The prevalent financial conditions have started affecting even the once affluent gaming industry. According to MCV UK, Chris Deering is of the opinion that today’s triple-A video games should to be priced at GBP 70. Apparently, his estimation came 2 weeks after Activision increased the suggested retail price of Modern Warfare 2.
Former Sony Europe president and board member of Codemasters and IGA, Chris Deering explained, “Before there can be as many successful blockbuster games as there were in the past, games have to be produced in a more efficient fashion. In order to price these games at a level where they would support an industry [as strongly as] they did ten years ago, they’d have to be sold at GBP 70. But people just don’t have that kind of money, there’s a psychological glass ceiling. Consumers won’t spend more, but to write the game, publishers are having to spend more than ever before. That’s the key problem.”
He added, “The cost of development is ten times what it was for PS2, and more like 20 to 50 times more than on PSOne. Yet there are lots of things you can get for less than the relative value of paying 50p an hour for a very high end game.”
Under normal circumstances, a consumer would expect the price of software to gradually come down, so this is comes as quite a surprising jolt to videogame fans all over the world. It is also rumoured that Valve is planning to come out with ‘community-funded games’ in order to combat ever increasing development costs.