Will Prices Change with the Next-Gen Games?

In a world where games are already set to a fairly expensive rate at around $60 on release, gamers all over the world look forward to the new generation of the Xbox and PlayStation consoles. With a new generation comes more expensive technology used to make games, and that means game companies will need more funds to make polished AAA titles. As a result, gamers may think their favorite franchises will become more expensive as the years go by. However, plenty of evidence supports the notion that this is not the case.

The New Generation Console Pricing

The current known specs for the Xbox Scarlett are no joke. It boasts high capacity GDDR6 RAM with Ray Tracing running at a max of 8K resolution at 120 frames per second. Additionally, an SSD will be used to house the games, which will in turn make the games both load faster and run smoother.The next-generation PlayStation is rumored to have some similar hardware along with an 8-core AMD chipset and will have a high-capacity SSD, which will make games load and run substantially faster as well. Recent footage demonstrated that Marvel’s Spider-man was able to load in eight seconds on the PS4 Pro, but loads in 0.8 seconds on the new PS5. Furthermore, the footage shows that the PS5 will be able to render sandbox games similar to Marvel’s Spider-man at a high rate, as Sony had the game’s camera zoom through the city.The consoles are speculated to be around $400-$450 while the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are available for $400. The prices for games in the current generation on release are usually $40-$60 much like Wolfenstein: Younglbood which goes for $30 now and has not ever gone higher than that other than DLC and bonus editions of these games.

The Current Generation

The current generation of games are already graphically impressive. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which came out in November, looks phenomenal at a $60 retail price, and that also goes for the PC versions of the game, which can look even better provided the system specifications can handle it. There has not been an instance where a game has gone over $60 at base retail value as games have gone for lower on release. Even now, some games from last year can run for $20-$40 since they’re not new. Also, unless every developer working on the next-gen console decides that games should go for $70, there should be no need to worry about pricing.

Subscription Services

Not only do some games become cheaper a few weeks after launch, there are other ways to get current-gen games rather than individually buying them. Subscription services have game companies like Microsoft give their customers an opportunity to try a wide variety of games for a normal monthly, quarterly, or yearly price. The Game Pass for Xbox and PC can go for around $10 per month with the Ultimate Pass going for $45 quarterly. Additionally, there are promotional events that will give users the Game Pass Ultimate for $1. The Game Pass by itself includes 100 games to download per month, which includes new releases and many Xbox exclusives. For a price like that, gamers can’t go wrong with any subscription services. Also, if their game isn’t available for a month, they can always find an alternative through renting.PlayStation Plus is  a similar online service, which comes with a select few games per month and includes all of the online features on the PlayStation. The service goes for a price of $60 per year. With companies practically giving their games away with free monthly titles and deals that work well in a subscription service, games don’t look as expensive.

Renting

If trying to buy all of the newest games is a pain to do and subscription services are a no-go for customers who are on a tight budget, then the only thing that’s left for people to do is to go out and rent the titles. While places like Blockbuster may be out of style (or out of business), companies like RedBox are still around for customers to buy movies or games from for $1 per day. If games are truly getting expensive in the future, then that would mean that these renting machines would be way more successful than gaming specialty stores themselves.

Conclusion

The new generation of games should be something for gamers to look forward to as opposed to fearing they will become too expensive for anyone to buy. The consoles themselves will definitely have a lot of power to play these titles at 8K at 120 FPS, and when the time comes, they will prove they do accomplish what they were built for, which is delivering the best gameplay for the newest generation of games. In order to play these titles, developers want people to afford them while trying to push the games to their graphical limit. This doesn’t mean that the discs the games will be put on will be any more expensive than they have been in the current years.It’s unlikely that games will be more expensive in the future, as they are readily available to everybody in different forms. Whether it’s through subscription services or even renting them from an outlet , games won’t be too expensive for people to afford let alone become more than $60.

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