High Prices? Not According to 1970's

Best Buy has always been one of my favorite stores, strolling through the aisles looking at all the video games and their consoles. Looking at the endless amounts of technology, and the variety of videos games. Yet, whenever I am in that store, I never seem to leave with a bag, instead most of my items from that store come on Christmas or birthdays. Why? Well, although all the technology is state of the art, and every child wants them, with this demand comes a high price tag. A price that most people do not have laying around in their pockets, or if they do, could they share with me?

So in my head I always thought, why do companies make these things so darn expensive? This really isn’t a justified question, as really the price is based off how much they can make the unit for, plus what they want for profit. So really…I just answered my own question. However, this sparked an interest, in early gaming consoles. Let’s zoom back to the 1970’s…. You there? Good! It was the late 70’s when the first Atari came out, according to a nifty site, back in 1970’s an Atari cost about $199. With some amazingly fancy math, something I could not do if I tried, we found out that an Atari in 2013… Yes 2013, was when this data was published… Would cost $777! (Wikipedia) So immediately after reading this, my complaints of an Xbox one costing $499, came to a dramatic halt.

As shocking as that price is, it makes sense if you think about. First you have inflation, then the innovation of chips within the consoles, the less use of hardware, as it is replaced with chips. You also have to play in the factor of preloaded games, most of these atari games had preloaded games. Which is very uncommon now, as come on, how many times can you play the same old 10 games, before you sick of the same old game, music, and concept.

So the next time you find yourself strolling the aisles of Best Buy, aggravating yourself over the high prices, remember this blog, and realize just how lucky you are. It could be a $777 console. So at least be thankful, that your inflation has allowed for prices to be much cheaper, and that loans are not needed in order to purchase gaming consoles.