Ex PlayStation exec says "$70 or $80" for really great games are a "steal"

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Former PlayStation exec says "$70 or $80" games are a "steal": "As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money, I don't think they should be complaining"

I guess that's one way to look at it!
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Former PlayStation exec says "$70 or $80" games are a "steal": "As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money, I don't think they should be complaining"

Ashley Bardhan
Sat, May 17, 2025 at 4:12 AM GMT+8
2 min read

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Mario racing on a desert track during the Switch 2 reveal trailer. .


Credit: Nintendo
It feels to me like the closer we get to the Nintendo Switch 2's June launch and the, apparently, $80 games associated with it, the more people are fighting with themselves over what is and isn't worth it. But at least Sony veteran and previous head of PlayStation Indies Shuhei Yoshida is free from inner turmoil – he thinks relatively expensive, high quality video games are unequivocally necessary.

Speaking to Critical Hits Games in a video interview during the recent Gamescom Latam, Yoshida says "when you look at life in general, other products in price have increased, you know, way more than the game price. So I think it was almost too late for the video game companies to start looking at the pricing structure."



"I don't believe that every game has to be priced the same," Yoshida continues. "Each game has different value it provides, or the size of budget. I totally believe it's up to the publisher – or developers self-publishing – decision to price their product to the value that they believe they are bringing in."

Nintendo openly shares this mindset, as current Nintendo of America product experience VP Bill Trinen told IGN in April: "We just look at each individual game and we look at the content and the value of that game, and then we say, 'what is the right price for the value of this entertainment?'" The developer elected to price its strange Switch 2 tutorial, Welcome Tour, at $10 – instead of making it free like PlayStation's comparable Astro's Playroom.

Yoshida continues to say that, "In terms of actual price of $70 or $80, for really great games, I think it will still be a steal in terms of the amount of entertainment that the top games, top quality games bring to people compared to other form of entertainment."

"As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money," he continues, "I don't think they should be complaining."
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It depends on the game and what i get for my money.
God of War Ragnarök or the upcoming GTA VI are worth 70-80 $ (graphic, sound, length, story and so on).
But when i look at many of the Nintendo games is it hard to understand how they can charge the same amount of money for their games.
Most of them are more like "budget games" and shouldn't cost more than 40 bucks.
80 dollar (+tax) for mario kart world, while GT7 and Forza costs 70 dollar isn't a stealer.
Sure, Zelda, Xenoblade or Metroid Prime 4 will justify high prices, but 80 $?
 
Heisenberg007 said:
Can you, for once, write Shuhei Yoshida instead of your always BS (ex-PlayStation exec)?

Set your agenda aside while creating threads.
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No one cares about his name. If he wrote his name no one would know who that is, at least the way he wrote it, it gave him some credentials instead of just sounding like a nobody. He's doing him a favor. But actually you're right, make him sound like a nobody because fuck this guy.

And by nobody i dont literally mean nobody, especially not on this forum, be he is a nobody for 99% of gamers. In terms of name recognition at least.
 
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Yes, you are stealing gamers. You twat.

These execs are so focused on short term profit, they don't care they are limiting their own costumer base.
When a console costs 500-700$ and games cost 70-80$, most people will be put of from entering console gaming.
 
winjer said:
Yes, you are stealing gamers. You twat.

These execs are so focused on short term profit, they don't care they are limiting their own costumer base.
When a console costs 500-700$ and games cost 70-80$, most people will be put of from entering console gaming.
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And many people will say that PC is very expensive (and hardware is) but games can be obtained much cheaper.
 
I agree with him. Given the amount of joy I've gotten out of games compared to most other forms of entertainment, I think they are severely underpriced. But I also remember spending 79.99 for N64 games back in the late 90's.
 
That's true. Only problem is, there ain't that much really great games out there! The only game that's worth 80$ so far cost 45$ on release day.
 
"In terms of actual price of $70 or $80, for really great games, I think it will still be a steal in terms of the amount of entertainment that the top games, top quality games bring to people compared to other form of entertainment."
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fuck off GIF
 
I agree in that the top quality content packed games can justify their $80 price tag, but there better not be a hint of microtransactions, battlepasses, or day one dlc in that package.
 
For the amount of hours games offer in value they are right. That's even before you consider multiple people in the same household can play / share the same game. And if a game does not offer enough value for you wait for a sale, GOTY edition etc.
Monster Hunter Wilds was already on half price sale six weeks after release here in Australia, I waitied and paid a price I was happy to pay.
 
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zombrex said:
For the amount of hours games offer in value they are right. That's even before you consider multiple people in the same household can play / share the same game. And if a game does not offer enough value for you wait for a sale, GOTY edition etc.
Monster Hunter Wilds was already on half price sale six weeks after release here in Australia, I waitied and paid a price I was happy to pay.
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Few years from now they will say that games deserve 100-120$ Will you agree with them?

Boiling frog etc.
 
I mean generally you should be careful with your purchases no matter the price tag.

I think these big AAA publishers are kind of hurting themselves with these price tag increases more than anyone else. You're just pricing out people, and your price tag is going to get deflated into oblivion within months anyways.

Look at how many big AAA hits in this gen are at sub-$70 pricing (Wukong, Space Marine 2, hell, even things like AC Valhalla were $60), this inflation in top-line MSRP has created room for these devs and publishers to standout by going against the tide and selling for what used to be the old top-line pricing.
 
Astray said:
I mean generally you should be careful with your purchases no matter the price tag.

I think these big AAA publishers are kind of hurting themselves with these price tag increases more than anyone else. You're just pricing out people, and your price tag is going to get deflated into oblivion within months anyways.

