It was in 2020 when the price of triple A games began to rise. At that time it was very limited, and Take-Two was the first to decide to increase the price of its star titles to $70, a figure that became 70 euros in Spain, although in some specific cases we have seen titles that have exceeded that figure.
Little by little, other greats in the industry followed in his footsteps, and in the end we have seen the transition from 60 to 70 euros in price for triple A games. It has become a trend, something widespread that is even affecting the PC, and in a surprising and difficult to justify way, really.
I could give many examples, but without a doubt one of the most current and well-known is Diablo IV, a game that is going to come to PC at a price of €69.99 in its standard version. Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade for PC is also another example that publishers have no qualms about taking the price of games to limits that we would not have dared to imagine before, since we are facing a title that costs 79.99 euros.
The increase in development costs, theoretically a consequence of the arrival of what was previously known as the new generation of consoles, has been one of the arguments that has been used the most to justify this increase in the price of games, but in the end it jumps to the view that is more an excuse than anything else, and that on PC we have to continue to put up with poor and badly optimized adaptations that, in the end, do not even deserve half the price they are sold for. The Last of Us Part I would be a good example, and Redfall too.
On this subject, the CEO of Take-Two, Strauss Zelnick, has been quite blunt. You said there’s no going backthat games will continue to cost 70 euros and that consumers have simply adapted their buying habits, choosing more carefully between the best-selling games they really want and those that offer a better value (and are cheaper).
It seems that, in the end, the price of almost all the games will end up being at that minimum of 70 euros, and the worst thing is that we cannot rule out that in a few years a new price increase will end up taking place. pulling historical memory the truth is that games are not as expensive today as they were in the nineties, and this is something that in the end we must contextualize.
I perfectly remember that there were Super Nintendo cartridges that came close to the 20,000 pesetas barrier, which would be 120 eurosin fact DOOM for said console, which was a quite meritorious port, had a price of almost 15,000 pesetas, which would be 90 euros to change. Who knows if in the end we will end up seeing those prices of yesteryear, but what is clear is that, unless there is a drastic change in the industry, games are going to be more and more expensive.
