TOPLINE
When the next generation of video game consoles arrives this fall with the release of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, a new $ 69.99 price tag for a “Cross-Gen Bundle” for the latest title of Call of Duty could signal a sea change for game prices with large budgets remaining at $ 59.99 for almost 15 years.
‘Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’
KEY FACTS
Activision Blizzard on Wednesday unveiled a trailer and new details for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the latest title in his long-running and massively popular military shooter series.
Launching November 13, the company offers three different versions of the game, a $ 59.99 standard edition, a cross-gen edition that can be played on current- and next-generation consoles, and an $ 89.99 edition.
According to the store description, the cross-gen version allows players to access the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One upon release and upgrade to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X respectively at no extra cost, while the standard version requires an additional $ 10 upgrade.
Speculation of a price increase has swirled even before the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with Take Two becoming the first major company to announce the price of next-gen versions of NBA 2K21.
In an income call, beginning in August, however, CEO Strauss Zelnick tempered any universal price increase by saying it would be evaluated on a “title-by-title basis.”
“I would just observe, there has been no price increase from the frontline for a very long time, although the cost has increased significantly,” Zelnick said.
Tangint
Activision Blizzard has already sparked some controversy with its upcoming Call of Duty game with a teaser trailer that included a second clip of student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Video platforms in China blacked out the footage before Activision Blizzard released a shorter version of the teaser. ‘t removed the clip. The incident, in which the army attacked and killed between hundreds and thousands of people, is taboo in the country and highly regulated and censored.
Key background
Prices for home console games varied in the late ’80s and early’ 90s in the generations of the Nintendo Entertainment System and its follow-up, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. With the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64, a base cost was set at $ 50 until an increase to $ 60 when the Xbox 360 launched in 2005. Despite inflation and the increasing cost of developing and marketing games, prices for games have remained fairly stagnant due to consumer expectation.
Large number
$ 250 million. That’s how much Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 costs to develop and launch in 2009, according to a report by the LA Times at the time.
