Overall, though, you can see a clear and significant downward trend to the year-over-year pricing for game consoles released before 2016. After three years on the market, the median game console during this period cost less than half as much (on an inflation-adjusted basis) as it did at launch. Consoles that stuck around on the market long enough could expect further slow price erosion over time, until they were selling for roughly 43 percent of their launch price in year five and about 33 percent in year eight.
That kind of extreme price-cutting is a distant memory for today’s game consoles. By year three, the median console currently on the market costs about 85 percent of its real launch price, thanks to the effects of inflation. By year five, that median launch price ratio for modern consoles actually increases to 92 percent, thanks to the nominal price increases that many consoles have seen in their fourth or fifth years on the market. And the eight-year-old Nintendo Switch is currently selling for about 86 percent of its inflation-adjusted launch price, or more than 50 percentage points higher than the median trend for earlier long-lived consoles.
While the data is noisy, the overall trend in older console pricing over time is very clear. Kyle Orland
To be fair, today’s game consoles are not the most expensive the industry has ever seen. Systems like the Atari 2600, Intellivision, Neo Geo, and 3DO launched at prices that would be well over $1,000 in 2025 money. More recently, systems like the PS3 ($949.50 at launch in 2025 dollars) and Xbox One ($689.29 at launch in 2025 dollars) were significantly pricier than the $300 to $600 range that encompasses most of today’s consoles.
But when classic consoles launched at such high prices, those prices never lasted very long. Even the most expensive console launches of the past dropped in price quickly enough that, by year three or so, they were down to inflation-adjusted prices comparable to today’s consoles. And classic consoles that launched at more reasonable prices usually saw price cuts that took them well into the sub-$300 range (in 2025 dollars) within a few years, making them a relative bargain from today’s perspective.