Take-Two has been known for rising their prices of games, after being one of the first to announce a hike of $70 on some of their games. It seems this is a trend their set to continue as they’ve claimed that gamers are “ready for it”.
Speaking during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (and transcribed by Video Games Chronicle), company boss Strauss Zelnick spoke about the price increase, and how consumers feel about it.
“We announced a $70 price point for NBA 2K21, our view was that we’re offering an array of extraordinary experiences, lots of replayability, and the last time there was a frontline price increase in the US was 2005, 2006, so we think consumers were ready for it.”
Despite these comments, Take-Two’s pricing scheme is not set in stone. Zelnick stated that the company judges titles on a “title-by-title basis”, but believes they always deliver more than what they charge.
“We haven’t said anything about pricing other titles so far, and we tend to make announcements on a title-by-title basis, but I think our view is [that we want to] always deliver more value than what we charge, make sure the consumer has the experience and[…] the experience of paying for it, both are positive experiences.”
So far, these comments reign true, with the company charging $70 for games such as NBA 2K21, but also offering cheaper experiences with Mafia: Definitive Edition. But if games going forward are going to invoke the same price point as the former, they’re going to need to stick to their promise of quality of content.
Do you agree with Zelnick’s comments? Let us know in the comments below.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 21
I'm sure you do believe that, I won't be paying that much for a game...bar extreme circumstances
And definitely not for a yearly sports game
Street fighter 2 on the SNES was £60 back in the day the 90s.
Being honest if the game is super quality AAAA best in class for its generation then I would pay it £70. But that would be a rare extreme incident.
Anyway I have GPU so all Microsoft titles I’m good to go.
That's over $100 CAD with taxes....piss off. The record breaking profits you're posting show us that there is no need for this as the microtransactions more than offset any rising development costs.
@Dezzy70 Pretty sure SF2 was more than this on the snes! I remember it being £100 but that was possibly with a 'converter' to play Japanese import versions. I do recall paying £60 for Super Mario All Stars on the snes when that came out. Had to join pocket money with my sister so we could afford it!
£70 is too much in my eyes, but not a big problem as all games come down in price, and usually by a lot and very quickly.
The only game I can recall buying day 1 in last several years was Last Of Us 2 but only because I wanted to play before the spoilers and that was still £45 under a year ago.
Thanks to GPU and PS+ I won't be needing to worry about these crazy prices anyway.
I believe Xbox has the upper hand when it comes to pricing, as a lot of PS5 games are £70 or close, whereas Xbox titles are mostly still under £50. This has put me off getting a PS5. I will still get one eventually, but am certainly not in a rush. I would only pay £70 for a game if it’s a triple A title, with at least 50 hours of gameplay.
I think some games justify $70 but certainly not 2K, or really any game with microtransactions built in.
Look at sonys $70 exclusives the price goes down to $40 in 3 weeks or less. I know when i finally do go current gen i'll be buying less games day one and wait for sales
I wouldn't pay it but as long as there are those that will you are likely to see these sorts of prices. 2K have a history of heavily discounting games and from their perspective I can see why they would want that steep drop off to start at a higher price point.
Make it $80! I don't care. I don't buy new games at launch as these days 3-4 months in most of them are already discounted. I got NBA 2K21 Next Gen only because essentially MSI funded that game for me (I got a $50 voucher for MS store with the monitor I had bought). Otherwise I'd never have paid that much.
That developer should get fired..
I won't personally buy a game for £70/$70.
I've been waiting for reductions for my PS5 exclusives.
Same for any other game that tries to charge such stupid prices.
At a push, I'd happily pay £55 for a brand new release that is of high quality and well reviewed.
Much like Sony first party games I won’t be buying them new. £70 is too much, there’s plenty of people out there willing to pay it though, I won’t be one of them. Sales are the way forward.
NBA 2k can be had for £5 less than a year later year on year. Only diehard bball heads will pay that. I love basketball but the starting price and how quickly it falls. I’ll edit the rosters or download the roster update. $70 a year - no ta
How about let me upgrade the Game Pass game for $10 then?!?
Kinda funny how they say this when the only time I was willing to buy their game is when it went on sale for $20.
I would be more receptive to them justifying the $70 price tag if the game wasn't just flooded with terrible microtransaction practices through their VC. Get rid of all that crap and we can talk.
Since XBox and PS games always go down drastically in price within a year, yeah, no, not paying 70. I only pay full price for Nintendo games (because they annoyingly never go down in price so why wait) or for games I need to have day one, like the upcoming Mass Effect remaster
It's EXTREMELY rare for me to buy at full retail anyway ( last time was for Sekiro), but I'm curious to see how this goes over. I'm old enough to remember people being angry when games went to 60 bucks, but eventually everyone adjusted.
I could see paying $70 for a game, I’ve paid more for games + expansion packs, but I am not buying a slightly better looking game for $70 when I get the last gen version free on gamepass. Stupid. Also, I think Gamepass is the future, not more expensive games. Who buys movies or music individually anymore? Games are next.
Why is this even a post or news? Take-Two is trying to sell that BS to developers to join them. Also trying to sell it to the public to pay more for a game than they're use to. That's something you can't sell me on.
Pretty sure i have rarely spent 60$ on a game nvm 70$. Ill just either keep waiting on sales or used….and NBA2k21 on series x one little tip dont delete your save as the backup will be corrupt i lost a 93 rated player and a 88 rated player when i was moving game around to make room for a new series x game..
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