We’re very much still in the PlayStation 4’s honeymoon period. Typically, the bubble would have burst by now – but Sony is doing a fantastic job of ensuring that the public perception surrounding its next generation console remains predominantly positive. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t bad news around the corner.
While the platform holder has already confirmed that first-party PS4 titles will retail for the standard $59.99 price point in North America, it looks like EA is eyeing a change overseas. As part of an FAQ on GAME’s website, the British retailer reports that the Californian company is the only publisher to confirm the prices of its next generation titles – and they’re more expensive than on the PlayStation 3.
“At present, the only publisher to confirm costs of its next generation games is EA, attaching a price of £54.99,” the shop explained. "No other game prices have been confirmed. We will of course update our listings as and when this happens. And if the price changes before release day, you will always pay the lowest price."
Outside of a few exceptions, current generation games carry an RRP of £49.99, which suggests that EA is hoping to push up prices by £5. Of course, games are rarely ever sold at full price in the UK, so there’s still hope that the titles in question will sell for the more traditional figure of £39.99. Online retailers are charging full whack at the moment, but most listings are still using placeholder assets.
In truth, we’re probably going to have to wait until at least the PS4’s launch date and lineup are announced before things start to settle down. From there, the market will ultimately dictate how much publishers are able to charge. We appreciate that games are expensive to make these days, but £54.99 is daylight robbery, so if you're not happy about it, don’t pay it.
[source playstationnews.game.co.uk, via videogamer.com]
Comments 23
Wow, how typical of EA XD
Typical indeed.
Any price is too much for the garbage with the EA label on it these days. Especially f'ing Madden, but the sheep here in North America will buy it anyway.
@Gamer83 It's strange to me how Madden is generally so poorly received, but FIFA has become one of the highest rated and most commercially successful games in the world.
It worries me that EA could sell FIFA for £54.99 and they'd still move millions of copies.
Putting aside the fact that it's EA, is there actually any real justification for such an increase?
We've heard from multiple sources that it's quicker and easier to code for next-gen consoles (specifically for PS4 as opposed to PS3, with development time said by Cerny himself to be back down to PS1 levels), and the new hardware is not unlike a PC.
So if anything, surely the cost of development in terms of time and difficulty has come down - if not enough to allow them to reduce the rrp, then at least enough to negate any increase due to (in theory) 'larger' and more complex games.
I mean, as the PC elitists are always so keen to point out, that platform has had several generational hardware increases in the time PS3 and 360 have been around, but their prices haven't increased by £5 a time.
@get2sammyb
Unfortunately it seems like EA can get whatever it wants these days. The fact it almost got MS to enact those idiotic policies was disturbing enough, I guess this is its way of 'getting back' at consumers. The thing is, these morons will actually pay the increased price and not think twice so in truth, I can't really blame EA.
@Paranoimia To be honest, I think they're just trying their luck. People expect to pay around £40 maximum for a game in the UK. It'll end up settling around that price point again. (I hope.)
Having said that, it's the increase in art assets that will probably drive budgets up. The programming may be easier, but look at a game like The Last of Us — about twelve different studios worked on that, all contributing textures, etc.
It's india you should be reporting. Raising the price to the equivalent of 60 dollars there is evil. That's a months rent there.
@get2sammyb Possibly. But surely a company like EA has been producing such assets in HD for PC for several years. Now that both next-gen consoles are using more or less the same popular PC-based CPU and GPU components, it's not like there's lots of extra work involved in converting them. Surely it's less than they've had to do downgrading things for PS3 & 360?
Well that's another reason not to buy anything from EA.
Im sure Activision tried it a couple of years back with MW3 too. Not sure if it actually went through with an increased rrp, but lkike many have said, if its a series popular with the masses its gonna sell regardless so they can charge whatever they want. As long as others dont follow suit Im not too fussed
If EA are to be followed in pricing, it may be just as well we can share our games the usual way.I hope they fail cos i'm sure with the difficulty and cost to put games together games on the ps3 will equally cost the same (if not cheaper) to do so for ps4. how the second hand market will be fruitful if this is gonna be the pricing trend! uurrrmm do i need my weekly shop, nope it's gonna be fifa, then i will lose 2 stone.
Everything will depend on how good the content is and what everyone else does. I still get the impression that EA thinks consumers owe them a living which we don't. We spend if and when they offer us something of value. We don't owe them anything. If other companies also raise their prices then people will probably just pay (not much choice), but if they don't then EA's games will need to be better than everyone else or they will lose sales. They will Cry foul and just not understand. In the end, we all have more games than we can play, and limited cash, so we have to choose best bang for buck.
EA is trying really hard to get you to dislike them. If prices went up in America, I don't think I would ever buy a game new again. $60 is already pushing it. Thank goodness they don't have any plans to do so.
There certainly are diehard fans that will appearently die without the latest game from their favorite series or company, but for most people theres a limit to what they're willing to or can spend.
$60 is already pushing it for a lot of people, nevermind those in countries like Australia that pay even more. The scary thing here is that most people are going to see this as "just" $5 more, until the price is raised another $5 and so on and so forth.
Glad EA doesnt make anything I usually ever buy except the occasional need for speed. They can shove it.
@IAmNotWill
For the 'quality' games EA offers, $60 is insane.
Hah! Suckers.
Ps. Our exchange rate is bad too. What the heck? £5 = about $6.40, so that's $70 for y'all? Dayum.
Pps. Y'all were already paying more than us before this raise by around $4? Dayum...
Seriously, EA stopped making good games a decade ago, EUR 60 (like it is now) here is already pushing it and most titles are not worth half of that, so what I got great first party titles on PS, who needs EA? Surely not me...
With everyone complaining about $60, I'm not even going to mention Australian game prices. It will just make me cry.
I will buy Battlefront. And then I'm done. Until Rogue Squadron comes out.
Good thing I don't buy any of their games.
Would you expect anything less from EA?
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