Capcom president Haruhiro Tsujimoto has put forward an idea that very well may be true but probably won’t go over well with a lot of gamers regardless: perhaps video games should cost more? That’s not a new idea with other publishers adopting that philosophy, too, now that many new AAA games cost $70 instead of the long-running standard of putting out $60 games, but it’s something that Capcom has yet to adopt. Based on Tsujimoto’s most recent comments, however, don’t be surprised if that changes in the future when it comes to upcoming Capcom games.
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Tsujimoto spoke about the cost of games and rising costs of developing those games at Tokyo Game Show (via Nikkei). He didn’t give a specific number in regards to what he felt the new standard for games should be, but he did suggest that prices were too low right now.
Will Capcom Raise the Prices of Its Games?
From the Resident Evil games to the Street Fighter series, Capcom’s catalog encompasses some pretty significant franchises which means that any price increase on its games could affect many, many people. But in his comments at Tokyo Game Show, Tsujimoto accurately reasoned that game prices perhaps should go up seeing how development costs continue to rise, and game prices haven’t kept up with that trend over the years and have instead remained at $60 until just recently.
“Personally, I feel that game prices are too low,” the Capcom boss said at the event. “Development costs are about 100 times higher than during the Famicom era, but software prices have not gone up that much. There is also a need to raise wages. Considering the fact that wages are rising in the industry as a whole, I think raising unit prices is a healthy option for business.”
Again, it’s worth remembering that Capcom hasn’t yet gotten onboard with raising prices beyond $60. The publisher has special editions of games that cost more than that, sure, but the standard editions of games like Resident Evil 4, Exoprimal, and Street Fighter 6 have stuck to the $60 price tag. Other games likeย Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and various Mega Man games and collections this year have even come in at prices of $30 or $40. So if Capcom’s prices do go up, it’s more likely that they’ll adopt the $70 price for games since speeding by that when games like the annual Call of Duty release and other major series haven’t even crossed that point yet.
Most recently, Capcom put out not a game but a DLC for Resident Evil 4 with the release of Separate Ways, the long-awaited expansion for the remake. It’s a paid DLC, however, whereas the original Separate Ways was a free mode in the game released after the GameCube version launched, but it’s at least only $10 this time around.
