Soapbox: PS5 Pricing Is Setting Releases Like Returnal Up to Fail

I couldn't agree more, and it's where MS Gamepass proves it's worth. Looking at the new trailer I'm immediately thinking "That looks fun. I can't wait for it to come to PS Now", which surely isn't what a great developer like Housemarque would want to hear

This is the game that makes me want a PS5 in March versus next winter - but even I’m unsure if I’d pay that upon release.

Fantastic article and I hope well written articles like this can help some change happen with regards to how Sony prices games - having a spectrum of prices would be nice, and unproven new IP without a huge amount of hype shouldn’t be priced to fail at 70$

I will be buying a lot less games day one due to this pricing and before anyone gives the games cost more to make these days nonsense, we all know the likes of Cyberpunk cost more to make than games like this.

Just think in a couple of years when the switch to next gen is complete, the PS5 is going to look pretty expensive with games £70 each compared to all those that will be hitting Gamepass, which you'll be able to try and even buy at a discount if you really want to.

Sadly for games like this which aren't established names, I'm going to be waiting for sales before giving it a go

@PapaGlitch like game pass can afford to put new expensive games on it! not viable for the industry to survive people will gather that by the end of this generation.

the game must be a lot bigger & longer than anything they have done in the past? so I will make my decision on the final product.

the person who made this opinion piece should wait as well how can you judge its worth without playing it yet?

I remember my mum paying £50 in the 80s for Zelda on NES for me with my birthday money! games have stayed the same price for decades. so I am struggling to get bent out of shape about it.

I'm gonna shamelessly copy my own post from another article about this game here:
I was about to get this day one but... 849 swedish kronor for the game (75.65£) or 949 swedish kronor (84.56£) for Digital Deluxe is too much.
Sony is going too far with their new prices here in Scandinavia.
I'm a person that bought every single Sony Studios games as day 1 during the PS4 gen.
That trend stops right here and now. Sony is too greedy at the moment and I know my lost sale isn't doing anything in this universe to change them, but it's the only thing I can do as a consumer, boycott ridiculous prices for games.
6 new games in Sweden equals a brand new PS5 with 4K drive.
That's insane and disturbing at the same time to be honest.

Not sure why an indie title should have the same price as an AAA game

You pay $500 (or whatever your national equivalent is) for a system, and then complain about the prices of games. Just admit that you are well-off and not out on the streets or something.

Same garbage has been happening on Steam forums for years. People will spend hundreds or thousands on a gaming rig, and then complain about the price of software.

Yeah, there are only a few games I'd be willing to pay 75-80€ for a game, only games like Persona 6 or a new 3D Zelda (but don't tell that to Nintendo), so I think games like these especially struggle under the new price

@TG16_IS_BAE The console you own for around 7 years, therefore 500€/$ for it is fine but how long are you going to play a game? Most games only last for around 15-30h and after that you need a new one, therefore yes, we complain about those prices

70 dollars is too high for most people anyway, by making it 70 GBP as well they are basically taking the piss, it's what Apple do.. I'm sure some will buy it but I expect the majority of people will wait for a discount

100% agree. I'd love to give Returnal a play, but it's the type of game I'd have been on the fence about buying at launch even with the old £50 price tag. At £70 there's no chance I'm buying it.
For reference, the only game on PS5 I'd currently pay £70 is Cyberpunk 2077, and that won't even be that much as I can buy the PS4 version and get the upgrade patch.
I think Sony have lost the plot a little with the price increase, specifically here in the UK from £50 up to £70. I'd love to see the UK sales figures for Demons Souls now the launch week is behind us.

@TG16_IS_BAE
We have had years to save up for the PS5 so you can't compare that to the high gameprices imho.

Said similar early in Nov, just asking for people to not buy on day one when you’d bank on them - disc version - being more or less half price a few months after release (supply and demand, as I can only see a tiny minority spending £70 every time on unknowns IP's which means prices should drop quickly).

Personally I've only ever bought the gold standard games I absolutely love on day one for the past few years anyway (GoW, TLOU2 etc.) and that was only in the knowledge I can sell them for the same price after completing it as they hold their value well.

Completely agree. I am a huge Housemarque fan. Played and loved Resogun, Super Stardust, Dead Nation, Nex Machina, Alienation, and Matterfall all to varying degrees. I was dismayed when they abandoned their arcade roots and initially were going to make a battle royal. I've enjoyed the initial impression from Returnal, but in no way should this be a $70 game. They are completely set up to fail with that price point.

I think the answer to your question lies in the poll results. Most people will be waiting for a sale to pick it up. This follows buying trends from the last generation. Sony are aware of this. And sales AT release aren't as indicative to the lifetime sales health of a game as they used to be. SO, price high at release for early adopters and then expect a bump when the title goes "on sale".

If you don't start the initial price at a high enough point, the sale price won't look as good or generate enough revenue. If you drop from $70 to $40 or even $35 - that's a heck of a deal! But - if you go from $50 to $40 - not so much.

I think this will hurt a lot of Sony's first party games. More so these middle games. I am not paying a $100 plus for one game that is packed with micro transactions. Not saying this game is, just in general. And what a time to raise game prices.

It wouldn't be so galling if the prices across different currencies lined up... and it is something i have banged the drum for since the new pricing was set... even after tax is applied we still end up paying an unconscionable amount more than the Yanks.

Any game i buy full price, day one will be swiftly played and sold on to lessen the impact on my finances.

@get2sammyb regardless of the increase in AAA prices on PS5 from £50 to £70, I am genuinely surprised that this is a full priced title (whether that was £50 or £70) at all. I fully expected this to be a higher priced indie at £30ish, like the Pathless, and not sure how to feel seeing it on preorder at full whack

I agree. €80 is just a lot of money. And games drop in price quickly, so I'm a lot more hesitant to buy new games at launch. I may fork over 80 for God of War, but I'll probably be waiting for discounts for other games. We haven't heard anything about Ratchet and Clank yet, but I can't see myself paying €80 for that game either.

Whenever a big new game come out, I'll buy the previous one at a discount. That seems like a decent strategy. I'll have to wait a bit now, but it ensures I will always have something to play, but I don't have to buy them at launch.

I won’t be paying £69.99 for any PS5 game. I think the price hike was a joke. I’ll be playing Sony exclusives when they drop in price.

I have the series x with gamepass and it’s the complete opposite, it feels like great value. I think that’s where I’ll be doing the majority of my gaming this gen.

@Zeke68 Games used to cost the same, if not more (depending on the retailer) in the 80’s and 90’s. Games also cost a lot more to make than the 80’s and 90’s.

Inflation is a thing, and for a product to stay relevant in any economy, it has to increase its price to meet the demands of inflation and production costs.

It’s a FANTASY to think that games would stay at $60 forever.

@NorrinRadd I think this is spot on! they get the early adopters to pay the premium

My vote is for a discount (maybe not a "deep" one)... but this is for all games I buy. It is kina irrelevant whether it is $59.99 or $69.99.

I never pay full price for games anymore. I can wait until they are a bit cheaper.

