Many studios have recently moved towards a $70 price tag for their games, despite pushback from fans. Now, as this is increasingly becoming the norm,Capcomseems poised to join them, saying that its current price point is just “too low” compared to the cost of development.
This comes from Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto, speaking at the Tokyo Game Show. His comments also come after Capcom’s recent games -Resident Evil 4 RemakeandStreet Fighter 6- stuck to the $60 price tag. However, a port of Resident Evil 4 Remake on iPhone 15 Pro is being priced at $60, much higher than its usual mobile offerings, suggesting the increase could come into effect sooner rather than later.
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“Development costs are around 100 times higher than they were in the days of the Famicom (NES), but the price of software hasn’t risen so much," says Tsujimoto, as reported by Japanese siteNikkei(spotted byVGC). “Personally, I feel that game prices are too low.”
Rising development costs aren’t the only reason Tsujimoto cites for the need to increase the price of games. He also argues that wages must increase in the industry, arguing that this would be “healthy” for the business and help retain staff.
Capcom would hardly be the largest studio to go all in on this new, increased price tag. Nintendo has dipped its toe in too, withthe most notable example being The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. However, it reassured playersthis would not be the new norm. It certainly is the norm with Xbox and PlayStation though, as they’ve embraced the new price point - even ifdata from Sony suggests it’s leading to fewer game purchases.
A higher bar for entry can also lead to even more criticism when a game fails to perform as expected on launch. Most recently,we saw this with the Nintendo Switch port of Mortal Kombat 1, which, like its counterparts on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5, set fans back $70. This is despite the Switch version being downgraded significantly to work on the platform, although the team has promised fixes in the wake of the backlash.
We’ll have to wait and see which Capcom game is the first to launch at $70. If the high cost of the Resident Evil 4 Remake iPhone port is anything to go by, it’s safe to assume that the higher price will come in soon. At the very least, its most recent titles are still available for $60 on storefronts, so hopefully, we won’t see those increase.
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