Capcom has gotten candid about the issue of the $ 70 retail game.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, Capcom made this statement in the Q&A of their latest earnings call:
“Dragon’s Dogma 2, which is scheduled for release this fiscal year, will be priced at $69.99. Industry-wide development costs are rising, and we are considering a price review as one option.
Ultimately, we intend to take a thoughtful approach in pricing our games while ascertaining user feedback.”
Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto previously stated that he personally believes that video games should be raised in prices in general. This is because of the higher costs and risks associated with making them.
Subsequently, Capcom states that they believe that Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be selling millions of units. There is certainly a lot of interest in similar games lately, in terms of the Western RPG genre, and also in terms of the Western fantasy theme game. That covers recent and upcoming titles like Elden Ring, Avowed, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Capcom is certainly in a favorable position to be pricing their games this way. In the past few years, their incredible success in remaking the Resident Evil games, and Monster Hunter, in particular, have cemented their profit margins within that time.
Capcom’s statement may not be popular with fans, but it is also very cautious in terms of public reception. They know that their own consumers won’t like paying more, but they are also balancing out what’s best between those consumers, their investors, and also, Capcom themselves.
Capcom needs to make money, not just to keep their investors happy, but to keep the company feasible enough that they can keep on making games, with the number of employees that they have, and with the high quality for said games that they have successfully delivered on.
We know Capcom’s success in making good games that sell well is not guaranteed, but they will always have the interests of their own employees over their heads irregardless. It’s the same balance every other game developer and publisher has to manage. Of course, that really means every company has all of these factors in mind when they make their own games, and pricing decisions for those games.
Thus far, we have seen Sony, Xbox, and Nintendo all make $ 70 games, but none of them are ready to normalize it for all AAA games yet. Many third parties are in the same place as well, but if the industry continues in the direction they are on, they may be forced to keep raising prices beyond $ 70, to keep the lights on, as they say. Or they may all have to consider the live service question to stay alive, something Capcom is already exploring itself with Exoprimal.
But for now, Capcom is looking to see just how much gamers value their single player narrative games, like Dragon’s Dogma 2.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is releasing on March 22, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Steam.
