Former PlayStation CEO Says Companies Should Have “Baked In” $5 Price Hike in Every Generation to Acclimate Gamers
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One of the biggest takeaways from Nintendo’s Switch 2 reveal was that some of the company’s games will be sold at a never-before-seen $80 per title. Needless to say, this has become a hot topic among gamers, and rightfully so, given that we just experienced a new normal of $10 added per game when the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S were introduced.
While most people aren’t a fan of the price increase, development budgets are getting higher and higher. One person who understands the situation is former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden, who weighed in on the gaming price hike.
Former PlayStation Boss Says Prices of Games Have Actually Gone Down
Speaking to PlayerDrive in a video chat, Layden mentioned that if you account for inflation, game prices have actually gone down. Also, the former PlayStation executive thinks that if game companies added $5 per generation, it would have eased gamers better into paying more for each game.
Layden shares, ” In 2025 you know $59.99 in 1999 is equivalent to (like) a hundred bucks. So, as you know, your purchasing power compared that against, you know, your cost of living, it’s much smaller now than it was before. But still companies have been reluctant to push that price up, because they probably should have done it they — I was in it at the time — probably every generation they should have, like, baked in a $5 software price hike and make that the typical, ‘well every generation it’s another five bucks’ and you would have been up to $90 already by now.”
It’s not nice to hear, but Layden has a good point. Games even during the SNES/Genesis era cost around $60 to $80 (some expensive cartridges went above the $60 price tag) per piece, and that was the standard price until the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S generation, which meant games didn’t raise prices for more than 20-30 years. If Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft added $5 per generation, people would not like it. Still, it would be easier to accept rather than seeing games go from $70 to $80 and even $90 per title in a single generation.
If Nintendo releases more games priced at $80, what’s stopping Take-Two from selling Grand Theft Auto 6 at $90 or even $100? I shudder at the thought of that happening, though it seems like that’s the future we’re getting regardless of whether we like it or not.
Would you still consider buying games if they were priced at $80 or even $100 per title? Or would that depend on the quality or scope of the game?
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Right, because your customers get baked in raises at their jobs regularly…
Game prices may not have kept up with inflation, but neither have wages. For example, my salary has gone up about 17% (give or take) in the last ten years. In the same time my living expenses have gone up by roughly 50%, the electricity bill has almost tripled and the monthly food bill gone up by about a third. Petrol has gone up as well, and the city has doubled the monthly parking fee. I’ve never made more than I do right now, and yet I could buy much more ten years ago than I can today. I already can’t afford to get most games at full price but instead wait for discounts save for a few specific exceptions. Can’t imagine I was alone in this situation either.
The only thing that squeezing even harder and rising the price of games even further will accomplish is widespread resurgence of piracy.
It’s true the points about inflation etc but let’s not pretend they don’t do everything they can to nickel and dime their customers. Yearly subscriptions, dlc, microtransactions, “special” editions and the list goes on and on
I’d probably be willing to spend more per game if they removed all of this and just gave you the entire game.
But it’s always disingenuous how they frame this without giving the whole picture.