To be fair, most economics is purely 'because they can' with 'they' being shitheads in the owning class. if anything games (and most industries for that matter) should be going through a healthy period of deflation now (tariffs excluded) if not for said shitheads.

I'm no economist but I thought inflation was the measure of the cost increase over time not the cause of it.

We usually *measure* inflation by looking at prices, but price changes are usually a reaction to the core cause of inflation, which is an increase in money supply. Creating more money makes money less valuable, which means people expect more of it for the same product and service. During COVID, we printed a ton of money in the form of stimulus checks, reduced production due to health-related restrictions, and screwed up the global supply chain. Part of that was transient (production and global supply chain), but the money printing permanently increased the money supply.

But the cost of oil increased and therefore the cost of producing anything using electricity or shipping items so it wasn't like it created some massive surplus of money supply. Increased costs was the biggest driver of price rises in recent year and available money generally bought less than before.

Yes, supply chain issues were the largest spark of prices, but if it was just that, prices would've dropped back to where they were once supply re-normalized (i.e. inflation followed by deflation). That didn't happen, and prices remained high, meaning money supply increased in the meantime as well.

Switch prices have always been crazy. I only bought a switch because of my nephew and the fact that an almost 10 years old mario kart is still at full price is crazy. The way they try to push their paid dlc on kids is disgusting. The only reason they fer away with it because they are wholesome nintendo with quite a weird fan base

Deflation doesn't always follow inflation. Most countries fear it as it could spark recession. UK for example always aims for 2%, not 0%. It didn't help that Opec limited oil supply to keep price high. In the UK, we didn't have stimulus check, but had inflation close to 10%, many countries in the EU too so the conclusion it was the money supply doesn't hold up.

> In the UK, we didn’t have stimulus check, but had inflation close to 10% Ok, but you still had an increase in money supply at the same time as inflation. Look at some sources: - [UK money supply from 2010 to 2024](https://www.statista.com/statistics/922241/uk-banking-total-money-supply-m3/) - [UK historical inflation rate since 1956](https://www.inflationtool.com/rates/uk/historical) The money supply absolutely increased along with inflation. [The Euro also saw increased money supply as well in the same period as high inflation](https://ycharts.com/indicators/euro_area_money_supply_m2), and [here's another with similar data with a longer view](https://www.statista.com/statistics/254220/money-supply-m1-eurozone/) (last link is a slightly different measure, M1 vs M2). These sources show an increased money supply that strongly correlates with inflation figures: it increased dramatically as inflation kicked off, then slowed down but didn't decrease as inflation dropped. I don't know what exactly caused the increase in money supply in that era (would have to look into a bunch of policy changes in that period), but it happened. If money supply wasn't increased, we would've seen a deflationary period after the causes of the inflationary period (price shocks due to global supply chain) were addressed. But central banks don't want deflation, so they increase money supply in some form to prevent it.

> an almost 10 years old mario kart is still at full price is crazy True but at least with physical media you can buy used.

Fair points. Appreciate the references.

You aren’t an economist, that’s for sure. Why do you think prices go up?

Most of it is increased costs being passed on to the consumer *with a little/lot extra* because they can just blame it on inflation. Inflation was the reason why the price was increased to begin with, but “they” then take advantage of it to maximise profits.

I assume to make line go up

This argument gets thrown around a lot but it fails to account for the fact that wages have been stagnant. So while it might cost similar with inflation, people are making less money by the same metric which still results in it being more expensive. Comparing it to prices of the 70's and 80's had the same problem as well as ignoring the difference in market scale video games have now. It's perfectly valid for people to be upset that they're being squeezed for something that they were excited for, especially since everyone's hurting right now.