It appears that gamers, already expected to pay $60 for the latest titles, may have to spend even more money to get the games they want. The price of new games for the next generation of consoles will possibly rise up to $70, at least according to one big name in the industry.
EA executive Blake Jorgensen, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference, gave gamers a possible glimpse into the future of buying games.
"I think, typically, at the start of a cycle, you've seen the pricing raise, say, to $69 for a core piece of software...And then over the life of those, that's drifted down to introductory price, typically now around $59. We haven't yet set pricing on our gen 4s, but you probably see a similar trend to that during the start of the next cycle."
This quote does not bode well for gamers on a budget. Given that costs of a basic game will rise, and EA is already planning to include microtransactions into every future game they make, gamers serious about getting games on the day of release, or needing a leg up, will have to drop some serious money to make it happen.
It should be noted that Sony has stated that games on the PlayStation 4 will range from 99 cents to $60, so we'll have to see how the next-gen ecosystem will shape up.
While microtransactions make more sense for free-to-play games (after all, game developers have to eat too), spending even more money on a game after dropping $70 - enough money to fill up the gas tank and pick up some gas-station pizza - only to then be confronted with opportunities to spend even more money seems rather expensive. It's one thing to spend some extra money on upgrades to a low budget independently-developed game, but to give so much money to a corporate giant like EA seems unlikely for most gamers. What do you think about possibly having to spend $70 for a video game in the coming years?
Thanks to: Ubergizmo