We’ve been paying around $60 for the latest games since the PS3 era, but when the next hardware generation comes around, that price could increase. The reason for this? Well, the PS5 is set to pack some impressive hardware, including a custom CPU and GPU, and that will reportedly drive up development costs.
The revelation came from PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan in a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz. The executive noted that the PS5’s more powerful tech will make game development more “capital intensive,” but he was quick to assure customers that there’s unlikely to be a “massive increase” in prices.
“I think, to the extent that the technology enables the graphics side of it to become more interesting and life-like, [the games] will become slightly more human intensive and capital intensive to produce. So yes, we think there probably will be an increase in development budgets. We don’t see it as being a massive increase, and that’s why we want to do more faster than we have ever done before, to provide a fertile install base for people who make games to be able to monetise against. If we can keep pace with a likely increase in development costs, then the industry can continue to prosper.”
Although Ryan is adamant that PS5 games won’t be dramatically more expensive than those on the PS4, it seems we can expect the average price of new titles to rise for the first time in two generations. This will likely mean shelling out around $70 for physical copies of the latest games, and obviously more than that for special edition releases.
While nobody likes the idea of paying more for their games, developers will have to do something to curb the higher cost of production during the next console generation. During the current era, they’ve recouped costs through the release of things like battle passes, premium DLC and microtransactions. Given that the PS5 is said to be around 100 times faster than the PS4, it makes sense that studios will have to find new ways to retain their profit margins going forward.
Sony was expected to offer a first look at the PS5 and some of its upcoming games at a launch event this week, but the showcase was canceled in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, with Sony stating that “right now is not a time for celebration.” A new date for the big reveal is yet to be announced, but we’ll let you know as soon as that changes.