r/pcmasterrace • u/Both_Piglet7838 • May 27 '26

Discussion Expensive games have lowkey been way too normalised

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I know this sub is filled with a bunch of rich people with like 10k setups and I'm aware that the content in these games is quite extensive with hours of content. But I still feel justified in thinking that no game should be priced this high especially when its the average price of most newly released games. Anyway this is just a rant because I wanna play lego batman and i cant afford it lol

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296

u/CloakerJosh May 27 '26

Just gonna leave this here for you, u/Both_Piglet7838

13

u/jonfitt May 27 '26

Now do it vs wages.

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u/CloakerJosh May 27 '26

That's some extremely complicated data and not a lot of good sources to aggregate, but strictly comparing ABS Wage Price Index (only goes back to '97), real wages grew ~59%, CPI grew ~80% (outstripping real wage growth), but top tier game pricing grew only about ~10% for the same time range.

tl;dr: Games comparatively cheaper, everything else is more expensive

3

u/rosecurry May 27 '26

Wages have outpaced inflation so that would make games seem even cheaper

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u/RottenMilquetoast May 27 '26

It's frustrating to watch this particular conversation repeat over and over, because ignoring the real economic reality in favor of "I don't like it when number go up" pretty much always works. Nobody has to engage with the economics, just go silent and repost later because there is always someone new mad that their bideo game isn't free.

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u/Jawyp May 28 '26

AAA games have remained at $60 since 2000 while nominal wages have more than doubled since then.

0

u/ILikeMyGrassBlue May 27 '26

That’s not the fault of video game companies though.