Do you think that other companies will follow in EA's wake with pricing?

[unwittyoneliner]

Since EA recently announced that they will be upping the price of their games (at least in the UK), do you think that other companies will follow suit? While lucrative game companies with popular franchises can afford to do this, there could be an incentive to maintain current prices so that respect is garnered from gamers. Jack Tretton said the following a while back:

"We're gonna welcome free-to-play models, games from 99 cents up to those 60 dollar games," he said. Later, he added: "We'll justify that $60 price point."

-via Kotaku

...so I'm thinking Sony will make an effort to maintain that price with their first party games.

 

[Clark Wayne]

To be honest, I don't think any other company will do this. I think EA will be able to get away with it because it's almost expected of them to do something like that. I think other companies will keep their prices the same in order for there not to be a massive outroar about game prices getting out of hand. Still, you never can be too sure with these things though.

 

[bSM45]

I highly doubt other companies will fall suite with EA, simply because of the fact that it reduces their profits so much.

 

[OniBlackMage]

Killer Instinct is trying something similar. They offer 2 releases, a Free-To-Play version which only starts with 1 character and everything else locked. Or, you can have the full retail version with everything unlocked. I'm not sure what to expect from consumers given the choice, but I'm just as interested to see if any other major releases will attempt the same pricing model.

 

[lindbergh]

Well, I think that companies would first weigh the odds on this one. At one point, a free to play game would result to more people playing the game. On the other hand, free to play games does not ensure that there will be buyers. There are a lot of people who are content with free (like me). Companies would probably try to look at this model and see if it would be profitable for them.

 

[Esperahol]

Its EA - they just love taking gamers to the bank. That said there is a reason they were voted the worse company the other year. There is also a reason EA are associated with being money-grubbing jerks who ruin gaming forever. Stuff like this.

 

[unwittyoneliner]

Its EA - they just love taking gamers to the bank. That said there is a reason they were voted the worse company the other year. There is also a reason EA are associated with being money-grubbing jerks who ruin gaming forever. Stuff like this.

It seemed like EA was doing good things for its name a few years ago, back when Activision was thought as the worst company. But with their DRM policy, the horrible interface of Origin (I had to test beta builds with that thing, ugh), and stuff like this has made them the company people love to hate again. At least Peter Moore doesn't look as evil as Kotick, that's a plus for EA.

 

[BlackSolaris]

I don't remember EA titles that i got recently and the other ones i got were purchased when they were in the bargain bin, so yeah, have fun rising the prices and i will keep buying them for dirt cheap.

 

[Medza]

Higher prices don't necessarily mean more profit. Instead of selling 2 games at £25 you are now selling 1 game at £40, but because the price has gone up you are going to be selling less copies. I think that this is a very hurtful marketing model because it really damages the consumer-publisher relationship. If you look at a distributor like Steam, they can afford to have games on for pennies, but then they make up in numbers. That way the model works out for everyone, the devs get their money and they also get so much free advertisement from the word of mouth so I don't see why other companies would want to follow EA here, I don't think that EA will even keep this policy for long.

 

[NickJonathan]

Maybe Activision will follow EA's patents but as for other companies, I doubt anyone will really increase the price. For example, Battlefield 4 - the Deluxe Edition, costs $69.99 as far as I know and I have to admit a lot of people are skeptical about spending a $60-ish and $70-ish on a game. I have to agree though that Battlefield 4 is great game but the pricing could be lower. A bit more on-topic, no wonder why EA got 2nd time in row the "Worst Company in America" award.

 

[RockSauron]

Yeah, I can see this coming to bite EA in the arse, especially if they are the only company who's charging extra for their games.