Have we ever talked to you about the price escalation that the world of mobile phones have experienced in the last ten years, since the appearance of smartphones. What happened to game consoles? Have they also had a rise , or on the contrary have they become more affordable over the years?
This interesting infographic can help us answer that question, since it analyzes the prices of the first consoles from the late 70s to the present . We have divided it into two parts to make its visualization and analysis easier.
As the value of money has changed a lot in these forty years, adjustments have been made eliminating inflation, so that the prices that are seen are the equivalent to our current standard of living. These prices are in dollars, but taking into account that the current exchange rate is close to parity, we will hardly notice any differences.
1977-1995: From cartridge to CD
Early consoles, like the Atari, were slow, cartridge-powered, and there were few games. However, they were an absolute novelty in the market, that is why their market prices were equivalent to the current 800 and 900 euros , like an iPhone 7 Plus.
The appearance of the first affordable consoles, the Master System, from Sega, and later the Mega Drive and the Super Nintendo, led to a drop in average prices to an equivalent of around 300 and 400 euros today , (with exceptions such as the Neo Geo, a cult console that played arcade games and was unattainable outside of Japan). In this way, the consoles became items of mass consumption, representing a significant expense in leisure, but without being abusive.
1995-present: from CD to digital game
In 1995 the consoles appeared on CD, with PlayStation and Saturn as great adversaries. That appearance would mean a small price jump, between 500 and 600 current euros , although the appearance of later consoles such as the Sega Dreamcast and the Nintendo 64 would seek a gap in the market with prices that would drop from the current € 300.
In the first half of the 2000s, the bets of Microsoft and Sony, which would be Xbox and Playstation, would be around 350 euros, while Nintendo's GameCube would be at 250 euros today. With the arrival of the Playstation 3, there was a significant price difference between Microsoft and Sony consoles , with a Playstation 3 that exceeded 500 euros today, while Xbox 360 remained at 320 euros today. This rise coincided with the inclusion of Blu-Ray as a format in Sony and the appearance of the Playstation Store to buy games online.
The arrival of the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One in 2013 reversed that difference , and meant a real price increase, with a Playstation 4 that almost reached 400 euros and an Xbox One that touched 500. The next generation, which was the Playstation 4 Pro and the Xbox One S, from 2016, balanced the situation with an average of 350 euros each, depending on the chosen capacity.
More affordable consoles
In all this time, consoles have experienced price fluctuations since their creation, but in the end they have tended towards the affordable , and there has not been a general growing trend at all, quite the opposite. As a comparison, today the latest proposals from Sony and Microsoft cost the same as a mid-range smartphone. What do you think about it? Do you feel the consoles more expensive than before? And what do you think of video games? Remember that your comments are always welcome.