It’s solely been about two years or so because the online game trade started charging $70 for large video games as a substitute of the same old $60, as a result of recreation growth prices rising (and greed). This shift, understandably, didn’t go over properly with gamers as the fee to remain up-to-date with trendy gaming continues to rise, however that may not cease Take-Two Interactive (the mother or father firm of Rockstar Video games) from attempting to push it additional with Grand Theft Auto VI—one of many few upcoming video games that would in all probability promote for $80.
In 2022, the period of $70 video video games started. Since then we’ve seen WB Video games, Activision, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, and different firms start promoting their greatest, fanciest video games for $10 greater than the $60 price ticket that had been in place for years. The response to those elevated costs wasn’t nice, however video games like Name of Obligation and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offered properly even with the upper price ticket. And in Take-Two’s newest earnings name, CEO Strauss Zelnick appeared to set the groundwork for costs going up.
As reported by Gamespot, when Zelnick was requested about how Take-Two decides what to cost for video games like Grand Theft Auto VI and Borderlands, he didn’t present any particular costs and as a substitute shared the writer’s pricing philosophy.
“Look, there’s extra content material always being made accessible, and we actually goal to ship nice worth at any given time,” mentioned Zelnick. “We’re so centered on delivering extra worth than what we cost. And that’s kind of the rubric.”
He additional added that at any time when Take-Two establishes a recreation’s value, the corporate desires to be sure that it’s “excellent news” for gamers and that “the expertise vastly over delivers” in comparison with the value level. “ That’s the objective,” added Zelnick.
If we glance again at current feedback from Zelnick, I’ve some critical questions on what he considers excellent news and good worth for shoppers.
Zelnick’s ideas on good worth and $70 video games
In August 2023, when followers criticized Take-Two for charging $50 for the good, however bare-bones Crimson Lifeless Redemption and Undead Nightmare PS4 and Change ports, this was Zelnick’s response:
“That’s simply what we imagine is the commercially correct value for it,” Zelnick informed IGN after an earnings name.
“[Red Dead Redemption] was an awesome standalone recreation in its personal proper when it was initially launched, so we really feel prefer it’s an awesome bundle for the primary time, and positively an awesome worth for shoppers.” I’d argue that $50 is just not an “correct value” for a fundamental port of a decade-plus previous open-world Xbox 360 recreation that, at launch at the very least, didn’t assist 60FPS and eliminated all the net multiplayer modes.
In Could 2023, Zelnick additionally indicated that there wasn’t any client pushback on publishers charging $70 as a substitute of $60 on some huge video games, like Gotham Knights.
“What we’re seeing is shoppers are searching for to restrict their spending by going both to the stuff they actually, actually care about, blockbusters, or to worth, and typically it could possibly be each,” mentioned Zelnick.“And the excellent news is, we now have a bunch of blockbusters and we now have an exquisite catalog.”
All of this appears to counsel that Zelnick believes $70 video games work, shoppers don’t thoughts them, ports are value $50, and folks will purchase your blockbuster video games if they’re actually enthusiastic about them, even when they should handle their cash. That makes me surprise what Grand Theft Auto 6′s value will find yourself being when it launches in 2025.
If any recreation can cost $80 (or extra) it’s GTA 6
Wanting again in any respect his feedback and Take-Two’s current historical past makes me surprise: Will Zelnick resolve that GTA 6 is value greater than $70?
Will he have a look at one of the crucial hyped video games in human historical past, the sequel to one of many best-selling video video games of all time, and a blockbuster open-world journey that can seemingly be large, and suppose “Oh gamers can pay $80 and even $90 for that!” I believe that’s an actual chance and if it occurs, I’d guess my subsequent lunch that he’d clarify on an earnings name that followers are getting a “nice worth” for that $80.
Certain, it appears foolish and even downright idiotic in 2024 or 2025 to cost greater than $70. We’ve seen numerous examples during the last 18 months or so of huge, costly video games failing to attach with gamers, critics, and fandoms, whereas smaller indie titles charging much less are exploding in reputation. I imply, one of many greatest video games in 2024 is Helldivers 2 and it sports activities a $40 price ticket. In simply the previous few months, Manor Lords, Grey Zone Warfare, and Content material Warning have discovered huge success on Steam they usually all value far lower than $70.
However Grand Theft Auto 6 is completely different. It’s the following entry in one of many greatest online game franchises on the planet, will seemingly have a large advertising and marketing push, and is the follow-up to GTA V and GTA On-line, among the most profitable items of leisure in historical past.
It additionally has an nearly not possible quantity of hype surrounding it, with gamers and followers going feral over tiny updates to Rockstar’s back-end servers. These similar folks make theories primarily based on birds in teaser photographs and observe down every bit of reduce GTA content material they’ll discover utilizing all kinds of strategies. These are followers who, if requested, would seemingly purchase GTA 6 at $80. And I believe there are many different folks on the market who would shortly toss $80 to Rockstar and Take-Two if it meant they may play what’s going to seemingly be the largest online game launch in 2025.
So actually, at this level, the one factor stopping Take-Two from charging greater than $70 (and providing shoppers a lot “nice worth”) is Zelnick and different executives taking a look at all this and deciding to not be grasping. And folk, I’m not holding my breath, particularly as video games value increasingly more to make and take longer and longer to create. I believe if Zelnick and Take-Two imagine GTA 6 can succeed at $80 they’ll cost that and promote you a particular version for much more.
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