Why did Phantasy Star 4 cost $99.99?

[Anarchist420]

Just wondering.

 

[zerocool84]

It had more memory than other carts since it was a large game.

 

[smackababy]

Because the other Phantasy Star games were great!

 

[lamedude]

FF6 was the same size (24Mb) and only cost $80 IIRC. SuperFX games were probably more expensive and I don't recall any $99 price tags on them.

 

[mmntech]

Probably trying to milk the popularity of the series. RPGs were always more expensive back in the day. I guess the justification was they were a lot longer. Most games of that era were pretty short and could be beaten in an afternoon.

Also imagine paying $152 for a game today. That's what it works out to with inflation.

 

[TerryMathews]

Just wondering.

Because PROMs are expensive.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...-IGYDQ&usg=AFQjCNGW4SZdVpXL-1w3iBDzsgR7ukt3Cw

This is average EPROM pricing which isn't the same but is an indicator for PROMs. You can see, if PROMs are half the price of EPROMs, that in 1994 raw component memory price made up half the retail cost of that cartridge.

It's hard to imagine in today's market, non-rotating memory was expensive.

 

[Anarchist420]

Because PROMs are expensive. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...iBDzsgR7ukt3Cw This is average EPROM pricing which isn't the same but is an indicator for PROMs. You can see, if PROMs are half the price of EPROMs, that in 1994 raw component memory price made up half the retail cost of that cartridge. It's hard to imagine in today's market, non-rotating memory was expensive.

Why didn't they use a battery and a small amount of SRAM instead?

 

[Xellos2099]

Wel, granted Phantasy Star iv was great, I got ti day 1 but not sure if I pay $99 for it. The story is better than final fantasy III/IV too. I remember chrono trigger is $99 too

 

[mmntech]

Because PROMs are expensive.

It's hard to imagine in today's market, non-rotating memory was expensive.

Unless you're a Vita owner. :sneaky:

Maybe using EEPROM made sense at the time. Fewer components make manufacturing easier so perhaps added cost.

I don't really have a grip on game prices in 90s. I had very few that I owned for my Genesis because I couldn't afford them. I remember Sonic & Knuckles was $70 when it came out. Mind you that's when the Canadian and American retail markets were still vastly different. We got hosed on a lot of stuff here. Still do, but not with games anymore.