Most current AAA games usually cost around $60 at launch, but this is going to change with the upcoming PS5/Xbox Series X generation. One of the main reasons for the increase in price is due to the fact that games have to come out with backward compatibility.
“Our own Worldwide Studios titles will be priced from $49.99 to $69.99 on PS5,” stated President & CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment Jim Ryan in a blog post. The blog post was followed with a lot of negative comments about the new price tags for games, as they were already expensive to begin with. Some of the games Sony listed include Demon’s Souls for $69.99, Destruction All Stars for $69.99, Sackboy A Big Adventure for $59.99, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition for $69.99
Microsoft has yet to reveal any details about their pricing scheme to the public, but it seems like Microsoft wants to keep prices down. Their Xbox Game Pass subscription service could be the answer to saving money on games, as you get tons of new games, and the service also gets updated frequently.
Third-party companies such as 2K have already made some changes to their own games. NBA 2K21 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X will be priced $10 more than its PS4 and Xbox One versions during launch. “It is commonplace for games on new platforms to cost more than the older platforms, but the situation is made more complex because of backward compatibility on Xbox Series X and PS5,” Piers Harding-Rolls, from Ampere Analysis consultancy, told the BBC.
The standard prices of NBA 2K21 are as follows:
$59.99 on Nintendo Switch
$59.99 on PlayStation 4/Xbox One
$69.99 on PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X
So, what are your thoughts on companies increasing the prices for their games? Do you think this will make games less accessible to gamers? Personally, I think it’s a bad move for the industry to increase the prices, as the current prices are high enough. Whatever your thoughts may be, let us know in the comments below.
