Console Launch Prices Adjusted For Inflation

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That Atari 2600 you pestered your parents into buying you back in 1977 was almost $800. The 3DO your kids kicked and stomped their feet over in 1993? It was $1,127. Kinda makes the new consoles look like a bargain in comparison. Check out the rest of the chart below.
 
Well there's at least 1 problem with this chart. The 32x and sega cd were addons, to play a 32x cd game(and there were a couple) you'd need to include the cost of the genesis, cd, and the 32x.

Of course the biggest problem with the 32x was that the saturn was literally right around the corner. The 3do and neogeo prices are a prime example of "WTF WERE THEY THINKING?"
 
the NEO-GEO and 3DO are perfect examples of how price can negate the attractiveness of superior technology in consoles.
 
DracoDan said:
the NEO-GEO and 3DO are perfect examples of how price can negate the attractiveness of superior technology in consoles.
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Especially considering the NEO-GEO cartridge's cost almost as much as the competing consoles themselves. It wasn't until the NEO-GEO CD came out that it became more affordable.
 
Specifically the Neo-Geo, I just remember how cost prohibitive it was to buy that thing (as least for me during my younger years). I just ended up playing whatever games I liked from their platform in their arcade machines.

That said, a lot of these prices don't match up for me cause they were a lot more expensive in Canada
 
Merc1138 said:
Well there's at least 1 problem with this chart. The 32x and sega cd were addons, to play a 32x cd game(and there were a couple) you'd need to include the cost of the genesis, cd, and the 32x.

Of course the biggest problem with the 32x was that the saturn was literally right around the corner. The 3do and neogeo prices are a prime example of "WTF WERE THEY THINKING?"
Click to expand...

wow, nostalgia trip there. Never did have a 32x but I did score a Sega CDX eventually. (first genesis unit I owned) Still works last I knew, the CD unit's a bit odd though, have to spin the disk before closing the lid.
Even managed to find a pink justifier gun to match the blue one. Cost a pretty penny even way back when I bought it but the thing's not exactly common. Great fun doing a shooting game with two players.
 
Kind of meaningless to adjust for inflation if the data doesn't also take into account the context of living wages. Where people making more money in the early '90's than now, adjusted for inflation? I bet, yes. So inflation is just part of this answer, the other is how much money the avg consumer makes, how high living expenses are, and other factors.

But whatever. Pretty graphs.
 
Sure, prices are not that high compared to past consoles, because we have improved the amount of performance you can buy for your dollar.

I think the more important point to consider is this: there are SO MANY new things you can buy with your more efficient dollar! And many of those devices (smartphones, tablets, set-top-boxes/SoC computers, powerful integrated graphics) were not a factor during any previous console generation.

Putting the console prices in context of their predecessors is a nice gimmick, but the reality is that devices with feature subsets of these new consoles can be had at much more attractive pricepoints. When a device costs you $100-200, it doesn't have to be "everything to everyone" in order to make the sale, which is why Sony and Microsoft face an uphill battle. And never forget that many people think the 360 and PS3 are "good enough," so they have that issue as well.
 
Adjust the prices for actual incomes and the prices won't see so large. Incomes have not kept pace with inflation. Not by a long shot.
 
I remember buying the SNES when I was in high school, $200 back then was a ton of money, plus I bought Final Fantasy 2 with it I mean come on that was the reason I bought the damn thing!
 
Is it right to just ignore that 20 years ago the entire microprocessor industry as a whole was in its infancy and that there weren't multi-billion dollar fabs to mass produce chipsets at much lower cost than those days? Just as HDTV's from 10 years ago cost $6,000, these cost more back in the day because you were early adopters of the industry in general.

These systems might seem like "a great deal", but one would think with the established nature of just the hardware (ignoring all the fringe benefits of advertising + subs + 10x the volume) that they would be cheaper than they are.

Take a gander at this document showing the price of 1gig of memory (multiples of smaller sizes for pre-1gig chip days). Look at how much cheaper they become to manufacture from 1985 to 2006.

http://www.archivebuilders.com/whitepapers/22045p.pdf
1985 - $1 million (at $256.00 per 256bit)
2006 - $32.00 (at $8.00 per 8gigabit)

The NES had 4kb RAM (2 system, 2 video) which equals 16kilobits, so ~$10 per unit in 1983 ($15 in 82, $4 in 85)
The Xbox360 has 512MB RAM (and 10mb edram) which equals 0.5gigabits, so ~$1 per unit ($8 per 4 gigabits in 2006)
 
