Considering the sheer amount of business models put on top of other business models on modern games, they would have some nerve if they decide to increase the base price.

The average game is free and not just some crappy smartphone game but the biggest game(s) in the industry.

I think it's not much of a problem these days when subscriptions like PS Plus and Game Pass offer you several games for a shorter price, and also that game prices tend to drop shortly after releases, with exceptions like Nintendo, of course. What I mean to say is that, at least, the impact of the price increases is not as accentuated as it used in the past.

I agree that they shouldn`t, and yes even though the costs rose the sales and profits also rose so there wouldn`t be a need for it. But considering inflation i can understand why it did.
Still that will only mean it will take longer for me to buy those games (waiting for prices to reach 10-15 as I did before) with even lower number of games deserving paying the full price.

I guess the milk from the new revenue channels isn't enough anymore. We've been getting more and more micro transactions and DLC for 2 generations now, which allowed to keep the game prices the same. Also the increase in digital sales and decline in second hand sales must have added more revenue. However that growth has slowed down, second hand market is pretty much done, while people have gotten used to digital game sharing and waiting for sales.

There is also more choice than ever, or more competition than ever since digital distribution is so much easier, while on the other side the user base isn't really growing anymore. People still expect bigger and better yet that can only go on as long as the user base grows along at the same pace.

Then there is inflation, salaries, although low, still go up. Hardware costs to make games goes up. Office building costs go up. Distribution costs go up, server maintenance costs go up. 'pesky consumer rights' aka returns go up. The same team, in the same building, working for the same amount of time, still costs more nowadays.

However, judging by the reactions in this thread, it could become a downward spiral. More people waiting for sales or switching to game pass, less people paying full price, less revenue, prices go up further.

$60 has been the standard for modern spec home consoles since 2005. $50 was typical from NES onward. N64 games were a notable fluke in home consoles, with most first-party games at $59.99. And Ocarina of Time was more than that. Most Atari 2600 games I believe were $39.99.
I agree they don't need to go up to $70 yet. That could've waited until the tenth generation. But it's really not too big of a deal, ultimately. Games are getting more and more expensive to develop.

Inflation might have been a good argument to make for a while except now. Purchasing power is going down, increasing prices now would be pretty stupid.

Back in the 80s, I'd save for weeks to buy a $50 game that I'd beat in a day. Games often took a few months to develop.

During the N64 days, and even during the 16-bit era, games often cost $80+. It was amazing to me when PS1 games cost $40 on day one and even as low as $9. Everything has gone up since then. I'd buy a comic book for 75 cents (whatever happened to the "cents symbol", anyway?" and now they cost like $5 each.

I can see games going up in price. For what we're getting now compared to what we were happy with back then, it's a HUGE value.

Take 200 devs, pay them 50k a year. You end up spending $10M I wages for that one year. Say it takes that team 3 years to make a game, so that game costs you $30M in wages. Increase that team to 300 people, throw in lots of crunch (probably) unpaid overtime, it would still cost you $30M to make that game, but you will finish it in 2 years instead of three.

You can do it slow or fast. But you can not do either cheap.

I think that while the increase of game prices was inevitable, it’s sorta done in bad timing. Mainly due to the economic situation the world is in and the fact that we have subscriptions to consider whether it be Gamepass, PS+, etc. and the dlc and microtransactions that costumers have been dealing with. It’s no longer about just having the box and games to play.

It doesn’t create a feeling that higher budgets, more complex game developments = better quality games. It’s just makes buying games a little more inconvenient, especially for the casual consumer. We’ve already established a mentality that $10 more is too much to the casual consumer. Unless it’s the hot game their kids are desperate to buy, parents may be more reluctant to buy more games for them. I don’t have any statistics to go off of, but I just have this feeling that $69.99 may sway consumers a little differently than $59.99.