Are video games becoming a luxury for the rich?

That's the question posed by Matthew Federico on his blog. It's his contention that the rising price of video games (lately hovering around sixty bucks each for games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) coupled with the current state of the economy means that only those with plenty of ready cash on hand can fully enjoy the latest slate of games like Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3.

On the flip side of the coin, a few months ago Theodore Beale (writing as Vox Day) on WorldNetDaily offered some suggestions for "living lean" and seriously advised that video games were a sound use of one's entertainment dollar, as opposed to spending it on something like movie tickets.

So are video games for the most part now in the province of those who can most afford them? It may be worth noting that even at the height of the Great Depression people kept flocking to movie theaters. When you figure in for inflation, Gone With The Wind is still the top-grossing film of all time, and it came out at a time when going to a cinema was still considered a high-falootin' expenditure.

What do y'all think?