Just saw this online. Why were SNES games so expensive? Was this

Cartridges

>>4064027

Wow. I never realized how much money the games were back then. Unbelievable.

If it's the cartridges as the reason for the prices, then why are some of the games only $39?

>>4064025
special chips plus carts was more expensive

>>4064030
they suck or are budget titles

>>4064030
Because the prices aside from the cartridges sank. Clearly this advert is from late 96 so the new games cost $70 while older ones are reduced.

>>4064025
I didnt realize the Super Gameboy was that cheap in 96~

I remember Strider for the Genesis being $70 when it came out. Most RPGs were $70 or more during the 16-bit era. Shining Force II was $80. Phantasy Star 4 was $99.99 at Babbages.

>>4064025
Because despite all the baby tears about how expensive memetendo games are on ebay most are still much cheaper now than they were new.

Sports games with a pro athletes name attached to the title where the most expensive, be it SNES or Genesis. They where usually 80 to 90 dollars. Gaming has gotten cheaper after you factor inflation.

>>4064025
I remember only being able to rent games because of the stupid prices.
One of my friends got Chrono Trigger and FFIII at the same time back when they were about $64 each.

I miss the days of $15 controllers. Now they're more expensive than games themselves.

I remember my dad buying Ultima for the nes for about 80 u.s. dollars, likewise, he bought me strider for genesis which was also around 80 or 90 dollars. None of my co workers believe me when I explain that games are cheaper now than ever.

>>4064239
Are they really, though? Remember back then you at least got a complete game. We now live in the era of DLC where after the core game, map packs, season passes, unlockable characters/weapons/cosmetics/etc, and other micro-transaction bullshit, a "complete" game can easily break $100 or more.

>>4064030
kek in japan new superfamicon games costed like 100 -120 bucks in 1995-1996

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>>4064025
compare it to pc games at the time most where $40

>>4064130

This was the reason why Block Buster was such a great successful for so long. Expensive games and expensive VHS titles made it very attractive for stores to purchase them and rent them out, and attractive for consumers to rent them once before buying their own copy IF they want to replay/rewatch

>>4064025
>>4064030
Those games were new. Older games were $40 and sometimes less. LttP for example got price cut pretty quickly.

>>4064242
Yeah, that's a good point, I didn't consider it because I almost never indulge in dlc. I'm a physical media type of guy, at least regarding games. But to your point, I had to buy the witcher 3 twice to own the dlc on disc, so 120 dollars for the complete game was expensive

>>4064308
>400+ dollars for a CD ROM drive

>>4064356
You can see why the threads that have kids saying saying pirating was prevalent in the 90s go to shit now.

>>4064359
floppies where the go to piracy media in the early 90s

>>4064373
Which is fine for PCs. Consoles not so much. The latter being the threads I was talking about.

>>4064242
It just depends on the game really. I know its not retro but take Dark Souls 3. $60 with 2 $15 DLCs is a $90 game in total. But the $90 DS3 with 2 DLCs, despite being shorter than the other souls games, is still a lot longer/has a lot more content than a lot of SNES/genesis games.

>>4064025
Because Nintendo had to stick enhancement chips in them because the base SNES hardware was shit.

Nintendo are literally snake oil salesmen.

>>4064245
nips let themselves get gouged to this day for awful "if it's cheap, it's probably inferior" reasons (and even for those who don't subscribe to that, it's pushed prices up, making standard prices oddly high)
a full anime box set in the US costs as much as two fucking episodes on BD in Japan would in some cases

>>4064406
>anime is expensive
Japs want it expensive. Most anime that gets released is the superior version of the show. Americans don't really fanboy around shows or movies like Japs do. They're casuals just into the show because it's the current hip thing.

It's pretty difficult to find anything in Japan that's expensive just to be expensive. Talking consumer shit here and not fads or fashion. Same in America.

>>4064356
yeah, that's to be expected
CD was some cutting edge stuff back in the day, high-speed laser based media with over half a gigabyte of storage
also, computer everything was kind of expensive, the machine my dad bought for the family was nearly $4000 in 1994 or 1995 -- which was a bit of a shame, since computer prices cratered from like 1997 onward, and approached modern prices for "relatively current" hardware for the day in the early 2000s

hell, there's a reason early Playstations had drive issues -- Sony used the cheapest 2x drives they could get, without considering how typical game disc accesses would affect the things (along with other cost-cutting decisions, but that was a big one)

>>4064416
>since computer prices cratered from like 1997 onward, and approached modern prices for "relatively current" hardware for the day in the early 2000s
$2k-$4k was standard all the way up to the early 2000s. Had some garbage e machines that were cheaper.
Now a days $600 is considered expensive til you get to gaming computers.

