[HN Gopher] The high cost of software in the 1980s (2019)
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The high cost of software in the 1980s (2019)
 
Author : zdw
Score  : 12 points
Date   : 2021-11-01 22:10 UTC (49 minutes ago)
 
web link (robservatory.com)
w3m dump (robservatory.com)
 
| azinman2 wrote:
| When you're going to sell low numbers of units you gotta make it
| up in cost.
 
| AlbertCory wrote:
| dang's reference doesn't seem to cover Lotus 1-2-3 ($499) or
| dBase II ($700) (or was it dBase III?)
| 
| I vividly remember, in the early 80s, a guy who's now a
| successful VC telling me that there was no reason why software
| should cost more than a college textbook. This was radical at the
| time; now of course textbooks are much _more_ expensive if you
| want to actually buy them.
 
| flohofwoe wrote:
| That's why DLC, microtransactions and ingame payments were
| invented. Today the 60 dollars are just the symbolic entry fee to
| the ingame shop ;)
| 
| (but for some niche genres this model works really well both for
| developers and users, high fidelity flight simulators for
| instance where aircraft are sold as DLC modules)
 
| dang wrote:
| Discussed at the time (of the article, not the software):
| 
|  _The high cost of software in the 1980s_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20988512 - Sept 2019 (11
| comments)
 
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(page generated 2021-11-01 23:00 UTC)