I was arguing with someone on this site not too long ago that the cost of games has gone WAY down over the decades! And it has, once you consider inflation. Check out the huge prices for early game consoles! However, the most expensive console of all time is... can you guess? It's not the Neo-Geo (2nd) place -say hello to the 3D0.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/10/04/ … -inflation

Of course, the biggest cost was games. Back when NES games were near $80 which is $180 today!

NES games were never near $80. Some SNES ones were though.

I remember some SNES and N64 games reaching that. Even more if they required the expansion pack.

I remember forking over $70 for Mega Man X2 because of its Cx4 chip. Then there was $80 for the neutered version of Street Fighter Alpha 2 on the SNES when the next gen versions were $40.

Actually, yes they were. Retail price was often $60 per game.Some were higher and some (particularly "rarer" nes games) were far more than that. Although an average game might not have been $80, but even at $60 that's a heck of a lot more than you're paying today.

NES games never struck me as particularly expensive back in the day, but some SNES and N64 games certainly were, some of which Ashley already mentioned.

Console gaming has really never been cheaper than it is now, and I don't understand why so many people are acting as if it's more expensive than ever before.

Agreed. However, you can say that the lack of price increase lead to the advent of paid DLC and such which may more-or-less balance the equation out.

I'm not calling BS on this (I never bought a NES game at retail as I got the system super late as a hand-me-down) but are you sure some retailers weren't just jacking up the price of certain games? I remember the toy store in the mall when I was a kid doing that to SNES games. You could buy the same games at Wal Mart for $10~$15 cheaper than the toy store. Granted, Wal Mart could probably probably get a better deal from the distributer and Wal Mart probably didn't need to make as much profit, but I don't know it that justified the entire increase. I know even as a kid I rarely bought anything there because I couldn't justify it.

Maybe. Quite likely, I think Toys R Us was notorious for that...if memory serves.

I remember NES games being $50 each. This was 1988 - 1990. I didn't see higher and variable prices until I started buying SNES games with my own money.

Agreed. I remember the local "Toy Town" doing this as stated above.

Why is it if you want toys at a good price you're better off AVOIDING toy stores?

Kiddie City was my go to place until it closed versus Toys R Us or Kay Bee Toys which often had inflated prices.  It was also the only place I remember selling Neo Geo games, which I think were $200 or $300.