Look at how many big AAA hits in this gen are at sub-$70 pricing (Wukong, Space Marine 2, hell, even things like AC Valhalla were $60), this inflation in top-line MSRP has created room for these devs and publishers to standout by going against the tide and selling for what used to be the old top-line pricing.
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With refund system (like on Steam) it wouldn't be an issue, you could always get your money back. But I doubt we will ever see it on Sony store...
 
There are a few games I would consider to be worth that. More even. The trouble for them is I only know that for sure in hindsight.

BG3 for example I consider to be two full games worth of high quality game. If I'd paid $120 for it I would not have felt robbed afterward, but there's no chance I would have paid $120 for it to begin with so... 🤷‍♀️
 
Brakum said:
No one cares about his name. If he wrote his name no one would know who that is, at least the way he wrote it, it gave him some credentials instead of just sounding like a nobody. He's doing him a favor. But actually you're right, make him sound like a nobody because fuck this guy.

And by nobody i dont literally mean nobody, especially not on this forum, be he is a nobody for 99% of gamers. In terms of name recognition at least.
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Don't be facetious. This is an enthusiast forum where people definitely know Shuhei Yoshida's name.
 
All of this is moot anyways when you take into account DLC/Season Passes/Battle Passes/Pre order bonuses/Digital collector's upgrades/etc. They've been charging more than $59.99 for the full experience of games for a decade now. The real reason they're going to $70/$80 now is that they always want more money and they think they can get away with it.

Guess we'll see.
 
Games are cheaper today than they were 20 years ago, pro rata. That does not mean most games today are worth their full price given the quality. He is talking shit and should not be taking consumers not to complain.
 
Bojji said:
With refund system (like on Steam) it wouldn't be an issue, you could always get your money back. But I doubt we will ever see it on Sony store...
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Sony's customer support sucks ass (probably the worst out of all the big platforms) and it's a well-known fact.

But Steam kinda uses this refund system (which they actually got forced into by the Aussie regulators btw) as a crutch to avoid actually doing any kind of QA on the games published on there. Steam already does validation for Steam Deck, so there is no actual reason that they can't test games and issue warnings if a game is too heavy for your machine.

The other issue is yes, I can get refunded for my money, but what about my wasted time and effort trying to make a game work on my PC? No one can give me that back even if they wanted to.
 
Can Shu Yoshida offer me commentary and insight into the 1985 summit meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev and how it affects todays gaming landscape?

Also if Shu Yoshida is going to commentate on an industry he seemingly left behind maybe he can weigh in on the CD vs. Vinyl debate as a bonus?

I wonder what the lure of talking more about an industry you left behind is then when you were actually in it. Shu is not the first. It seems these guys can't stay away.
 
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Astray said:
Sony's customer support sucks ass (probably the worst out of all the big platforms) and it's a well-known fact.

But Steam kinda uses this refund system (which they actually got forced into by the Aussie regulators btw) as a crutch to avoid actually doing any kind of QA on the games published on there. Steam already does validation for Steam Deck, so there is no actual reason that they can't test games and issue warnings if a game is too heavy for your machine.

The other issue is yes, I can get refunded for my money, but what about my wasted time and effort trying to make a game work on my PC? No one can give me that back even if they wanted to.
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Broken games are released on consoles as well, this "testing" is worth shit. Oblivion remaster is crashing consoles after too many save loads and performance drops after you play it for some time.

On pc you can often actually fix developers incompetence with mods while on consoles you have to wait on patch that may come or not.
 
Ramiro_Rodriguez said:
It depends on the game and what i get for my money.
God of War Ragnarök or the upcoming GTA VI are worth 70-80 $ (graphic, sound, length, story and so on).
But when i look at many of the Nintendo games is it hard to understand how they can charge the same amount of money for their games.
Most of them are more like "budget games" and shouldn't cost more than 40 bucks.
80 dollar (+tax) for mario kart world, while GT7 and Forza costs 70 dollar isn't a stealer.
Sure, Zelda, Xenoblade or Metroid Prime 4 will justify high prices, but 80 $?
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It's just the Nintendo tax. Same as apple.

From my point of view if you buy a game for €80 and you get 30/40 hours of great enjoyment it's worth it.

Games where you get a hundred plus hours or even thousands it's a steal.
 
Magister said:
Kinguin is a gray market site and they scammed me with their Office 365 keys twice. Never use these sites. Use isthereanydeal instead for pc games as it only lists legit key resellers.
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I used them for 15 years and never had an issue.

HRK69 said:
Love to see it

But I'm fairly certain some of these are account-based, which will usually result in a significant price reduction
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Nah, accounts are on a different page for example DOOM TDA is at 46e for a key, but 33e for an account:

1Fr9owv.png
 
KyoZz said:
Nah, accounts are on a different page for example DOOM TDA is at 46e for a key, but 33e for an account:

1Fr9owv.png
Click to expand...
An Armored Core 6 Steam key for €7.15? That's definitely unusual, even for key sites

But it's not a big deal. I recognize most of these prices, and they seem very accurate overall

PC gaming really is awesome. Going to grab the Elder Scrolls remaster next week!
 
winjer said:
Yes, you are stealing gamers. You twat.

These execs are so focused on short term profit, they don't care they are limiting their own costumer base.
When a console costs 500-700$ and games cost 70-80$, most people will be put of from entering console gaming.
Click to expand...
And that's the weird part. Console manufacturers are killing off their "pipeline" of younger gamers.

These prices will preclude a lot of kids, young adults abs folks not making 6 figure salaries from buying new titles or new consoles.

So what happens long term when PS6 releases at $700-800 with $80-90 titles in 2028?

I think it's going to be interesting to see how Switch 2 does over the next 3 years past 2025 early adopter sales as it could indicate where the winds are blowing.
 
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