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>>4064375
?

>>4064030
Bigger ROM and/or special chips = higher manufacturing cost.

>>4064457
Everyone had one right, champ? Just ignore that most of those came out when 5thgen was already going.

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>>4064327
This is the only new game they ever bought me for SNES. Only because it was the cheapest game out a Toy Liquidator store at the Outlet Mall.

I still loved it and played it until I beat it. Actually took about 3 years to beat it on hard.

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>>4064042
>>4064308
Yeah, I remembered when Strider for the Genesis came out, it was $90USD at Toys 'R Us. I remember preordering Chrono Trigger (my first ever preorder) at Babbages and it was almost $70USD. At the same Babbages, I got the disk (no CD-ROM Talkie, couldn't afford the drive) Sam & Max: Hit the Road for about $40 when it was new. PC was cheaper. Eventually Playstation games were the cure when the average price of a new game was $40USD. At least that's how it was in the middle of nowhere USA.


>>4064221
Same, My 2600, NES, SNES came with 2 controllers, and additional stock controllers were only $15. Genesis had the mail-in deal to get a 2nd game and 2nd controller for free with system purchase. Since I come from those olden days, it is so hard for me to see prices of modern controllers at $60-$70.

>>4064457
I've never seen one in real life, maybe pirating was big on the west coast I dunno. But in middle America where I grew up, pirating was almost nonexistent. The exception to this was Saturn.

>>4064468
>>4064395
To be fair, Moore's law caused prices for expansion hardware to predictably fall during a console's lifetime, lessening the impact of the additional cost, allowing advances in hardware to be channeled to the consumer once affordable. It was all calculated.

>>4064640
>average price of a new game was $40USD
Platinum were 30€ here after 2 years. Normal games were 50 to 70€.
That is why everyone here had a pirate mod.

>>4064239
strider was expensive cause it was one of the first games on an 8mb cart

>>4064130
>>4064327
Yeeep. Only SNES game I owned for the longest time was Super Mario All-Stars because of this.

Genesis Virtua Racing cost $100 new in Canada
Big jrpgs were usually $70-80

lots of people are referencing the manufacturing costs, which certainly play a part, but I'm not so sure about that.

AAA Games today cost WAY more money to actually develop

>>4064720
>Platinum were 30€ here after 2 years. Normal games were 50 to 70€.
which country? you were ripped off. In Spain the Platinum line were the equivalent of 18/20€ while newer titles were priced around 40-45€, a bit more for multi-disc games. Dreamcast had very similar prices. Then the PS2 was released and we came back to 60€ a piece and hasn't gone down ever since

>>4064025

Chrono Trigger was $80 new at Toys R Us when it came out where I lived in the US.

Most every other game was $60. It was only in the PS1 days that game prices took a drop, they hung around $50 or so, and eventually dipped to the $40's. PS2 brought games back to the $60 range, where they've hung around ever since. Of course, money is worth way less now, so $60 in SNES days was a lot more than the $60 you pay today for Call of Duty: This Years Edition.

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>>4064640
>Yeah, I remembered when Strider for the Genesis came out, it was $90USD at Toys 'R Us
>mfw Phantasy Star 4 was $100 fucking dollary doos on release

>>4064025
>59.99 for Madden '97

What a waste of money

>>4065119
It had nothing to do with development and everything to do with ROM being expensive, and all manufacturing went through Nintendo

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Canada here, $90 ish dollars average here back in the day for new carts.

I bought Haunting at a convenience storeb for $40.But that was when 16 bit was ending I think.

>>4064359
>You can see why kids who weren't yet born in the 90's use this pricing as justification for their uninformed opinions.
FTFYK

>>4064375
>doesn't know about floppy copiers
>calls others kids
top kek

>>4064469
>No one bought games right, champ?
Cool kidlogic champ.

>>4064025
well yes, they did go for that much, but especially at Toys R Us. Towards the end of the SNES lifecycle, there were more store like EB games that would sell these games off for sometimes kinda cheap $15 used-ish

>>4065276
>CD based console
>floppies
K, kid.

