The "true cost" of Xbox 360 games has been a point of contention for some time now. In real dollars, how much does it actually cost to get the full green swirl experience? Some of the 360's already high $60 games quickly jump to $65-$70 for the game and its downloads. Ridge Racer 6 has over 40 extra songs, and at $1 each the total cost quickly vaults to over $100 for a US release title!

Anyone who has ever purchased their own SNES game on launch day knows the feeling of being an unsuspecting target to software price gouging. People often forget that Sony ushered in an age of $50 US videogame software purchases. Until that time, gamers were accustomed to regularly paying $60-$70 per game. Chrono Trigger debuted at $74.99. Virtua Racer, packed with Sega's version of the Super FX chip, for the Sega Genesis rolled out at $99.99.

Sadly, this third coming of overpriced software, is not new territory for the PGSatori gamer. Even the Playstation 3, which has many gamers' wallets screaming for mercy, still pales in comparison to the cost of a 3DO or Neo Geo system in their heyday. And if you bring inflation into account (as curmudgeon gamer's inflation-adjusted chart conveniently shows), gamers whose wallets opened pre-crash and survived to tell the tale will tell you that $600 for a new console is a steal compared to the cost of an Atari 2600.

Still, paying full price for a retail game only to find oneself being forced to purchase additional content to "complete" the experience is not a good situation. The mass market appeal of today's video games means that we should not have to pay "niche entertainment" prices for our games. One of the arguments for the rising cost of software is that small and indie game developers cannot afford to develop for the next-gen consoles. We cannot say how far these costs extend, but it is a fact that development hardware is getting more expensive, development cycles are getting shorter, and development teams are growing while more work is being outsourced. A multimedia production like Final Fantasy X is invariably going to cost more than Final Fantasy III for the SNES did, regardless of inflation or market share. It would be a terrible shame to see niche titles like Incredible Crisis, Mr. Mosquito, or Steel Battalion not make it stateside or worse, not get made at all, because development costs have made such endeavors too risky.

Strangely, the one thing that threatens to inflate the cost of US games also gives us hope. Even now, small developers and indie game houses in the US are getting their day in the sun thanks to Live Arcade (The Behomoth's Alien Hominid is coming to XBLA, as is the forthcoming Castle Crashers). Thanks to Live Arcade, games from small developers, niche titles, and casual games in the US are getting a shot in the arm. Publishers are also getting into the game with programs aimed at helping indie developers get their games made and published (Gamasutra has a nice article up detailing the rise of the "auter" in indie game development)

Xbox Live, Nintendo's Virtual Console and the forthcoming PS3 Live wannabe all have the potential to bring new and exciting experiences to the gamer. Publishers are seeing dollar signs with microtransactions, but microtransactions have the ability to lower the cost of games and give gamers the chance to pay for only the parts of the game they use. Atari announced last week that they would be dropping the price of Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360 to $39.00, a virtual bargain for the 360. Atari is stating that the reason for the drop is the expected additional cost to the gamer for purchasing downloadable content on Xbox Live. This is great news for gamers, and exactly the sort of step that needs to be taken by publishers who support downloadable content. The livelihood of microtransactions depends on this kind of give and take, and with it goes small, niche, and independent game development on consoles.