Gamers ready for $ 70 for blockbuster AAA?

This is what the CEO of Take-Two believes in.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick feels gamers are ready to hit the $70 price point if the quality of the titles is worth it.

Take-Two Interactive announced last July that the next game in the NBA 2K basketball series – NBA 2K21 – would be sold for $70. This was remarkable at the time because Take-Two was the first company to announce a price increase for next-gen console games from a capped price of $60.

Since then, Take-Two has stated that it has no regrets about raising the price of NBA 2K21, and the game’s financial success has underpinned this decision going forward. Now, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick believes gamers are ready to welcome $70 games as a standard.

Although the $70 price tag is $10 more than the standard edition games, there have always been options for gamers to spend more than that. Games often come in special, deluxe or collector editions that can range from $80 or more. Even the Resident Evil 8 Complete Set Collector’s Edition is worth $1,800.

It should be noted that these editions always come with additional items to ensure they are worth the price (miniatures, concept art books, DLC, etc.) and many gamers have already purchased them. However, for budget-conscious gamers who still want to buy the base version of an AAA game, $60 has been a comfortable limit since 2005.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick is confident that gamers are ready for $70 games on the next-gen console as long as the developers deliver a quality product. Speaking of NBA 2K21, Zelnick shared that “consumers are ready for this” because Take-Two Interactive “provides a range of exceptional experiences” and “high replayability.”

Zelnick also said that while he believes consumers are ready for a price increase, Take-Two has no plans to raise prices for all of their new games and will evaluate each game individually.

The extra price will be worth it if gamers get more new content to increase play value.

Take-Two isn’t the only game company to raise the price to $70. Final Fantasy 7 Remake will cost $70 on PS5, and upcoming third-person shooter Returnal will also cost $70 on PS5. While these games are yet to launch, Final Fantasy 7 Remake has already been released on PS4 and received critical acclaim, so it doesn’t seem like gamers will skip the PS5 version, especially when the PS5 version came with the DLC for the character Yuffie.

If more game publishers increase the value to $70, it is likely that this price will become the new trend.