Bloomberg article on next-gen pricing - "Sony was discussion going even higher before settling to $70"

BabyDontHurtMe · Nov 9, 2020

The reason they increased the price in the first place was to test to see if consumers would pay more. Devs don't benefit from the price increase unless they're indies. Sony and other big companies can afford massive game budgets and survive if they don't sell well.

Mass_Pincup · Nov 9, 2020

Sony will get me at launch since there's no alternative but I'm never paying more than 55€ for a new release.

Lothars · Nov 9, 2020

fiendcode said:
If Microsoft's smart they'll hold $59.99 for 1st party. EA, T2 and Activision might not like it but it's an easy competitive and PR win with consumers, like when Sony dropped their 1st party to $39.99 in the mid 90s to draw a stark contrast with Sega and (especially) Nintendo. Also helps position Xbox as the choice for value with a $299 console, GamePass, etc.

They won't do that, they will cheerfully raise the price of all their first party games.

BBQfritos · Nov 9, 2020

That's why I went physical. Miss me with that pricing.

Blackleg-sanji1 · Nov 9, 2020

I'm clearly too broke for this hobby I love so much.

Kyussons · Nov 9, 2020

79€ is 20€ more than what Im willing/able to pay for a game, they lost me there and I think they also kinda killed the impulse buy territory for the PS5 DE in price sensitive European markets.

I just hope competition gets more marketshare in Europe, otherwise we are fucked: /

Deleted member 18944 · Nov 9, 2020

GamingCJ said:
Bloomberg knows how to do clickbaity FUD articles regarding Sony.

Of course some Playstation people have at some point discussed various price points, including staying at $59. But that would obviously not be enough drama.

Yu Narukami said:
Is Bloomberg even reliable lately? Wasn't that other article proofed to be wrong?

CrispyGamer said:
Bloomberg

Josh378 said:
Why do I have a feeling that Activision probably the first to complain to Sony about raising the prices of games. Looks like Bloomingburg is trying to just do a gotcha title (click-bait) to get people to read the article. If you really think Sony is the one that told industry the movie the $70, I have a swamp to sell you in Florida.

You can tell how many people actually clicked and read the article and how many people look at OPs editorialized title and assume the outlet is the problem.

Amazing.

Minthara · Nov 9, 2020

Mazzle said:
They thought about prices even higher than 80€?
Are they living in a ivory tower?

Completely normal part of the Product Marketing process.

You think about every price under the sun and how much product you would sell at that price before settling at your final decision.

Nameless · Nov 9, 2020

Phendrift said:
What? Nintendo still sells their games for $60

$60 that sees little-to-no reduction in price for <1080p games built off dated tech, and lightly touched ports of games from even older tech. I'd rather pay $80, $90, for something leveraging modern hardware.

Stairouais · Nov 9, 2020

So, that'd be 90 € eh.

Great.

Glasfrut · Nov 9, 2020

Ascenion said:
Miles Morales

You paid $70 for Miles?

Riptwo · Nov 9, 2020

I'm only ordering games from stores with pre-release discounts, but if those stop happening I'll probably end up missing a bunch of games at launch with the new pricing structure.

defaltoption · Nov 9, 2020

Makes no sense, they should be trying to lower costs to expand the market. There's a reason the biggest games in the world are free to play.

Nintendo, Microsoft, and streaming services are trying to make gaming more accessible to people around the world and Sony is trying to figure out how to price out consumers.

WesleyShark · Nov 9, 2020

Yiiikes

Biggersmaller · Nov 9, 2020

Considering the amount of content included in modern games, $70 at release is reasonable. Plus, a title almost always drops in price after launch. Here is a classic example!

swnny · Nov 9, 2020

After all the recent reports being shut down by Sony, anything from Bloomberg related to Playstation should be taken with tons of salt. Overall they credibility fell sharply in my eyes.

Deleted member 3208 · Nov 9, 2020

Sony can go and fuck themselves. No way I'm paying $70 for a damn game. Going to wait for sales, and the game must be heavily discounted before I even consider it. Here in Panama we are already paying $70 for PS4-XBONE games and $75 for Switch games. Most likely next gen will be $80 or $85 and that's without taxes. That's way too expensive, especially in a country where the minimum wage is $600.

Sanctuary · Nov 9, 2020

QuigleyMcShine said:
But the price hike isn't universal as far as I can tell. The bloated, 80 hour open world games at PS5 launch are $60 (Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed) and the first party prestige game (Demons Souls) is $70.

Don't be fooled into believing for a second that Ubisoft will ever settle for $60 once they see people are willing to pay $70. EA already announced wanting to raise their prices, and in terms of console exclusives, the PS5 (at least until a Switch 2 or whatever arrives) would be the only system I'd be buying games for, and it looks like they are all going to be $70. Capcom is also another of the select few companies I regularly buy games from, and we'll see how fast they make everything $70 as well.