@mariomaster96 Considering I’ve been playing Dark Souls 1-3 and Skyrim almost exclusively for the last 7 years, I think I got my $60 worth. You may just have unrealistic expectations. You should learn to get more out of your games.

This is why I've rented 80% of my games this gen and that percentage will only increase when I get my ps5

All these complaints, all these people still buying the console, supporting the price.

If you don’t like the price, buying the console that offers games at that price is stupid. Learn not to give in so easily to your desires, or learn to get more out of your $70 game.

I used to buy at sales...now I will buy more pre-owned so it is Sony's loss according to me. Also @get2sammyb I hope you make a video about on this on your channel this surely will bring more engagement for the channel.

Ps5 pricing is too expensive anyways. Charging that much for demon's souls remake was too high as it was.

@AndyKazama How much did Demon’s Souls cost to develop?

I think the real aim here with £70 rise is to raise the overall price over a game's lifetime. They cannot realistically expect most people to pay £70 for games on release. I think they are hoping that the second wave of gamers will eventually pay the original £40-50 that games were instead of waiting for usually even lower price. PS games have a history of quickly becoming quite cheap after 6 months and this seems to be an attempt to change that slightly.

Honestly, who is going to spend that much on Returnal? They must know this. I won't even buy Ratchet and Clank or GT7 for that price. I was OK to pay that for Demon's Souls and Miles Morales with Remastered due to new console hype, but if they think people will spend that much on games and regularly they're in for a bit of a shock.

@TG16_IS_BAE I have no idea, but it didn't feel like a £70 game.

I’m in the small minority that doesn’t mind the price increase at all. I understand why it’s unpopular and of course we all want to pay as little as possible. Also understand I’m looking through the lens of US pricing and sales.

That being said, games drop in price and go on deep discounts quicker than they ever have.

Unless I feel like I can’t live without it for the moment, like Demon’s Souls, Cyberpunk, FFVII remake, and a few others this year, I rarely buy on day one because by the time I get around to playing the average game, it’s going to be 50-60% off and that’s within 6 months.

I’m very interested in Returnal. I’m interested in more games than I’m not usually, so I’m waiting more to having too many options rather than the price putting me off.

Since starting gaming at the end of the NES era and beginning of SNES/GEN and making my own purchases since the PS1/N64, I just can’t get worked up about the prices of games.

Even with the price increase, $70 in 2020 is still less than the $70-$80 I was paying for certain titles on the N64 from 1996-2000. Most games were $60 and you were not going to be able to buy them for $20-$30 within 4-6 months of launch like we see so commonly these days. Look at Watch Dogs. Can’t you already buy that game for like $40 in the digital store and it’s been out like a month?

I can see why someone who started gaming in 2013 sees the $70 game as something to knee jerk at and uprise against, but when you remember that price and sometimes even more 20-25 years ago as a tween, it’s not much to blink an eye at.

And that’s just my personal take, not intended to thumb my nose at anyone or come off as oblivious to everyone’s unique financial personal situation nor the simple fact that you can still find $70 to be too steep regardless.

This is one of the reasons why I've decided to hold off on a PS5. Paying $500 is hard enough for me right now, especially when the games that would sell me on the system are either on PS4 or not released yet. $70 for new games is asking quite a bit, especially in the Day 1 Patch era we live in. There are people who have difficulty paying $60, this would scare them off.

I'm kind of a "value for money" person, where if you give me $60, I'm more likely to get two $30 games than one full priced game. I guess I'm gonna be one of the waiting crew.

@AndyKazama You should learn that information so that you can better yourself. It will help you understand why games prices will continue to go up, as the years march on.

Happy to wait, bound to get deep discounts way before I run out of things to play. Plus games get patches and improvements along the way.

So I don't get the issue with the price increase. Mainly because the same people complaining will turn around and spend a lot on DLC that comes out in the first few months of release. DLC to me which should be included in the game at release. I mean when you have DLC detailed 6 months before a game is released I find issue with. I'm all for extending the life of a game. But that content should come afterwards. and this is the thing that has gotten me buying fewer games or at the least waiting until a GOTY edition comes out.

So they re going to get you one way or another

@PapaGlitch I know just look what games you will get MT and monetization new too MS and lets see if games will become the new Hollywood. No risk and rehashed garbage i hope not.

@TG16_IS_BAE Demon's Souls cost nothing to 'develop', it's a remake.

Not exactly groundbreaking remaking a ten year old+ game. Copy and paste.

Lazy, lazy LAZY!

Once I saw it was arcade shooting with rogue-like mechanics, I lost interest in the game.

Had this been more of something like Dead Space, then I would have been more interested and could possibly see myself paying $69.99.

Is it me or is Sony one of the few big gamemakers that doesnt have a lot of MT and monetization. Yea the games are €70 but if its complete ill get it day one. For me the gamepass will make the gamesindustry the boring landscape that is openworld Ubisoft.

This game is coming in the Day i get the chance.

@carlos82 "I will be buying a lot less games day one due to this pricing and before anyone gives the games cost more to make these days nonsense, we all know the likes of Cyberpunk cost more to make than games like this."

Ironic.

It's not nonsense at all. It's the reality. And games like Cyperpunk can be sold at half their current price, because they're guaranteed to sell well. Niche games need it more than blockbusters. That's why AA developers struggle more than anyone.

@Woogy You sound very entitled.

So instead of developing the game, what process did they do, instead? I fully await your “intelligent” reply.

Who said it’s groundbreaking? I said it costs more money. Take your Ritalin, and pay closer attention.

Point 1: $69.99 does not equal £69.99! Add a calculator app to the PS5, Sony and try some exchange rates.

Point 2: The same price hikes are afflicting the PS4 - I mean look at Sackboy or Immortals: Fenyx Rising on the last gen consoles! How about decoupling the PS5 upgrade? I'm still going to be using the PS4 Pro for a year or two until something is released for the PS5 that makes me want one (and they do it in black) so why am I having to pay £70 for a PS4 game now?

Sony should be careful as otherwise people will pop over to the green side for a gamepass.

I've always buy games on sale anymore started doing it about halfway through the PlayStation 3 cycle and havent looked back this rule of thumb always worked for me.

• full price if its something i really liked or impressed all around.
• $39.99 for something i might like or reviews are ok.
• $29.99 for remasters/remakes.
• $19.99 or below for everything else.

(exsample right now cyberpunk aint worth the $59.99 in my eyes but but ik i might like so it will grab it when its $40.00)

@get2sammyb I agree that surely Gamepass's current offering cannot be viable in the long term, but then MS (who I assume hire people far better equipped than I to work out the economics of it all) certainly seem to be putting all their eggs into the subscription basket. After all, the last year they've been selling Gamepass first and consoles second.

Regardless, as you said the fact that such subs exist really put games like these in a quandary, and it really feels like Sony need to allow better flexibility in its pricing. They know the next Horizon and GOW will sell at £70, they would have done the market research, but they simply must be willing to adapt their pricing in a game by game basis otherwise new, unproven IPs will fail to sell, and the creatives at the studios may well defect to other, potentially greener (pun intended) pastures

Gonna wait on sales for most games.

lot of people seemingly forget Sony makes money on games and services like ps plus not on consoles. The console itself is ridiculously cheap compared to other high tech product they don't have much profit on it. They aim to sell as many consoles as they can to maximise the profit on selling games on higher price. Next gen games won't be cheaper but the quality will be much better by the end.