As many of us remember (hopefully, or I'm getting really old), prices for certain items increased far more quickly than others due to conditions outside of inflation. Fuel prices rose much faster than anyone expected, regulations, tensions in the Middle East, declining reserves/supply issues, and natural disasters (amongst others) were the cause. I remember when a gallon of gas was 99 cents and it wasn't that long ago.
The consumer price index (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm) is the basis of the "exchange rate" shown in this chart is heavily based on energy, food, medical care, and durable goods like clothes and cars. The problem with using this index for something like game consoles is that game consoles are generally bought with disposable income. What did we do when fuel prices went up? We all drove less and bought more fuel efficient cars if we could afford them. What did we do when orange juice prices went up? We drink far less of it. Remember when you were a kid and OJ was always in the refrigerator? Now, I almost never have it unless it's on sale. Home prices increased significantly due to over estimation of value and larger family incomes (two incomes instead of one). In addition, regulations such as in inclusion of ethanol in fuel and efficiency requirements of cars drove prices up. And lets face it, the cost of medical care is so preposterous it's almost comical unless you are the one stuck with the bill.
Things have changed quite a bit since 1980. Family dynamics, industry changes, energy consumption and regulation have deeply impacted what we pay for energy and durable goods. I'd argue that we pay less or about the same for items we would buy with disposable income. Think about how much we paid for music (if you buy it) or a movie on DVD/Blueray. We either pay the same or less.
The question is, if non-discretionary spending has increased, how much of our population FEELS poorer? How much disposable income do we have for an XBOX One? Maybe prices for consoles are relatively low because the need to be...
 
defaultluser said:
Sure, prices are not that high compared to past consoles, because we have improved the amount of performance you can buy for your dollar.
Click to expand...

Unless you count consoles like the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, Playstation, Gamecube...you know, the unpopular ones that nobody had.
 
I'm one of the idiots who built a $4000 gaming machine.
Dual GTX480, SR-2 with Dual Xeons at 3.96ghz, 12GB of RAM, and huge 1920x1080 monitor.

$500 sounds like chump change. Isn't an iPad $500 and plays crappy games?
 
punisher said:
Absolutely. That was a great system.
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Was?! Mine still works. I need to redo the paddles, but all of the carts still fire up without an issue. I have no idea when my Dad bought the system, but it had probably been on the shelves for a couple years by then. I wasn't born when the system launched. He probably got one of theose KMart dicounts, or Sears.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Was?! Mine still works. I need to redo the paddles, but all of the carts still fire up without an issue. I have no idea when my Dad bought the system, but it had probably been on the shelves for a couple years by then. I wasn't born when the system launched. He probably got one of theose KMart dicounts, or Sears.
Click to expand...

I got mine when I was a youngster, not too young though. I had the Atari 2600 and the Atari got put in the closet when the Intellivision came. I played football on it mostly with my brother.

The sad part was I somehow lost it while moving when I was in college. I lost it along with an original Nintendo system I had packed in the same case. I cried when I couldn't find them.

I have a complete factory repair/diagnostic/workshop manual on PDF somewhere if you need it. Let me know.
 
I didn't pay $200 for my Atari 2600, I waited until they came down to $99 or $129, don't remember as it was a long time ago.

Same with my Playstation. Instead of $300, I bought it new in 2000 for $99.

Only console I have that was bought at full price was a Wii, and that was because someone else bought it as a gift.

Might have to pick up a Playstation 3, or Xbox 360 later this year if they get cheap enough :)
 
amddragonpc said:
Shows how worthless real money is. Your credit score is the real currency now ...
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To many people underestimate how important a good credit score is (and how it can save you money)

I bought a new car a month ago. Not only did I negotiate a great price ($1K under dealer invoice), was able to finance the entire amount (including tax & license) for 5 years, at 0%.
 
After my Atari, I had a Colecovision. Actually quite a lot of wasted potential. All but a few games horribly blew but the pieces were there for something decent.
 
I paid $50 ($110 adjusted for inflation) for my Coleco Gemini (Atari 2600 clone) back in the early 1980s. I miss those days. You could buy game cartridges almost everywhere, including the supermarkets and at 7/11. The market was so saturated that sometimes games could be bought for $5 or $10.
 
I think my Apple 2 was the worst offender.
I remember seeing my Dads invoice and it was a rediculous 2100 and that didn't include my 300 Hayes Smartmodem.
 
Sega Saturn also came with 3 free games did it not?

Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop 2, and DAAAAAAAAAAAAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
 
Dreaz said:
Kind of meaningless to adjust for inflation if the data doesn't also take into account the context of living wages. Where people making more money in the early '90's than now, adjusted for inflation? I bet, yes. So inflation is just part of this answer, the other is how much money the avg consumer makes, how high living expenses are, and other factors.

But whatever. Pretty graphs.
Click to expand...

my thoughts exactly, and on anything that shows these types of stats... Just shows us how much we've been fucked over the years...
 
It would be interesting to see these prices also in comparison to the economy. An expensive PS3 when everyone is flush with home equity money is a lot different than an expensive XBone when everyone is broke and out of work.
 
Warrior said:
my thoughts exactly, and on anything that shows these types of stats... Just shows us how much we've been fucked over the years...
Click to expand...

Inflation takes this into account. A TV today is significantly better from a TV from 20 years ago, even if they cost the same inflation adjusted price. So even though someone might be "poorer" today, their standard of living is significantly better. Even the richest person in the world didn't have HDTV 20 years ago.
 
Seventyfive said:
Even the richest person in the world didn't have HDTV 20 years ago.
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Well...they did have home theaters using real film, which is arguably equivalent to 4k resolution in end-user quality.

