A lot has been said about PS5 and the higher price tags it brings to their video game lineup. Even though at the beginning of this generation we came to find out that Sony Interactive Entertainment is considering a slight increase in title prices, SIE boss, Jim Ryan explains how this works.
Talking with Edge magazine, in a Q&A that can be found in the most recent issue, Jim Ryan took the time to explain how the PS5 game price plan work. According to him, the $70 price tag is not a fixed price that all games will release under. Sony Interactive Entertainment sets the game prices after their development, in order to make it as fair as possible to both the developers and players. This justifies the publisher’s view on the PS5 game price. He said:
No, we just set out to make the games as best we can. And once the games are made, then we’ll consider what the right price to sell them at is. We don’t start out with a price in mind, and then tailor the game to the price point. At launch, we do have a range of prices. And that will rightly and properly continue as we progress through the cycle.
To further his point of view, Jim Ryan explains how the Worldwide Studios are deep in work with a variety of different projects right now. This includes upcoming video games for various genres. He states:
I think you’re actually going to see some interesting variations from Worldwide Studios over the course of this cycle. With the PS4, we saw Uncharted: Lost Legacy, for example, published in the middle of the cycle, and that worked really well at that point in time. That model can work really well. And our studios are working on all sorts of things right now.
It will be interesting to see what aces does Sony Interactive Entertainment have up their sleeves. It all comes down to high-end releases to justify prices and set the PS trend. On that front, SIE is winning. Especially, since games like Horizon Forbidden West and God of War 2 are releasing in the future.