@naruball so Returnal cost more to make than Cyberpunk?

not a chance, certainly towards the end of the PS4 era most games end up discounted very very quickly, I picked up a brand new copy of Assassin's Creed Valhalla on PS4 for £40 to get the free PS5 upgrade, not a chance I'd have paid £70 for that, I also got a deal on the Spiderman Miles Morales Ultimate edition on PS5 at £55, this includes a remaster of the original game, arguably worth maybe £60 but I still wouldn't pay £70, no chance.

My thought is Sony is pricing games at 70 so they can then be discounted during sales to 60. Most people will end up paying 60 at launch for big titles. I have paid 50 for most new games for awhile because of sales and pre-order deals.

That being said, I won't be paying 70 for games, 60 is my top line.

@TG16_IS_BAE yeah ofc there are games where you can put many hours into, for example I have 400h in BotW, 300h in XC2, 250h in FE:TH etc

But i'm talking about games like Luigi's Mansion 3, Uncharted games etc which you usually don't play as often as other games

You would think with how common games-as-a-service is among recent games, that the price of base games would actually decrease on average, to incentivize increased spending on micro-transactions and DLC.
From a business perspective, I think the price increase is a poorly thought out decision.

@TG16_IS_BAE
While game prices stayed the same for a long time, inflation “loss” was counterbalanced with market growth. Publishers still made more profit year-over-year because of more units sold. Publishers probably saw now the ceiling of market growth thats why they raised game prices to make shareholders happy. “Sustainable growth” my a**

@MemSec Yep! Either way, the increase is welcome.

@David187 You do realize that all of Microsoft's first party, big expensive games, are on GamePass day one, right? There are dozens of other "big expensive" games that make their way to the service as well.

@mariomaster96 Like I said, learn to get more out of your games. I still play games on my original NES, and there are countless more examples. Try not being so hard to please.

@God_of_Nowt for a consumer that's fine, and likely the approach I would take. The concern, however, is that too many people will understandably think the same, resulting in very low release day numbers. Devs will have their budget set by a publisher largely based on how their previous game sold, and if they're not selling very well at launch, then publishers will not have confidence

I would pre-order if it was $60 and I dont even have a PS5 yet.

@deathaxe I understand the risk part for games like this but this isn't just about this game but all next gen games which are going to cost more without any real justification. Even for Sony, is Horizon going to be £60 vs £70 for God of War if one is next gen exclusive but the other isn't?

@TG16_IS_BAE
People can’t expect constant innovation and growth from games and don’t pay the price in the end. I think this is not sustainable, that’s why indie games with smaller scope but high quality should have a bigger attention. Unfortunately they seem to be trapped by game pass and future subscription models.

I never buy games on release - two reasons - firstly they usually are buggy and need a few patches. Then after a month the price usually drops - wait 3-6 months and the price drops again sometimes up to 50% - watch dogs legion has only been out a little over a month and its under £40. My advice is to buy a ps5 in 6 months time, then by the time you've caught up games will be cheaper.

The other way would be to buy at full price on release, complete the game and then sell on through ebay or music magpie and you'll get at least half the value back.

Third way - sign up to boomerang rentals and pay a fraction of the cost. I pay £3,99 a month to get games 6 months old and find it the most cost effective way to play.

I am not sure what the strategy is here. I would of thought higher prices would convince people to not buy at launch. I can't see this staying this way for long. To be fair though, I very rarely buy my games at launch anyway. Just wait a few months and it is typically cheap. For example, I recently brought DOOM Eternal for £15 and that only released in March. I know it doesn't include DLC, but it is still better than the £50-60 they expect at launch.

The $70 price point is BS. And anyone yelling about inflation doesn’t have a good argument. Games make more money than they ever have before. So saying games cost more to make isn’t the most valid of arguments because the most expensive games usually sell the most. Look at the insane budgets on games like red dead 2, cyberpunk, last of us 2. Crazy amounts of money spent, but they make it back literally on release day. Not saying this is always the case, but games sell way more than they used to, so not keeping it the $60 price point is just greed.

The new price point will result in people being less likely to take a gamble on new properties. £70 is ridiculous, there is no reason a new title should cost more than £40 than greed. Yes costs have increased, but the reason costs have increased is because profit have increased so studios are investing more to make more sales.

I don’t understand this line of reasoning. For all I care games could be £200 RRP, I’d do the same as now, wait until they can be had for around £30 max, and ensure I get physical so I can get most of the money back once finished.

I look at day one purchasers as the whales that pay for my cheaper pricing down the line. I’d rarely be one for most games, but I appreciate them being there with their large pockets and vanishingly small pool of patience.

With the new higher price for games, I'm buying a lot less around launch and only looking at the cheaper games for now. The less i buy the more likely i will play the PS+ games and replay some of my current games. My backlog is so big they can keep me busy while I wait for cheaper prices too.

This is the only PS5 exclusive I am jazzed about honestly. I kind of agree with your sentiment, but do you actually know the scale of the game is smaller? Sony is charging $70 for Demon's Souls, and while it is a large, pretty game, it is still a remake.

I haven't upgraded to a PS5 and won't for at least a year or two. I hardly ever buy games for $60, so the $70 price point is kind of irrelevant to me. I got Cyberpunk on day one and I paid $50 for it, so the MSRP really doesn't mean much. If nothing else, it does give Sony flexibility in sales after the fact.

70 USD is bad price for ANY game.
Now, considering previous games from HM, like Reso or Nex then 70 USD is criminal, even when this one looks more meaty.

@God_of_Nowt I plan on playing it soon hopefully but then I still have Odyssey and Syndicate untouched, my digital library of shame

@Jslade because MS owned games can take the loss surely you understand that to them at the moment getting people on Xbox is key! & it is MS ecosystem so they have that as well.

so taking losses is part of that everyone else cannot afford to do that & MS makes no profit on game pass right now.

to be fair many of the games MS put up are not day one millions of dollars to make amazing new tech games.

it will lead to games staying still because of the cost.

@TG16_IS_BAE good for you if you can play the same game over and over again but i don't know where the fun playing uncharted 4 over and over again would be...

I’m likely paying full price for it, but then again I try to support every exclusive day 1 with a purchase if possible.

That’s just how I roll because I typically try to get all trophies when I play a game, and by the time you’ve platinum’d a game you have almost assuredly gotten your money’s worth out of it and then some.

I honestly cant wait for this 70 buck thing to bite their cheeks in the near future. Twas a very silly decision

@Medic_Alert
I don’t try to be the mouthpiece of publishers, but I believe there is a discussion to be had about the value of games. While you can’t only measure the value of games through the time you spent with it, it is still the best metric imo. Witcher 3 for me would have been worth a 100€, while Gone Home would have been too expensive even for 5€

@God_of_Nowt

Really good post.

