[CE02]

Great breakdown, enjoyable read. I think it highlights why more and more tech firms are hiring employees with psychology and economics backrounds. The attention economy combined with the ever-growing presence of a razor and blades style market with in-game purchases in pay-to-win games is insane. I understand it from a profitability perspective. In addition it allows for more enduring cashflows.

From a less direct perspective I remember vividly when my mom would be shook at the idea of a $30 Pokemon game for the DS. Now we pay $60 for a game and expected to pay up to $60 in DLC's not including ingame currency purchases. Oh how times have changed.

[frumper]

I remember a few SNES games being $79 at release. One example I remember buying was Street Fighter II.

[_puk]

But that came in a nice metal tin :)

I can remember having to go halves on it for my Xmas present, as I think it was well outside the norm price wise.

Never regretted that purchase though! Unlike a lot of the overpriced half finished pre-order games we get nowadays..

[roskelld]

Oh that tin! I was so excited with my purchase--having saved up for months to get it at launch--that I missed my stop on the bus home. I had to get off about a mile away and ran to my SNES like I'd never ran before.

[dfxm12]

Carts got up to like $80. After PSX came out, disc-based game prices trended down towards $50, and seem to now be going up to $60.

[CE02]

I’m really outing how young I am…

[nerdponx]

I think DLC is a matter of inflation. publishers don't want to raise sticker prices, but their input costs are actually increasing, so they need to increase prices directly somehow.

Also, expansion packs for AAA games have always been a thing, and it's always felt kind of painful to buy them.

[bentley]

Another reason to produce DLC is that it keeps market attention on your existing game (thus diverting eyeballs from your competitors) without having to devote the resources required to develop a whole new game since most of the base is provided by the previously finished game.

[CE02]

I think it’s the pain more than anything of paying $60+ for a game only to have paid expansions and in game currency.

[em500]

SNES and N64 games were usually $50-$60 in the 1990s, when salaries where a lot lower.