The game pricing argument goes back and forth for me. Yes, on paper, you could say that inflation suggests games should go up in price, especially considering how many more developers are needed to put out high-fidelity games. BUT, on the other hand, the minimum wage has not raised significantly in all of that time. As a result, a significant number of gamers genuinely can't pay more for games than they could 20+ years ago. The reason these larger studios exist is because of gaming's expanded reach in that time; and many of these new target territories similarly can't pay for the equivalent of $80USD.

There's maybe only about 1-2 games I've ever even paid the $70 price tag for.

[–] 7arakun@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

I agree, sales are constant (at least on PC) so I almost never even paid the $60 price tag. They can keep cranking up the prices but more and more people may just wait for sales. I know Nintendo games don't go on sale very often but that makes the ecosystem even less attractive. $450 is in the range of a Steam deck.

Inflation or not, prices can only go up if the market will support them. If people are unable (or unwilling) to pay the higher prices, then prices basically can't go up.