Moar lyke Sonic the Expensivehog, right?
Sega has announced that it might be next in line to move the price-point of its major releases up to $70, following in the footsteps of all other games publishers who have decided making money isn’t worth it if you aren’t making all the money.
The considerations were noted during a Q&A conference held following the publishing of Sega’s latest financial report. Sega Sammy CEO Haruki Satomi and CFO Koichi Fukazawa were asked if the studio planned to follow the lead of publishers such as Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive.
“In the global marketplace, AAA game titles for consoles have been sold at $59.99 for many years, but titles sold at $69.99 have appeared in the last year,” noted the duo, in a translation of the meeting provided by VGC. “We would like to review the prices of titles that we believe are commensurate with price increases, while also keeping an eye on market conditions.”
Frankly, this foreplay is tiring. $70 price tags are coming, from pretty much all AAA publishers, and to dally around the idea that you’re “watching the market” is the same tiptoeing corpo-speak that surround other ideas, such as DLC, NFTs, and other contentious trends that publishers are secretly desperate to utilize. Given the current economical climate, the pricing is rough, but this “Hmm… maybe, we’ll have to see” song-and-dance is the real eye-roll-inducing element.
What the shift to $70 gaming — a trend that essentially began in the fall of last year — will mean for the market in the long term is still a little up in the air. But, given the incredible financial success of $70 titles such as Warner Bros.’ Hogwarts Legacy, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and, most recently, Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it seems very likely that all major publishers will eventually adopt the model, for its guaranteed sellers at the very least.
Sega suggests it could become the latest publisher to raise game prices to $70 [VGC]
