Multiple major publishers have taken their first steps toward raising the standard prices for games on next-gen consoles, including the likes of Gearbox, Take-Two Interactive, Activision, and Sony, all of whom are charging $70 for their PS5 and/or Xbox Series X/S releases.
There are, of course, still several major publishers in the industry who haven’t yet done so. One of them is EA- so do they plan on raising prices for their games on next-gen consoles as well? According to EA’s COO and CFO Blake Jorgensen, that’s something the company remains undecided on.
Speaking in the company’s recent quarterly investors call, Jorgensen said that next-gen pricing is something EA will make a decision on in the future.
“I don’t really want to weigh in on that yet,” Jorgensen said when asked to comment on the topic (transcribed by VGC). “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.”
“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,” he continued. “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.”
Other publishers have had similarly cagey responses to the matter as well. Capcom remains undecided too, while Ubisoft has said that all 2020 releases are going to be priced at $60, but has refused to comment on any games releasing beyond that. Industry analyst Michael Pachter believes that not all publishers are going to adopt the $70 standard pricing model.
EA have confirmed that Battlefield 6 and Criterion’s next Need for Speed title are both going to launch in fiscal year 2022, with the former set for a Holiday 2021 launch. Read more on that through here.