UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices

Anything to do with games at all.
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KK
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PostUK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by KK » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:10 pm

BBC News wrote:Inflation rose to 3.1% in November, the highest in nearly six years, as the squeeze on households continued.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that airfares and computer games contributed to the increase.

"Rising prices for a range of recreational and cultural goods and services, most notably computer games, also had an upward effect." [ONS]

The most recent data shows that average weekly wages are growing at just 2.2%.

Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, will now have to write a letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond explaining how the Bank intends to bring inflation back to its 2% target.

Mr Carney has to write a letter to the chancellor if the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate is above 3% or below 1%.

Bloody EA Sports and their £50 FIFA.

It's funny though, games haven't launched at such high prices since the late 90s, and yet I can't remember a time they've fallen so dramatically and so quickly either.

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Peter Crisp » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:12 pm

I don't think most people remember the horror of paying £60 for an Atari 2600 game.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by False » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:15 pm

Fingers crossed for my 1%

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jawafour
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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by jawafour » Tue Dec 12, 2017 3:29 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:I don't think most people remember the horror of paying £60 for an Atari 2600 game.

They certainly were expensive, Peter - I never had an Atari at the time but a pal of mine did.

I believe that games were priced at £29.99 around 1979... which is equivalent to £106 at today's prices :shock: . I now feel sorry for EA and Activision having to scrape by with games only selling at £55 :( .

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Victor Mildew » Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:10 pm

We did it!

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by That » Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:23 pm

Advent7 wrote:We did it!

:lol:

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Meep
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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Meep » Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:32 pm

PC hardware also seems to be going up steeply. Was looking at how much it would take me to build a new system next year and was kind of shocked. GPU prices are still insane, although apparently that has a lot to do with crypto mining or some gooseberry fool.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Lagamorph » Tue Dec 12, 2017 6:36 pm

Meep wrote:PC hardware also seems to be going up steeply. Was looking at how much it would take me to build a new system next year and was kind of shocked. GPU prices are still insane, although apparently that has a lot to do with crypto mining or some gooseberry fool.

GPU prices are going up due to Bitcoin mining, whilst RAM prices are going up because of mobile phone production.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Venom » Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:07 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:I don't think most people remember the horror of paying £60 for an Atari 2600 game.


I remember Street Fighter II on SNES for what seemed like mental money (I'm getting old I can't remember how much!) I never owned a SNES but remember reading about it in magazines and the price was so high it wasn't even dream desirable, it was just Jackanory.

jawafour wrote:I now feel sorry for EA and Activision having to scrape by with games only selling at £55 :( .


:lol:

No seriously, I don't think £55 for a top quality triple-A game is unreasonable at all especially if you think of all the time you put into it and the value you get from it. The problem is we all read about the many different games that reviewers play and then get upset when we cannot buy them all - but normal proletariat gamers should not expect to have access to ALL the games.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by andythevillan » Tue Dec 12, 2017 7:46 pm

I remember paying 60 quid for NBA Jam on the SNES when I was a teenager. Now I don't like going over 30 quid so games are not too expensive if you wait a bit and most people have a backlog to get through.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by jawafour » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:18 pm

I'm not so sure about feeling a level of comfort with gaes being "only" £55. Sure, we can highlight Atari VCS and SNES pricing... but we could equally highlight 8 bit and 16 bit computer prices.

A top-price game in 1985 on the C64 would have been £9.95 and that's equivalent to around £30 today. In 1988, a "big" new Atari ST title costing £19.95 would be equivalent to about £49 today.

N64 prices could be monsterous. A top game costing £54.99 in 1997 is equivalent to £95 today. But buying, say, Shadow of Mordor Gold Edition from the PlayStation Store today could cost you £90... equally monsterous.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Venom » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:53 pm

jawafour wrote:I'm not so sure about feeling a level of comfort with gaes


I don't mean to preach but regardless of what you think about the gaes it's a bit insensitive to publicly share that you don't feel comfortable around them.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by jawafour » Tue Dec 12, 2017 8:55 pm

Venom wrote:
jawafour wrote:I'm not so sure about feeling a level of comfort with gaes


I don't mean to preach but regardless of what you think about the gaes it's a bit insensitive to publicly share that you don't feel comfortable around them.

... :o ... :fp: ... :oops: .

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by AndyXL » Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:14 pm

Venom wrote:
I remember Street Fighter II on SNES for what seemed like mental money (I'm getting old I can't remember how much!) I never owned a SNES but remember reading about it in magazines and the price was so high it wasn't even dream desirable, it was just Jackanory.
.


£64.99. I know, because I worked my guts off delivering newspapers on my bike for months to buy the damn game! Got it at Toys R Us in that shiny gold box.

Worth every penny of course, but still a complete rip-off for UK gamers - it was half the price in the US and even much cheaper in the rest of Europe.

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Peter Crisp » Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:36 pm

Was anyone here rich enough to afford a Neo Geo?
I certainly wasn't.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by jawafour » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:28 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:Was anyone here rich enough to afford a Neo Geo?
I certainly wasn't.

I think that was peak extreme, Peter! Just checked and games cost around £200 each in 1990... about £400 today :lol: .

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by AndyXL » Tue Dec 12, 2017 11:50 pm

Peter Crisp wrote:Was anyone here rich enough to afford a Neo Geo?
I certainly wasn't.


Yeah, I remember reading about it in Mean Machines...One game cost as much as the SNES!

It never appealed to me though - I was always a Nintendo kid (and still am)!

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Peter Crisp
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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by Peter Crisp » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:01 am

If I remember right the claim was that the games were arcade perfect which was a big deal back then.

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by 7256930752 » Wed Dec 13, 2017 12:17 am

So how have games contributed to inflation when they stayed the same price or gotten cheaper over 20 years?

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PostRe: UK inflation rise partly caused by video game prices
by satriales » Wed Dec 13, 2017 6:35 am

It used to be that at the start of a new console generation new games would be £50, but towards the end the price would fall and new games would be £30 or £35.
I guess that isn't happening this time around.


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