Will Prices Change with the Next-Gen Games?

Tristan Reyes: Since the new generations is around the corner people are wondering if games will become more expensive. Gaming Instincts thinks otherwise and here's why.

[StormLegend]

Hopefully not or I'll be waiting for huge discounts. I'm not buying broken third party games for $80. No game is worth $70-$80 anyway.

[KyRo]

I hope not. In the UK game prices have gone up £10-£20 this generation. Last generation they were £40 for the most part but this gen, I've had to be a lot more fussy with games because of the increased prices.

[Kurisu]

Hopefully the new government lowers our VAT rates...fat chance of that I know, but 20% VAT really does make everything so expensive. Can barely afford a weekly shop...so many games I've yet to play!!

[madpuppy]

The market is not going to bear anything over the standard 60.00 for a game, as it is, personally, I just wait till a game drops in price considerably before I even consider purchasing it. I learned to NEVER pre-order, that is just a fools errand. So, publishers CAN charge 70, 80 or even 90 dollars for a game but, no one is going to actually pay that (unless your a fool or it's not your money being spent) And I'm talking about the largest gaming consumer, the school aged gamer and the casuals. The hard core will stupidly think they are "supporting" the industry by overpaying for a game when they are just screwing up the cost to value metric.

[bloop]

"... .the standard 60.00 for a game...."

Standard edition prices start at €69.99 for almost all games here in Ireland now, which is almost $80. You Yanks don't know how good you have it, and yet still complain about game prices.

[madpuppy]

@bloop, I don't complain, I just won't buy it, I have NO problem waiting till the price drops to what I am willing to pay. Sure, I'm a gamer...but, I am also a consumer and I am patient. So, If you are willing to pay top dollar for your games then that is what the market in your country will bear...yup, it your fault :P

[JackBNimble]

Well up here in Canada games are $80

[2pacalypsenow]

Im fine as long as theres no MT’s

[NecrumOddBoy]

I agree with this.

Also this generation has shown how flexible pricing can be good. Example, Outer Worlds may Hollow Knight both have around 50 hrs of content but one is $15 while the other is $60. The Witcher and Skyrim are also $60 but give 200+ hours 9f content. Then, Ratchet was $40. Hopefully the testing of various pricing can lock in what's fair.

I would like to see AAA cap at $70 withZ ZERO MTs or paid DLC. At the end of the day, I wish publishers were forced into making complete games out of the gate.

[Fist4achin]

I'd imagine we'll a price hike of maybe 5-10 dollars. The production of games has gone up to the point where I enjoy games more than a lot of movies coming out.

[RevXM]

Yes but some games uses scanned items and materials so devs wont have to make everything from scratch.
This will become more and more common and result in less time making games. At least it helps as other aspects surely do take longer but there is hope prices stay the same.

[traumadisaster]

The best games that are released never reach my excitement for the best movies that come out, for me.

The level of dialogue, drama, acting quality, screenplay, writing, visuals makes games second place.

I love games and have thousands but I’ll turn the best game off and put the best movie on when I’m in the mood.

[sampsonon]

the last of us 2 and ghost of tsushima aren't next gen games.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Hopefully not. The price of games in most regions have increased every generation. Most game journalists are so lazy that they'll confidently say that the price of games haven't gone up for a long time and that this is why micro-transactions are necessary. They couldn't be arsed to literally just look the prices on the EU PS Store.

[Atom666]

Here's a fun one to read:

http://www.dorkly.com/post/...

Truth is, many of us can remember paying $60, $70, or $80 for new releases back in the 8 & 16 bit gen. Those games didn't have 100+ member teams, either

[rainslacker]

If the market didn't expand so rapidly last gen, prices probably would have gone up this gen. They did go up at the start of last gen by $10 in the US. With more customers it means they can still make a return by selling it for the same price.

Publishers nowadays though want to ignore the larger player base when talking about how much it costs to make games. Most of that is to Terry and push ways to maximize return on investment.

