The controversial push for raising the price of full-price video games to $70 doesn’t seem to go away, as now the CEO of Take-Two Interactive has said gamers are “ready” for the price increase.
Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick said (via VGC) gamers are “ready” for a next-gen price increase from $59.99 to $69.99 during the March 2021 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.
“We announced a $70 price point for NBA 2K21, our view was that we’re offering an array of extraordinary experiences, lots of replayability, and the last time there was a frontline price increase in the US was 2005, 2006, so we think consumers were ready for it,” Zelnick said.
For context – NBA 2K21, one of Take-Two Interactive’s upcoming titles, is priced at just that: seventy dollars. Zelnick said that game pricing will be decided upon by a “title-by-title basis,” and said that he knows the feeling of a game being overpriced can ruin its appeal. Most of Take-Two’s previous games, including the above Red Dead Redemption 2, were priced at $59.99.
Previously, a report was circulating that several big players in the games industry were all pushing for games to be priced at $69.99 moving forward, to compensate for what they think is increased value of big games, and next-generation consoles.
While PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan denounced the above report, he said that the $70 price point for PlayStation 5 is fair, citing the hours of entertainment a gamer gets on a game like the Demon’s Souls remake over any other form of entertainment. Several other PS5 games are all priced at $70 as well.
What do you think of Take-Two sounding off on the price hike, and how far will it spread in the industry? Will it only affect big AAA games? Or possibly mid-tier games as well? Sound off in the comments below!