I think a lot of it comes down to perceived entitlement. Many want the premium item immediately, but will only be happy if it’s somehow at a junk food price.

Just like every other consumer good, you either think it’s worth the asking price and buy it or you hold off until it reaches your personal sweet spot.

We’ve never had so many options across the board in terms of selection, sales/discounts, different versions, competition among platforms. It’s easier than ever to wait for that perfect price point because it comes extremely fast.

Then don't buy it. It's that simple. Use your dollars to tell Sony how you feel. Also comparing this title to Miles Morales or God of War just isn't fair in this moment. We don't yet know the scale of this project, and given the artistry and hard work that's gone into these amazing creatures and environments, I'm going out on a limb to guess that Housemarque is trying to up their game here. This certainly appears to be a premium, AAA game, and I'm happy to pay. Will be pre-ordering for sure.

I do everything I can to avoid paying $60 for a game. So no way I'm paying $70. Sony is making a big mistake with this price. How many good games will get unnoticed at that price? In a world with Covid an so many people losing their homes and jobs shut down, just bad timing.

@mariomaster96 Maybe you should reconsider your purchasing habits.

Comparing now to the 80’s and 90’s really doesn’t stack up. Gaming was far more niche then. What is key is games are far more profitable now than they ever were and that is why you can’t justify a price rise. I mean how many games in the 80’s were making 1billion a quarter?

Agree, what the heck sony thinking, I means if it's ghost of tsushima 2, god of war 2, or horizon 2 that have 50+ hours of open world gameplay, sure, I don't like it but $70 is okay. But if it's a new ip and we still didn't know about the game (if it's linear or not), $70 is just too much.

I still want the game if it's good, but not at $70. That price is only making me wait for a discount and finishing my backlog games rather than buying a new one.

@TG16_IS_BAE maybe you should mind your own business

I think the poll's really tough to answer when we don't know the scale of the game (do we?).

Yeah I will be buying a lot of games months after release. I'm going back to school so money will be tight for the next 3 years. Games usually drop quite a bit after a few months anyway due to FOMO in the industry.

@Medic_Alert
I agree that Sony should have lowered prices of seemingly smaller games like Returnal and Sackboy. But still I value their approach more than the likes of Ubisoft and Activision, because they atleast don’t sell microtransactions with full price games.

@Robinsad

Fair points.

What do you think about the drastic difference in the amount of people working on the average game now versus then?

If third party continue to sell at £50 then Sony will have to rethink their pricing. I love the look of this game, but I can't consider a purchase at £70.

yes AND ... after reading the article and scrolling through 100 comments one thing that has gone unsaid is the Returnal marketing is really lacking. Same for Destruction All Stars. If a publisher wants to ask for $70 that is their call, but they need to recognize they will have to justify the cost to consumers. I haven’t seen anyone put in the work there. Showing two teaser trailers with little gameplay isn’t going to cut it. Their marketing departments need to step up. Maybe the game is worth it but after watching the two trailers I know almost nothing about the game. Timeloop, surprise face, boom boom, repeat. Gotta distinguish yourself from the competition. I am more excited by Kena and Seasons imo.

What's particularly annoying to me about this is that I expect Sony will continue going in hard on its strategy of quickly and aggressively discounting its own games on PSN.

I don't mind buying Nintendo's releases at launch, since I know those games will cost basically the same amount in a year or two. Physical games, especially, retain their value, so little is lost by jumping on the bandwagon early.

With Sony, though, I've stopped buying early, since it always seems like the products drop in value by 50% or more within the year. Buying at launch feels like a waste of money when I can wait a few months and pay less.

If a company is going to juice the fans and then devalue their own product, then I'm going to adjust my purchasing strategies to match.

Thus why I'm not itching to get a PS5 right now. In a few years, its big games are going to be vastly cheaper. Better to invest in an Xbox or PC sooner and get access to Game Pass's excellent library for bargain prices.

With that said, there are a few games I'd be willing to pay a sucker's tax for to get in on day one, like Breath of the Wild 2 or Shin Megami Tensei V.

@TG16_IS_BAE How much one pays for a piece of specialized hardware isn't really related to one's perception of the relative value of games. If anything, it makes perfect sense for someone to spend big on a rig and then go cheap on games, as, over time, it'll help to balance out the total entertainment expenditure of the individual in question while getting the best bang for their buck in terms of performance.

I would add another title - Ratchet & Clank, it was a giant sales success and launching it with a 40€ price was a bullseye. There are another examples, Knack 2, Everybody's Golf... But hey, I bought Demon's Souls Digital Deluxe, so I'm part of the problem I think...

I find it funny, Sony support organisations that want to end capitalism and then increase their game prices all over the world to make more money. Keep fighting the good fight while treating your player base like mugs.

@TG16_IS_BAE and why gamepass will lead more people toward Microsoft. I just wait till these PS5 games hit PS Now.

@PapaGlitch That thinking is a problem in itself with the negatives of somthing like Gamepass being that it basically devalues games, kinda like the same problem with steam sales. How do games make money with a sytem like gamepass? royalties or something?

The funny thing is, I remember way back in the PSone days Sony made waves by LOWERING first party game prices by $10. At the time, the N64 was their main competitor and the cartridge prices were nearly double the price of PS games.

I mentioned this in the comments yesterday. In all honesty id struggle to pay more than 30 pounds for this, given the type of game it is. I definitely won't be buying for 70. No chance!

@JLaw1719 but that is still investment by the producer to get the profits that are there. The reason so many people work in the industry is because it makes so much money.

My max is £40. Anything above is unacceptable for me. And it also includes all dlc.

Wanting £70 for game and than charging extra for dlcs should be considered as robbing.

edit: I mean this for all games, not just this one. (I'm not interested in this game)

Just because they can, it does not mean they should. People will simply wait for a sale.

This is not going to sell at $70.

The entire $70 is BS anyway. PC version of games have had Ultra 4K Textures and RayTracing for 2 years now. They are still $59. Doubt Cyberpunk on PS5 will look any better than the $59 PC version

Haven't paid more than 55€ for big releases, so there's absolutely no way I'll be paying 80€ (price in Portugal) for this game.

Vote with your wallets guys. Maybe the pricing is a mistake also.

Yeah no chance. Not paying that much for one game.

@deathaxe I think people will speak with their wallets as made clear on all these comments. People are just going to wait until the price goes down, so the companies can potentially lose more money this way. I totally agree with the article, games should be priced accordingly, not just a random uniform number across the board.

I'm not going to pay it, but I'm not worried about it. If sales don't take off we'll soon see things come back down to earth. Besides, there's always a way to get these things cheaper. Managed to pre-order Demon's Souls for about £50 for example. Then you can get discounted PSN credit, etc. There's ways.

Those commenting that games cost a similar amount in the 80s and 90s seem to be forgetting one very important thing: Those games were expensive not because of their content or development costs, but because they came on cartridge hardware which was expensive to manufacture.

Those of us who gamed on computers like the C64 were playing very similar (often better) games which came on cassette and cost from £1.99 to £7.99. Hell, around Christmas time you could buy compilation tapes of 10 or so the year's best games for around £15. Even the "next gen" games on disc for the Amiga were around £20.

