This already happened to me when I bought Super Mario 3D All Stars for my Switch. Release price was 50GBP on Amazon, it's now at 37GBP. The reason I bought so soon is because it looked like the limited sales time attracted scalpers who already put the game up on ebay for 100GBP and Nintendo's games pretty much never get a price drop.

Yeah, not happy about that but whatever.

Having a business, I was always told...

... don't be afraid to ask a price that you feel your work is worth...

... but...

... never ask more than you feel your work is worth.

So, with that thinking...

... artificially bumping up a price shows that a creator is trying to manipulate / abuse potential customers. If a game is worth 50% more than the usual asking price, then that should be the asking price until sales ultimately level off (or fall) and discount sales come into play.

As a creator of a few things, I adamantly believe that artistic endeavors -- especially "indies" -- should give away their early work for free. They should use the time and effort to build a fan / user base... because that fan / user base will be invaluable over time when paying customers are essential. But early on it's all about building a name / brand and giving it away. Check out Doug Tennaple (sp?) of Earthworm Jim fame on this. I agree with him 100%

Realistically, this is what happens now.

"Retail price of $60" never sticks. It drops all too quickly. Such a mechanism is describing what really happens, but in a way that's unfriendly to people who don't want to hear it. It also happens with AAA console releases: "day one editions", or "pre-order bonuses" that are probably never available another way so you have to buy it during the inflated first month. Everyone knows waiting even a little bit and prices drop for the game. Real baseline price for most of these games is 20-40, not 50-80.

Related: Shovel Knight did undergo a base-price-increase in 2017, later in its development cycle.

If you mean a "reverse sale" in the sense the additional price goes to the developer (in lieu of a crowdfunding campaign) or alternatively for charity, I could see the point.

You do not appear to be suggesting that though.

the economic theory is that most people would weigh the value of the game against substitute games or activites

The only game I would buy with such price criteria would be Treasure Island Dizzy (aka Dizzy 2) for Amiga and fully playable on my Windows 7 and whatever other Windows versions they like.