Another gaming giant is likely to raise the prices of its games
Following the industry trend
Sega , the historic gaming company responsible for the Sonic franchise among others, has hinted that it will follow the recent industry trend and probably raise the prices of games to $ 70 . This thought was revealed during a Q&A session for investors, after the company’s results for the most recent financial year were published.
The CEO of Sega Sammy, Haruki Satomi, and the financial director of the company, Koichi Fukazawa, spoke there. In particular, Sega’s leadership addressed the recent changes in the global market, stating:
In the global market, AAA games for consoles have been sold at the price of $59.99 for many years, but in the last year titles have appeared that are sold at the price of $69.99. We would like to re-price securities that we believe are commensurate with price increases while monitoring market conditions.
The company neither confirmed nor denied anything, but made clear its intention to evaluate the prices of its upcoming titles in line with these industry changes while closely monitoring market conditions.
It’s worth noting that this price hike in games was started by Take-Two’s NBA 2K21, which became the first current-gen game to be priced at $70 in August 2020. Other major publishers, including Sony, Activision, EA and Square Enix, quickly followed suit. Meanwhile, both Microsoft and Nintendo recently released their first premium games, while Ubisoft also announced that the upcoming Skull & Bones will be its first premium title.
Sega’s last major release, Sonic Frontiers, arriving in November 2022, has maintained the traditional price tag for the regular edition across all platforms and has even managed to sell very well, with over 3.2 million copies sold by the end of March of 2023.