From a quick google:
It's easier to just talk about the resolution on the original negative and avoid bringing in the resolution of various printing and projection methods, etc. Red has tested Super-35 and generally found it to be, I forgot, 3.2K or 3.5K, something like that.

You could therefore say that if a 24mm wide piece of film negative resolves 3.2K, for example, a 36mm wide piece of film (VistaVision) would resolve 4.8K, and a 52mm wide piece of film (5-perf 65mm Super Panavision / Todd-AO) would resolve 6.9K, and a 70mm wide piece of film (15-perf 65mm IMAX) would resolve 9.3K. However, this ignores some real-world issues like the fact that older medium-format lenses used on large format movie cameras have a lower MTF compared to modern 35mm cine optics (because the larger negatives don't need lenses with high MTF's because if you have more millimeters overall, you don't need to resolve as many lines per millimeter...)

If you really want to be crude, you could say that you lose maybe half the resolution of the negative once it is printed through dupe elements and thrown onto a theater screen, which is why 2K projection seems on par with the best 35mm print projection, and 4K projection would be similar to 70mm projection, but it therefore also means that IMAX digital projection should be at least 6K...

Now don't confuse measurable resolution with optimal scanning, mastering, and archiving resolution -- if 35mm film really resolves 3.2K, then in reality you really should be scanning it at more like 4K to 6K to avoid aliasing, which is why most people round things off to 4K as being ideal for posting 35mm photography... but perhaps 6K would be better for scanning, and then you should finish at 4K.
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jadams said:
Sega Saturn also came with 3 free games did it not?

Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop 2, and DAAAAAAAAAAAAYTONAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Click to expand...

Virtual Cop on Saturn with the Gun. Nothing like at the time except at an arcade, but better.

Got burglarized when the fire dept had us evacuate due to a fire.

I miss that Saturn.
 
Pussy Toys-R-Us would not sell the Saturn with the Gun. I hope they burn in hell.
 
Still have an un-opened copy of "Night Trap" for the Sega CD before the censors starting crying fowl.

A little history nugget: The 3DO was the first system to have The Need for Speed on it and it was much more sim based back then. I sure enjoyed that system and currently, it sits in my attic with all games and controllers. There were two versions, a Panasonic version and a Goldstar version IIRC.

Need to get into my attic soon...
 
nutzo said:
To many people underestimate how important a good credit score is (and how it can save you money)

I bought a new car a month ago. Not only did I negotiate a great price ($1K under dealer invoice), was able to finance the entire amount (including tax & license) for 5 years, at 0%.
Click to expand...

How is saving .005% (if the car was $20,000 and you saved $1k off invoice) from a car that is worth 62% of it's value three years after you purchased it? Get it 3 years old and buy it in cash to save 38%.

A credit score is a rating of how profitable you are to a bank. The people I know that have the best credit scores live from paycheck to paycheck.

By the way, dealers often pay thousands under invoice, but dealers don't make much on new cars anyway.
 
I wish my 3do was worth $1127. Flawless version of super street fighter 2 turbo just like the arcade made me cream my pants back in the day.
 
aquabusa said:
How is saving .005% (if the car was $20,000 and you saved $1k off invoice) from a car that is worth 62% of it's value three years after you purchased it? Get it 3 years old and buy it in cash to save 38%.

A credit score is a rating of how profitable you are to a bank. The people I know that have the best credit scores live from paycheck to paycheck.

By the way, dealers often pay thousands under invoice, but dealers don't make much on new cars anyway.
Click to expand...

Sorry, not .005%, it's 5%, oops.
 
pxc said:
I paid $50 ($110 adjusted for inflation) for my Coleco Gemini (Atari 2600 clone) back in the early 1980s. I miss those days. You could buy game cartridges almost everywhere, including the supermarkets and at 7/11. The market was so saturated that sometimes games could be bought for $5 or $10.
Click to expand...
Alot of shit games though like near unplayable crap that the only way to filter them was though word of mouth or magazines.
 
aquabusa said:
How is saving .005% (if the car was $20,000 and you saved $1k off invoice) from a car that is worth 62% of it's value three years after you purchased it? Get it 3 years old and buy it in cash to save 38%.

A credit score is a rating of how profitable you are to a bank. The people I know that have the best credit scores live from paycheck to paycheck.

By the way, dealers often pay thousands under invoice, but dealers don't make much on new cars anyway.
Click to expand...

Not $1K off MSRP (i.e. sticker), but $1k off dealer cost. Of course I know that dealer cost is not really their cost, but that's another story)
The price was actually $3200 off sticker, or more than 10%

As for buying a 3 year old car, good luck finding a popular 3 year old Japanese car for 38% off, around here you’d be lucky to find 25% off.
Then you find out why someone dumped a car that was only 3 years old.

I’ll stick to buying new, taking proper care of it, and driving it for 10+ problem free years.

People living paycheck to paycheck usually don't have the best credit scores, because one mistake/problem and they blow thier score.
 
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