I think a price hike in the us, which has an effect on the rest of the worlds base game prices as well, is due, but I also wonder how well the market will react to it. Early adopters may be willing to pay more for the whole generation, but for the long term, the larger market may not. That could also push people more to using sub services, which is mostly only beneficial to the companies that provide them, and other publishers are going to be more cautious about pushing people to those services for their long term interests. that may help keep prices where they are.

I suppose well know in about 6-7 months.

[Traecy]

If so I'll wait until it's discounted.

[madpuppy]

You are an extremely intelligent consumer, Kudos!
That is the best way to help the industry from getting too far ahead of themselves, If they see people waiting till the price drops, then they will know that the market cannot bear the cost. and will adjust prices accordingly. If anyone thinks that a more expensive game means the elimination of MT's and downloadable content then they are fools, you will just pay the new more expensive price and have all those terrible practices as well.

[Skuletor]

They better not because we all know that won't stop them adding micro transactions on top

[BlackTar187]

sure when they figure out how to release products that are not filled with horrible bugs then and only then will i take this price change seriously.

[acptest]

It's a given at this point. When we went to HD games the price went up so I expect the price to go up $10 dollars for 4k games. Next Gen games will be $69.99 :-(

[isarai]

There's no reason to, the thing people keep saying "games cost more and more to make" is a half truth. Making games have pretty much cost the same for decades, cost simply shifted from R&D to staff size. The thing that makes the total project more expensive is marketing. But all that is offset by FAAAAR more streamlined toolset and a WAAAAAAAY bigger consumer base. If making a game was more expensive, the explosion of indie games shouldn't have been possible. Truth is you can still drop a complete, meaty experience right out the box with no monetization and still be successful enough to continue and improve the I.P., games like Yakuza, Sniper Elite, Surge, Vermintide, Shadow Warrior, etc. Prove that

[franwex]

Well, here is the thing. They may go up, but games are also selling more than before. Also, a lot of sales are digital which help with distribution costs. So I doubt they will go up to $70 next gen like how they did previous gen to the standard that we have today.

[TheHan]

No, we can’t even get a finished product let alone increase the fucking price of video games. It would become a dying hobby if that was the case

[The_Sage]

I think it's (as Smith said) inevitable. Here in Illinois U.S. our idiot government has implemented a Damn near 50% minimum wage increase. The costs of goods and services will shoot up to cover that, I'm essentially getting a pay cut, and my wife closed one of her two shops.

[isarai]

Have you tried to live on minimum wage? It's a f@#king ridiculous lifestyle no hard worker should have to deal with. A small peak into my life making min wage, or $7.25 for 5yrs till i found a better job. Food? It's all bologna, rice, beans, eggs and ramen. That diet leads to high sodium/blood pressure so you just try to eat less to mitigate. You constantly feel tired with poor diet working 40-70hr weeks only to still barely make it paycheck to paycheck stressing you out all the damn time thinking about what you can go without so you can afford what you know is coming, and what you dont know is coming. Healthcare? Not an option, no way you can afford that. Car? Have to buy used and old, takes a year or more to save up about $1,000 to buy off craigslist. You try to save but car maintenance, unexpected car troubles, and other random things (like finding out your on your last pair of pants without holes in the crotch and your shoes are falling appart so thats about $50 out of your meager $450-$550 biweekly check) and yes this was at a locally owned mom and pop shop, and i understand they couldn't really afford to pay me much more, but what i dont understand is the mentality that the worker should just be happy no matter the pay, like it should be completely up to the lowest on the hierarchy to to take the biggest hit for their sake. Honestly i feel the issue is just the cost of everything, mainly insurance, especially when you're required to have car insurance. But literally everything is just so damn overpriced, the gap between the general cost of living and what min wage workers get paid just keeps getting bigger.

Sorry for the rant, i just hate people's attitude towards minimum wage workers, especially when most of them are there cause its the only jobs they can land. Everyone keeps telling me things like "oh well how much should someone get paid to just flip burgers" and i just want people to feel that it should AT LEAST be enough to actually live and not be a game of survival all the damn time.

