General Discussion

Even though gas prices are continually rising Americans are still spending a lot of money on video games. I mean, just look at how well GTA4 did here. Honestly, this makes since to me. As gas prices rise more people will stay at home.  It is now cheaper to immerse yourself in a video game than go to the movies, theme park, sports game, or even the golf coarse. Soon it will be too expensive to take trips with the family or even drive for anything other than work or food. Good thing we can download games right? I personally am driving as little as possible and gaming as much as possible.  :D

correlation != causation

GTAIV = uber game that lots have been waiting for

Video games = more main stream every year

This is true to....good point! ;D

Gas prices are not the only thing going up, everything is raising in price but all you hear about is gas and the media only talks about gas. The price of apples went up but no one really cares cause the media dident address it. So there is a good chance they will rise just like everything... Seems like prices are going up for everything and size of the items are going down like food.

Oranges are more expensive now... and that makes me sad.   I used to eat 1-3 a day.

i bike ride everywhere these days. its not because i cant afford the gas, i just refuse to pay it.

everything has gotten more expensive. my last food shopping cost me $273, wasnt anything extraordinary either. im convinced of why oil has gotten expensive or more precisely, why nothing is getting done about it. like more refining capacity- elites have sapped the paycheck to paycheck people. you dems need to think about pressuring the enviromental wing of your party to build some shit or drill somewhere to ease this unneccessary suffering of the poor and low-middle income people.

drill and build bitches- we can do it cleanly.

Actually as gas goes up, prices of items will go up because the US depends on trucks. Without them, we don't get nothing.

Video games are artificially underpriced.  The NES back in the late 1980s was released at $200, but games ran $50-60.  During the SNES era, games ran anywhere from $50-90 new, with battery backup RPGs running the highest of those.   Fast forward to the Playstation 2 era under Gamestop/EB Games, and we've come to expect $40-50 new releases.  Then, when the Xbox 360 and PS3 started pushing games back to the $50-60 range, there was a bit of outcry, but we've started to accept it.

In 1987, a $60 video game would run $112 today.  The $40 releases we see would have been $22 in those days.  Much of this can be attributed to cheaper production costs, but not the entirety by any means.  Mass production and a much larger game industry means we fully expect more for less, filtering a lot of junk, and successful games are rewarded with huge fanbases, or at least loyal fanbases which provide enough for dedicated game makers to continue work they enjoy for a modest profit.

So, to view things from this angle, gaming has become consistently cheaper, the recent $10 price hike in new releases really only offsets the past few years from the start of the PS2 era.  Games shouldn't cost $112 apiece, but it's no stretch to say that if not for greater popularity and certain forced control, the price of games would easily be more like $60-80 for new releases and perhaps rightfully so.

Generally, those who buy lots of video games are prone to doing so regardless of gas prices, those who buy a few casually are not exceptionally prone to buy more due to gas prices or any other prices in the cost of living.  Entertainment budgets are slashed, which means gas-related entertainment goes down first.  This doesn't mean video game related entertainment goes up so much, as perceived value is a tricky thing.  Those who play lots of games may see them as high value in comparison, but casual gamers have a limit to their intake, whereas hardcore gamers typically spend what they can anyway.

What I'm getting at here is that the situation leaves the video game market appearing fairly resilient in the face of economic downturns, but it has little room to benefit on an absolute scale.  At best, one could hope for the sustained strength to bode well with an economic upswing, permitting for strong growth without the pruning of a recession.  Of course, with the mainstream nature of gaming these days, the question is really how much territory there is left to expand.

Ill say yes.Cd's are coated with plastic.Petroleum is in plastic ......

Originally posted by Thrift

Gas prices are not the only thing going up, everything is raising in price but all you hear about is gas and the media only talks