The Economical History of Console Prices - Is the PS3 Price Really High ?

[Zeus]

Some economical boffins have gone to the trouble of creating a history of console prices in respect of their absolute and relative price, we don't know what their talking about so we'll let his diagrams do the talking...



Is the $500 price tag for the crippled PlayStation 3 historically high or low? I did a bit of number crunching to try to put that number in perspective.

<center><a href="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/abs_console_price.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.maxconsole.net/content_img/abs_console_price_small.jpg"?</center></a>

I've uploaded PDF versions: absolute and relative.

The first shows absolute price and the second shows relative price. Here absolute means the stated price at the time the console went on sale. Relative means what does that price mean in 2006 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.


Read More: <a href="http://curmudgeongamer.com/2006/05/history-of-console-prices-or-500-aint.html" target="_blank">curmudgeongamer.com</a>

[SLAYERPSP]

wow 200 for 2600 and my mom bought me one way back then thats a lot of money.i hate to admit this but i was one of the suckers who bought a 3do for 700 bucks but i had to have need for speed and road rash good thing i made a lot of money back then

[yiyo]

Inflation is not taken into account. Not a good comparison. The dollar’s value has really gone down. Most of the systems cost in the 70s and 80s should be doubled compared to today’s standards and prices to current currency. The same with the other systems in the 90s. During the 90s there was a no deficit and no George Bush to blame. As a result the buying power of the dollar has gone down a lot. So the xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 are really good values compare to what you get for the money.

[worsel182]

*Message Deleted*

[dreary79]

PS2 at $300 has been the most successful system, but everything above that price has been a failure. hmmmm

Please no one tell me that the NeoGeo and the 3DO were a success. Not in sales at least.

[flagon]

nintendo's right on schedule releasing a console every 5 years..

Id like to see the same comparison with # of units sold...

[Reset]

Inflation should hardley be considered right now considering the minimum wage has hardley moved but maybe a dollar (2 for some states) in the past 8 years. yes the price is way to high. If u ask me 600 dollars is more today than it was 4-8 years ago (its called a recession) I know thats not technically accurate, but in our economy right now (US) u cant convince me 600 is the same as 200 10-20 years ago.

Also, Neither the N64 nor the Dreamcast launched at 200.

[Crazycasem21]

Double post.

[Crazycasem21]

You either got it or you don't. Its that simple. Now get off the line if you can't get one. LOL!

[Tempos]

http://curmudgeongamer.com/imgdisplay.php3?shotfile=console-prices-relative.png

Quite a good comparison I think, although it shows the PS3 is expensive by modern standards.