Ubisoft says $70 is now the standard price for its "big AAA games"

midian182

midian182

Posts: 9,722   +121
Staff member
A hot potato: Ubisoft is joining the depressingly large number of companies charging $70 for their AAA games, the first of which will be November's Skull and Bones. The French studio has announced that the price will become a standard for its big PS5 and Xbox Series X/S releases. No word on PC games, though it wouldn't be surprising to see it follow in the footsteps of Square Enix and Activision by charging $70 for some titles on the platform.

In an interview with Axios, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said some of Ubisoft's games will cost the same price as the competition. "The big AAA games will come at $70," he said.

It was back in 2020 when 2K Sports set an unwelcome precedent by announcing NBA 2K21 would cost $70 for the standard edition on the now current-gen consoles. A couple of weeks later, Ubisoft confirmed that all of its games over the holiday period, including Watch Dogs: Legion and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, would be priced at the usual $60.

Ubisoft never said anything about sticking with the $60 price in the long term, and with the likes of Activision, Sony, and Square Enix all adopting the $70 entry point, it comes as little surprise to see the company join the rest of the pack. The good news for those looking forward to next year's Assassin's Creed Mirage, one of several upcoming AC games revealed over the weekend, is that it will be $50, though it is said to be on a smaller scale than the behemoth that is Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Ubisoft never mentioned anything about PC games. Square Enix charges the same $70 for Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on PC as it does for the console version. Forspoken will also be priced at $70 when it arrives next year, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II will be the same price on Steam next month. Sadly, it seems we can expect more companies to start charging this amount for their major releases on the platform, which has a history of offering cheaper titles than its console counterparts.

Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar/2K parent Take-Two Interactive, addressed the $70 price point last year. He said the "extraordinary experiences" and "lots of replayability" offered in NBA 2K21 made it worth the money. The CEO tried to further defend the move by pointing out that the last time the US saw a price hike for games was 2005/2006, so consumers were "ready" to pay more. NBA2K21 has an overall "mixed" rating on Steam and a user score of 2.6 (PS5) and 4.4 (XBSX) on Metacritic.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/95957-ubisoft-70-now-standard-price-big-aaa-games.html

 
That's pretty normal, there were no price updates for last 20 years or so, and I see no problems with companies setting price they find required to pay their teams. I'm paying more for bread as well.
If their product will find buyers, kudos for them. If you don't like it, don't buy it - if you haven't paid $60, why do you complain on $70 you'd not paid anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bamda, Vanderkaum037 and Kirby1
It makes sense. Id rather pay more for a good game than pay less for a crappy game. But ubi would have to start making good games again and I don't see that happening anytime soon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Vanderkaum037
I might pay $55 for an original, well designed game like a Bloodborne or a Last of Us maybe. But another Assassins Creed or Far Cry for $70 - no thanks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 0dium
Ubisoft games are free for me but I don't even bother with them. Every one I tried has been absolute trash.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mgwerner
I make good money and spending $70 dollars on a game wouldn't hurt me at all but I still refuse to do it. 9 bucks is my limit on GOG drm free so I can download a copy so they cant delete my games or I am not buying it. I literally will go back to playing old classics. Terror from the deep, betrayal at krondor, dark sun before I spend 70 bucks on any new games.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dangh and passwordistaco
My take? I seldom buy my games at full price on release. Unless it's a proven quality "must have" game, which there seems to be less and less of, I wait for an all inclusive DLC edition to go on sale. As it is I have way too many games that are half finished or never started. Why do I want to spend a lot of money to add more to the list?
 
  • Like
Reactions: brucek
They're going to introduce it with "Skull and Bones," which has had a notoriously, hilariously troubled development cycle.

So the first game they're going up to $70 on is a game that is almost guaranteed to review poorly and launch as the buggiest mess since Assassin's Creed Unity.

God I wish I were paid so much to be so dumb and out of touch.
 
I wouldn't mind a flat all-inclusive $70 for a great game. The $60 price may be a couple decades old at this point?

What I do mind is $70 for a "game" that feels like it as least as much as a commerce platform that exists mostly to get to me to buy additional consumables, cosmetics, DLCs, game passes, etc. all while also feeling intentionally dragged out so as to pump player minutes metrics. That makes the true price much higher, but even more depressingly, but the fun factor ends up being much lower.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dr Roboto and sorten
I appreciate the CEO of Rockstar telling me I am ready to "pay more", as I was completely unaware of that fact myself.
 
As much hate as everyone is spewing at Ubisoft they are still the #9 largest developer by earnings so they are doing something right. I have never purchased a game at launch as I like to wait for the reviews. So this won't affect me as I usually wait for the first major price drop, I usually purchase the game at $30.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Revolution 11
There games don't need to be as big as they are, Odyssey could not include the boat combat or those regions and still be as good/sufficent in size I would argue - lots less work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Revolution 11
Game companies can go and f*** right off. I am not paying more than $25 ever for a PC game full of exploitative DLC, microtransactions, and low-quality content. This especially applies to EA and Ubisoft games. Even the best indies and high-quality content games are not worth paying more than $40.

People should just wait for a discount during holiday sales, flash sales, and Humble Bundles. It's not like there is a lack of great games on deep discounts and sales almost on a constant basis. And all your games on sale will have fewer bugs, no launch problems, and better game balance.
 
George Keech said:
There games don't need to be as big as they are, Odyssey could not include the boat combat or those regions and still be as good/sufficent in size I would argue - lots less work.
Click to expand...
Agreed. A lot of the "work" that developers use to justify insane DLC prices and microtransactions and high launch prices is just meaningless "go here, kill this, grab that" fetch quests with a few bad escort quests thrown in. Either that or a few hundred "grab this item to complete your collection of cards, feathers, posters, gizmos" quests to make the map feel alive and full of "value" and "content" to justify the AAA game price. Ubisoft tends to be particularly sloppy about this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

midian182
Ubisoft defends $70 price for Skull and Bones, citing its "AAAA" status
2
Replies
26
Views
512
RandomWAN
R
midian182
Skull and Bones has the lowest Metacritic user score of 2024 so far
2
Replies
27
Views
514
trieste1s
T
midian182
Ubisoft is giving away Assassin's Creed Syndicate for free until next week
Replies
9
Views
408
axiomatic13
axiomatic13

Latest posts

Back