To add to this confusion, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed in an earnings call (opens in new tab) that the company is “definitely announcing pricing on a title by title basis.” Zelnick adds, “there hasn’t been a frontline price increase for a very long time, although costs have increased significantly.”
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This comes after NBA 2K21’s pre-order page opened up last month, and many were shocked to see that next-generation versions of the game cost $70 instead of the industry standard of $60. Zelnick also added that he believes Take-Two is “delivering the highest quality titles in the business.” This is another great point of controversy considering NBA 2K20 received a 1.2 user score on Metacritic (although the site isn’t always an accurate gauge (see The Last of Us Part II)). Many gamers are sympathetic to why the industry might need to bump up its pricing as this next-generation rolls in. However, not everyone is happy with 2K21 being the first game to make this decision considering its notorious microtransactions. The ruckus revolving around this potential increase has resulted in quite a controversial debate, with some claiming that a price increase is long overdue considering the exponentially growing cost to make video games. Games have been priced at $60 since around 2006 and perhaps it’s time for that to change. On the other hand, many were already having trouble engaging with the $60 price tag and an increase will only make things harder. $60 is quite expensive for one piece of ephemeral entertainment, regardless of how necessary this cost is to keep the art form alive and kicking. Other figures spoke up about this situation recently, with Xbox head Phil Spencer claiming that “the customer is in control of the price that they pay, and I trust that system.” Additionally, Ubisoft made it clear in an earnings call that their next-generation games this fall would remain $60.
