YoshiM
09-02-2005, 06:01 PM
There was a thread before the site went down that had a discussion about the price of the Xbox 360 and how it was expensive. Unfortunately the site died before I could post. From that thread, this was said:
And even though (some) people are squealing like stuck pigs about the non-gelded Xbox 360 being $400, the inflation calculator tells me that $400 today was like $157.50 in 1980. And didn't the VCS sell for $200 back then?
We've probably all seen this brought up before on how games are cheaper now than they were then thanks to inflation rates and such. While this may work for the games themselves (the latest MSRP of an Xbox 360 game is $59.99, which would be $47.00 in 1994, cheaper than Phantasy Star IV!) you sometimes can't compare the systems by just the dollar amount. You gotta look at the value.
Technically the 360 would not be a whole lot cheaper than a VCS if you look at what you get for your gaming dollar. The VCS came with two joysticks, a set of paddles and a game for $199 (at least according to an Atari Wiki and the price sounds right for 1980). If we pretended the 360 was a comparible video game system of 1980 (ie forget the hard drive, wireless, etc.) and you price in another controller (estimated at $39.99 in 2005, $15.75 in '80) and a game (using the 2005 MSRP of $59.99, which is $23.62 in '80 dollars) you get a grand total of $196.87. A $3.12 savings back then or about $7.93 in today's money.
The value of a special controller is pretty subjective. You don't get a special controller (like paddles) with the 360 but that may not be an overly big deal for most. Those type of controllers historically fizzle out over time (see also light guns).
Comparing the Xbox 360 to a NES Action Set (value wise, again we're pretending the 360 is technologically similar) is a no brainer: NES wins by a landslide. I wanna say in 1987 the Action set was like $199 (could be less). The 360 would be $237.94 for the console (the top line model).
And even though (some) people are squealing like stuck pigs about the non-gelded Xbox 360 being $400, the inflation calculator tells me that $400 today was like $157.50 in 1980. And didn't the VCS sell for $200 back then?
We've probably all seen this brought up before on how games are cheaper now than they were then thanks to inflation rates and such. While this may work for the games themselves (the latest MSRP of an Xbox 360 game is $59.99, which would be $47.00 in 1994, cheaper than Phantasy Star IV!) you sometimes can't compare the systems by just the dollar amount. You gotta look at the value.
Technically the 360 would not be a whole lot cheaper than a VCS if you look at what you get for your gaming dollar. The VCS came with two joysticks, a set of paddles and a game for $199 (at least according to an Atari Wiki and the price sounds right for 1980). If we pretended the 360 was a comparible video game system of 1980 (ie forget the hard drive, wireless, etc.) and you price in another controller (estimated at $39.99 in 2005, $15.75 in '80) and a game (using the 2005 MSRP of $59.99, which is $23.62 in '80 dollars) you get a grand total of $196.87. A $3.12 savings back then or about $7.93 in today's money.
The value of a special controller is pretty subjective. You don't get a special controller (like paddles) with the 360 but that may not be an overly big deal for most. Those type of controllers historically fizzle out over time (see also light guns).
Comparing the Xbox 360 to a NES Action Set (value wise, again we're pretending the 360 is technologically similar) is a no brainer: NES wins by a landslide. I wanna say in 1987 the Action set was like $199 (could be less). The 360 would be $237.94 for the console (the top line model).