Microsoft just joined Nintendo in announcing that some of its games will sell for $80, and this new rate will seemingly apply to both physical and digital games. The price hike is inspiring a lot of debate and discussion, with some wondering why the price of digital games is going up. Many might be able to understand why a disc-based product might go up in price due to tariffs and other market factors, but why would digital games get more expensive, too?
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad said it's true there is no "direct" tariff impact on digital games, but publishers may choose to raise prices anyway for a variety of reasons. To begin with, raising the price of a digital product could help offset rising costs in other departments, he said. Second, a publisher might raise the price of a digital game to bring it in line with its physical counterpart.
Other factors could be that a game's price is going up to reflect the increased cost to develop a particular game, along with a belief that people will, in general, accept the price increase. Lastly, a publisher might decide to charge more for a digital game "because they can," Ahmad said.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that it would sell Mario Kart World would sell for $80, for both its physical and digital edition. Not every Nintendo game will carry the heftier price tag, though, as Donkey Kong: Bananza is priced at $70.
Microsoft announced on May 1 that it is raising the price of some games to $80 later this year, with price hikes on consoles going into effect immediately, making one version of the Xbox Series X more expensive than the PS5 Pro. Microsoft hasn't published a list of its $80 games yet, but the company did say Game Pass is not getting a price hike, too, at least not yet.
Now, many are wondering if Sony will follow suit with an announcement of increased costs for its consoles and games.
New AAA video games sold for $60 for years before Take-Two was among the first to raise prices to $70 in 2020. The company said there was "no pushback" at the time over the higher price, and $70 later became the standard for Take-Two and others. According to one analyst, there is hope in the video game industry that Take-Two will charge $100 for GTA 6 to help reinvigorate the video game industry. As of yet, however, Take-Two has not announced pricing plans for GTA 6.
For comparison, GTA 5 launched at $60 back in 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $82 in 2025.
Outside market conditions and development costs, Microsoft is staying rather vague about suddenly raising the prices for so many Xbox products. It's possibly related to new Trump administration tariffs in the US, because they led to Switch 2 preorder delays and eventually some price hikes.
Microsoft, for its part, is raising prices as the company overall generates huge amounts of money. For the past three months alone, Microsoft brought in $70 billion in revenue and made a profit of $25.8 billion.
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Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad said it's true there is no "direct" tariff impact on digital games, but publishers may choose to raise prices anyway for a variety of reasons. To begin with, raising the price of a digital product could help offset rising costs in other departments, he said. Second, a publisher might raise the price of a digital game to bring it in line with its physical counterpart.
Other factors could be that a game's price is going up to reflect the increased cost to develop a particular game, along with a belief that people will, in general, accept the price increase. Lastly, a publisher might decide to charge more for a digital game "because they can," Ahmad said.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced that it would sell Mario Kart World would sell for $80, for both its physical and digital edition. Not every Nintendo game will carry the heftier price tag, though, as Donkey Kong: Bananza is priced at $70.
Microsoft announced on May 1 that it is raising the price of some games to $80 later this year, with price hikes on consoles going into effect immediately, making one version of the Xbox Series X more expensive than the PS5 Pro. Microsoft hasn't published a list of its $80 games yet, but the company did say Game Pass is not getting a price hike, too, at least not yet.
Now, many are wondering if Sony will follow suit with an announcement of increased costs for its consoles and games.
New AAA video games sold for $60 for years before Take-Two was among the first to raise prices to $70 in 2020. The company said there was "no pushback" at the time over the higher price, and $70 later became the standard for Take-Two and others. According to one analyst, there is hope in the video game industry that Take-Two will charge $100 for GTA 6 to help reinvigorate the video game industry. As of yet, however, Take-Two has not announced pricing plans for GTA 6.
For comparison, GTA 5 launched at $60 back in 2013. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $82 in 2025.
Outside market conditions and development costs, Microsoft is staying rather vague about suddenly raising the prices for so many Xbox products. It's possibly related to new Trump administration tariffs in the US, because they led to Switch 2 preorder delays and eventually some price hikes.
Microsoft, for its part, is raising prices as the company overall generates huge amounts of money. For the past three months alone, Microsoft brought in $70 billion in revenue and made a profit of $25.8 billion.
Source