[The_Sage]

I was on minimum wage when it was $3.36 an hour when I was a kid. Thing is, minimum wage is for those that are just entering the work force. My first job that wasn't working for farmers was when I was 16 washing dishes. By the time I was 17 I was making $6.50 at the same place as I had moved up.

Increasing minimum wage causes goods and services to go up, and hurts small business. When minimum wage was $3.36 a gallon of gas was 87 cents for example. A pound of ground beef was less that a dollar.

[Saijahn]

Hopefully digital games would be cheaper finally.

[porkChop]

They'd better not. We're already getting incomplete games full of microtransactions, with day 1 DLC, battle passes, etc. I'm paying $80 plus 13% tax in Canada ($90), I'm not paying any more.

[LeeFender]

Go get game pass.

[blacktiger]

with inflation it has to,

[aftershock]

Switching to PC full time has helped with not paying $60 for games. Highly recommended

[madpuppy]

with consoles, just waiting a while after a game is released does wonders for your wallet! I mean really, everybody bitches about having a giant backlog of games, just be a little more patient and play the games you have and before you know it that game that was all the buzz when it was released at 60.00+ as well as the three 20.00 expansion packs is now all included on the disc with all the preorder bonuses ready for you to buy for 29.00.

[Tross]

That's exactly why I normally wait. I'm most likely going to backlog a game I buy anyways, and paying the launch price is really just for the pleasure of having the game as soon as it comes out; a benefit which is completely nullified if I shelve the game. I can save money if I just buy the game later. The only exception is Nintendo and their crooked refusal to drop the price of their games like everyone else. I just resolve that by rarely buying first party Nintendo games or waiting for sales or Selects.

[gangsta_red]

If they do go up, all the more reason to subscribe to rental services.

[DafunkyRebel]

If there are not MTs I wouldn’t mind shelling out an extra $10 bucks for a game especially if it’s a GOTY contender

[phoenixwing]

I already think 60 is asking too much. If they ask for more ill be likely to wait until theyre half off or lower.

[Tross]

Let's hope not. $80CAD is already pushing it, and few games are worth that to me, so I tend to wait for price drops anyways unless it's a game I really want and can't wait to play (which is usually contingent on me being a big fan of a certain IP). If the price goes up even more I can guarantee that I'll almost never buy a game at launch.

[Gheritt_White]

I think $69.99 / £64.99 for new AAA games is a fair price for both customers and developers/publishers alike. More than that is IMHO hard to justify.

[Soy]

If it eliminated MTs, I'm fine with a $5-10 increase. It's a miracle it's stayed at $60 or below for so long.

[rainslacker]

No way it would eliminate that stuff. Publishers know that some people will buy it, so theyll keep putting it in. The cost of the game is irrelevant to them

[Chocoburger]

Price have been increasing in a round-about way. Publishers are using as many tactics as possible to get as much money as possible without increasing the base barrier of entry of $60.

- pre-order DLC (that's almost always throw away crap)
- over priced DLC packs
- season passes
- microtransactions for 'time savers', loot boxes, experience points upgrades, currency upgrades, resource upgrades, costumes, etc.
- battle passes
- special editions which cost in the $70-100 range and can give you 3 days early access to a game
- collector's editions which cost in the $100-$300 range (FF7 remake / Cyberpunk / Death Stranding, etc.)
- and let's not forget saving money by cutting corners and releasing a broken bug-filled game that must be rushed out to store shelves before Black Friday, even if it means garnering ill will from your fan base. They just offer a fake apology, toss a few costumes as free DLC, and dumbass gamers forgive and forget within 1 week.

Is that not enough? Now we increase the price as well? Honestly increasing the price may be bad for business if it has heavy microtransactions. You want the barrier to entry to be as low as possible, and not scare off any 'stupid whales' from buying your crap microtransaction filled game. Otherwise they'll avoid the game, and you'll lose out on much more than $10 gained from the price increase.

[GordyNYC]

Thought they’d be lower as going digital gets rid of a ton of production costs.

[william_cade]

Most games are already 80-100 usd for the complete experience. I wouldn't buy a game for 65 usd + that has been chopped into multiple editions and sold for 101+ usd for the complete experience.