This shit is always the same game of follow the leader. It started with the supposedly innocuous horse armor that the majority decreed as "no big deal" and look at where we are now.

AmFreak · Nov 9, 2020

This is "news" you can basically always write, because it's obvious they didn't just spin the wheel of fortune and went "aha $70 it is".

Dodgerfan74 · Nov 9, 2020

nib95 said:
Good luck with that. And that quote from Capcoms CFO. Oof. Let's rinse them for as much as we can basically.

It's the dream of every business in ever market sector. Even after making billions through minimum effort mtxs over the past few years, never stop looking for more ways to shake down your customers.

Deleted member 923 · Nov 9, 2020

Josh378 said:
Why do I have a feeling that Activision probably the first to complain to Sony about raising the prices of games. Looks like Bloomingburg is trying to just do a gotcha title (click-bait) to get people to read the article. If you really think Sony is the one that told industry the movie the $70, I have a swamp to sell you in Florida.

The article is about game prices in general going up. It's the OP who decided to turn it into a Sony one and dipped. That being said, fuck Sony for raising the prices and all the other greedy publishers as well.

fiendcode · Nov 9, 2020

Lothars said:
They won't do that, they will cheerfully raise the price of all their first party games.

Maybe, we'll have to see when their real nextgen efforts start arriving. The emphasis on cross-gen for most stuff makes me think they might not though.

IDreamOfHime · Nov 9, 2020

I wish they had tried it. The industry needs a wake up call and this could have been it.

canderous · Nov 9, 2020

Didn't they raise it proportionally higher in basically every region besides the US anyway? But US prices are what dominates the media and discussion.

fiendcode said:
If Microsoft's smart they'll hold $59.99 for 1st party. EA, T2 and Activision might not like it but it's an easy competitive and PR win with consumers, like when Sony dropped their 1st party to $39.99 in the mid 90s to draw a stark contrast with Sega and (especially) Nintendo. Also helps position Xbox as the choice for value with a $299 console, GamePass, etc.

If Gears Tactics is any indication, they are sticking with 59.99 for now. With game pass being their primary driver they probably have fewer qualms about keeping the game prices there.

VirtualCloud · Nov 9, 2020

I mean... duh? Is this surprising to anyone? Sony and Microsoft are Businesses not friends if you think either of them care for you then your delusional. Want cheaper games? Dont buy them at launch but I HIGHLY doubt that will happen

ryan299 · Nov 9, 2020

gamepass getting better and better.

everybody screams for single player AAA games. Those cost a lot.

Hopewell · Nov 9, 2020

JamFlan said:
I mean, isn't the increase more drastic than 15% in some regions already?

In France in theory it's 15% (70€ to 80€). In reality I don't think I ever bought a PS4 game for more than 55 euros, even at launch, and I can't buy Demon's Souls for less than 75 euros.
So it's more like a 30% increase in price.

Pitchfork · Nov 9, 2020

Thank fuck for Gamepass

Toumari · Nov 9, 2020

I'm sure they also discussed selling the PS5 for more as well.

Deleted member 5491 · Nov 9, 2020

Biggersmaller said:
Considering the amount of content included in modern games, $70 at release is reasonable. Plus, a title almost always drops in price after launch. Here a classic example!

Stop comparing prices of games in a much bigger market, with way way cheaper ways of distribution thanks to DVD and Online compared to when a game broek 1 million it was a mega success and where you had to order your CARTRIDGES from Nintendo in advance and story them somewhere.

BlueManifest · Nov 9, 2020

Profits at game companies are higher than they have ever been there was no reason even for the 70$ price

808s & Villainy · Nov 9, 2020

mtel said:
As they amass a decent brand of AAA exclusives, I am surprised they haven't tried to go the Nintendo model of having games that stick at $60 for longer, rather than launching at $70 and then inevitably reducing the price some months later.

Probably because Nintendo games sell for significantly longer than most other company's so it makes sense to capitalize on the large launch peak in sales and try and maintain it through later price drops

Minthara · Nov 9, 2020

AmFreak said:
This is "news" you can basically always write, because it's obvious they didn't just spin the wheel of fortune and went "aha $70 it is".

Yep, everything released has multiple price points tested internally and through market research before arriving at a final price.

This is kind of "water is wet" news, I'm not sure why people are acting like this is shocking.

Dizastah · Nov 9, 2020

shinobi602 said:
Well...yeah, of course there were discussions on different price points until they settled on something. It's not like they held a roundtable and everyone in unison immediately went "70!" and that was that lol.

That's how you...make decisions?

This.....I don't know what is going on in this thread.

