Sega Contemplating AAA Game Retail Price Increase, Could Adopt $70 Industry Standard

[T0@st]

Sega Sammy Holdings CEO Haruki Satomi and CFO Koichi Fukazawa were took part in a Q&A session last month, as a follow-on to the company releasing its financial reports for the past fiscal year. An English translation of the event's notes has only just become available this week, with news outlets picking up on a key item - computer game pricing. General life costs have been climbing in recent times, and games publishers have been adjusting MSRPs due to the rising expense of developing new content, especially in the AAA sector.

The Sega executive team has noticed this industry trend and is pondering over the options - the session notes state: "In the global marketplace, AAA game titles for console have been sold at $59.99 for many years, but titles sold at $69.99 have appeared in the last year...We would like to review the prices of titles that we believe are commensurate with price increases, while also keeping an eye on market conditions." Nintendo has recently joined the likes of Sony, Activision, 2K and Ubisoft in bumping up MSRP to $70, but this pricing decision has only affected the latest Legend of Zelda title - Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo of America's CEO Doug Bowser defended the move (prior to the game's release) - he argued that the direct sequel to Breath of the Wild would offer fantastic value for money.



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[ZoneDymo]

pretty solid having over 20 years of gaming experience, acknowledging nothing gets better and often even worse so there is nothing out there for me anymore, and thus not wasting money on that.

 

[Space Lynx]

i didn't realize sega even had AAA titles still... what are they? yakuza series? eh, wouldn't really call those AAA myself. but w.e

sonic is boring and played out.

 

[Solaris17]

I mean this all started with Ubisoft in sept of last year.

Ubisoft Is Shifting to a $70 Price Point for AAA Games - IGN

Ubisoft's AAA games will now be sold at the $70 price point – something the company had so far resisted.

www.ign.com

The shift is coming to everyone and im not sure anyone should be surprised given others have already done it. Of course if one gets away with it they all will.

 

[bonehead123]

So did they also jack up their game prices during the pandemic ?

If so, anutha round of increases will probably NOT be viewed very favorably by most people..

If they didn't, then too bad for them, cause right now would be the WORST possible time to do so, since alot of folks are having trouble just paying their bills and feed their families, along with everything else...

tsk, tsk, shade on you Sega ......

 

[HairyLobsters]

No SEGA game is worth $70.

 

[ymdhis]

No SEGA game is worth $70.

If they fully remastered Panzer Dragoon Saga, I'd pay $70 for that. Original copies start at ten times that much.

 

[Vayra86]

Funny to see TW Warhammer 3 in there, loaded with DLC costing north of 10 bucks

What do you mean 70, that's just the entry fee.

Now consider the price of microtransactions Game price has already sky rocketed way beyond 'the good old 50 or 60'.

 

[RadeonProVega]

No game is worth $70 dollars, $60 only a few in my opinion. Its all a scam just like with the Newer Mortal games, and street fighter series, all scam. Selling original default characters as DLCS for prices lmao.
Stop falling for all these scams and wait for a sale.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

The poor multi million dollar company needs MORE of your money!

Remember how, when sony started this trend on PS5, some of us called out that everyone was going to do it? Good times.

 

[Deleted member 230939]

Could never pay this for what Sega puts out.

 

[sethmatrix7]

Funny to see TW Warhammer 3 in there, loaded with DLC costing north of 10 bucks

What do you mean 70, that's just the entry fee.

Now consider the price of microtransactions Game price has already sky rocketed way beyond 'the good old 50 or 60'.

Total War DLC actually adds content though. Most players that I've seen are happy with the franchise. The base game has a ton of playable factions and they later bring DLCs and some FLC (free) factions or lords during the games life.

 

[InVasMani]

AMD should try to acquire SEGA. To me that is merger meant for each other.

 

[Arkz]

If they fully remastered Panzer Dragoon Saga, I'd pay $70 for that. Original copies start at ten times that much.

I wouldn't, unless they redesigned the last quarter of the game where it slows to a boring repetitive maze explorer.


Really I think they should take what they can get, which isn't much these days. Kinda dumb that they're sitting on all these IPs, ignore them all, and keep shovelling out mediocre sonic games instead.

 

[noel_fs]

Afaik the standard is supposed to be $60 i dont know where $70 comes from, anyway i havent paid that much for a game and never will. Maybe ill go up to 50 for gta 6 but thats it, would be an exception because im expecting it to actually be worth the money.

 

[Octavean]

No SEGA game is worth $70.

This,....

Most games end up in that barging bin in the sky anyway,.....and that is if they are lucky,....

(Figuratively speaking)

 

[SOAREVERSOR]

No game is worth $70 dollars, $60 only a few in my opinion. Its all a scam just like with the Newer Mortal games, and street fighter series, all scam. Selling original default characters as DLCS for prices lmao.
Stop falling for all these scams and wait for a sale.

