I wonder how much of this sticker-shock is due to psychology and the new market of cheap games? In New York, as far as I know, Broadway theater prices haven't really changed...and you are paying $60 for 2-3 hours of sometimes crummy seating, for an experience that, visually, doesn't compare to a $20 IMAX screen. And yet not many theater goers really cringes about having to pay that fee because there is not a mindset that non-discounted shows should be any cheaper...Hell, I even paid $200 for nearly the worst seats in the house at "Book of Mormon" (back when it was new and really really hot)...of course it helped that BOM was actually worth even the inflated stubhub price...
I remember back when I was in grade school, me and my brother were so excited that we saved up enough to buy Ninja Gaiden...for the NES, not XBOX...and someone then stole the game, which was our first new game in a loooong time (we were not a wealthy family). $50 had a lot more value in the the 1980s...and that game was very primitive by today's standards...so thinking about that stolen NES cartridge makes me laugh with a bit of a wince
You also have to take demographics into consideration. I'd imagine the average gamer has much less spending money to play with than the average Broadway theater patron.
>and that game was very primitive by today's standards
Is the game primitive, or did it look primitive?
I think it's important to make the distinction, because for all the fancy technology that goes into making a AAA shooter look cool, the actual game underneath it all is never terribly sophisticated, and usually even less so than the average FPS from the 90s. Yet people nowadays will claim that something like The Legend of Zelda, where you have a fairly nonlinear adventure through a huge world, is more "primitive" than a modern game where you are basically guided on rails from start to finish.
I remember back when I was in grade school, me and my brother were so excited that we saved up enough to buy Ninja Gaiden...for the NES, not XBOX...and someone then stole the game, which was our first new game in a loooong time (we were not a wealthy family). $50 had a lot more value in the the 1980s...and that game was very primitive by today's standards...so thinking about that stolen NES cartridge makes me laugh with a bit of a wince