Former PlayStation boss comments on GTA 6 price following Xbox price hike

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The gaming industry is anxiously waiting for the last card in the deck to fall, PlayStation officially raising its prices of its first-party games to a minimum of $80, as it has already happened for Nintendo and Xbox titles.

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Judging on the current moves by Nintendo and Xbox, it appears it's only a matter of time before PlayStation also announces the jump to $80 games, and what game is better than to lead that charge than Grand Theft Auto VI? While GTA 6 is developed by Rockstar and published by Take-Two Interactive, which PlayStation or Xbox does not own, Take-Two is known for setting the new standard for AAA game prices, as it has done this in the past, and at the very least the move to $80 games is indicative of higher-budget titles now costing more to make/buy.

Former PlayStation boss and Sony veteran, Shuhei Yoshida, who spent 38 years at the company recent sat down for an interview with PlayStationInside where he commented on the current state of the gaming industry and why games are becoming more expensive. Yoshida said it was only a matter of time before the prices of games increased as gamers are demanding more ambitious games, therefore raising the cost of development, along with inflation being a significant factor.

Yoshida was asked if the new $80 price point set by Nintendo and Xbox will make it easier for publishers such as Take-Two to increase the price of their games, with the former PlayStation head saying a balance must be found between the raising costs of game development and the prices of games, describing the problem as an "impossible equation."

"I think it was going to happen sooner or later, maybe not from Nintendo, but it was going to happen eventually. We live in contrasting times, where inflation is real and significant, but people expect games that are ever more ambitious and therefore expensive to develop to cost the same. It's an impossible equation.

Everything in video games today is more advanced and more technologically demanding than ever before, and therefore requires more resources. Each publisher or manufacturer sets the price of its games, of course, but in the end the heart of the matter lies in production costs. And that's why industry actors are so keen to diversify their revenues, in order to continue producing the AAA games that the public buys before anything else.

Basically, the proliferation of remasters and remakes doesn't really stem from any kind of nostalgia or a desire to bring games up to date, but is a kind of "easy" solution to bring in profits that ultimately help finance new games. The same goes for PC ports. I'm not particularly bothered by this, because these ports, remakes and remasters are mostly made by support studios like Nixxes Software, so the studios developing the new games are relieved of the burden.

So I don't know if Rockstar will jump at the chance to set the price of GTA 6 at 90 euros or more, to speak with your currency, but the situation is this. And we could even add subscription platforms and games as a service, which, while providing huge revenues in their own right, also help to finance AAA down the line.

In any case, a balance must be found between production costs and game prices. GTA6 will obviously be a case in point, but if you take the example of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the game is just as phenomenal visually, despite the fact that the team only has around thirty people. This is one of the ways forward, I think, because you can make excellent games with tighter teams and budgets without compromising quality," said Yoshida