There have been rumors and speculations of a price hike for video games coming with this console generation. For years, the standard for new AAA games was $59.99. That’s been a constant for a long time, but as the latest-generation platforms released, we saw rumors that new games would soon fetch a $69.99 price tag. That’s a bit of a jump, and sure enough, several games have been released with that new price tag in place. Now that we are moving into 2023, even more, price jumps could come our way.
Microsoft, for one, is bringing on a new price hike for their video game releases. It was just last month that Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, talked about holding off raising the price of their games as long as they could. So now games that are coming out like Starfield will fetch the new $70 price tag. It simply comes down to the costs development studios must endure making these bigger video game projects. That ultimately causes a rise in video game prices for consumers. But we might see this price hike press on with other studios that have yet to adopt the new price hike for their game projects.
Recently, Gamesindustry.biz spoke with various video game analysts who are giving their predictions of what’s to come in 2023. One of the analysts, Dr. Serkan Toto, has viewed the price hike of 2022 to continue in 2023. While we are seeing mainly price increases for video game software, Dr. Sekan Toto feels that 2023 will see a price hike for more than just video games. If right, we might see a price increase hit consoles in more markets alongside video game services.
Xbox Game Pass, for one, hasn’t received any word of a price hike. Although perhaps that is something that could potentially come down later within the year. Of course, with that said, there is one platform the analyst doesn’t feel would see a price jump this year, and that’s the Nintendo Switch. As long as Nintendo doesn’t release new hardware, then Dr. Serkan Toto feels pretty confident that we’ll continue to see the Nintendo Switch price remain stable throughout 2023.
Not all studios have hiked prices to keep up with the rise of production and other costs in game development so far, but gamers are likely to see prices go up across the board in 2023. I believe this trend will not only affect individual AAA titles but also subscriptions and hardware, especially from Microsoft. If Nintendo doesn’t release new hardware, I expect Switch prices to remain stable this year, however.
Dr. Sekan Toto – Gamesindustry.biz
These are just predictions. There’s nothing official in the works right now on whether these predictions will end up coming true. It should be interesting to see what this year brings for the video game industry. If there really are more price hikes inbound, then it could very well lead to more players holding off on picking up some of these games until they are eventually discounted.
