Sony Confirms PlayStation 5 Games Will Retail Up To $70

The rumored price hike for video games may have already begun thanks to Sony confirming that prices for several PlayStation 5 games will retail up to $70.

The industry-wide trend towards more expensive games on next-gen consoles was initially hinted at when Take-Two Interactive announced that “NBA 2K21” would be priced at $69.99. A few launch titles for PlayStation 5, namely “Demon’s Souls,” “Destruction AllStars” and “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition” will each retail for $69.99.

Just yesterday, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick defended why the $60 price for AAA video games was no longer sustainable.

The standard edition of “Spider-Man: Miles Morales,” which does not include a remaster of the original game featuring Peter Parker, will retail for $49.99, while family title “Sackboy A Big Adventure” will retail for $59.99, Video Games Chronicle reports.

During Sony’s Showcase event, the company announced that the standard edition would sell at retail for $499 on Nov. 12 while the Digital Edition will be priced at $399.

Industry research firm IDG Consulting recently said it believed that more major games publishers would explore raising the prices of their games on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, as development costs are expected to increase.

Even as Activision announced a price hike for “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” for next-gen consoles to $70, publishers such as Capcom and Electronic Arts have said that they will be monitoring industry trends regarding next-gen game pricing.

On the other hand, Ubisoft said that its first wave of next-gen games will not cost more than the current-gen versions. However, it didn’t rule out PS5 and Xbox Series X releases post-Christmas 2020 coming at a premium price.

Video games last raised prices to $60 back in 2005 and it has been reported that if prices were adjusted for inflation, current video games should be priced close to $80 already. IDG CEO Yoshio Osaki noted that even at $10, the increase wasn’t in line with inflation seen in the pricing of other forms of entertainment.

“IDG works with all major game publishers, and our channel checks indicate that other publishers are also exploring moving their next-gen pricing up on certain franchises,” Osaki said. “Not every game should garner the $69.99 price point on next-gen, but flagship AAAs such as ‘NBA 2K’ merit this pricing more than others.”

Increased development costs as well as the presence of games playable on streaming services and discless game consoles are also cited as reasons for a price increase being justified.