$40 in 2000 is about $65 in 2021 dollars. so if you pick that point of comparison, not much has changed. but IIRC, AAA games were already $60 by 2005, so compar

$40 in 2000 is about $65 in 2021 dollars. so if you pick that point of comparison, not much has changed. but IIRC, AAA games were already $60 by 2005, so compared against that, we are paying substantially less. at the same time, I really hate to pay $60 for pretty much any AAA title that comes out these days. AAA games are in a weird state. so much time and money has been spent patching and optimizing a fundamentally broken lighting model. bigger, prettier open worlds are created every year, and they really are impressive. but 95% of the map feels like no human has ever actually thought about whether it would be fun to play in. I kinda wonder who is playing all these 100+ hour games with mind-numbingly basic mechanics.