It could be worse: PS3 price isn't the highest ever

Over on Scott's blog, he rants in his usual miserly fashion about the price of the upcoming Sony Playstation 3. (I have long held that when Sony products succeed it is usually in spite of themselves; the usability of the PS2 is laughable but they sold a gazillion of 'em. You can hardly fault their success.) Granted, $600 is a ridiculous price to pay for a game machine, but just imagine how much his eyes will pop out of his head when he sees these charts of console prices over the years.

Many props to the Curmudgeon Gamer (shouldn't that be Curmudgeonly Gamer?), who helps us to understand that not only was the 3Do priced higher at $700 when it came out, but if one accounts for 13 years of inflation, the console cost nearly $970 in today's dollars. The Neo-Geo? Almost $994. Remember the cheap little piece of junk called the Intellivision? 820 smackers.

Also, a fact I find fascinating and somehow reassuring: Nintendo's consoles keep getting relatively cheaper.