Video game prices are going up for the first time in 15 years

Sony executives have been deliberating over a price increase for some time, said people familiar with the discussions. — 123rf.com

The US$60 (RM246) video game dates back to at least the 1990s. Rarely has a game exceeded that price threshold in the three decades since, even as inflation drove the dollar’s value to nearly half of what it was in the days of the Super Nintendo.

This week, video game publishers will press ahead with an industry-wide effort to raise the standard price to US$70 (RM258). The move coincides with the debut of two new game consoles from Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp, a generational change that comes every seven years or so. There’s one complicating factor: an economic crisis that had doubled unemployment in the US from levels before the coronavirus pandemic.