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Comment by taneq | Hacker News Reader

> what happened to Shareware?

I think it's partly due to the massive drop in software prices (even a high end game can be had for $20-$30 if you catch it on a Steam sale, compared with $85+ in y2k dollars) so people just buy the software. Also many online stores have very liberal return policies so some people buy-then-refund just to try things out.

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That price drop never came to Australia.

When I was a kid, triple-A games were around $80.

Now triple A-games start from $80, with special editions costing more.

Every now and then I see a sale on a game I'd been meaning to buy, but when I go to purchase, I see the base game for $40, and the 'full game' $70 (down from $100-$120).

The parent meant inflation adjusted. $50 US 20 years ago are equivalent to almost $80 today, but game prices have not increased at the same rate (they mostly stayed the same nominal price at launch but sales and heavy discounts are much more common).

Editions that actually come with all the content, including the stuff they held back to trickle it out over the next ~3-6mo, usually are more like $80-100 at launch. That seems to be how they've (the game companies) dealt with inflation. But yeah if you game way behind the times and don't do the latest hot multiplayer games, like I do then you rarely pay more than $30 for a game, average probably closer to $15-20 for non-indie games (lower for those, of course).

Stop buying from EB Games then! :P

I haven't bought a game from a bricks-and-mortar store since Diablo 3 came out.

TIL that EB Games is still a thing in Oz.

Before they were all converted to GameStops here (USA), as a joke I used to call the chain "Mo-B Games" because of the resemblance of the E in the logo to katakana 'mo' (モ).

We also had the world's second-last standing Blockbuster until earlier this year. :P

> The parent meant inflation adjusted

AU$80 in 2000 -> AU$128.38 in 2019

> Stop buying from EB Games then

Steam: Buy Call of Duty: WWII - Digital Deluxe. Released almost 2 years ago. 99,99€ = AU$163.42 (I'm in Europe at the moment. Anyone got an Australian price on this to prove me wrong?)

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