Oblivion was The first AAA game to have microtransactions and now Oblivion Remastered could possibly be the last AAA game to be priced at $50-60 dollars.
with the Switch 2 being a success, we could see a rise in prices for all AAA Games. to 80-90 dollars
WHEN games do inevitably become 80-100 dollars, I’ll definitely be buying more Indie games
Games were standardized to $60 back around 2005. Prior to that, games were just whatever the price that publishers decided the game should be. Chrono Trigger cost $80 USD at launch in 1995: https://fantasyanime.com/squaresoft/ctabout.htm Adjusting for inflation, that would be just shy of $170 USD now. It was not uncommon for games for the Nintendo 64 to retail for $70-80: https://retrovolve.com/n64-games-were-ridiculously-expensive-when-they-first-came-out/
Video games (particularly console and handheld games) have always been an expensive hobby. Games also haven’t been adjusted for inflation in the 20 years since prices were largely standardized, which is why they have become a microtransaction hell.
Honestly, this will likely lead the the return of video game demos. Because video games were prohibitively expensive in the 80s and 90s, demos were a huge part of the culture so that you could try them out ahead of time to get a feel for if they were worth the price tag.
I think they became a microtransaction hell when mobile games showed you could charge them and make a shit load of money