When did video games get so expensive? In the past two years or so, the top end of a console game was usually $60. I'm now seeing games at $65 and in some cases $69. I know first-hand that budgets for games have been steadily rising for many years now but it seems odd that in this type of economy, games have gotten more expensive.

The majority of the people who work on a game have absolutely no say in how much people should be paying for it. At least where I work, it's up to the marketing guys to decide price tag to slap on the box. I remember when I was working on skate., I was in a team meeting when the marketing people told us our title would be priced at a premium which back then was $60. We were told it was because the work we were doing was worth it. I maybe biased but it was hard to argue that point.

PC games are indeed cheaper and sometimes by 50%. Unfortunately, playing a PC game means playing it my 24" monitor versus my 50" TV. It also means there's no community involvement since the game isn't on Xbox Live or PSN. So while it is cheaper, it's not exactly the same experience.

I should go ask the marketing peeps why the top end pricing has creeped up lately.

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