Take-Two CEO on Rising Game Prices: 'I Don't See Any Objection From Players'
Prices for video games, especially AAA titles, have skyrocketed in recent years. Interestingly, Take-Two Corporation CEO Strauss Zelnick says he doesn't see any objection from customers on this issue.
In 2020, Take-Two was one of the first companies to decide to raise the price of its games from the previous $60 to $70. At the time, the situation was commented on by potential consumers, obviously in a very negative way. After two years, the corporation's CEO assessed the impact of the increase on actual sales.
This happened during a recent conversation with investors, where Strauss Zelnick (via VGC) was asked if the community had difficulty accepting the $70 price tag for a video game. Take-Two's CEO stated offhandedly that all this time Take-Two "does not see any objection from players to such price.". However, he also added that we are seeing more consideration from buyers related to what they spend their money on.
"We're seeing that consumers are trying to limit their spending by choosing things they really care about, hits, or they're looking at the actual value of the products, and sometimes it can be both...," Zelnick continued.
While the CEO's words about the lack of opposition may sound a bit controversial from the point of view of gamers, there is a lot of truth in the statement that fans are able to make many sacrifices in order to purchase a title that interests them - regardless of the price.
Nevertheless, developers who are aware of this should release games worth the price. Unfortunately, in recent months we have witnessed at least a few major game launches whose technical condition was far from ideal.
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- We know the price and roadmap of highly anticipated life sim inZOI. Players can't hide their delight: „I'm so happy I stopped playing Sims”
- Assassins's Creed: Shadows with one of the highest activity records in the series' history. Ubisoft's new game has one million players