Video game prices going up for first time in 15 years

The $60 video game dates back to at least the 1990s. Rarely has a game exceeded that price threshold since, even as inflation drove the dollar’s value to nearly half of what it was in the days of the Super Nintendo.

Thisweek, video game publisherswill press ahead with an industry-wideefforttoraisethestandard price to $70. Themove coincides with the debut of two new game consoles from Microsoft Corp. and Sony Corp., a generational change that comes every seven years or so. There’s one complicating factor: an economic crisis that had doubled unemployment in the U.S. from levels before the coronavirus pandemic.

Insidepublishinghouses, aprice hike has been plotted and dissected by executives for years. They point to inflation, as well as the ballooning cost to develop triple-Agames, as justification. At one point, Sony discussed going even higher before settling on $70. Many of the game executives requested anonymity, apparently because they recognize themove is unpopular. Inmany cases, companieswon’t acknowledge the fee increase, saying only that prices will vary by title.

Thefact isunavoidable, though, when browsing inventory on digital store shelves. The new Call of Duty, Demon’s Souls, Godfall, NBA2K21: Each one will cost $70.

In the 90s, Nintendo Co. rode the popularity of its game machines to set the price of some cartridges at $60. Itwas Sony that helped drive costs downwith the 1994 introduction of the PlayStationanditsgames printedoncompact disc, whichwere less expensive to produce. That ushered in the era of the $50 game, which continued with Microsoft’s Xbox in 2001. They went back to $60 in the next console generation, a move that happened to coincide with an economic boom in the mid-2000s that continued for another three years.