The mention of GTA 6, out in 2025, reminds me of Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick’s comments from an earnings call last year that industry prices are “very, very low” versus the number of hours of playtime games offer and player perception of their value.
I’d generally agree with that, but perhaps with an asterisk on player perception of their value. I’d much rather have a 20 hour Ubisoft open world game than an 80 hour one filled with mandatory padding, but there is definitely a contingent of their customers that want there to be that padding, because they equate hours with value. The length of games has gone up a lot in the past 20 years (often to their detriment, I’d argue), and the price has moved but only barely. The games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring that are 100 hours long without feeling like they’re padded with busy work and checklists in order to finish them? Those games feel like I made off like a bandit at $60. Then you’ve got Hi-Fi Rush, a quality game I’d have happily paid $60 for, that you can finish in 10-15 hours, and Microsoft only charged $30 for it next to a flop like Redfall or another one of those padded games like Starfield for $70 each.
Also worth noting that lots of people like to throw out how much bigger the gaming audience is compared to back in the day as the reason why prices shouldn’t increase, but while that’s true, most of the oxygen in the room is still sucked up by only a handful of winners, and those are the games like Star Wars Outlaws selling you an ultimate edition for $150 with a season pass, because they know you’ll pay it.
The average AAA game should probably find ways to develop the game leaner and faster while still finding that value for people. I think that’s the nut Judas spent 10 years trying to crack, so we’ll see how they did next year.
I’d generally agree with that, but perhaps with an asterisk on player perception of their value. I’d much rather have a 20 hour Ubisoft open world game than an 80 hour one filled with mandatory padding, but there is definitely a contingent of their customers that want there to be that padding, because they equate hours with value. The length of games has gone up a lot in the past 20 years (often to their detriment, I’d argue), and the price has moved but only barely. The games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Elden Ring that are 100 hours long without feeling like they’re padded with busy work and checklists in order to finish them? Those games feel like I made off like a bandit at $60. Then you’ve got Hi-Fi Rush, a quality game I’d have happily paid $60 for, that you can finish in 10-15 hours, and Microsoft only charged $30 for it next to a flop like Redfall or another one of those padded games like Starfield for $70 each.
Also worth noting that lots of people like to throw out how much bigger the gaming audience is compared to back in the day as the reason why prices shouldn’t increase, but while that’s true, most of the oxygen in the room is still sucked up by only a handful of winners, and those are the games like Star Wars Outlaws selling you an ultimate edition for $150 with a season pass, because they know you’ll pay it.
The average AAA game should probably find ways to develop the game leaner and faster while still finding that value for people. I think that’s the nut Judas spent 10 years trying to crack, so we’ll see how they did next year.