A large portion of the cost of those games was the mask ROM that had to be manufactured for each release.
There was no patches or updates. If there was an issue, then your very expensive mask is trash and a new one has to be made, which also significantly delays the release. The games had to be released in a finished and fully working state. A lot more work had to go into testing before release.
Development for old consoles was also much harder. You had to write very well optimized code to get it to run on the limited hardware that was available.
For context, here’s what prices ran for NES games:
https://www.33rdsquare.com/how-much-did-the-nintendo-entertainment-system-cost-in-1986/
I’m going to adjust for inflation to 2024:
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
Compared to the market for games back then to now. Was the game industry bigger than movies and music combined?
Is gaming a niche now as it was back then?
A large portion of the cost of those games was the mask ROM that had to be manufactured for each release.
There was no patches or updates. If there was an issue, then your very expensive mask is trash and a new one has to be made, which also significantly delays the release. The games had to be released in a finished and fully working state. A lot more work had to go into testing before release.
Development for old consoles was also much harder. You had to write very well optimized code to get it to run on the limited hardware that was available.
You could argue that cloud servers are a cost like a cartridge. A stupid forced cost.
It’s a cost that wouldn’t be needed if they would let us host our own servers.
It’s so infuriating
There was also a smaller market since video games were new. So higher costs, lower sales leads to higher prices.