Mentally Reconciling Video Game Prices

I'm reusing the graphic because damn it, I can!

This is going to be somewhat of a short post, and thus it was stated and so it shall ever be.  Amen.

Something I have noticed since acquiring the Switch, is that I am mentally more likely to drop $30+ on a video game than any time in the last 11 years.  I'm sure this has something to do with whatever the name for the phenomenon where your brain tells you that paying $5.50 for 20 oz of beer in a restaurant isn't too bad of a deal, but get me in the grocery store, and I typically won't pay over $13.99 for a 12 pack of beer.  So what it is with buying console games versus buying PC games via Steam or GOG?

That is basically the point of this, so you are welcome to stop, but I'm going to continue for a short bit longer.

I may have mentioned the fact that that last console I owned was heavily discounted PS2 from Dr. Potts and I guess you could say that the last console game I pre-ordered was Final Fantasy XII back in 2006.  I paid whatever the retail price for the two disc steel case set was and I was perfectly happy doing it.  Apparently the Internet seems incapable to telling me how much the steelbook edition was back in 2006, but I would surprised if it was less than the industry standard of $59.99, but let's say it was $69.99 because of the extra disc and 'special' case.  In 2017, you would have been hard pressed to see me paying even $59.99 for a PC game pre-order.  The last PC game I did pre-order was Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and that was, I think, around $29.99.  

And yet, I pre-ordered DOOM for the Switch, albeit using Amazon's Prime 20% discount plus a 10% moving discount because Conklederp and I recently moved.  I also pre-ordered Bayonetta 1/2, and project OCTOPATH TRAVELER; although both of those games were pretty heavily discounted as well.

So why is that I am okay with paying (around) the $60 mark for a console game when I won't go near similarly priced PC games?  The simplest answer is that I am pretty sure that my computer could not handle a game that was released within the last year that would have sold for $60.  Consoles are, more and hopefully not less, designed to play any game that is designed for them, be it a game that is released on launch day, or the very last game to be released for that system 13 years later.  There is also the fact that a lot of console games have physical release and it might be easier to mentally reconcile spending $60 for a physical object rather than a digital one.

And with that in mind, I am finding it just a little hard not plunking down $70 for a game and some sheets of bloody stupid cardboard.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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