I’ve mostly been a PC guy. $55-65 was the going rate for a newly released game from the mid 90’s at least. I remember new console cartridges on recently released consoles being around the same. Some cheaper, some more expensive. Can’t recall but one of the systems was like $75 a cart at release. Depending on which brand, how recent etc. Apparently it all averaged out to $60 across the industry for a pretty long stretch of time. And that’s why companies target $60 and it became the default launch price.
But like I said especially on PC there was a really rigid, quick schedule of price drops. A month out $45, 2 to 3 $35, by 5 months $25-30. After that the budget bin for $20 or less. I remember console games being less quick about it but they were below the launch price by 3 or 4 months out.
I also remember being able to drop into Babages and get 3 recent games and a couple more from the budget bin for $50 or $60 bucks total. You just had to time it right and find a ride to the mall (over an hour). My console focused friends would do much the same, but they didn’t make out as well. And there were a lot more used games involved.
Anything unsuccessful, retailers would close out even faster. I got some truly trash games out of that budget bin for like $5.
So a “new” game could be had for less. But if you had to have it day one it could hurt.
