One gaming analyst reckons $80 games aren’t too much of a shocker because gamers have typically been paying more than the base $60 or $70 price tag for a while.
Nintendo made headlines with the Switch 2 reveal, partly because of the console itself but also because of its decision to launch Mario Kart World at $80, well above the $70 standard that most publishers had transitioned to during this console generation.
It didn’t take long for other companies to follow, either. Xbox just announced that at least “some” of its first-party games will also adopt the new $80 norm, which will potentially affect this year’s Call of Duty, next year’s Fable, or any number of upcoming releases from Xbox Game Studios.
Circana’s games executive director, Mat Piscatella, isn’t hugely surprised.
“The big games have not been 60 or 70 bucks for some time at launch,” he said in an interview with GamesRadar+. “With all of the Collector’s Editions and Gold Editions and Silver Editions and all these other things, the average price people are paying for a new video game on average is much higher than that base price, and has been for years, and keeps inching up. So I’m not as kerfuffled about the $80 price point as a lot of other people are, because, realistically, people have already been kind of spending that, whether they want to admit it to themselves or not.”
Publishers sure can charge whatever they like, but will people accept the change? Piscatella reckons the “the same kind of pushback” has always come for these types of price hikes, though it doesn’t usually work.
“Ultimately, if someone thinks a game is really cool, they want to play it, they’re going to buy it at whatever price they need to buy it at,” he explained. “That’s just kind of the nature of the price-insensitive video game fan that wants to play the game they want to play.”
And if these $80 games sell well, then there’s nothing stopping other publishers from adopting the same pricing: “Is $80 for that game gonna fly in the holiday window? And if it does, then we’ll see people follow. And if it doesn’t, maybe they don’t.”
“It’s up to that video game buyer whether or not they want to make that purchase, and generally, if a game’s good enough, they will, and if a game is not good enough, or they’re not excited enough about it, they won’t,” he continued. “And prices come down really fast. It’s just the nature of the price sensitivity and the enthusiasm of the audience. So we’ll have to see. I think [Mario Kart World] will be fine at launch. We’ll see what it does in holiday.”
Commenting on the broader shape of today’s industry, Piscatella points out that there’s a much greater range of price points at different levels of the industry, from premium $80 games to topical hits like the $50 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and down to many free-to-play games.
“Back in the physical-only days you had 50 bucks. That was it. That was the only game you got,” he says. “Now, games of all sizes, all kinds, are priced in all kinds of different ways, and more free-to-play than ever. I know everyone’s kind of focused on that top level, and sure, I get it, but in terms of the available options, there’s so many all over the board, and it’s more diverse than it’s ever been. Publishers are much smarter about discounting and pacing, pulsing of the promotional pricing and how to keep that demand going. So, yeah, it’s nothing new. This is nothing new that we haven’t been through as an industry, over and over again for years and years and years.
A day after our interview, Piscatella reacted to the fresh Xbox price bumps on social media: “This is going to eventually happen across all gaming products which are subject to ‘market conditions’ (ie tariffs). Was expected to happen. Is now happening. Will be happening more.”
Check out the new games of 2025 and beyond to see what might be affected.
