• RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Consoles and Gaming PC parts (GPUs especially) are increasing in price at a time when people are struggling to pay their bills. $70 for new games now, or you can pay $120 every year, but you don’t own anything. I meanz, you also don’t own the $70 games either, but you extra don’t own games on a subscription service. Old games are there and fine, but in comparison to the current economy, where inflation around the globe is higher than it has been on average since video games were really a thing, new games are a very expensive hobby.

    Directly dollar for dollar, it may be comparable, but taking the economy into picture, games in the past were cheaper. Especially considering how much revenue video games generate now. Prices should be lower, but expected infinite business growth from shareholders is preventing that.

    Also who said Ferrari’s are designed for 20 year olds?

    Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Ferrari, did. He didn’t specify exactly 20 year olds, but his quote was “I build cars for young men that only rich old men can afford.” Or something similar to that effect, as the quote would have been originally in italian.

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      When I went to college in 1987, I got sent with a $2000 computer. That’s around $5600 in 2024 dollars. An Atari 2600 was $200 in 1980, which is around $1000 in 2024 dollars. Computer gaming in the 70s and 80s was for kids with rich parents. You could get a little sample, at $0.25 for a few minutes in an arcade, but most of those games would play well on a phone platform today, and you’d be paying something like $15/hour in 2024 dollars.

      Today, a desktop computer or laptop is nearly ubiquitous. It may not play the latest AAA at 4k, but neither do most gamers. Even if you exclude mobile gaming, PC and console games are wildly more accessible today than when the 55+ crowd were coming of age.