UDK has noticed something rather interesting: it seems that this year, the number of ero-ge hitting the price point of 9,800 yen -- nearly $100 -- has been increasing. Last year, only 8 titles were priced that high, but now the number has jumped up to 25 works, and that's not including special editions with collectibles included. Adding that in would make the number flux even more.

They offer a few explanations for why this may have happened. The first is simply the cost of production has gone up, and as a result companies have had to raise prices in order to stay afloat because, let's face it, the ero-ge market is not in rapid expansion. Part of this comes from companies looking to turn a single game into a series, so the development costs rise, especially since higher-level games contain copious amount of CG images.

Another reason might be the increase in special editions. First printings, limited edition collectibles, and other extravagant extras introduced buyers to the 9,800 yen price point. Once publishers saw that people buying products at that price started growing, they could start pricing regular editions at that price and people would buy them.

The thing is, the ero-ge industry can't survive like this. If price inflation continues like this, there is going to be a bubble burst when people just decide not to drop $100 on a single ero-ge, and a few companies are going to fall. The industry is already shrinking because of the whole kerfuffle from earlier this year.

[Via New-Akiba]