When I say $50 in 1990 is $120 today, its due to inflation over 34 years. There is quite a few factors to what causes this. And its going to differ depending on which country you are in and what currency you use.
Now where things get weird (and to hopefully get keep the thread on subject) is video game prices did not increase over the last 4 decades. In fact one could argue they got cheaper due to inflation.
In 1990, a $50 video game would take nearly 12 hours of work at minimum wage to purchase. Today a $50 game would take only 7 hours (assuming $7.25/hr wage) at federal minimum wage. Though things get a little weirder since the amount of jobs that actually employ at that wage are actually pretty rare. I don’t know exactly what the average minimum is (as in the lowest wage in an area, not mandated minimums by local jurisdiction), but I’d say its about $12/hr where I live.
So what this means is its easier to buy video games now than it was in 1990. But it also means that the amount of investment returns from making a video game based on its retail price can be lower. For a game like Baldur’s Gate 3 they actually did quite well. Even though the game itself is only $60, they sold so many in volume that I’m certain it was quite the investment.
Super Mario Bros. 3 also did quite well in 1990 (and the years after) being one of the best selling games of all time. But this was tempered by the fact that cartridges at the time were costly to make, being actual hardware being shipped with the game. This is one of the reasons games didn’t really get more expensive. They went to CD/DVD media which could be printed, and then mostly digital media, which just requires Internet access and data storage.
However niche games like Conan Exiles will need to find other monetary means of generating revenue to make up for the fact that they aren’t going to sell several dozen million units a month. And that they are continuing to work on the game.
SMB3 for example spent around 11 months in development. Outside of the remake for the SNES. It never received further updates. So after 1991, any money made on that game was effectively just pure profit. Conan Exiles in contrast has been in active development since 2016. After 8 years, the developers, artists, etc still need to be paid for their time spent on the project.
Whether or not all that justifies the high prices in the bazaar or not is determined by a spreadsheet. Is the profit margin of Crom coin purchases equal or greater than what they expect at their price points and what they require? If the answer is yes. Then there is no reason to change it.
Feedback is actually not entirely relevant to that formula. The reason being is if they are meeting their goals, then that is a constant they know. Logic would say that they could potentially make more money by cutting the prices. The idea is that lower prices means more sales.
But its not a guarantee. People on these forums could say they would buy things if they were lower. Its no guarantee that they will. Its also not a guarantee that those who are buying will actually buy more things rather than be content with the purchases they normally make.
The only assured way to get Funcom to lower prices is to disrupt their margin goals. Or to wait until the item you wish to buy is no longer being purchased at its current price point, and more or less forces them to lower the price to continue earning revenue from it.