>>4064025

i paid 120 after tax for bof1.

They averaged between 80 and 100 before tax in Canada.

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>>4065308

pic

>>4065169
>I bought Haunting at a convenience storeb for $40.

Are you me? I bought it new at Needs Convenience in NS for 30 and tax.

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>>4065317
>some poor Soviet Canukistanian kid or his parents paid almost one hundred Beaverbux for SNES DOOM

That poor kid.

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>>4064457
>>4064469
Those were in every Chinatown toy store I visited in America (Vancouver and Toronto are practically Chinatowns). On the flipside, Americatown in Osaka has McDonalds and 7-Elevens, the latter franchise were great places to get your modern videogames like Dragon Quest for your Super Famicom.


>>4064720
I remember "HK silvers" in those Playstation days.


>>4065154
Ouch, even then Genesis games were supposed to be less than their competitors. As you can see here.

>>4064025
Nintendo tried raising the price of video games, it didn't go over so well. I paid $79 for Street Fighter 2 Turbo

>>4064406
>>4064410
Ignoring the strangle hold the media companies have on the market in Japan. Blu-ray's are expensive because people buy them at that price.
Probably why dvd rental is still such a huge thing in Japan

I remember buying landstalker for 150 dollerydoos. Bloody hell that was expensive. Found the reciept a few years ago too. It wasn't a dream.

Also Sonic & Knuckles. 120 dollerydoos.
Bloody hell mate.

>>4065447
Hi what's up
I got a deal on it though, $85 after tax

>>4065572
>Ouch, even then Genesis games were supposed to be less than their competitors.

I think Phantasy Star 2 was at least $80 on release as well. This is all US prices too, none of that Canada funny money jacking up the prices.

>>4064025
>toys'r'us

1 of the worst priced stores for vidya back then. Prices weren't so normalized back then and you could find a game at Walmart for $20 that might cost $50 somewhere else and vice versa

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WoW, i always think US/Canada less expensive than Europe.
My SMW2 had cost at his realese 449 Francs with tax (65US$ with change in 1997).
The Most expensive game that i buy is Shadows of Empire N64 in Italy, 75000 Italian Lire -> 565 Francs -> 80USD.

>>4065282
>too young to remember cart based consoles
>posts on /vr/
top kek kid

>>4065327
Me too
A needs store in NS
It was an exciting find and a fun game, I played the hell out of it

>>4064406
I heard about that. I also heard that even shitty white box Wintel machines meant to run nothing more advanced than Office are priced like tacky pre-built gaming PCs and computer parts have horrifying markups compared to American or even Korean sellers which is why everybody plays on consoles over there.

>>4064038
Game Boy was on its last legs and only got a second wind when Pokémon came out.

>>4065838
>his first console was cart based and not a pong clone
>kek
Been outed, slugger.

>>4064030
>>4064027
>falling for the regurgitated GAMES WERE MORE EXPENSIVE THEN THAN NOW CAUSE MUH INFLASHION MEME!

at least those were CIB new.

>>4064025

This is why I actually own very few SNES games. I spent the entire generation renting from blockbuster.

>>4065447
Think about this. Some kid could probably only afford Zool.

>>4066745
>his first console was cart based
The 3DS isn't retro sport.

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>>4066960
this. I miss the glory days of renting Bubsy from my local family owned video vhs rental shop

>>4066998
Switch is the newest cart based console, champ. You're dad bought you one for your first year in middle school.

>>4064327
I definitely only owned a few VHS moviesgrowing up and I think they were all from McDonalds Christmas promotions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FyNYychA2k

at least Field of Dreams, Back to the Future and Wayne's World were.

>>4067004
>i know you are but what am i
10/summer

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>>4066192

>It was an exciting find and a fun game, I played the hell out of it

Same, I remember seeing the ads for it in video game magazines, and seeing how cool it looked but I couldn't rent it anywhere. They had like ten copies of it loosely stacked on the dirty floor with a bunch of genesis shovelware. IIRC it was the only game they had worth buying at the time and didn't sell games often or at all, really.

I think it was one of times opened my piggy bank or begged my parents for the money.

>>4066752
What? How is that a meme? Cartridges were expensive to make, not to mention the ones that require extra hardware on the cartridge.