The question of video game costs is one that is heavily discussed. The reason for that is that, for the most part, video game costs for consumers have stayed mostly the same over the years. More specifically, AAA titles over the years have been mostly the same. However, depending on which comparisons you wish to make, they’ve jumped about $10-$20 over the past few decades. Masahiro Sakurai even noted this in one of his YouTube videos. However, the cost of making certain AAA titles for consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation has increased exponentially over the years, making many devs wonder if a price increase is necessary to help ensure profits while maintaining fairness.
That’s why we saw a price increase with PS5 and Xbox Series X games to $70 over the previous generations’ $60. That was fair enough, and it was warned that this price jump would happen. However, as VGC is noting, there’s been an unusual increase in the costs of PlayStation titles on Steam. But not in the United States or the UK but in countries like Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, and South Korea.
Some titles that have been confirmed to have gotten price increases include God of War, Sackboy A Big Adventure, Returnal, Spider-Man Remastered, and possibly more! Depending on the country, some of these titles have had their prices raised by $10. In Japan, the prices have jumped by as much as 33%, and then in Argentina, they’ve basically doubled!
Why is this such a big deal? They weren’t that expensive before, so why are they jumping now? Furthermore, why are they only jumping in these particular countries? It also should be noted that these aren’t “new titles.” These are the PC ports of former PlayStation exclusives. So one could argue that this shouldn’t be happening to them because of their age.
At present, Sony hasn’t stated why this is happening or whether this could happen to other games in other countries in the future. But based on what we’ve seen? It’s something to consider.
This isn’t the only “price increase” people have been discussing recently. For example, Nintendo had a price increase for The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, and that sparked controversy because it was the only $70 game on the whole system! Nintendo tried to justify this by saying the size of the game makes it worth the price, but fans weren’t amused.
Just like Sony fans in those countries with the price increase likely weren’t amused either.