The “PS5/XSX Games Have To Cost More” Myth
Do they, though? A closer look at the situation raises some interesting questions
With PlayStation5 and Xbox Series X just months away from release and most of their features unveiled, game publishers are bringing up a matter that’s been on their minds for some time. It’s no coincidence that it’s being brought up now, as the market prepares for the next generation of home entertainment systems: transitional periods encourage change by definition, accelerating processes and softening blows. But the matter those publishers are bringing up — a matter of $10/€10 in monetary terms, so… small, right? — adds up to millions of dollars of extra revenue for them every year. It’s about the cost of new AAA releases which, if said publishers have their way, will jump from $59.99/€69.99 to $69.99/€79.99 for the PS5/XSX versions.
This jump is already officially announced by one publisher and implied by a few more while debated by a handful of analysts and discussed by many media outlets as almost inevitable. A number of articles have been defending that position, largely painting the price increase as fair. A few market executives have even argued that such an increase in retail cost, if directly linked to development costs of AAA productions, is long overdue and practically necessary.
