Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch believes $70 is too much to charge for a game, but his studio is nonetheless selling Space Marine 2 for $70 on all platforms.
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At the start of Gen9 in November 2020, publishers like Take-Two Interactive, Activision, Electronic Arts, and Sony were among the first to charge $70 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of games. This trend has continued well into 2024 and shows no signs of stopping, especially now that publishers are laying off workers en masse in an attempt to stem bleeding budgets and shrinking profit margins. The $70 game was an attempt to offset high production costs (some games like Spider-Man 2 cost $200 million to make).
But not everyone agrees with the new software MSRP. Consumers have pushed back against the pricing–in 2023, we surveyed over 25,000 gamers on the subject of $70 software and most agree that it’s too much. Some industry figures like Saber Interactive’s Matthew Karch have even spoken out against the price tag, saying that it’s just unsustainable.
Karch recently held two interviews that discussed the subject of $70 games–one with IGN, and the other with GamesIndustry.biz.
In both interviews, Karch expresses that $70 is too expensive for new games. That being said, Saber’s will indeed sell Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 for $70 when it releases in September.
“We don’t have to sell a game for $70. I’d prefer not to, I think that’s expensive, I don’t like that. It’s almost not fair. Part of the reason Helldivers 2 has had the success that it’s had [is] because it comes in at a much lower price point and it’s accessible,” he told GI Biz.
In the same interview, Karch says he wishes he could sell Space Marine 2 for cheaper:
“Focus is the publisher and we’re the developer, but this is Saber’s game. I would love to sell–at least the digital edition–for less than $70 because we can, and I think we should.”
“If you do games that look,feel and play as good as this… it shouldn’t matter how much money you spent on the game. What should matter is how many man months were put into that game, what were the resources put into that game, right?”
3- Out of the 25,291 total respondents, 68% of them, or 17,122 gamers, said that they were willing to pay a maximum of $60 for new AAA games.
- 23%, or 5,792 people, said that they were willing to pay $70, but only in special cases, as in marquee and higher-quality games such as PlayStation 5 exclusive titles.
- About 5% of users, or 1,239 people, said they use subscriptions like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus to meet their gaming needs.
- Another estimated 5% of respondents, or 1,138 people, said that $70 is an acceptable price tag for new AAA titles.
In the IGN interview, Karch said he thinks the $70 price point will go extinct at some point because companies may no longer have such substantial risk vs reward profiles for their games, thus the higher $70 price tag may no longer be necessary.
“I think that as games become more expensive to make, the $70 title is going to go the way of the dodo–I do. I just don’t think it’s sustainable.
“Look, you remember the hype for Cyberpunk, which I think actually ultimately performed okay, but when the expectations are so high and so much money is put into one title, it’s hugely risky for the company that’s doing it.
“What if it fails?
“You remember what happened when Ubisoft a couple of years ago, all their titles slipped out of the year, and then all of a sudden they were in an entirely different place? It’s hard to recover from that.
“I think the market is going to shift to development which is not necessarily lower quality, but there’s going to be an emphasis on trying to find ways to reduce costs.”
*Side note: Cyberpunk 2077 did more than “okay.” The game broke all previous records set forth by The Witcher 3 and has now made over $750 million in revenue. However, if the game ultimately failed, it could have been a make-or-break moment for CD Projekt.