This price hike strikes me as being done for no other reason than "because we can". In terms of size and profitability, the games industry has gone from strength to strength, year after year, and is currently the biggest entertainment industry on the planet, raking in more than the movie industry - even with the previously 'fixed' price of $60.

Meanwhile, the initial quality of many titles has plummeted, with game after game being released seemingly with little or no testing, resulting in multiple bugs and other issues, some of which are game-ruining if not game-breaking. Meanwhile, customers are expected to wait patiently for fixes which can take weeks or months to arrive, and sometimes make things worse. And usually always with a priority of pleasing shareholders before customers.

@Medic_Alert
Sure, but again, multiplayer games have the potential to give you playtime in the hundreds of hours. But I’m sick of seeing the store in AC Odyssey pushed into my face with almost all cosmetics locked behind it. (I know about earnable currency but still).

Sense I do not live online like so many now days and only get a few games a year the price increase is not a issue ! Anyway if u do not like it do not buy it children speak with your wallet !

I was interested in purchasing this game on day of release having bought many of Housemarque releases in the past. I will just wait patiently for this to come down in price.

😂 😂 This game is DOA

@Fenbops Than why are you on a playstation site?

@PapaGlitch 15 million GamePass subscribers as of September.

Say in 2 years...

15 million (I'll use $10 excluding $15 Ultimate - which I have)

15 million * $10 = $150 million per month ( 2 years once all the huge discounted subscription are over and everyone is paying $10 or $15 per month)

$150 million * 12 months = $1.8 Billion per year.

In 2 years there will be millions of new subscribers (see GamePass coming to TVs as an App, Android already and iPhone next year).

I see this as a very profitable adventure for Microsoft.

@Vyns Absolute nonsense. Games in the 80s and 90s were like 2 hours long, but stopped you from beating them by giving you lives. Games now are a 1000 times bigger and more expansive. DLC sucks, but most games now are 20 hours minimum.

@Jarobusa Go to a Microsoft site and post that.

Considering I paid more or the same amount for Sackboy, Nba2k21, Godfall and so on I certainly will be buying Returnal Day 1, the setting, atmosphere, story and gameplay looks amazing, The Edge of Tomorrow in game form pretty much for me, cant wait.

As for pricing I'm honestly sick of the people complaining about it in general, do what you want with your money, either wait for a sale or buy it day one, it makes no difference in the end. I do know i will never support the game pass model which has and will lead to mediocre games.

@Coltaine22

As one of those 80s/90s gamers, I wholeheartedly agree.

Never has there been a greater bang for my buck in gaming than the era we've lived through from the 2010s through present day.

We can get warm and fuzzy about when we began gaming, I can enjoy those games now the moment I turn off the PS5, but there's no comparison at all in almost virtually every aspect.

Yeah, I have some interest, but $70 is too much for anything but a must-have. I'd think about it at $60, but $70 for something I'm hoping on, that's too much. The game already has to prove itself it to me if it was priced at $60, at $70 I'll just write it off and wait for now. Sony is gonna have to change the pricing pretty quickly.

Why do Microsoft warriors continue to push game Pass on a web site the does not offer it as a service.

I don't care what they charge I still get the choice to buy what games I want and when I choose to buy them. We have seen many disagreeing with the $59 price tag so its nothing new.

What will help is more discipline in your gaming habits. Dont buy games just because you want to play them make sure you do not build a back-log of games that will end up at a lower price by the time you get to play them. Most games a made to play longer than we do play them. PLAY you games, do the side quest go for the platinum trophy. Save to pick up games on black Friday sales at $19.99 or less. I only picked up 3 this year but that's 100 of hours of play time. I know I have 1,000 or more play time in my backlog on PS4. The Average PS4 owner only has 8-10 games!! $70 is not to much for these people.

There is a way around this if you have an ebgames (Canada) or gamestop (US) near you.

It's call trade 3 get it free.

Using this method I was able to make money while playing Ghost of Tsushima. I traded in 3 games towards a copy and sold it when I was done. Of course you have to do some leg work to find 3 games if you don't have any to trade in, but if you look you may find 3 that are eligible for a good price. I ended up finding 3 for a total of $55 CAD, traded them in for GoT and sold GoT for $65 CAD. Sweet deal eh .
And yes trade in any 3 games towards more expensive PS5 titles does work here. I traded in 3 games at a combined price of $75 for a pre-order of Horizon Zero Dawn when it comes out next year. Cherry on top here is that the tax is all covered You don't pay any taxes for this exchange nor when you pick up the game. It's a sweet system they have.
I'm now on the hunt for some cheap games to trade toward Returnal.

If your someone like me who doesn't care to keep games after your done with them, trade them in for something else

Yet another topic about the cost of ps5 games...have we not been down this rabbit hole before in some form or another? Are you not getting bored of inciting forum riots so egotistical keyboard warriors can inflate their egos by insulting anyone who dares to have an oppinion that is anything other than what they decide is the rule of law? If you dont like the price dont pay it...it really is that simple and sooner or later the prices will drop as its not a sustainable price point..there is a certain poster on this topic who needs to learn how to respond to comments without his attempt at the whole passive/aggressive thing because he is not very good at it and he is just downright rude and insulting..

@Vyns Are you seriously comparing the content of older games to new ones? Are you daft?

Castlevania 3 was $55 when I was a kid. Completed it in 3 hours.

When I picked up Skyrim for the same price, my first play through was 90 hours.

So not only have the prices stayed the same, we have an exponential amount more stuff to do in each game. Think next time, bro

@Snick27 I hope people enjoy it!

@mariomaster96 I’m not forcing you to share your problems on this publicly accessible chat forum.

If you to broke to afford 70$ or 80$ Games you shouldn’t be gaming an the first place. gaming is a expensive selfish hobby.

@JohnKarnes blimey, it was only a couple of days ago I was being blasted on PureXbox as a Sony fanboy! You don't need to be an XBox fan to point out that the existence of Gamepass puts Sony at a very precarious position when it comes to titles like this. Personally I think Now is almost as good and could be great if Sony got properly behind it, but I'm concerned Sony do not have the money MS do to absorb the massive initial losses MS are presumably taking.

@get2sammyb while you're almost certainly right that GamePass is a loss leader right now, you have to imagine MS know what they're doing with it in the long run. I imagine they see themselves as Netflix, which until very recently was running at a significant loss but through streamlining and a number of small incremental increases in price arr now in a very strong position where people signed up when it was cheap and now just keep it going at the higher rate. If people buy XBoxes off the back of it as well, they will be even less likely to give up the subscription. If MS achieve this I worry Sony will find themselves in a very tricky situation.

No offense to the article, but ultimately the audience will decide if this price is too high or not. That's generally not people that post on forums or sites like this, so we'll have to wait and see.

My personal opinion, gamers are kinda cheap (read forum folks like us, casual gamers buy $500 headphones from Apple w/o blinking). I put 1000+hours into Smash Brothers, even more into Destiny 2. If a game is worth even 50-100 hrs of gameplay, I really don't think $70 is too much. But again, my opinion is kinda the minority, it will be up to the larger user base. Generally, I don't think they will have a problem with it.

