Before you ask - yes I' ve seen the insane cost of accessories. Yes I think 100 bucks for a 20gig hard drive is a rip off. And yes 60 bucks per game will suck....

But we asked for it.

Not verbally or literally of course, no one in their right mind would want to pay more for less. But this isn' t the same videogame market from five or ten years ago and times have indeed changed. The people making games have changed. The philosophy behind making games have changed. The gamers have changed.

The videogame market isn' t ruled by hardcore gamers that determines which system succeeds based on what games it has. We witnessed the death of that during the Playstation 1 era. An era summed up by an influx of casual gamers who cherished quantity over quality.

And behind the scenes we saw a great demise of company loyalty has many developers gladly left Nintendo behind in favor of working on the cheaper and more profitable Playstation. More games were produced. More games were purchased. Now videogames is a multi-billion dollar industry (and last I heard the leading entertainment industry).

Gamers want more and more and more, and they want it all at the same price. But that really can' t happen. Microsoft and Sony knew full well they couldn' t release run-of-the-mill systems this time around. If Microsoft didn' t make the 360 with cutting edge technology, Sony would have with the PS3. Then guess what happens from there. The casual gamers turn away from the 360 because now it obviously has inferior graphics. And sadly, purty graphics will get you a fanbase before quality games (Dreamcast/PS2 tech demos anyone??).

Guess what else? Not only do gamers want more, but so do developers. They want more power to for better a.i., better graphics, and bigger and broader worlds. Just think about the fate of the Xbox if it had launched with merely PS2 level hardware. There would be no reason for devs to support another PS2 level machine when they could develop for the PS2 with an existing userbase and more promising profits.

Superior technology is what kept the Xbox alive. and now superior technology drives the industry. (at least for the time being before another gimmick arises) Gamers weren' t going to settle for an inferior system, and developers don' t want to settle for an inferior system either.

And I haven' t forgotten Nintendo, because Nintendo still plays a big part in this. Nintendo realizes they don' t need bleeding cutting edge technology in their systems to still be profitable. However, the difference between Sony/Microsoft and Nintendo is that Sony/Microsoft is out to win it, ALL of it. To do this they have to give you the best because the other is doing the same thing. Nintendo has said in the past they' re not trying to directly compete with Sony/MS in the technology department, and that' s why I fully expect Nintendo to make the most reasonably priced videogame console next gen (accessories included).

But Sony/MS is presenting us with top of the line hardware at a pretty cheap price. Tell me where I can get a cpu/gpu of 360' s caliber for 300 dollars?! Do you have a link on newegg where I can purchase the tech in the 360 for cheaper than 300 dollars?! I would love for you to show it to me. It’s no wonder the price of accessories is insane, it' s because the hardware is insane. Add to this rising development cost and nothing about the industry is getting cheaper.

Even if you disagree with Microsoft' s two separate 360 packages, the fact still remains they have to make up that loss somewhere.

Would you rather MS charge the TRUE price of the hardware and give you cheaper accessories/games? That would be even dumber on MS' s part because they wouldn' t sell enough systems to cover their massive expenses. And selling less systems also means selling less games which sucks for developers as well. I' m sure MS would love to sell the 360 for 300 bucks with a hard drive and everything else included because that would put some serious heat on Sony' s neck. But I think Microsoft' s realizes they simply can' t. They have to make money somewhere, and selling an even more expensive system at the cost of cheaper accessories is an even worse idea. And no one is in this industry to consistently lose money.

Now, all said, do I like the idea of rising prices? PHUCK NO I DON' T! But this IS the industry at the moment.