
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          2 days ago

          I think that you guys may have been kids in different decades.

        • ErableEreinte@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          The only way I get to roundabout $200 now is if they are talking about 1983/84, but the NES hadn’t even released in NA back then, so that’s somewhat unlikely?