Video game prices have always gone up as time has gone on. It’s unavoidable. But it feels like it’s rising a lot faster now than it was. Nintendo has been saying that the games for the new Nintendo Switch 2 will be 80 USD, which equates to about 110 Canadian loonies. Considering that the industry is halfway between the switch of making the standard go up from 80 dollars to 90, jumping up to 110 is a big gap.
Will it realistically go up that high here in Canada? I don’t think so, I think the 80 dollar price is partially due to the looming threat of tariffs and the Nintendo ecosystem still running largely on physical cartridges. I do think that we will be seeing some sort of price hike around the world relatively soon, though. Due to one large, upcoming video game: Grand Theft Auto VI.
It has been 12 years since the release of GTA V, and fans, myself included, have been eagerly awaiting a release date for the sequel, likely to come out sometime during fall. Rockstar Games, the developers, have reportedly poured over a billion dollars into the development of this game. No, that wasn’t a typo. Billion with a B. Due to this, my guess is that this game will retail at about 120 USD, potentially going up at 150 or 160 CAD. The thing that kind of sucks about it, people will still pay for it.
When you have a franchise this big, you can get away with it. Plus, it’s undoubtedly that this game will push the boundaries of graphics, map size, gameplay, story, and more. I know that when a PC port eventually comes, I’ll pay whatever they want me to to play it.
Would any game series get away with that type of thing? Hell no. A majority of gamers wouldn’t think about paying over 100 USD for, say, a Borderlands 4. (I would, but I’m a huge fan of the series.) This is something that is available only for specific series or developers, as of right now. I think that, in the next few years, developers both large and small will realize that people will be willing to pay more for the video games that they really want to play, with the downside that not as many people will be playing them. But quality over quantity, I guess. Both in players, and the video games themselves.
-Liz
