It’s solely been about two years or so for the reason that online game trade started charging $70 for giant video games as a substitute of the standard $60, as a result of recreation improvement prices growing (and greed). This shift, understandably, didn’t go over effectively with gamers as the price to remain up-to-date with fashionable gaming continues to rise, however which may not cease Take-Two Interactive (the mum or dad firm of Rockstar Video games) from making an attempt to push it additional with Grand Theft Auto VI—one of many few upcoming video games that might most likely 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 corporations start promoting their largest, 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 Responsibility and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom offered effectively 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 obtainable, and we actually intention to ship nice worth at any given time,” stated Zelnick. “We’re so centered on delivering extra worth than what we cost. And that’s type of the rubric.”
He additional added that each time 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 worth level. “ That’s the objective,” added Zelnick.
If we glance again at latest 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 great, however bare-bones Purple Useless Redemption and Undead Nightmare PS4 and Swap ports, this was Zelnick’s response:
“That’s simply what we imagine is the commercially correct value for it,” Zelnick instructed IGN after an earnings name.
“[Red Dead Redemption] was an important standalone recreation in its personal proper when it was initially launched, so we really feel prefer it’s an important bundle for the primary time, and positively an important worth for shoppers.” I’d argue that $50 just isn’t an “correct value” for a fundamental port of a decade-plus outdated open-world Xbox 360 recreation that, at launch not less than, didn’t assist 60FPS and eliminated all the net multiplayer modes.
In Might 2023, Zelnick additionally indicated that there wasn’t any client pushback on publishers charging $70 as a substitute of $60 on some massive video games, like Gotham Knights.
“What we’re seeing is shoppers are in search of to restrict their spending by going both to the stuff they actually, actually care about, blockbusters, or to worth, and typically it may very well be each,” stated Zelnick.“And the excellent news is, we have now a bunch of blockbusters and we have now a beautiful catalog.”
All of this appears to counsel that Zelnick believes $70 video games work, shoppers don’t thoughts them, ports are price $50, and folks will purchase your blockbuster video games if they’re actually enthusiastic about them, even when they must handle their cash. That makes me marvel 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 latest historical past makes me marvel: Will Zelnick determine that GTA 6 is price greater than $70?
Will he take a look at one of the 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 may doubtless be huge, and assume “Oh gamers pays $80 and even $90 for that!” I believe that’s an actual risk 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 over the past 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 recognition. I imply, one of many largest video games in 2024 is Helldivers 2 and it sports activities a $40 price ticket. In simply the previous couple of months, Manor Lords, Grey Zone Warfare, and Content material Warning have discovered massive success on Steam and so they all value far lower than $70.
However Grand Theft Auto 6 is completely different. It’s the following entry in one of many largest online game franchises on the planet, will doubtless 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 unimaginable quantity of hype surrounding it, with gamers and followers going feral over tiny updates to Rockstar’s back-end servers. These similar individuals make theories primarily based on birds in teaser photographs and monitor down each piece of lower GTA content material they will discover utilizing all kinds of strategies. These are followers who, if requested, would doubtless purchase GTA 6 at $80. And I believe there are many different individuals on the market who would shortly toss $80 to Rockstar and Take-Two if it meant they might play what’s going to doubtless be the most important 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 people, I’m not holding my breath, particularly as video games value increasingly 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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