Former PlayStation exec Shuhei Yoshida has addressed the debate around rising game prices, and discussed the “impossible equation” of inflation and expensive development costs.
Nintendo has been criticised by some fans for the increased price of its Switch 2 games, with launch game Mario Kart World costing £75/$80 – something Nintendo has called an example of “variable pricing”. Microsoft, meanwhile, has said some new first-party Xbox games will rise to $80 beginning later this year. Reports have also suggested the forthcoming GTA 6 could cost as much as £80/$100.
Speaking to French outlet PlayStation Inside, Yoshida gave his view on the current situation.
“I think it was going to happen sooner or later, maybe not from Nintendo, but it was going to happen eventually,” he said. “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.”
Yoshida stated the “heart of the matter lies in production costs”, as nowadays games are “more technologically demanding than ever before”.
He suggests that the “proliferation of remasters and remakes” is a way for the industry to diversify, with these projects being “a kind of ‘easy’ solution to bring in profits that ultimately help finance new games”.
“So I don’t know if Rockstar will jump at the chance to set the price of GTA 6 at €90 or more, to speak with your currency, but the situation is this,” said Yoshida. “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.”
He then pointed to the recent release of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from French studio Sandfall Interactive as an example of AA success. The game hit a million sales within three days and was praised by French President Macron.
“In any case, a balance must be found between production costs and game prices,” said Yoshida. “GTA 6 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.”
One potential way of reducing costs is using AI, which Yoshida discussed elsewhere in the interview. He believes AI can be used “creatively to improve games” but stated “AI are tools, not ends in themselves”.
“AI will become a very important tool in the future if developers learn to use its good features,” he said. “We’re already seeing this today, and in any case it should be seen as a simple continuation of what has always been done in video games, because AI has been used in video games for as long as they have existed in reality.
“Designers and developers therefore need to master these new generative tools. It’s just a matter of time, as long as we keep human artists at the heart of the project. Generative AI and its other emanations can and should be used to speed up processes and tedious tasks that don’t impact on the artistic aspect of games, especially for small studios that don’t have the manpower. This could also help to lower game production costs, making the video game economy more viable – as long as it doesn’t lead to redundancies, of course.”
As for Switch 2, he’s most looking forward to Duskbloods from FromSoftware. “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,” he said.
Since Yoshida left PlayStation last year, he’s been particularly vocal with his views on the industry: he stated Nintendo is losing its identity following the Switch 2 reveal, he admitted to playing Naughty Dog’s ill-fate The Last of Us Online, and claimed NieR: Automata revived the Japanese games industry.