The cost of making a game has gone up and the prices haven't adjusted fully yet either.

It's funny to bring up SF because back in the 90s on the SNES there was SF2, SF2CE, SF2HF, SS2, SS2T all were pretty much the same damn game and sold at 80 bucks a pop. Mortal Kombat pulled the same stunt. So the reality of the situation is that the cost of making games has gone up massively, where the cost of purchasing games has not only not increased to make up for it, it's actually lower than it used to be. Not only all this, but instead of having to buy the same damn game five times at the original 80 bucks you can just get the extra stuff a-la-carte and play against someone who has content you don't.

When you actually look at the situation it's better than it ever was, especially with the mass sales that now go one. The issue is that gamers demand to be treated like a special class, especially PC gamers. And they will stomp their footsies like Veruca Salt and pitch giant fits if they don't get it.

 

[sethmatrix7]

The cost of making a game has gone up and the prices haven't adjusted fully yet either.

It's funny to bring up SF because back in the 90s on the SNES there was SF2, SF2CE, SF2HF, SS2, SS2T all were pretty much the same damn game and sold at 80 bucks a pop. Mortal Kombat pulled the same stunt. So the reality of the situation is that the cost of making games has gone up massively, where the cost of purchasing games has not only not increased to make up for it, it's actually lower than it used to be. Not only all this, but instead of having to buy the same damn game five times at the original 80 bucks you can just get the extra stuff a-la-carte and play against someone who has content you don't.

When you actually look at the situation it's better than it ever was, especially with the mass sales that now go one. The issue is that gamers demand to be treated like a special class, especially PC gamers. And they will stomp their footsies like Veruca Salt and pitch giant fits if they don't get it.

There are more developers and artists available to the industry than ever before. There are more refined engines available than ever before. Game distribution and promotion has never been easier. I don't buy it- the cost to produce the games has not gone up dramatically in the last 15 years.

Yes some people may want to receive a completed polished product for their money... and that's certainly rarely the case these days

 

[tajoh111]

i didn't realize sega even had AAA titles still... what are they? yakuza series? eh, wouldn't really call those AAA myself. but w.e

sonic is boring and played out.

I would say Persona 5 was a AAA title even AAAA.

I don't think any game has as much bang for your buck as this game even at full price.

 

[Readlight]

Instant game load time.

 

[ymdhis]

I wouldn't, unless they redesigned the last quarter of the game where it slows to a boring repetitive maze explorer.

I'd opt for some post-game content instead, maybe a new game+ mode. The original game only adds a minor gallery, two minigames, and a joke area.

 

[windwhirl]

The whole industry is moving in the $70 direction after more or less 15 years of $60 for AAA games and they're not gonna stop or roll back, so I'd say get used to it and wait for Steam sales and offers to buy stuff if you're bothered over it.

 

[Naito]

With the quality of AAA titles at launch these days, I'd be surprised if people even still consider games at current prices. I've found myself waiting a year or three for bugs fixes, patches and content to roll out, then purchasing at a steep discount. Very little trust remains for big publishers being able to deliver. A price increase just adds another barrier to purchase

 

[Metroid]

See this is the issue, companies like this want to do what nvidia has been doing, increase price without any reason. The reason AMD has increased prices is because of Nvidia and because AMD followed, others are doing the same. What people can do is boycott them all.

 

[RadeonProVega]

The cost of making a game has gone up and the prices haven't adjusted fully yet either.

It's funny to bring up SF because back in the 90s on the SNES there was SF2, SF2CE, SF2HF, SS2, SS2T all were pretty much the same damn game and sold at 80 bucks a pop. Mortal Kombat pulled the same stunt. So the reality of the situation is that the cost of making games has gone up massively, where the cost of purchasing games has not only not increased to make up for it, it's actually lower than it used to be. Not only all this, but instead of having to buy the same damn game five times at the original 80 bucks you can just get the extra stuff a-la-carte and play against someone who has content you don't.

When you actually look at the situation it's better than it ever was, especially with the mass sales that now go one. The issue is that gamers demand to be treated like a special class, especially PC gamers. And they will stomp their footsies like Veruca Salt and pitch giant fits if they don't get it.

Well if they are going to sell a game for 70 dollars everything should be included, that's my only issue with these games that has been coming out for the past idk 10 years? Why are these people selling Mortal Kombat characters, when they are default characters? lol I remember my dad going to toys are us and buying sega genesis and supernes games, they were only 60 bucks right, but everything was included. I just think its a big scam happening and i never fall for it. The only game i bought for $60 bucks is Sleeping dogs because in my opinion its worth every penny, massive world, all the dlcs are included, character customization, i love that game.