Electronic Arts has said that it’s unsure if it’ll raise prices of its next-gen games or not, but did say that games now offer deeper experiences, which may warrant higher price tags.
In a recent earnings call, COO/CFO Blake Jorgensen said that EA is currently focused on the new consoles and their games, and isn’t currently in a position to comment on pricing.
I don’t really want to weigh in on that yet. We’ve always said that games are getting more expensive. The experience is getting deeper. The time that people are playing games is getting longer. One might argue that that might require a higher price point over time. But we’ll address that as we get closer to more games coming into the next-gen console transition.
And what I default back to is let’s stay focused on the excitement of what we can do with the new games and price will follow that. We’ll figure that out. And I don’t want people to read into that. We’re going to raise prices or not. We don’t know yet. What we do know is we’re going to be able to do a lot more things with the new consoles, and our partnerships with Sony and Microsoft and others that are making the consoles.
A few publishers including Sony Interactive Entertainment and Take-Two have already begun charging $70 for next-gen games, arguing that the updated prices reflect increased development costs and richer gaming experiences. Analysts have said that the rest of the industry will eventually follow suit.
[Source: Seeking Alpha]