The reason is simple. Inflation.

The NES originally sold for $180 USD in 1985, which is worth $530 today. The SNES, circa 1991, was $199 USD or $459 today.

Fast forward a bunch…

The switch 2 is currently priced at $449 USD.

The literal price has gone up, but the cost is going down. Slightly, but still.

I’m sure I could repeat the same experiment for PlayStation, Xbox, or Sega’s consoles and see similar results.