6 ms·
It’s impressive that developers could afford to make custom ICs for only one or two games. I wouldn’t have thought the revenue would be enough to justify that.
by AdamH12113 2y ago
It’s impressive that developers could afford to make custom ICs for only one or two games. I wouldn’t have thought the revenue would be enough to justify that.
- rvense 2y agoGames on cartridge were quite expensive, I think.
- CTDOCodebases 2y agoYes for reference Street Fighter 2 was sold for AUD $120 then which works out to be about AUD $270 when adjusted for inflation. It was priced more than the other games but you get the idea. For reference a typical Nintendo Switch game will sell for AUD $79 on release.
- sharpneli 2y agoThey were around $60 or your regional equivalent. This means $140+ today assuming 1990 dollar.
- RetroTechie 2y ago$60 doesn't justify the expense of custom ICs. It's that some consoles like the (S)NES were extremely popular, sold in the millions. And some games sold in similar numbers. Or were expected to. Or custom IC was (expected to be) used in a # of games. Or some of these publishers were just awash with cash + crazy high expectations for their products. Or some combination of the above. Iirc for custom ICs, you're usually talking about production runs in the many-thousands. Say, 10k+. But in the above example: if $60 provides a $10/sale budget, 10k sales gives you a $100k budget to work with. 100k sales -> a cool 1M budget. Numbers add up quickly if it's mass-produced and 'everyone' buys one.
- jccalhoun 2y agoMy assumption was always that they went into the design of it assuming they would use the chips for more games. Then either the game didn't sell well or the SNES was at the end of its life or something happened to prevent them from using it again.