Embracer Boss Mulls Increasing the Price of Video Games Beyond $70

[John Elden Ring]

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"It's something we have been discussing…"​

Lars Wingefors, who has laid off thousands of staff, shut multiple studios, and sold off subsidiaries in the last financial year, told GI.biz that pushing the price of video games higher is something Embracer has discussed, and that doing so would mean more video games would be released.

"I'm not saying you can't increase the price," Wingefors told the site. "But the reality is no one has tried it. If you create an enormous role-playing game, for example, with 100 or 150 hours of gameplay, very polished, and a unique experience, would the consumer be willing to pay more? If they would, they would have more products potentially coming to market. But no one tried it.

 

[Hezekiah]

Can see games going to $80 next gen, but not before then.

The one exception would be GTA6. Nothing really stopping Rockstar doing that, it would still fly off shelves.

 

[Nhomnhom]

Just make good games. I would pay $80 for much better games but I doubt that would be the case.

If you make shit games increasing the price will only make them flop harder.

 

[xollowsob]

Motherfucker, your games aren't worth pirating, let alone spending money on, and now you think people will pay more than $70?!?

 

[Kokoloko]

Lol no. These CEO’s/ boards and bosses need to be banned from gaming profits. You get paid your annual salary, the rest you aint touching.

 

[shrike0fth0rns]

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"It's something we have been discussing…"​

Lars Wingefors, who has laid off thousands of staff, shut multiple studios, and sold off subsidiaries in the last financial year, told GI.biz that pushing the price of video games higher is something Embracer has discussed, and that doing so would mean more video games would be released.

No one wants to buy those trash embrace games and current prices. Who the F he thinks is going to buy embraced games if they increase them even more.

 

[Entropi]

He sounds like a car salesman.

 

[quest4441]

I can see paying 80$, heck games like rebirth deserve 100$ for the standard edition but Embracer group games ain't it. Xbox, Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard were the holy trinity of me not bothering even if their games were free.

 

[Yurinka]

I understand what he means, but unless it's via DLC or for special editions people won't pay over $70 for a game unless it's one of the key supersellers.

In fact, a lot of people don't buy the games at $70 and wait for discounts or price cuts.

They should do something to address costs, either to reduce the work needed via stuff like AI (this will take some years), to stop making the games longer and longer and to go back to shorter experiences of around 20 hours, etc.

But I understand whey they don't make shorter games because the players value game length when deciding where to spend their time or money, so games tend to be longer.

 

[Zzero]

Microsoft have closed double the amount of studios Embracer has since announcing that they were in trouble. Willing to bet that T2 gets there too in the end. People need to start doing the math on Embracer job losses versus other companies.

Anyways, its not like he's wrong. Inflation is a one way street, games will cost more in the future and if we insist on keeping the jumps at ten dollar intervals then they are only going to start coming more frequently.

 

[TigerFang]

I think games like God of War: Ragnarök, GTA VI, Spider-Man 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Demon Souls remake, FF VII rebirth/XVI, they could raise it to a 100$ USD.

I love those games to the core, the moment you join, you witness the greatness of it, just them walking & talking you can feel the Quality.

& I want more & more of these types of games, especially since they are having trouble on ROI.

But if general, I believe there should not be one single price at launch for most AAA games, there needs to be a variety of prices depending on the quality.

 

[Vertigo]

Tbh day one OoT and Shadows of the Empire for N64 cost 95 bucks at mom and pop sellers at launch.

I can definitely see AAA going to $100. We’re already there with deluxe edition tactics. Pubs already know players shell out for those day one.

 

[Batzy]

If he can make games worth more go for it.

 

[Polyh3dron]

embracer group is bad at business

fuck them

 

[Etifilio]

$80 by next gen will be a standard, GTA 6 will set this as a norm

 

[BroodCorp]

I’d better not see another Cyberpunk type of launch then.

 

[Etifilio]

I’d better not see another Cyberpunk type of launch then.

if they want $80 to be a standard, they better always give us top of the top GOTY contenders

 

[Polyh3dron]

let's be real, this is embracer, and it's a fucking ceo scumbag talking

he wants to release some shallow half baked broken shitty game with tons of MTX bullshit in it for $100.