Games and Movies are So Cheap Nowadays
May. 27th, 2021 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMedia content, like games and movies, is so cheap nowadays. I was reminded of that today in a discussion elsenet where someone brought up the days of VCRs and VHS tapes. Remember those days, the mid 1980s through mid 1990s?
Before VCRs became a standard fixture in households by the mid 1980s, game consoles like the Atari 2600 took the country by storm.
I remember it was about 1982 when it seemed like everyone I knew had one. Everyone except my family, that is. We were poor-ish. The $125 or so the console cost in 1982 was a big ask for my parents. To put that in perspective, it's about $350 today according to inflation indexes.
Okay, so console prices have kept pace with inflation. Buying a new console today will set you back a few hundred. But there's a concept in consumer goods from decades ago called The Razor and Razorblade Problem. Consumers tend to focus on the cost of a razor as a major factor in choosing which item to buy or whether to buy one at all, but really in the long run they're going to be spending way more money on razor blades than the razor itself. A game console is the razor, and its games are the razor blades.
Check out the math on this. Major title games for that Atari 2600 back in 1982 were priced at $50 each. That's almost $140 today.
Can you imagine paying $140 for a game? It would be an outrage. And today's games are not only way cheaper (adjusted for inflation) but they're also vastly richer and more immersive than the primitive graphics and repetitive game play we considered state-of-the-art in 1982.
Now let's talk about movies on VHS tapes. Yeah, they required VCRs to play, and like pretty much all consumer electronics VCRs were extremely expensive at first but quickly came down in price to the point that virtually every working class or higher household had one. Even my dad sprung for one in late 1986. He bought it as a Christmas gift to the whole family.
VCR ownership suffered from the same "razor and razorblade" problem as game console ownership. With VCRs the movies you'd buy could add up quickly to more than the player.
Back in the VHS heyday, movies were heinously expensive. I remember shopping with my dad for a few movies to watch along with our new VCR. Major new-release titles were priced at $70 each. Again, inflation index calculation... that's $165 today.
Can you imagine buying a movie for $165 today? I mean, even aside from the fact that you can stream thousands of movies titles on Netflix, etc., for under $20 month, if you want to outright own a movie you can buy physical media such as Blu-Ray on Amazon for usually around $20 for new releases, or wait several months and pick it up for $10. That is so much cheaper than shelling out $165 to own it on VHS!
Before VCRs became a standard fixture in households by the mid 1980s, game consoles like the Atari 2600 took the country by storm.
I remember it was about 1982 when it seemed like everyone I knew had one. Everyone except my family, that is. We were poor-ish. The $125 or so the console cost in 1982 was a big ask for my parents. To put that in perspective, it's about $350 today according to inflation indexes. Okay, so console prices have kept pace with inflation. Buying a new console today will set you back a few hundred. But there's a concept in consumer goods from decades ago called The Razor and Razorblade Problem. Consumers tend to focus on the cost of a razor as a major factor in choosing which item to buy or whether to buy one at all, but really in the long run they're going to be spending way more money on razor blades than the razor itself. A game console is the razor, and its games are the razor blades.
Check out the math on this. Major title games for that Atari 2600 back in 1982 were priced at $50 each. That's almost $140 today.
Can you imagine paying $140 for a game? It would be an outrage. And today's games are not only way cheaper (adjusted for inflation) but they're also vastly richer and more immersive than the primitive graphics and repetitive game play we considered state-of-the-art in 1982.
Now let's talk about movies on VHS tapes. Yeah, they required VCRs to play, and like pretty much all consumer electronics VCRs were extremely expensive at first but quickly came down in price to the point that virtually every working class or higher household had one. Even my dad sprung for one in late 1986. He bought it as a Christmas gift to the whole family.
VCR ownership suffered from the same "razor and razorblade" problem as game console ownership. With VCRs the movies you'd buy could add up quickly to more than the player.
Back in the VHS heyday, movies were heinously expensive. I remember shopping with my dad for a few movies to watch along with our new VCR. Major new-release titles were priced at $70 each. Again, inflation index calculation... that's $165 today.
Can you imagine buying a movie for $165 today? I mean, even aside from the fact that you can stream thousands of movies titles on Netflix, etc., for under $20 month, if you want to outright own a movie you can buy physical media such as Blu-Ray on Amazon for usually around $20 for new releases, or wait several months and pick it up for $10. That is so much cheaper than shelling out $165 to own it on VHS!
