Ubisoft Says ‘$70 is the New $60’ Moving Forward with AAA Games!

With the upcoming release of Ubisoft’s Skull and Bones, there is clearly a lot of interest in the title and particularly in a genre which, at the moment, pretty much just has Sea of Thieves to its current credit. – With the console version currently available for pre-order for a figure in the region of $70/£70, however, it does, once again, raise the question as to whether video games have, or are, becoming too expensive.

Following a report via TechPowerUp, however, it seems that like it or, these are the prices we’re going to have to get used to as Ubisoft has confirmed that, for the foreseeable future, all of their AAA-gaming titles will be coming with a $70 price tag!

Ubisoft Confirms $70 is their New Standard in Game Pricing!

For the last 10 years, the price of video games has been a highly contentious subject with, in fairness, good arguments to be made on both sides of the argument. – Predominantly for the developer/publisher is that the basic cost to make a game these days is massively higher than it once was with user expectations being increasingly more difficult to meet. Additionally, for the marketing AAA titles require to break through, this also clearly puts massively expense onto already significant outlays. Put all of this in conjunction with inflation and, overall, you can pretty much sum up the case why the current (or former) $60 structure couldn’t hang around forever.

What about the case that games have become too expensive? Well, rather than going on a long rant, here are the key points critics usually have:

• A higher price is fine if a title includes a solid base experience without the need (apparent or otherwise) for season passes and/or microtransactions
• Many modern titles, and particularly those from Ubisoft, are often released in a pretty shoddy condition. Why pay more for a product that is still likely going to be an unfinished/broken mess on launch?
• Prices on digital storefronts are already problematic without developers/publishers looking to increase their own profits which will undoubtedly make them, at the end-user level, likely even higher!

Overall, I think if a quality game is produced, well tested, and released in a solid condition, without masses of microtransactions being shoved down your throat at every given opportunity, most people wouldn’t have a problem with the price of a gaming title going up. With that being said though, what was the last AAA game you can realistically apply all of those tags to?… It’s a legitimate question because, quite honestly, I’m struggling to think of one!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!