The price of games is still a subject of debate among users. We all like to buy games for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch At the lowest price, this is why offers on digital platforms are the perfect time to expand the library. But what about the launch titles we’ve been waiting for months? And with the arrival on the market of new consoles with which we want to have a basic minimum of games? Disbursement is guaranteed, but it could be even higher for the next generation of platforms with Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X.
This was stated by the analyst Yoshio Osaki IDG Research for the media Games industry. Just look back to see how, generation after generation, the price of video games has increased. “It was in 2005 and 2006, with the launch of a new generation when the software went up in price,” says Yoshio. “It went from $ 49.99 to $ 59.99 at the start of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 era.”
A cost and a price which since then have increased exponentially. One of the most talked about aspects in recent years has been the high production costs in video games, sometimes exceeding those of cinema. Developing a video game today compared to the last generation has meant an increase of nothing more and nothing less than between 200 and 300% in terms of development costs.
Confirmed design of PlayStation 5, the new Sony console | Sony
That said, companies have to cover these development costs in one way or another. That’s when the price hike in store games comes in. According to Yoshio, PS5 titles will drop from $ 59.99 to $ 69.99. The first box is in the recently announced NBA 2K21, a game we can find in Europe for the new generation in 74,99 euros.
2K, the basketball match manager, is not the only company to have already decided to substantially increase the price of matches. “At IDG, we work with all the major video game publishers, our surveys indicate that other publishers also appreciate the price increase in the new generation for certain franchises ”, Yoshio has established itself as the main reason for the high development costs.
Does the increase in video game prices represent a leap compared to other formats or markets? From 2005 to 2020, years of application of the aforementioned increase in the price of games, we have seen an increase of only 17%. Instead, as the consulting firm IDG pointed out, Netflix has seen a 100% increase in the subscription price or markets like the cinema do the same with tickets up to 39%.
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