Nintendo’s plan to price some Switch 2 games at $80 hasn’t exactly thrilled fans. After five years without a major industry-wide increase, many worry this move opens the door to even steeper costs. A former PlayStation executive, however, suggests the outrage could have been avoided with a different strategy.
Easing Into Higher Game Prices
In a recent interview with PlayerDrive, Shawn Layden, former head of PlayStation, argued that the core issue isn’t the $80 price point itself—it’s that game prices stagnated for too long.
He pointed out that the cost of video games hasn’t kept up with inflation, an approach that might look good from a marketing standpoint but has created long-term financial strain for developers and publishers.
A smarter route, Layden assures, would’ve been to gradually increase game prices around $5 each console generation. That way, hitting $80 or even $90 wouldn’t feel like such a shock now.
“Your purchasing power, compared to your cost of living, is much smaller now than it was before. But still companies have been reluctant to push that price up,” he stated. “They should have baked in a $5 software price hike, and make that the typical ‘well, every generation it’s another five bucks’. You would be up to $90 already.”
Nintendo Breaks the Mold
The last major price increase came in 2020 with the release of the PS5. While Sony remained quiet, publishers like 2K Games took the lead, charging $70 for NBA 2K21. Activision soon followed with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, and the rest of the industry gradually accepted $70 as the new norm.
Nintendo now appears poised to nudge the ceiling even higher. With certain Switch 2 games carrying pricier tags and rumors that long awaited titles like GTA VI could debut at $100, the question is whether players kill keep up.