$70 is the New $60: Ubisoft on AAA Game Pricing Going Forward

[btarunr]

Ubisoft stated that USD $70 will be the new norm for pricing of its AAA game titles going forward. Count this as 16.6% inflation over the $60 ($59.99) that was normal for AAA games a few years ago. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, in an interview with Axios, stated that $70 would be considered the default for the publisher's big AAA releases across platforms. This would make $70 the base price for the "Standard Edition." Various premium editions and season passes would be priced higher. NBA 2K21 became the first title with its standard edition priced at $70 in August 2020. Ubisoft will effect the $70 pricing on the upcoming "Skull and Bones," which releases this November.



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[TheinsanegamerN]

Game companies already print billions with microtransactions, DLC, and pre orders. They dont need more money.

Granted these are Ubi games, so I wouldnt buy them anyway, but any other games that do this I'll wait for the inevitable sale.

 

[P4-630]

Because they can't get the sunflower seeds from Ukraine....

 

[lowrider_05]

basically they make their games with a lower standard from year to year and raise the prices to a higher standard.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I guess they need that money to cover all the lawsuits they've been hit by.

 

[Dirt Chip]

With so many free of them going around, dose people still pay for games??

I haven't done so in 3 years or so..

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Fine, then NO is going to usurp YES in my brain at purchase point, ya dig.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Blood soaked violence cost more these days
I agree free games at least epic games some are pretty damn good no need for high priced games atm just buggy mess for high dollar.

 

[GunShot]

From Ubisoft's constant 7-years+ of deliberate cringe worthy woke titles, later, Ubi's hard push on microtransactions, then, Ubi activates (in secret, sort of) a deliberate campaign to nerf all NVIDIA's cards in favor of AMD's sponsored titles, then Ubi open the gates for its NFTs, and now, they are in bed with Tencent and the final product? Ubi raises its prices...

Uhm... yeah.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

From Ubisoft's constant 7-years+ of deliberate cringe worthy woke titles, later, Ubi's hard push on microtransactions, then, Ubi activates (in secret, sort of) a deliberate campaign to nerf all NVIDIA's cards in favor of AMD's sponsored titles, then Ubi open the gates for its NFTs, and now, they are in bed with Tencent and the final product? Ubi raises its prices...

Uhm... yeah.

And millions of sheep will still purchase their product, complain it's trash, then line up for next product.

 

[ab3e]

From Ubisoft's constant 7-years+ of deliberate cringe worthy woke titles, later, Ubi's hard push on microtransactions, then, Ubi activates (in secret, sort of) a deliberate campaign to nerf all NVIDIA's cards in favor of AMD's sponsored titles, then Ubi open the gates for its NFTs, and now, they are in bed with Tencent and the final product? Ubi raises its prices...

Uhm... yeah.

I think you misspelled Nvidia and Nvidia Gameworks there buddy. Also please remove your tin foil hat from time to time as it interferes with the 5G signals sent by our overlords and saviors the mighty lizard people. Besides that, I agree with the rest of your comment .

 

[neatfeatguy]

Companies are just following the money that consumers have shown them that they have.

They know people have money to spend. All the cash going out towards micro transactions and out to the "collector editions" that cost upwards of $20+ over the standard editions (these are digital collector editions, you get nothing physical from these, just extra digital items. I liked the good old days of physical copies of games and that the collector editions came with awesome stuff you could display, read, admire). People will pay it. People have been paying it. Look as far back as the NES days, some of those new games were selling at $70-75 off the shelf (granted, most were $40-50).

It's just been a continuing trend that developers and distributors have seen over the years; people are spending and willing to spend that extra money on games. Then top it off with the fact that inflation kicked into high gear this past year and also with wages going up, it was inevitable. It was just a matter of time before this happened and it looks like Ubisoft took the first step. Expect to see EA, Activision/Blizzard and so on to follow suit here soon.

 

[bug]

Game companies already print billions with microtransactions, DLC, and pre orders. They dont need more money.

Granted these are Ubi games, so I wouldnt buy them anyway, but any other games that do this I'll wait for the inevitable sale.

Funny thing is, if they didn't insist on double dipping and gave the games away for free (mobile-style), they would make a lot more from mtx.

 

[big_glasses]

a "few years ago", I believe that paying full price for a game meant you had everything...

Anyone believe that Skull & Bones won't include MTX?

 

[kilo]

Ubisoft games are so copy pasted from title to title they usually go on sale after a year anyway.

 

[GunShot]

And millions of sheep will still purchase their product, complain it's trash, then line up for next product.

Perhaps. But, I tend to look at the results and plug the noise (aka fake news) that Ubi has been spitting lately. Ubi has been making a lot of FOOLISH noise in the last few days about its AC, etc. sale's numbers... yadda-yadda... BUUUTT... what Ubi fails to mention is, on purpose, is that Ubi has lost over 63%+ of its company market share, today, from its 1H20 record-highs, though.

