"but salaries haven't kept pace with inflation". Salaries have outpaced inflation like they typically do: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q
If you are comparing nominal prices years and years apart, you're not actually conducting any sort of meaningful microeconomic analysis, you're just being mad for attention on the internet. Prices have increased by 28% since 2017. Nominal prices are virtually meaningless, real prices are what matter. Consoles will cost $1000, $10.000 and $100.000 one day (inflation is exponential and not linear!) and it won't matter unless we know what the CPI (and wage growth obviously) was. The $100.000 Nintendo console may well be more affordable than the $300 Switch in 2017.
by Warm-Interaction477