The higher price of AAA games also comes from the new consoles on the PC »Vortex

This year’s Game Awards program included Forspoken from the developers of Luminous Productions. The ambitious project received a new demonstration, at the end of which the release date was also revealed. The technologically enticing adventure of the young New Yorker Frey, who for unknown reasons finds herself in the fantasy world of Athia, will be available from May 24, 2022, which must have caused considerable pleasure among the fans. But it only lasted a short time because run pre-orders revealed that Square Enix publishers would be the first in the field of AAA games to try to sell to players their games for a higher price tag, corresponding to some titles for new consoles. Without prolonged tensioning, the Forspoken is available in a basic version for 80 euros, which is a 30 percent increase over the usual 60-euro price tag.

The information started to spread among the players during the Game Awards – after all, some of you also reacted to it in the chat of our broadcast – and the reactions are not expected to be a bit positive. Square Enix can, given its position and the breadth of its portfolio legitimizovat a similar approach for other publishers and to take care of breaking down age-old dogma. In addition, the increase in the price of PC versions will equalize the price tag of some titles intended for new consoles, which will probably strengthen the decision of publishers and is a very real possibility that it will be a new standard in a few months. Just to be clear, Forspoken, at least from the point of view of Square Enix, is no exception – the basic version of the improved remake of Final Fantasy VII with the subtitle Intergrade will be available on PC for 80 euros, and richer editions are of course more expensive. Just by chance, you can pre-order the Digital Deluxe edition for Forspoken for 105 euros and we guess that others will be priced similarly. large hry od Square Enix.

The most common argument for those who decide on the price or affect them in terms of sales is to compare with other entertainment industries.

It is not clear at this time what other publishers will do. But if we look back at the situation on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, there probably won’t be a consensus, at least initially. Former PlayStation President Shawn Layden was one of the first to start raising the price of games. Already in the middle of last year he spoke that the current situation is unsustainable and the game will have to be shorter or more expensive in the future. This thesis was then fulfilled by the publisher Take-Two Interactive, which became more expensive next-gen version of NBA 2K21 and shortly afterwards there were similar reports from Sony, which also went in this direction for games designed for PS5. The most common argument for those who decide on the price or affect them in terms of sales is to compare with other entertainment industries. Cinema tickets, Netflix subscriptions and much more usual Items’s price naturally rises over the years, while games for many years have cost the obligatory $ 60 and derivatives in other currencies.

From this point of view, however, the recalculation may not always seem fair, and it is the same in the current Forspoken case. While there was a price increase of 10 dollars in the USA, the game is priced at 80 euros in Europe, which is exactly 20 dollars more after recalculation according to the current exchange rate. Also, countries with different economic strengths do not offer his customers always quite fair or better said the right price and something that it might seem problem of consoles, suddenly affects everyone. It is very difficult to defend or stand against a new price trend, because we are spinning in a circle and one cannot exist without the other. In simple terms, if gaming companies feel that costs have risen disproportionately, the product needs to become more expensive. On the other hand, they will encounter the reluctance of customers, who are usually only interested in the lowest possible price tag. Perhaps that is why publishers are pushing various forms of subscription or streaming services to the forefront, and who knows what all and to what extent the increasing budgets of big AAA games will lead.

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