 

[phanbuey]

Ubisoft games are so copy pasted from title to title they usually go on sale after a year anyway.

This - all you need to do is wait like 6 months and get them for $30 if not even lower.

 

[AGlezB]

This is interesting.

They've known for a while they're going steadily down and are trying to fix it but they've grown too much to be able to easily shed the extra weight. And they're spending a lot on server infrastructure and self inflicted DRM.

On one hand rising the prices will only lead to lower sales. Ironically that will alleviate a bit the server issues ... just not enough to matter. On the other hand with higher prices players are more likely to use their subscription service.

The thing with suscription services is that they need to hook you up so you keep paying for it and that requires games with (a) very high replayability or (b) a lot of stuff to do. For (b) you need players that will want to complete every chalenge and collect every item but that is becoming easier because gaming companies have been using achievement, trophies, etc. for years to train our behavior in that direction.

 

[damric]

Companies are just following the money that consumers have shown them that they have.

They know people have money to spend. All the cash going out towards micro transactions and out to the "collector editions" that cost upwards of $20+ over the standard editions (these are digital collector editions, you get nothing physical from these, just extra digital items. I liked the good old days of physical copies of games and that the collector editions came with awesome stuff you could display, read, admire). People will pay it. People have been paying it. Look as far back as the NES days, some of those new games were selling at $70-75 off the shelf (granted, most were $40-50).

It's just been a continuing trend that developers and distributors have seen over the years; people are spending and willing to spend that extra money on games. Then top it off with the fact that inflation kicked into high gear this past year and also with wages going up, it was inevitable. It was just a matter of time before this happened and it looks like Ubisoft took the first step. Expect to see EA, Activision/Blizzard and so on to follow suit here soon.

Yeah some of those NES games were quite expensive back then, but I remember I wanted them, so my poor father would get them for me, and he didn't earn much back then. I wonder how much those games would cost adjusted for present day inflation. $60-80 now seems like pocket change.

 

[ZoneDymo]

actually 70 dollars is the new 4 - 7 dollars, because I wont spend more then that, DLC included, for their mediocre games.

 

[Palladium]

I'm not gonna buy a GPU for them, let alone their snoozefests they call games.

 

[QuietBob]

I'm not at all concerned about Ubisoft's AAA price hike - or any other company's for that matter. My backlog of games is already in the hundreds, and I got many of these for free. The ones I did pay for were about $10 apiece (tax included), and plenty cost me even less. Last time I paid full retail price for a game was when they were still sold in boxes.

Also, I refuse to support franchises/publishers who monetize their products through microtransactions and paid DLCs. And let's not forget the pitiful state in which some recent overhyped titles have come out.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

I'm not at all concerned about Ubisoft's AAA price hike - or any other company's for that matter. My backlog of games is already in the hundreds, and I got many of these for free. The ones I did pay for were about $10 apiece (tax included), and plenty cost me even less. Last time I paid full retail price for a game was when they were still sold in boxes.

Also, I refuse to support franchises/publishers who monetize their products through microtransactions and paid DLCs. And let's not forget the pitiful state in which some recent overhyped titles have come out.

I have enough games where I can wait until game go on sale, rarely do I buy any games before that 6 month launch fix patch. steam does have some great sales on older games that are worth getting just to play it for a few days.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

I had my moneys worth out of The Division 2, over 150Hrs....and only paid $8 for it including the Warlords of New York DLC, during one of the Epic Store sales and $10 Discount codes.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Companies are just following the money that consumers have shown them that they have.

They know people have money to spend. All the cash going out towards micro transactions and out to the "collector editions" that cost upwards of $20+ over the standard editions (these are digital collector editions, you get nothing physical from these, just extra digital items. I liked the good old days of physical copies of games and that the collector editions came with awesome stuff you could display, read, admire). People will pay it. People have been paying it. Look as far back as the NES days, some of those new games were selling at $70-75 off the shelf (granted, most were $40-50).

It's just been a continuing trend that developers and distributors have seen over the years; people are spending and willing to spend that extra money on games. Then top it off with the fact that inflation kicked into high gear this past year and also with wages going up, it was inevitable. It was just a matter of time before this happened and it looks like Ubisoft took the first step. Expect to see EA, Activision/Blizzard and so on to follow suit here soon.

I dont entirely disagree with this part, but I'd say inflation was also part of the decision. The current state of the economy with the so-called end of covid lock downs, people going back to work, will have less money by spending directed at gas for the drive.

While collectors editions were alway priced ridiculously, DLC pricing reflects content being added at the same time letting popularity of a game also determining price.