Shuhei Yoshida Says Game Prices Were Going to Increase Due to Inflation and Production Costs - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 05 May 2025 / 6,057 Views
Former President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida in an interview with PlayStation Inside discussed the increased price for video games as Nintendo is charging $80 for Mario Kart World.
"I think it was going to happen sooner or later, maybe not from Nintendo, but it was going to happen eventually," said Yoshida. "We live in contrasting times, where inflation is real and significant, but people expect games that are ever more ambitious and therefore expensive to develop to cost the same. It’s an impossible equation.
"Everything in video games today is more advanced and more technologically demanding than ever before, and therefore requires more resources. Each publisher or manufacturer sets the price of its games, of course, but in the end the heart of the matter lies in production costs. And that’s why industry actors are so keen to diversify their revenues, in order to continue producing the AAA games that the public buys before anything else.
"Basically, the proliferation of remasters and remakes doesn’t really stem from any kind of nostalgia or a desire to bring games up to date, but is a kind of 'easy' solution to bring in profits that ultimately help finance new games. The same goes for PC ports. I’m not particularly bothered by this, because these ports, remakes and remasters are mostly made by support studios like Nixxes Software, so the studios developing the new games are relieved of the burden.
"So I don’t know if Rockstar will jump at the chance to set the price of GTA 6 at 90 euros or more, to speak with your currency, but the situation is this. And we could even add subscription platforms and games as a service, which, while providing huge revenues in their own right, also help to finance AAA down the line.
"In any case, a balance must be found between production costs and game prices. GTA6 will obviously be a case in point, but if you take the example of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the game is just as phenomenal visually, despite the fact that the team only has around thirty people. This is one of the ways forward, I think, because you can make excellent games with tighter teams and budgets without compromising quality."
Speaking on the Nintendo Switch 2, Yoshida stated the console is less about innovation and more about bringing it closer to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in terms of power.
"The recent presentation of the Nintendo Switch 2, for example, showed this: with its mix of portable and docked video games, and its technological capabilities approaching those of the latest consoles, the possibilities are vast. I hope, however, that they will continue to focus on creating new experiences, and not lose their identity," he stated.
"I followed the live stream at MinnMax and found, like everyone else, that the Switch 2 was mostly an improved Switch, so the innovation wasn’t totally in that area. Let’s hope they don’t just make their games 'better,' but really continue to innovate. In the meantime, the console will also allow you to play several important games like Elden Ring or Hogwarts Legacy, and that’s a good thing.
"So I’m very optimistic that we’re heading for years and years of development that will allow us to enjoy some incredible experiences."
Out of all the Switch 2 games announced he is most looking looking forward to The Duskbloods from FromSoftware.
"I’m very intrigued by The Duskbloods," said Yoshida. "I’m curious to see what FromSoftware will do with a Switch exclusive on a technical level, and it’s always interesting to see what they come up with, especially after Elden Ring."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.
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Still waiting for someone to come up with an excuse for digital pricing being in parity with physical pricing.
Yeah, so have I. The only problem with that one is leverage. Without Gamestop, the industry continues on. Without games, Gamestop goes out of business. And as far as retail chains go, what are they going to do? Stop selling video games? Somehow, despite their posturing (if that is indeed what is going on), me thinks they would cave if the three main players said to hell with them, they were doing what they wanted. Because as sad as it may be, an all-digital console will still sell. Players are okay with it these days. So again, I just don't think this excuse holds weight either, although who knows. It could be true.
Retailers power was stronger back at that time but even so when it was announced all those years ago the retail concerns were seen by many to be able to be met by other means besides parity that just lined the digital stores pockets but the opportunity to add that extra 30% extra digital cream on top was just to good and with digital being seen to surpass physical sales even back then there were many voices that knew when retail was no longer a concern they were never going to give it back to the consumer.
mortal kombat trilogy N64 $74.99 1996
Record breaking profits.
Thats all
If you're not growing you're dying. There is too much risk in making video games these days. One or two big failures can wipe out an entire company. The last Call of Duty cost 700 million, it' won't be long before a game costs a billion to make. All it takes is a few people complaining online about a bunch of nonsense that a character is too woke and all the crybaby armies comes out in droves with their pitchforks, and the developer loses hundreds of millions of dollars and get everyone fired.
If anyone doubts you, just look at Ubisoft.
A few failures and the whole company was almost wiped out.
Black myth Wukong:
Sales: 30 million
Cost: $70 Million
Inflation is cap
Can you put that into English please?
Inflation makes sense... but AAA budgets have increased many many times more than inflation
Gamers never asked for 300-400 million dollar budgets, we just asked for fun games with unique gameplay
Those budgets include developer salaries, which in the AAA landscape, the studios with those kinds of budgets is usually in an expensive cost of living state (ex. California, Washington, etc) and there's hundreds, if not thousands, of people that need to be paid. A good chunk of them making six figures each. And for GTA 6, there's definitely going to be at least a few thousand people involved.
I remember during the Insomniac leak, more than half of the $300 million budget for Spider-Man 2 were dedicated just to salaries.
If we want AAA budgets to get back in check, the teams need to be dramatically smaller. You can't convince hundreds and hundreds of people to work for less money.
It's certainly possible too. Looking at the Bethesda-sized game of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 being as polished as it is and the absurd amount of content was made on only a $40 million budget and a team of about 250 people.
Cod cold war cost 700 million
i had a blast on older systems, so i agree but so many gamers are into performance now!
Plus gaming today no longer lives by the RRP of a game the model now revolves around subs game purchases etc,
The dev teams have bloated unnecessarily. Whether a game takes off or not seems to have no direct relation to its development cost. And it's not like the tools of the industry don't get better as well. They have better hardware, better engines and AI to do much of the heavy lifting for them now, why do they still need more and more people to do the same job?
Maybe there's a larger generational shift going on, the old beards are fading out and the new people just aren't quite there yet. That would explain why we get games that seem inferior and yet much more expensive than the ones we got 10-20 years ago. Only the graphics get better(usually), and that's mostly the engines doing their job.
And yes, they cannot be declaring record profits and at the same time moan about how hard it is for them. Complete bullshit.
People's gaming budgets don't change. People will just buy less games when prices go up. Some games will be winners, some will be losers. AAA Games that cannot get a Metacritic/Opencritic of 90+ will struggle I believe.
Well, we know it happens over time.
But when $70 became the new $60 around late 2020 into 2021, I figured it would take until 2027 or later for $80 to become common. But now, it looks like this year or at least in full force in 2026.
And as prices increase, they will wonder why sells decrease...
