Battlefield 6 will cost $70 as EA avoids $80 game pricing - for now

[midian182]

A hot potato: It looks as if the consumer pushback against $80 becoming the new standard price for video games is having an effect. After Microsoft backtracked on plans to charge this amount for The Outer Worlds 2 and other new titles, EA has now said it won't be introducing the new baseline for AAA titles – at least "not at this stage." It means that the upcoming Battlefield 6 will be priced at the usual $70.

Speaking during a Q1 earnings call (via IGN), EA CEO Andrew Wilson responded to an investor question about game pricing.

"We're not looking to make any changes on pricing at this stage," Wilson said.

The exec added that EA already offers "a fairly broad pricing scheme across our various products."

"We'll continue to look at opportunities to deliver great value to our players through various pricing schemes over the course of time, but no dramatic changes planned yet."

Sources say that the recently revealed Battlefield 6 has seen its development budget soar to a Hollywood-blockbuster-sized $400 million. EA could have used that astronomical amount as justification for slapping an $80 price tag on the game, but the company is aiming to attract an ambitious 100 million players, which is more than three times the number of players Battlefield 1 – the most successful game in the series – managed at its peak. EA likely knows that adding another ten bucks to the standard $70 price is going to hamper that lofty goal.

Another big influence for EA will be the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which is also sticking to a $70 price tag. The franchises have long been major rivals, and the two titles are expected to launch close together, so EA doesn't want the next CoD to have the advantage of a cheaper base game.

Last week brought news that Microsoft was backing away from its plans to charge $80 for first-party Xbox games. The Outer Worlds 2, set to be the first of the more expensive titles, was reduced to the usual $70 – anyone who'd pre-ordered the RPG at $80 is being refunded. An Xbox spokesperson confirmed that all full-priced holiday releases will now cost $70, "in line with current market conditions."

With Borderlands 4 also costing $70 instead of $80, it appears gamers' outrage over the price hikes is being noticed. But one company that isn't paying attention is Nintendo. First-party Switch 2 releases such as Mario Kart World are $80.

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Battlefield 6 will cost $70 as EA avoids $80 game pricing – for now

 

[Megalomaniac]

Call of Duty Black Ops 6
Battlefield 6
Grand Theft Auto 6

Mark of the beast!

 

[Kotters]

What's being noticed is that preorders at 80 bucks for their games were not where they expected them to be.

One would extrapolate that this isn't the case for Nintendo's games.

 

[mgwerner]

$70 is still $35-$40 too much for my wallet.

 

[mikus]

Most I'll spend for a game is around $25, used, sale, off the back of the truck, don't care, but anything more is absurd to me.

I'm glad if nothing else it leaves Nintendo to justify why they're the one predominantly pushing the $80 price point, greedy bastards.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Smart move. Liking what I see so far from leaked pre alpha gameplay on YT.

Not a fan of how much multi-story damage can be done to walls from one grenade launcher round hit to a corner of the building. Looks too scripted, removes too much cover and is unrealistic. Rear end on vehicles with tires look floaty which isn't like past BF games so I'm confident it's fixed or will be.

Gunplay, movement, MAPS! (I seen two) and effects look great. Hoping for something that REALLY wows me that we haven't seen before.

Fingers crossed this one is a hit. Checked last night and I have over 2600 hours played in BF4. I maybe have 150 hours combined in all the games that followed.

 

[Kirby1]

Smart move. Liking what I see so far from leaked pre alpha gameplay on YT.

Not a fan of how much multi-story damage can be done to walls from one grenade launcher round hit to a corner of the building. Looks too scripted, removes too much cover and is unrealistic. Rear end on vehicles with tires look floaty which isn't like past BF games so I'm confident it's fixed or will be.

Gunplay, movement, MAPS! (I seen two) and effects look great. Hoping for something that REALLY wows me that we haven't seen before.

Fingers crossed this one is a hit. Checked last night and I have over 2600 hours played in BF4. I maybe have 150 hours combined in all the games that followed.

I am cautiously optimistic that this one will be good if only because the last two flopped hard enough to force EA to go back to what they know works. I played the alpha a little bit when I had access and I thought it had a solid foundation at the time but the map they included was small and hard to judge what the core experience will be like from that alone.

 

[loki1944]

Ridiculous

 

[Liranan]

The game could be free and I won't touch it because of EA.

 

[toooooot]

The usual, 70 base game and 50 bucks or so additional content.
Since they are going back to bf4 stuff, might as well release
a premium version or a season pass for 120 or so.
I hated it when they released bf 5 and it was barebones with a promise for more content over time. It just did not have enough stuff. and it was a flop.

 

[Burty117]

I played the Alpha a while back, only got a couple of hours in, seems promising, feels more like BF3/4.

I'm cautiously optimistic, they've burned their player base 2-3 times in a row now, with great looking trailers or half decent Alpha builds, but when the games dropped, they were rubbish.

Remember, no pre-orders.

 

[gamerk2]

I've read the development history over on arstechnica, and that alone does not bode well. Everything points to yet another EA game with too much executive interference to try and chase trends rather then focusing on what made BF great.

 

[Jarenien]

$70 is still $35-$40 too much for my wallet.

Don't worry, Mom and Dad will let you borrow their CC if you climb up the stairs from the basement and ask them.

But seriously, games have been $60 since the 80's, it's about time they increase in price as the cost of making games has increased exponentially compared to back then.

 

[Burty117]

But seriously, games have been $60 since the 80's, it's about time they increase in price as the cost of making games has increased exponentially compared to back then.

That's a publisher / developer issue lets be honest here, Way too many modern games suck.

I personally do not care that (for example) Dragon Age: The Veilguard cost hundreds of millions to make, it's a rubbish game.

The other issue today, indie devs are producing fantastic games for half (or less) the money the big publishers are, just to really hammer home the price of the products really don't need to go up at all.