ZeroMaverick · Nov 9, 2020

I made the wrong next-gen decision

Lothars · Nov 9, 2020

fiendcode said:
Maybe, we'll have to see when their real nextgen efforts start arriving. The emphasis on cross-gen for most stuff makes me think they might not though.

They have done it every generation happily, I don't see any reason to believe they won't price any new releases at the same as sony.

canderous said:
If Gears Tactics is any indication, they are sticking with 59.99 for now. With game pass being their primary driver they probably have fewer qualms about keeping the game prices there.

Gears Tactics is also a game that was out in the spring, it's a poor example imo. The real test will be the next releases like halo infinite.

Mazzle said:
Stop comparing prices of games in a much bigger market, with way way cheaper ways of distribution thanks to DVD and Online compared to when a game broek 1 million it was a mega success and where you had to order your CARTRIDGES from Nintendo in advance and story them somewhere.

It's absolutely a valid comparison.

Secretofmateria · Nov 9, 2020

Man jims like the new bobby kotick

lol

im kidding

please bring back shawn layden

Atilac · Nov 9, 2020

This will drive consumers to a Netflix style model like gamepass.

YuriLowell · Nov 9, 2020

The real test is if Nintendo moves up to 70 dollars.

Iron Eddie · Nov 9, 2020

RedHeat said:
I mean, they're not wrong. If the consumer is willing to pay more so why not charge more? Especially when a lot people are here are still under the assumption that it's because dev costs have gone up.

Then why not charge $599 for a PS5, surely they could have gotten away with that too given how fast they sold out.

Lothars said:
They won't do that, they will cheerfully raise the price of all their first party games.

That's why now more than ever Game Pass will be such a great deal.

darkside · Nov 9, 2020

Pitchfork said:
Thank fuck for Gamepass

Do you think Gamepass price is gonna stay the same or something? The price of every subscription service has gone up over time, I'm hard pressed to think of anything that stays flat or has gone down.

Deleted member 3208 · Nov 9, 2020

BlueManifest said:
Profits at game companies are higher than they have ever been there was no reason even for the 70$ price

This is just pure greed. DLCs, microtransactions, season passes, battle passes... They don't have an excuse for the price increase.

BasilZero · Nov 9, 2020

Good luck

I can wait

PJV3 · Nov 9, 2020

Would be a strange company that didn't talk about pricing, but i'm glad that it didn't go higher.

Abylim · Nov 9, 2020

MSRP has gone from $99 AUD to $125 AUD.

Most places sold new games for $69 AUD on release however.

I really don't think Australian gamers will put up with such a hike. JB and Big W have just lowered Demons Souls to $109 aud at this point, but that's still a $40 increase from $69.

I just don't think the market will thrive with these prices. As someone who spends a lot of money on games as is, it's hard to justify the massive hike. I myself will most likely only buy a handful of games at launch, and wait for sales for the rest.

I'm picking up a ps5 at launch. I own over 450 PS4 games

Parthenios · Nov 9, 2020

I'm already priced out of most games at $60. $70 is the main reason I haven't made plans for next gen yet.

It's also why I hate that Nintendo doesn't have a 3DS successor--I'm completely comfortable playing PS2-tier graphics for the rest of my life, but give me that $40 new game price point (and more varied catalog due to lower graphical barrier of entry).

Blackbird · Nov 9, 2020

Alexandros said:
Surely this goes both ways. We aren't their friends either and we don't like spending too much of our money, therefore we are free to criticize them and apply pressure to them to drop their prices.

A reasonable take like this is kinda shocking to see here, somehow.

Right you are.

Sky87 · Nov 9, 2020

This could bite them in the ass, in the EU especially. Anyone buying a digital console over here for their kids at christmas are in for a shock.

MS has a golden opportunity to market the XSS and Gamepass as a VASTLY cheaper alternative during Black Friday and Christmas.

BabyDontHurtMe · Nov 9, 2020

darkside said:
Do you think Gamepass price is gonna stay the same or something? The price of every subscription service has gone up over time, I'm hard pressed to think of anything that stays flat or has gone down.

Also Gamepass never guarantees that you own the game. Access to games are dependent on whether you are subscribed and if those games are still available on the service. You still need to buy for the games individually to own them permanently.

Lord Fanny · Nov 9, 2020

Tiago Rodrigues said:
Ultimately this is the key factor that ERA fails to think when we discuss these things.
These companies aren't our friends nor do they want us to not spend too much money.

They have people paid to research these things, and their goal is one: make the most money out of us without losing us as customers.
This isn't just Sony. MS and Nintendo as well.

I really don't think the majority of people don't understand this. Maybe a few do, but most people who are against the price hikes aren't against them because they think these companies are their friends. They are against them because they don't want to pay more money lol. I think it's as simple as that

Bloomberg article on next-gen pricing - "Sony was discussion going even higher before settling to $70"

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