Why Games Cost $60

That beefed-up price tag–which also applies to games for Microsoft’s Xbox 360–is a 20% increase over games for earlier consoles. That’s because the game business increasingly parallels Hollywood: Each new game is a costly bet–many now cost north of $20 million to produce–that can pay off big or cost a company its quarterly earnings goal.

I might be in the minority, but I haven’t really found games to be getting more expensive. I remember clearly paying $70 Canadian for Super Mario Brothers 3 on the NES. With that in mind… there are obvious new production costs with newer games, so $60 doesn’t seem that insane to me. Of course, the real value would depend on whether or not the game is actually any good…

Source: Forbes