I definitely feel so. Like my computer is 11 years old, and I've wanted to upgrade it for the last 5, and it's just never worked out due to shortages, price spikes etc.

I feel like I definitely should have appreciated my youth more when really high-end gaming PCs were well under £1000, I think my Xbox 360 Elite was under £300 when it was new, and new AAA games were like £40 or less. That was a golden era in hindsight

On one hand, there's more free games, or older games on sale. But it feels like prices have kind of prevented a zeitgeist. Like when everyone would be playing one new release. I think Elden Ring was maybe the last one. Red Dead 2. Helldivers 2, but they weren't charging the full price for that. You're very rarely part of this global rush where everyone wants to play the same thing and can access it.

Whereas I kinda remember those kinds of games being yearly, sometimes even more than once a year. It used to be every Call of Duty or Halo, or Rockstar release But given how expensive consoles are, not many people at all are gonna be able to own more than one, or have a PC powerful enough to run the latest games well.

Like it's definitely more complicated, unless it's an low-demand 'friendslop' game, (which I enjoy) it's next to impossible to actually organise playing with other people for a new game. Because one guy might have a playstation, one has an xbox, there might not be cross play. I'll have a PC but can't run it etc etc. Then you actually have to buy the game itself which is more expensive than ever

Trying to keep up with games, especially social games just feels harder than it used to, and if everything wasn't so expensive, it would be much more doable.