Pay More to Play: Why Video Game Prices Could Rise in 2023
The video game industry has lately had to face a difficult truth: hardware and software prices are going up.
In the last year, Ubisoft, Take-Two, Xbox, and Sony all formally announced a bump in game prices from $60 to $70, and other AAA publishers such as Activision Blizzard, EA, Square Enix, and Warner Bros. have quietly followed suit with games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Final Fantasy 16, and Gotham Knights. In hardware, the PlayStation 5 got a price bump earlier this year across a number of regions – though its cost remains steady in the US for now.
So what’s going on here? Why are prices going up? And will they continue to rise in 2023?
In short, yes – game price increases are likely here to stay. But the answer, as always, is a bit more complicated than that. There are a lot of conflicting factors at play, from game pricing history to inflation to the general games landscape where consumers have wildly different perceptions about the value of a $60 versus one priced at $20.
So if you’re concerned about price increases or just want to know a bit more about why you’re paying $70 to begin with for Redfall next year, it’s worth getting to know a bit more about the games pricing landscape, and what to expect in the year to come.
One key to understanding why game prices seem to be increasing is that while the bump to $70 AAA games is ostensibly a price increase, it’s also not really an increase when you cast it in light historical inflation and pricing. GamesIndustry.biz recently published an excellent analysis of what’s going on here, which itself is based on another excellent analysis by TechRaptor from 2020 of how video game prices have changed since the 1970s. I highly recommend reading
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