On Gamepass, it's very cool, and I like PSnow as well, but I spend time with 1-3 games a month if that. To me, gaming is not music/TV, I actually don't want to switch between a lot of different content frequently. It's also not passive at all like other forms of media. I dunno, having a huge library of rotating games will never be that appealing. I just like to complete my games one at a time, so subbing for hundreds of them is kinda pointless with my habits.

@TG16_IS_BAE order 1886 was 6 hours long for £50 and the old SNES RPGs could last 100s of hours. Generally games are longer now but not always; I don't think using a game's length is necessarily the best factor in deciding its monetary worth. I would 10x more for Journey than Assassins Creed, because although was far shorter I found the experience to be far richer

@get2sammyb There are over 2 billion iPhone and Android users out there. Even a small percentage of that is a huge number of subscribers. And they will need to Ultimate version which is $15. Microsoft already has the infrastructure in Azure. I use it daily at work.

Say with Phones, Tv, Xbox, and PC they will easily have a 100 million users at $15 per month in a few years. That is $1.5 Billion per month.

That is a ton of money.

@themightyant For now yes it is a loss, but in say in a few years when they have over a 100 million subscribers paying full price?

There is a reason Google and Amazon are entering this market.

@Omnistalgic We're the enthusiasts. We spend more money than most people on this hobby, and we're saying it's too much. There's a good chance that will carry across to the general market. Not a guaranteed one, but a pretty good one.

Personally will pay for this game, and one of the reasons behind that is replayability. Not a lot of games have that nowadays.

I think ultimately Steam is to blame, Nintendo's the only one that's safe from the effect of Steam sales and that's because they never gave into that mindset.

For example, Switch launch year titles are still pretty much the same price they were at launch outside the odd 33% off sale here and there for stuff like Black Friday and holiday sales.

Meanwhile Sony and Microsoft (along with most 3rd parties) followed Steam in the quest for who can discount their games the most the fastest. It's now to the extent that most big games that aren't by Nintendo are up to 50% off around a month after launch.

That model of who can discount their games the most the fastest no doubt about it isn't sustainable so alternative strategies have to be made.

Microsoft's strategy is Game Pass of which stability relies on the number of subscribers meanwhile Sony's strategy seems to be to increase the base game price which the logic is probably that the more expensive price and hence a more expensive discounted price in sales reduces losses from the heavy discount "Steam sale" approach. Stability here relies on people still buying the games for the more expensive prices.

Ultimately Nintendo has the best approach that they never fell down the "Steam sale" route in the first place.

@PapaGlitch If you can use something for longer, you get more value out of it. You absolutely can use game length to qualify cost.

@Jaz007 still a question mark for me. The yearly madden/2K gamers I don't think care about paying $70 versus $60. We'll see though.

We live in the era of unfinished games. To fully enjoy a game, you need to wait for it to be fixed. Then you need to wait for DLCs if you want the full game. So you might as well wait for a discount on the whole package. Discount all the way!

Jesus, Sony...

Housemarque pivoted from their arcady roots because they couldn't get people to pay $20 or $30 for some of the best pure arcade titles of their generations...now Sony is pulling this nonsense?

I love Housemarque and think Returnal looks great, but regardless of how good it is pricing it at $70 is going to kill any chance it might have had at being successful.

@get2sammyb gamespass is great for new adopters of xbox and want something to play but I believe it reflects the quality of games ,95 percent of gamepass games are filler with just a few stand out titles and microsoft have yet to make a game specifically to be released on game pass all their games where heavy in development before it was conceived ,with regards to housemarques game no way on earth am I paying nearly a 100 quid for what is basically an indie game ,im sure it'll be great but 70 quid great....nah.

@TG16_IS_BAE length absolutely comes into it, but it isn't the be all and end all. I love narrative heavy games and play them for the experience. I am unlikely to play them again as I know the story beats, but the experiences stay with me more than grinding through 300 hours of a generic RPG, and therefore are worth so much more. I'm not saying it doesn't come into it, but length is one of the last things I personally consider in a game, and although it's good for you if you are happy to play the same thing over and over again, it's mad to expect everyone to do the same as presumably they are looking for different experiences than you are.

@PapaGlitch Nobody said it’s the end all and be all. When you point out one facet about something, you aren’t automatically ruling out all other things. It’s entirely possible for one thing to represent many. I was just following the conversation.

That’s like saying that because you have a nose, you lack eyes. I’m just pointing out the nose.

Great article, and absolutely agreed. Even if other companies are loss-leading with their low priced subs and the like, it can't be viewed in a bubble that simply doubling down, charging more, and declaring it's necessary is a winning strategy. Otherwise Amazon and Walmart wouldn't have decimated brick and mortar retail at all the "better" but also "pricier" competition by undercutting them, even at a loss.

For more recent examples, we have Watch Dogs: Legion. A new, next-gen-ready entry in a well known AAA franchise from a well known AAA publisher launching, not even at the new $70 but the old $60. And simply by not instantly becoming "the next big thing" as an instant hit, it was cut down to $40 sales in a matter of weeks to stop the bleeding.

The $70 prices still feel completely cynically designed to bilk the whales with low impulse control and no patience that need to preorder the game or buy at launch or miss out on the social frenzy, and not at all intended as the long term sustainable, market-supported price for these products. It's not even a good look for AAA games like Legion (which wasn't even the new price), let alone something like Returnal. (Incidentally, Legion is a really good game that deserved its price more than some other $60 or $70 games - and I paid launch day price on it to go with my new consoles. Seeing it $20 less 2 weeks later was a bit of a kick in the face.)

I just can't feel supportive of a business model clearly designed around manipulating an impulsive market with social FOMO. I'm not a fan of new wave "charge as much as the market is willing to absorb" rather than the old school "charge cost + margin" school of business. But nor am I a fan of "set exorbitant pricing well above what most of the market will absorb to capture the insecurity of a portion of the market, then drop the price to the real price for the rest of the market." Let alone "while your competitors are selling at a loss to undercut."

I think it's a situation being blown out of proportion. Am I thrilled with paying an extra $10? No, but do you honestly think titles that would have sold well at $60 are suddenly not going to at $70? I'd argue that Sony's first party titles, which Returnal is, are the safest as far as sales go at the $70 price point. They are why the vast majority of people are on the platform and not on Xbox, so people are still going to buy them. Yeah, some will wait, but not so much that this will now all of a sudden fail. If the game is great like some of their other 1st party titles and the hype train gets rolling, this will definitely sell fine.

@TG16_IS_BAE no you were suggesting people should work harder to get more value out of their games, and I was just pointing out that some people can get everything they want to get out of a game in a shorter amount of time, and replaying it over and over again would not be satisfying to them. I get your initial point that people should expect game prices will rise with inflation and higher budgets but the solution isn't necessarily to just grind through games to artificially lengthen your time with it if it is unlikely to satisfy you as much as a new experience. Which, bringing it back to the matter at hand, is why it is perhaps a misjudgement on Sony's end to expect people to pay a significant amount more for new games, no matter how justified the rise may be. It is likely to drive consumers to more cost effective alternatives such as gamepass, especially in the current climate.

