True, the costs of developing a game have gone up. But so have the profits, though, so it's not a matter of just passing through increased costs.

In most parts of the world, bandwidth is not unlimited. Many providers (outside the US) have caps on amount of data one can download and upload in a month. This is especially true for wireless data, but also for traditional broadband. And yes, most people still do not have reliable internet access today, even in the US, Canada, Europe, etc. As for increased tech know-how, I would say it is more due to the increasing complexities of the software as well (i.e., while people have more know-how, the programs they used have become much more complex at the same time).


Saving money is as much an incentive as convenience. As the price increases, less and less people are willing to pay it. Pretty straightforward economic concept.


Many games today do not require supercomputers or even the latest technology to play. Indeed, if they did, sales would be very tiny. Games are made to play on older configurations in order to tap into a large enough market to actually sell them profitably.