Analyst on $80 video games: 'The biggest can pull it off, others will struggle'

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Nintendo first introduced the new $80 baseline standard for AAA video games, and Microsoft followed with its own price hike. But is this sustainable, and which companies can pull it off? One analyst weighs in.

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Back in 2020, the 9th console generation kicked off with a price jump. Games had been $60 for decades, but in 2020, a consortium of major publishers and platform-holders started charging $70 for games. Now less than five years later, game prices are increasing yet again from $70 to $80, with "economic conditions" (i.e. a volatile combination of inflation and tariffs) being the justification.

There's some skepticism that gamers will bite on $80 games, but Circana analyst Mat Piscatella notes that consumers are already paying more than $80 for the deluxe editions of games--some of which cost up to $100 and offer 3-4 days early access. Other companies and publishers may not be able to sell their games at $80, Piscatella says, likely due to demand and high competition from other high-profile $80 games.

"A handful of the biggest releases have already sold for higher than an average $80 price at launch thanks to gold, collector's, deluxe etc editions. The biggest of the biggest can pull it off, others will struggle to maintain. FOMO, at the right scale, can do a number on one's price sensitivity," Piscatella said on Bluesky.

In this regard of the delicate balance between per-sale revenues and sales volume, Capcom comes to mind--although Capcom sells its games at $70 at launch, its titles are frequently discounted and on sale because Capcom has put high importance on game sales volume.

Also, we have strong evidence that supports Piscatella's affirmations that consumers are still buying certain games at higher prices.

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Our findings show that first-party Xbox games had dominated the PlayStation Store's global pre-order charts throughout the tail-end of March 2025, and that list of titles included multiple versions of the same game. Forza Horizon 5, for example, had three separate versions ranging from $59.99, $79.99, and $99.99. Indiana Jones was also on the list thanks do its then-impending April release, and it had two versions, $69.99 and $99.99 SKUs.

Forza Horizon 5's sales may have been a case of delayed FOMO because the franchise had never been released on PlayStation before now.

Back in 2023, we surveyed thousands of video game players to find that the majority of users thought $70 was too expensive for a new game. However, 23% of users, or over 5,000 people, said that they'd be willing to pay more if they thought the price was justified.