@PapaGlitch Replaying it mindlessly is not what I'm suggesting. There are other ways to get more enjoyment out of a game. Please try to think a little outside of the box, I'm not here to make all the suggestions for getting more out of a game for you. I'm sure you can think of a few off the top of your head, such as speedruns, no hit runs, self imposed limitations or challenges, etc. There's a reason that there are people out there that get lots of enjoyment for years out of a single game, there's plenty of video evidence of it across YouTube and Twitch.

@get2sammyb To be fair, as a gamer, you don't need to be convinced by the economics of it. It's an amazing deal and it's down to Microsoft and the developers to make sure it makes sense for them.

Whoever is pushing this at Sony is off the mark. We've seen Horizon for sale for $9.99 for two years now - we know that game prices will go down over time. They can get away with pushing the envelope a bit on really big hitters, but asking that price for Returnal will turn away many people - even if the game is ultimately worth it. Before it launches no one knows if it's worth that price or not.

I'm hoping that Sony will adapt things pretty quickly. I'd hate to see amazing PS5 games flop because of such a rigid price structure. I have faith they'll do the sensible thing in the end though. PS Platinum/Greatest Hits ranges have always been fantastic value compared to the rival equivalent. Hell, Nintendo rarely reduces first party game prices outside of some Nintendo Select games right at the end of a generation. How are they still charging £39.99 for Pokémon Moon on 3DS???

Sony should remember that it's main business tactic is getting as many PS5s sold as they can, and then they make money on all game sales - not just their own. If anything they should offer their exclusives at a discount just to entice more customers. Maybe with PS5 demand so high they feel they can get away with this, and maybe they can. Maybe when there are PS5s sitting on store shelves they'll settle down.

It seems like a bit of a gamble and I don't like that they are taking the chance on Returnal, which is made by a solid studio known for having underappreciated games.

@JohnKarnes Some people actually aren't sworn ambassadors to one platform or another. Some people think what Microsoft is doing is relevant to what may happen with PlayStation. Just because this is a PlayStation website doesn't mean that other things aren't happening on rival platforms. If you only want to hear news about PlayStation then I suggest you only read the PlayStation blog.

I’ll keep saying it .... the biggest reason for failure of this and other games might just be scarcity of PS5’s out in the wild. If I can’t get a PS5, I’m obviously not paying a dime for the game. And those who paid over retail for their unit have spent the extra $70 that would have gone to Housemarque instead went to the scalper’s bank account.

@PapaGlitch I tried to justify a Xbox one X purchase for the past 3 years and a Xbox series X this December. I could not do it no matter how many times I tried. Microsoft and Phil Spencer have been spouting how Xbox will be better for the last 7 years. Now they have failed the launch of the new Xbox series X in the games department. Xbox is far to dependent on retro games with game pass.

After taxes that game is $101.69 CAD, no game is worth that price...

I feel like we all know what we got ourselves into. It’s a premium system. Prepare to pay premium prices for AAA games. Don’t see the issue.

@get2sammyb Agreed. But ultimately Devs will decide. If they make money from Game Pass then games will appear on Game Pass. Like you, I'm not going to pretend to fully understand the economics of it all but it's not something I think Nintendo or Sony would ever do. 1, because they couldn't and 2, because their USP is their platform exclusive games. For me, as a multiplatform gamer it's win win but I do wonder what Game Pass will look like 5 years from now. Each platform maker has such different ideas on the future of gaming that I think it's massively important they all do well.

I think the game is being thrown under the bus. If it's as good as a goty 2018 or goty 2020, it is justified.
Now destruction all stars for 70 might be a bad idea

The price is the price, yo! We'll see if it is worth it when it comes out.

Just dont preorder or buy on release. If enough people do it they will adjust the pricing.

What the heck is Jim Ryan thinking. Isn't the gaming market growing rapidly? With more customers, they could easily breakeven with the old pricing scheme. Why even propose a price hike this early in the console generation when they could use every opportunity to drive hardware sales.

@get2sammyb They do have smart people, but that's never stopped many companies from losing money or in other cases, going out of business.

@__jamiie I have no problem seeing Microsoft "news" in fact I welcome it. I do not see game pass as being news at all. Sony has also stated that the game pass model is not something that would work for them.

Kinda skews thing when the optiond are FULL PRICE or DEEP DISCOUNT. Where's simply the middle ground of an okay discount

@David187 you clearly have lived under a rock the past 20 years. Videogames have absolutely NOT stayed at the same price since the 80s. $60 gets you the base game. Want the "complete" package? Well be prepared to cough up TWICE that much, cause that's exactly what it costs to buy a full game now. So called Deluxe editions, complete editions, platinum editions all cost upwards of $100 or more and often this still isn't the complete game. These also often launch buggy and broken. So no we aren't paying the same, we are paying more for LESS.

Already pre ordered, HM have yet to miss really

Wow no mention of Outland on ps3 huh? Probably my absolute favorite Housemarque games. Been wanting a remaster for years now, it's literally the only reason I still own my ps4.

@JohnKarnes When asked about Game Pass and how Sony will compete;

"There is actually news to come, but just not today," -Jim Ryan

Broadly, on the PS4 I bought almost everything digital and didn't mind paying full price. Based on the PS5 prices, particularly on games like this, I'll be buying physical and reselling instead unless it's a game I truly love. Net impact will be Sony make less money from me as a consumer.

Specifically regarding Returnal, £70 is an absurd asking price I'll be very surprised if this doesn't sell very softly.

Honestly I can see sales on games dropping this gen ,until games go on sale.

Give it a year and can see the 60 plus price tag disappearing , people aren't going too pay it

Looks good but I wouldn’t pay more than $20 for it. There are too many other games coming out this year and next to justify spending a lot of money on it

@get2sammyb You make it sound like its some crappy indie the game looks great ill take it over that broken mess called CP any day. 🤦‍♂️

@Xiaolin The Sony firstparty titels have almost o MT and almost no expansions.

@TG16_IS_BAE It doesn't matter how much demon's souls costs to make. More people are buying games than ever. You keep talking about inflation but you forget the gaming population is also growing.

@Flaming_Kaiser What is your point? Nearly all of their first party releases still had "Deluxe" AND "Ultimate" editions that had content locked behind them. Even if you ignore that, your argument is what exactly? "Well Sony doesn't do MT and DLC so the price hike in the WHOLE REST OF THE INDUSTRY doesn't matter"? That dont make sense bruh.

Pretty ridiculous that people are complaining about a $10 price increase per game. I mean, the industry has completely ignored inflation for at least a decade. Just be happy you got all those years at $60. Jeez, I remember paying over $100 for Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition for Super Nintendo at Electrons Boutique back in the day. It was only an increase in competition to Nintendo (and changes in media formats) that reigned those prices in.

@Flaming_Kaiser You'd be missing out. CP77 is amazing on PS5. Can't wait until the actual PS5 version is released.

