In the coming years, video games will become significantly more expensive. But that’s good for all gamers, because it becomes fairer.
The last few years have been hard for the video game industry. Now great publishers in Europe and America have teamed up to end the crisis. A completely new pricing policy is intended to help to finally give play “adequate” prices. The core idea: a game should cost around 1 euro per hour.
What is the problem? The price of video games has remained largely constant in recent decades. Already on the Nintendo 64 console, large games cost between DM 100 and 120 – this corresponds to around 60 euros.
A price that is still seen as a full price title almost a quarter of a century later. But Games’s production costs have increased. Better graphics, more details such as setting, comprehensive localization and simply more required employees let the costs explode.
The inflation of an average of 2-3 % (via Federal Statistical Office) per year can also be found in many other products, but not in video games. The price has remained stable here.
Therefore, many publishers have long been waiting to finally be able to raise the prices. The release of GTA 6 should be the starting shot, but now many publishers have come together to develop a new price model themselves.
Many publishers fear GTA 6 – and at the same time hope for a price increase:
Even the biggest publishers fear the release of GTA 6: “A huge meteor”
More videos
“1 for 1” should revolutionize prices for video games
What was decided? Most great American and also some European publishers (including EA, Ubisoft, Blizzard and Microsoft) have come together and developed the new “1 for 1” system. The idea behind it: The price should be a game of 1 euro (or $ 1) per hour.
An example: A new action RPG has a season of 70 to 100 hours-depending on how quickly you played through all content. From this, the mean is taken and the price is determined: 85 hours, i.e. 85 euros purchase price.
The WORLDWIDE Universal Media Pricing (“Sensory Price of Media Worldwide”, Wump for short) already explained some of the key points in a press conference.
The spokeswoman for Wump, a sophisticated, answered some questions to Meinmmo, such as how one came about this pricing:
That is a good question. We broke our heads for a long time about what a fair price is entertainment and compared our ideas with common other entertainment forms and find that we offer a very fair model. For 40 euros you will get a game that will be entertained for at least 10 evenings of 4 hours each. You would also pay 40 euros for a visit to the cinema with a drink and popcorn and you have a maximum of 2-3 hours. Therefore, we consider our “1 for 1” model to be very fair and believe that it is also very quickly accepted by the players: inside.
We then wanted to know how this affects games that are delivered with different levels of difficulty. It said:
Of course we have priced that. In most cases, single player games with different levels of difficulty appear, the development of which requires many resources. And our tests in recent years have also shown that the vast majority of players are playing a new game on a low level of difficulty, mastering it and then trying out a higher difficulty. So they start on “easy”, then play “normal” and finally “heavy”. That has always been the case and has not changed in recent years.
From this it follows that a game with three difficulty levels would cost the corresponding price. If a run takes 20 hours, but the game can be played in 3 difficulty levels, then you would multiply the 20 hours with 3 and would get a price of 60 euros. In a game that only offers “light” and “normal”, it would be 40 euros.
Of course, we are aware that problems can sometimes occur with this type of price. Because on a higher level of difficulty such as “difficult”, a game of a game can take longer than on “light”. In this case, however, we have committed ourselves to determine the price based on the number of hours of play that correspond to a normal run and to take this as the basis for higher difficulties.
This means that if a game on “light” and “normal” only takes 30 hours, on “difficult” but 80 hours, then the price would be 90 euros (30+30+30) – and not at 140 euros (30+30+80). A good regulation from which players in particular benefit who like challenges and protects the wallet.
More difficulty levels should make games more accessible
It was also announced that games will be made even more accessible in the future to address even more groups of players. By Klara Vake (press spokeswoman from Wump Europe) it was said:
Video games should be a medium for everyone. Therefore, we see ourselves as a duty to offer content that can be played for all people. For this reason, all developers of our merger have committed to offer at least nine difficulty levels in new publications on the video game market from 2026, which are managed according to the “Story” pattern, “very light”, “medium-light” “normal”, “difficult” “middle-ski”, “very difficult” and “professional”.
This not only ensures new challenges for our core target group, but also for lower entry hurdles for everyone who has not yet found any access to the gaming.
In the future, all interested players should find their level of difficulty and enjoy games that were otherwise too easy or too difficult for them. A good thing that promotes gaming to the center of society.
A lot of encouragement from politics, potential for additional income
This quick and comprehensive agreement is also largely welcomed from politics. Particularly positive: video games could be excluded from VAT in the future, which benefits the price even more. The spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a press release:
This rapid and courageous agreement within the entertainment industry is a previously unique incident that prevents any rescues from subsidies and other government spending and is therefore protected by coming generations.
In the game industry, many other industries should take an example of how to act in a profit -oriented manner and at the same time do not lose sight of the legitimate interest of consumers.
In this “1 for 1” regulation, we also see the potential to think about a new taxation of entertainment media, which are primarily a pure luxury and amusement goods. Therefore, it will be stimulated in the first weeks of session of the next legislative period to exclude video games and other consumer electronics with a long experience of 10 or more hours from the VAT of 19 %.
Instead, this long-range entertainment electronics would then fall under the additional VAT (MMWSt.) Of 23.5 %.
The future of the video games looks rosy. Not only are there finally fairer prices for all games, but more people can also dive into our favorite hobby in the future. A good thing that we hope that indie developers will also take an example in the future, which will break the market for large, really good games with their often much at reasonable prices. One can hope for solidarity here.