Former PlayStation CEO Says Companies Should Have “Baked In” $5 Price Hike in Every Generation to Acclimate Gamers
Former PlayStation CEO Says Companies Should Have “Baked In” $5 Price Hike in Every Generation to Acclimate Gamers
28 Comments
he should bake these soft nuggies in his mouth
I will hold off longer each generation to get the better deals and discounts
Is this the trickle down we get told about?
I have an idea.
Why don’t we have a baked in 5% tax increase on the 1%ers income and investments in the stock market every year (based on current market value even though you haven’t sold em).. to help you acclimate, hm? howbowdah.
599 US DOLLARS
599 US DOLLARS
599 US DOLLARS
“We must condition the populace” Always a good stance that goes over so well.
I mean, hate him if you want, but he’s not wrong.
If they went slow with it, the backlash wouldn’t happen like we’re seeing with Switch titles. People would be frustrated, sure — but it wouldn’t be so visceral.
I mean, from a business perspective, this makes sense. I obviously dont want to pay more, but I imagine the reaction from gamers wouldn’t be as bad if it was just a regular thing for them to go up $5 every generation.
Having said that, I will argue with myself here, and say that since so many games today have major stories or important content hidden behind paid DLC, they’ve already essentially raised the price.
I play new games because I get xboxs ultimate game pass for free as part of my contract phone, if that ended I would probably stop playing new games.
I don’t have time with work, family and general time to invest in new games.
So beat your price hike up your hole.
of course he’d say this lol they all would
He’s not wrong tbh. I think gradual price increases are a little better than a huge jump. And I often wonder why so companies do the huge jump price thing.
I’ll agree if and only if all DLC and Microtransactions are free
The year is 2100. The oceans are made of plastic. GTA 7 costs 500,000 dollars
Less people bought games. Games were fully developed and no “extras” that cost a small fortune (The sims 4 on steam for all its DLC is now well over £1200) People could sell their old games (online stopped that). Once you bought a game, you had it for life (Now ubicrap thinks you are only renting). Games were released fully tested (There was no online update system that worked and if your game was shit at launch you was screwed. Now day 1 patches are so common it’s pathetic) Games are now worse visually than a few years ago because optimisation has gone out the window. Gamers are now the scourge rather than being the consumer. If you don’t want to hear what we say, don’t make any more games,
I understand that the gaming industry has grown massively and development costs have gone up, but it’s hard to justify asking for more money when:
– it’s already the most profitable entertainment sector.
– “Micro”transactions have become the norm and often cost more than the game itself
– we rarely see real improvements in technology, gameplay, or innovation that justify the price hikes.
The leap from 2015 to 2025 is minimal compared to the progress we saw from 2005 to 2015, yet companies expect us to pay more for less?
It would only have made the problem occur earlier. I can only speak for myself, but I’m not protesting current/upcoming prices out of principle, or because I’m cheap.
I literally, simply, have to cut more and more groceries every month, I can’t clear off my electricity bill every month.
At current prices, I can afford one, sometimes two newly released titles per year, and one of those purchases will be with money my 65 years old mother gives me on Christmas, like when I was a child and I got to get one N64 game a year on Christmas Eve… And I might decide to buy a board game instead because it’s cheaper and I’ll likely play more often with it.
It’s not a matter of getting me used to pay that price.
If the prices go higher, I’m done buying new games because I can’t. Big sales are all that really still give me the opportunity to try a few more games here and there, sometimes.
The Switch 2 will be a console for which I cannot acquire games, so there’s no point loading up the credit card to get one, it’s a luxury paper weight in my home. This is the economy right now for people making minimum wage and close to minimum wage.
Thanks for reminding me why I no longer buy consoles
I’m surprised games have remained as cheap as they have over the last decade.
Game development has increased due to being considerably more ambitious, yet a video game still costs the same as it did 10 years ago.
I guess DLCs are reason for this. Without them, I reckon we’d be paying a lot more for them.
The thing is what he’s saying kind of already happened. Back in the PS2/3 era the first party/AAA games were roughly at the $50 price point. PS4 $60. Now in the current era they are either $60 or $70, and that doesn’t even include the potential $20-40 dlc.
I think the major issue isn’t the fact that game prices go up, it’s just how absurdly expensive they have become combined with the dlc expansion, the cosmetic dlc, the just general nickel and dimeing every bit of a game – and then to say yes $80 sounds right is just too much. Especially in the current age, where wages have been stagnant for decades and the general cost of living has skyrocketed.
People love video games and the escapism they bring is a good thing, but at the end of the day increasing prices isn’t going to prevent people from getting the game, or force them to have to pay that price, because they will just find *other* routes instead.
Well, they’re definitely going to learn that lesson. Get ready for the $95 game on the next generation.
Companies to investors: “We’re doing better than ever. This quarter we’ve made record profits. We have plans to introduce a new DLC that should increase revenue by an additional 500 million.”
Companies to gamers: “For just $10 extra per game, you too, can help a poor company struggling to stay afloat. Game development is expensive, and we might have to lay off some employees if you don’t pay us. You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
So sick of the inflation argument when it **completely ignores** the fact that our wages have not been inflated at the rate of our cost of living, and games are a luxury item that go first when you need to tighten the belt. They’re also ignoring the fact that I have a backlog and lots of choice under the $30 bracket especially with sales, so pushing the price tag hurts studios more than it hurts me.
I strongly suspect any person who actually goes to bat for this using the inflation argument is buying games with their parents/friends money and lack personal financial responsibilities to contend with, they’re not actually paying out of pocket for games with a job they personally work.
I’m just gonna point out that gaming is a hobby and pricing your market out isn’t a good idea in almost any business.
I still don’t see why games need a price hike. There are more gamers than ever before, and the numbers are increasing every year. Surely an increase in gamers, thus an increase in sales, is more than enough to cover inflation? Like inflation is such a bullshit reason to increase game prices. And it doesn’t cost them much more to ship 10 million copies if it’s digitally, which most sales seem to be nowadays.
If games are profitable, they are, then these price increases are unnecessary. Big AAA games cost more to make now but they also sell a lot more copies and include other revenue streams.
And it’s not like that extra money will go to devs or keep people employed. It will go straight to executives and shareholders.
The CEOs job in a for profit company is to extract as much money as one can from their customers. It doesnt mean that any price increase is justifiable – a company can charge whatever they want unless forced by law not to.
Customers are free to purchase or push back. Beyond a point, even if there is no competition one still cant arbitrarily raise prices to what they want if one wants to maximise profits. It depends on dynamics. Like i would be willing to pay a higher price for a game if i absolutely have to play it now. But if i dont i will just wait till later when price may go down, and purchase something else that is at a lower price now. So arbitrarily baking in price increases doesnt make sense unless there is collusion, which can be illegal.
Where there is competition without collusion price will be set by markets.
Also keep in mind – gaming is a luxury. Food, water, electricity, rent, transport etc are necessities, so those expenses come first. If salaries do not keep pace with inflation, a person may not be able to purchase a game even if they do not find the price unreasonable, just unaffordable.
This is what happens when wages stagnant for everyone except for the top earners while inflation increases.
I think the sweet spot for game development and game prices was the PS2-Xbox-Gamecube era.
Companies should also release games in a finished state.
But we don’t always get what we want.