I worry about game prices. I'm older now, gainfully employed, own my own home,  and have a 2nd income from my wife. $60 is not that hard to come by anymore, but man do I worry.  $60 is about half the bill on our cell phones. If games start becoming 3/4 of my phone bill, it gets harder and harder to justify the expenditure. 
 
Next gen is coming. And I'm not talking casual next gen Wii. I'm talking new machines from Sony and MS that have some serious power behind them. They are going to be able to do some fantastic things when it comes to graphics, audio, online, etc.. It's already taking tens of millions of dollars to make AAA titles that max out the current consoles. When the consoles are going to be able to do so much more, is it going to take even longer to make these games? Are the tools they use to make these games going to cost more? Maybe costs will stabilize after a a few years, but not at first. Until they do, people (and bills!) need to be paid. Tools need to be bought. 
 
When that time comes, is $60 going to be enough to pull in profit? Will $70? $75? 
 
Game companies need to find a way to make more profit without raising prices.  There's always DLC, but that may not be enough. I've often thought they could make great money if they just took a chunk of something they hate: used games. If EA or Activision took trade-ins of their own games, gave credit to the trader that can only be used buy another of their games, I'd do that. The beauty of it is they can then resell the used game to another customer. It's nearly pure profit at that point. And if you buy the used game from the game company, they can waive the $10 online pass. I'd much rather do that than head over to Gamestop and get hassled 2 or 3 times about pre-ordering something I don't want before I actually get out the door with the used game I came to buy in the first place and then go home and plunk down another $10 so I can play online.
 
Thoughts?