Paying either $69.99 or even $79.99 in some cases has become the standard, but while many consumers considers that prohibitively expensive, some figureheads in the business says that it's still way too little, like ex-PlayStation boss Shawn Layden. And pricing has indeed been a very hot topic ever since Nintendo, in conjunction with the Switch 2, pushed things up to a new level, with the rest of the industry seemingly following right behind.
Despite the storm of discontent among players, Layden says in an interview with GamesIndustry that prices should be raised further and with every new console generation. But he argues that no one dares to do it.
"Games should have increased in price with every new generation. I think it's because everyone's afraid. No one wants to be the first one to raise the price, because you're afraid to lose traffic. So what you do is you just end up eating into your operating income, your profit margin"
Layden points out that AAA games have had the same price tag for two decades, while both development time and costs have skyrocketed. He uses inflation as an example, comparing the first PlayStation era - when a $60 game often cost around $10 million dollars to develop - with how a PlayStation 4 game could cost up to $160 million to produce. And this, he claims, is a threat to the entire industry's sustainability.
Do you agree, are games way too cheap?