What has been a reality for the exclusive titles on the PlayStation 5 for over a year is now also emerging more and more on the PC: Rising RRPs for newly released games. On Sony’s console, titles like Ratched & Clank: Rift Apart or Demon’s Souls A proud 79.99 dollars was called for the launch.
Many PC fans now fear this scenario. Because both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the Forspoken, which will be released in 2022, sparked a debate as to whether daddling on the home computer will soon require an even deeper grip on the wallet.
more on the subject
Forspoken triggers the price debate about PC games again
But is this concern justified? To find out, we asked those who need to know: the publishers. We wrote to a total of 17 game publishers and asked what their plans for price developments look like in 2022 and beyond. Here you can find out who has spoken at all and what the answers were.
We asked these questions:
- Which RRPs will you call up in the full-price, mid-price and budget segments in 2022?
- What is the background to this pricing?
- A general assessment: How will the prices for PC games develop in the next few years?
This is how the feedback from the publishers was
Of course, the subject of pricing is also a sensitive one from the publisher’s point of view. Because if you go overboard, you quickly lose it with the players, and a damaged image is not exactly conducive to sales.
Such plans are accordingly carefully designed and gradually implemented, which is why you shouldn’t be surprised that many of the companies asked did not want to comment spontaneously on our request.
Current status: December 23, 2021
Should we receive further feedback, we will update this article accordingly.
These publishers responded but didn’t want to comment:
- Bethesda
- Blizzard
- Capcom
- CD Projekt Red
- Sega
- SHE
- Square Enix
- Ubisoft
- Bandai Namco
- Toplitz
As of this writing, these publishers have not yet responded:
- Microsoft
- 2K
- Koch Media
- Warner Bros.
How badly do price increases really hit PC gamers? Our editor-in-chief Heiko Klinge has also dealt with this topic – and he (partially) gives the all-clear:
column
More expensive games: why you don’t care about the price increase
These publishers responded
THQ Nordic
Which RRPs will you call up in the full-price, mid-price and budget segments in 2022?
THQ Nordic: We cover a wide range of prices with our games. This Is the President was released at the beginning of December, and at $ 14.99 it is more in the lower price segment. Our new cRPG will follow on January 20, 2022 Expeditions: Rome, which is in the mid-price segment and will be available for $ 44.99. Another mid-price, but a little cheaper, was We Are Football in June 2021, where we set the RRP at $ 34.99.
Full-price PC games cost $ 59.99 with us, a current example here would be Biomutant from May 2021. Collector’s editions stand out from the list with various additional content, such as a collector’s figure. These usually range around $ 149.99, depending on the size.
What is the background to this pricing?
THQ Nordic: When it comes to pricing, we pay particular attention to the scope of the game – i.e. the expected game time, replayability, selection of playable factions, multiplayer modes, size of the game world and so on. We also don’t lower our prices as quickly and radically as you sometimes see – also for fairness towards the Day 1 buyers. How should someone who paid $ 50 on March 1st understand that the same game is on sale for $ 25 on April 1st? The second factor in pricing is segment correspondence – so let’s look at what popular games a genre has, what they cost, and what they offer compared to our product.
A general assessment: How will the prices for PC games develop in the next few years?
THQ Nordic: Prices will go up slightly.
Astragon
Unfortunately, we do not have a detailed statement on the three questions at the moment. But what we can say: We are not planning any change in pricing. We publish our games primarily in the mid-price segment and thus appeal to a broad target group.
Kalypso
Kalypso also replied to us, referring to their press release from June 2021. There it was already announced that Kalypso would not increase the EIA of its in-house games, but actually lower it.
In detail they said at the time:
Most of our fans buy or stream games primarily digitally, so sales of physical products will very likely continue to decline and save us costs in the areas of production, logistics and distribution.
We would like to reward the loyalty of the community by partially passing on the higher margins as part of permanent price reductions. The starting price of a full-price product in the standard edition will not be higher than 39.99 dollars for PC and 49.99 dollars for console on the first day of sale. In the course of this, we are also reducing the prices of current top sellers such as Tropico 6, Port Royale 4 or Spacebase Startopia.
Press release Kalypso from June 11, 2021
Calypso was also featured in our podcast. Because company owner Simon Hellwig personally paid us a visit and talked to us about the successes, but also the concerns of the publisher, who is best known for his strategy and development games.
Link to Podcast content
How do you feel about the game prices on the PC? Do you fear further increases in prices or do you lean back and relax because you will continue to rely on price reductions on Steam, Epic, GOG and Co. in the future? Write us your opinion in the comments!
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