Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

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Rachael
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Rachael »

Most of those were considered "expansion packs" which compared to the DLC of today, were a lot more tolerable. Expansion packs were relatively infrequent but major addons to the game, whereas DLC of today typically just unlocks one small extra area.

Either way, none of those were the "loot box" gambling system that we see have become the theme of 2017's games.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Kinsie »

I feel like calling a lot of the expansion pack content released in the 90s "major" or "good" would be a considerable stretch. Even the official, publisher-endorsed ones were often farmed out to young literally-who studios with mixed results.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Graf Zahl »

People do not complain about the ability to buy additional stuff but about how the ease of doing it led to abuse of such capabilities which make the user feel getting ripped off.
DLC as such is not a problem - I have nothing to complain about getting more of a game I liked - but if this is being used to make quasi-essential content available for additional cost - that's not right.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Arctangent »

It seriously mystifies me how so many people get burnt by like one or two bad DLCs and instantly jump from "this is bad DLC" to "CLOUD IN SMASH MAKES NINTENDO LITERALLY SATAN"
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Trance »

Well this thread took a swerve.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by leileilol »

Is it too late to mention all those track and scenario disks for certain racing games in the 80s? *cough*Test Drive II*cough*

not to mention the old 'paid mods' that were Flight Simulator addons... can't believe there's a generation that believes none of these things existed before.


Also console games were still fucking expensive then too. USD$60-70 wasn't unusual for a Nintendo system game... I had to rely on rentals.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Naniyue »

Heh heh, game rentals (waxing nostalgic)! I remember when Blockbuster first announced NES rentals on the radio!
Great times . . .
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Graf Zahl »

Game rentals saved me a lot of money because it allowed me to check games before buying them. Thanks to Steam that entire market got killed and the gaming industry lost me as a customer forever.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Enjay »

leileilol wrote:not to mention the old 'paid mods' that were Flight Simulator addons... can't believe there's a generation that believes none of these things existed before.
Yes, I was about to comment on those. As I recall, you could get add ons like different cities/parts of the world to fly to? It seemed to be a big deal (in a positive way) for people who were really in to flight sim (which I wasn't, so I can't really comment much further).
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by scalliano »

I remember Street Fighter II for the SNES being £65. That's World Warrior, not even Turbo. The "Nintendo Tax" is nothing new.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Nash »

Video games have always been expensive, be in the 90's or in 2017. Always 3-digit prices in my country.

I remember game cartridges in the 90s being so expensive, they'd either have to be birthday gifts, or I had to do well in exams to convince my mom to buy me games as a child. :mrgreen:

I am actually SO GLAD Steam happened. I can finally buy LEGIT full games at 2-digit prices (when sales come on). In the 90's? No chance.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Kinsie »

leileilol wrote:not to mention the old 'paid mods' that were Flight Simulator addons... can't believe there's a generation that believes none of these things existed before.
Image
Ahh, memories...
Graf Zahl wrote:Game rentals saved me a lot of money because it allowed me to check games before buying them. Thanks to Steam that entire market got killed and the gaming industry lost me as a customer forever.
PC game rentals were dead as hell well before that, on account of games with disc-based DRM (like SecuROM etc.) and online CD-Key authentication. I also don't remember it being especially common before then, either - the only PC game I can remember renting from a local Blockbuster (which is now a liquor store, heh) is Civilization 3.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Graf Zahl »

Kinsie wrote: PC game rentals were dead as hell well before that, on account of games with disc-based DRM (like SecuROM etc.) and online CD-Key authentication. I also don't remember it being especially common before then, either - the only PC game I can remember renting from a local Blockbuster (which is now a liquor store, heh) is Civilization 3.

Here in Germany it was a thriving business of video rental stores up until 2004. When Steam came up and everybody started doing online DRM it died. SecuROM and other CD-based copy protection schemes didn't block rental, only making copies of the rented game (that is, if you had no access to crack sites which distributed anti-copy-protection patches.)
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Zergeant »

Graf Zahl wrote:
Kinsie wrote: PC game rentals were dead as hell well before that, on account of games with disc-based DRM (like SecuROM etc.) and online CD-Key authentication. I also don't remember it being especially common before then, either - the only PC game I can remember renting from a local Blockbuster (which is now a liquor store, heh) is Civilization 3.

Here in Germany it was a thriving business of video rental stores up until 2004. When Steam came up and everybody started doing online DRM it died. SecuROM and other CD-based copy protection schemes didn't block rental, only making copies of the rented game (that is, if you had no access to crack sites which distributed anti-copy-protection patches.)
These days on Steam you can use the refund system if you don't enjoy a game.
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Re: Anyone remember how much games cost in the 90s?

Post by Graf Zahl »

And what if you do it 10 times in a row? At some point they just kick you out.
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