Price of games unlikely to increase with next generation consoles

[Dave LeClair]

A few years ago when we transitioned from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox to the PS3 and Xbox 360, gamers were shocked to find out the move came with an increase in the cost of games. For years console video games had been selling for $50, and suddenly they saw a jump to $60. Understandably, many have been concerned the same would happen with the next generation of consoles, but reports from Polygon and other sources are saying that is not going to be the case -- good news for gamers about to spend up to $500 on their console of choice.

According to the report, Microsoft has confirmed that first party games will remain priced at $60 on the Xbox One. Generally, these are what defines the price for the rest of the games, so if Microsoft is keeping last gen prices for its releases, other publishers are likely to do so too.

For Sony America, CEO Jack Trenton said in an interview with CNBC, "we're going to welcome free-to-play models, games from $.99 up to those $60 games." This means the company is open to all different pricing models, but the key piece of information is his mention of a maximum price at $60. 

Retailers have already started taking preorders for several Xbox One and PS4 games that have been announced so far, and they are all charging $60 as well.

All signs point to game prices remaining the same, and given as the console side of things tend to define what AAA PC releases will cost, it's probably fair to assume no price hikes are coming on that front either.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/52921-price-of-games-unlikely-to-increase-with-next-generation-consoles.html

 

[Adhmuz]

I can understand the $60 price point for perhaps the first year a console is out, mainly to make up for selling said console at next to no profit. But after it's been out for a while and has established itself theres no reason for games not to cost $50. Bring up the PC for comparison purposes where games are $50 and honestly I refuse to pay more than that for a PC game, mainly because they rarely work without a hitch at launch so technically your paying for an unfinished product. Even the console side of things have big title releases suffer from day one glitches and hiccups. Take GTA4 for example, I bought it the day it launched just to have it crash on me all day until a patch was released, not a $50 value let alone $60. Now the possible cause for the increase last gen was the complexity to program games across multiple platforms with dissimilar architecture, something this time around developers won't have to deal with so much thus reducing production cost and theoretically purchase price. But hey when you find a way to reduce production cost you never pass on those savings to your loyal fan base, that would just be crazy right?

 

[St1ckM4n]

...Unless you don't live in USA. Say hello to $110 games, UK and AU!

 

[Guest]

...Unless you don't live in USA. Say hello to $110 games, UK and AU!

You can thank your governments for their ridiculous VAT (value added tax) policy.

 

[St1ckM4n]

You can thank your governments for their ridiculous VAT (value added tax) policy.

10%. The rest is 'grey tax', because no one is willing to admit who is actually getting fat off it.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

The price of console games don't bother me in the least but the price of PC games do. I hope they don't pick on them.

 

[Guest]

Well my concern is if they get away with the price hike I have seen on the websites showing the next gen hardware and games, then maybe eventually PC games will see an increase but thankfully that has not been the case so far.

It makes you laugh with all the DRM and crap they talk about with consoles, PC games are easily hacked and cracked, but you really only see Sony and MS moaning about their systems being modded and their losses.

$110/£70 is the RRP in the UK and increase of £20 over the previous RRP. But then they take that £20 back off to pretend we are saving something. So games are around £50 - £60. Which is still insane. I wait til games are usually at the £20, or free with my psn+ subscription.

There is no way I will be paying anymore on next gen. I don't need to play the latest game @ release, when its all buggy, and b4 the GOTY editions come out so you have to pay another $110/£70 on DLC which should have been added in the game... I will let the sheep pay that insane price. Imagine paying $220 total for Battlefield 4 and its addons on the ps4....