Take-Two Blames $70 Price Point of Next-Gen Games on Sky-High Production Costs

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Image: Take-Two

As many of you know, major game publishers are scheming to pinch our wallets even harder in the coming generation by increasing the standard pricing of games from $59.99 to $69.99. Needless to say, nobody is a fan of this idea. While most of us have already made up our minds as to why this is happening (simple greed), Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has attempted to rationalize rising prices again in a new interview with Protocol. If Zelnick is to be believed, everything has to do with production costs, which have supposedly risen to ridiculous levels.

Protocol asked Zelnick why Take-Two was pricing the next-gen versions of NBA 2K21 with a $10 premium, and he defended the decision by claiming that production costs have not only doubled, but tripled over the past decade or so. “The bottom line is that we haven’t seen a front-line price increase for nearly 15 years, and production costs have gone up 200 to 300%,” the CEO said. “But more to the point since no one really cares what your production costs are, what consumers are able to do with the product has completely changed.”

“We deliver a much, much bigger game for $60 or $70 than we delivered for $60 10 years ago,” Zelnick added. “The opportunity to spend money online is completely optional, and it’s not a free-to-play title. It’s a complete, incredibly robust experience even if you never spend another penny after your initial purchase.”

Funny enough, Zelnick followed those statements by claiming that his goal isn’t to maximize revenues. “I know it sounds unlikely,” he admitted. We’re going to be nice and give Take-Two the benefit of the doubt, but it remains to be seen whether next-gen titles will actually be remarkable enough to justify an additional premium.

Tsing Mui
News poster at The FPS Review.

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