@Xiaolin No, you get a complete game. You are then offered the option to purchase more content for that game in Deluxe and Ultimate Editions. I mean, MOST of the time those extras aren't anything more than cosmetic items or useless unique weapons. I don't bother with them unless I know for sure I'm going to want extended DLC when it's available. Best bet for me is to but then piecemeal though since even when I'm loving a game while playing it, by the time content DLC is released I've moved on.

@rumple1980 LOL. In the US if you trade in 3 games that were released yesterday at GameStop and you'll get $5.

@OthmaneAD It doesn’t matter how much something costs to make? How do you determine that you yielded a good return on investment, then?

@Woogy

If anything that’s actually more difficult. They had to reuse the code to ensure that the remake played as close to the original as possible. And they had to port code optimized for the Cell’s SPEs to X86, which is a very time consuming task. In addition to that, they rebuilt the game’s graphics assets from scratch.

It’s a lot harder to do remakes than you think, especially the method Bluepoint uses. They like for their remakes to play close to the originals. It would have actually been easier just to rebuild the entire game from scratch.

Most PS3’s games have aged gracefully in terms of their gameplay mechanics, their graphics not so much. So not only do you have to port 10-15 year old code from a fairly custom architecture to X86, but you have to rebuild the graphics library from scratch.

@Applejackson75

More country's out there than America here in UK it's a £20-30 increase which about $26-39.

Don't think you would be so.smug with those increases and places like Australian it's even worse

Most games made plenty of money at the old prices, hence why the gaming industry makes more than movie and music industry's. It's just plan old greed .

@Xiaolin what are you talking about games have stayed pretty much £50 for decades just some places never sold them at the full RRP why Game was always so expensive for games they sold at full RRP. you must be the one living under a rock.

@Applejackson75 This is just flat wrong. Games industry has absolutely NOT ignored inflation and is making far FAR more money than it ever has. With scummier and scummier practices. Every part of gaming has become more expensive. Dunno why you're trying to hold water for the rich fuchs taking your money.

@David187 If you actually bothered to read, you would already know the answer.

@Applejackson75 YOUR OPINION.

Totally unsupported by facts and of course wrong, opinion.

This smells like 39,95.

@get2sammyb
I plan to buy Returnal on day one but I'm not the average consumer. Agree this is one of those games that could benefit from a budget price.

@Grumblevolcano It's not so cut and dry though. Games aren't consumable. You can buy more games than you can realistically fully consume. The steam sale approach encourages buying things you have interest in at low prices, regularly, and therefore buying much more product for a larger sum of money then if you carefully considered every purchase on a consumption need basis. Give me $70 games and I'm buy 2 or 3, maaaaybe 4 a year only even I'm done the prior. Give me half price and below sales? I'll buy hundreds to over a thousand dollars a year in games half of which I'll never play, just to try them. Ultimately that model can, and does, lead to potentially higher gross sales revenue then few high margin sales.

There's no cut and dry to these models. Gp is the most lossy on the surface, but a lot more people committing guaranteed recurring sales of 180 a year is valuable... Including gains on investing future revenues that are guaranteed.

This article didn't age well, Sammy, cause I'm pretty sure Returnal will be worth more at launch than Cyberpunk does lol
But yeah, I agree with you 100% games like these will suffer and be drawn out by bigger games releasing at same time, people will pick one over the other for sure.

This "article" is so petty and inconsequential that it's almost sad. Why do people think that the software industry is run on a basis of charity for consumers? Game development is now much bigger and more costly than ever with higher demands for quality, quantity and "next gen" visuals. If you are a sincere gamer who's genuinely concerned about the overall wellness and longevity of the console game industry then you wouldn't complain about spending two extra cups of Starbucks on purchasing a software. GROW. UP. Things cost money to make.

Thinking about this, I'd like to see one developer try a different approach. I wonder if selling a game for £40 and then having an option to donate a kind of tip in the menu for more wealthy people who can afford it could work.

It might be a bit pie in the sky, but you'd get far more people playing the game and the ones who want to support the developer for future projects can do so. It would also encourage the industry on the whole to make better games in general too.

@TG16_IS_BAE this is a video game. You can't just increase the magical price (60$) and expect 100% of the consumers that would have bought it at 60$ to buy it at 70$. It worked for demon's souls because everyone who bought a ps5 also bought demon's souls because it's the "only true exclusive" on the system. Moving forward I imagine it will be hard to sell many copies of 70$ games unless it's something from rockstar or the 85+ metacritic franchises/games

Day one for me but I do agree getting the masses to pay up $70 for this type of game is a tough sell. Of course this is Jim Ryan's fault.

@OthmaneAD You underestimate how badly gamers want to buy stuff. The comments section is a minority. People will buy, it’s a very small increase.

@Trajan It’s a long comment string, and I posted a lot, so you’ll have to give me some point of reference. I have no idea which post you are referring to.

It’s not a “price point.” It’s a price.

@onewontdo Judging by the quality and scale of PS5 games compared to PS4 games, the price jump seems more like greed than a necessity to make money back. The PS5 is basically the PS4 at this point. Accepting a $10 increase now means accepting a $10 increase later, and again later. Eventually we’ll be paying $100 for a game, not because it costs more to make, but because companies want to increase the profit margin.

@Applejackson75 Oh i wont be missing out i just get it discounted and as a fully fuctional product in a year or 2 i have enough too play. 🤪

@themightyant Then again almost all PS firstparty titles are polished too perfection. With no extra DLC and no MT for me thats a no brainer. The €70 package or the Ubisoft standard and €90 gold edition with the fix it as we go approuch.

The games that have have MT in them and a seasonpass before the release so every fighter, shooter, sportsgame can wait.

But the funny thing is that these games will be bought day one by the biggest complainers.

It's times like this I deeply regret getting the Digital version of the PS5 because no doubt this will be £25 physically within a couple of months. Fortunately there's so much for me to play on PS+ Collection that by the time I'm done with it all, hopefully some first party titles will be available digitally at a cut throat price...

@Xiaolin I did READ & you going on about special editions has nothing to do with my argument.

@themightyant

I can see your point i believe.

• Sportgames should be €50 max they are drenched with MT and are useless after one year.
• Fighters the same thing lower baseprice because everything is payed with characterpasses / seasonpasses the so called service is no service we pay for it.
• Shooters MT, Battlepasses, Expansions.

And everytime the biggest 3 genres boast about the biggest profit ever.

I think that a LBP could benefit from a €60/55 price point i think it would make them even stand out more.

A Returnal is being destroyed here somehow it looks brilliant the gameplay will be topnotch im certain of this. The main lead looks brilliant the same goes for the setting. This will be my reason too buy a PS5. Sony should drop this game at €60/65. Ill buy Returnal at the release no matter what.

But the games will be available cheaper in the future in sure of it. But biggest complainers should take a long look in a mirror when they complain.

Because im certain the are in the frontline too get the biggest sport/shooter/fighter and the broken triple A mess that gets released. The game that CDPR released in this state isnt worth €60 and all the other stuff they pulled.

Looks like you were mistaken. It's selling quite well