The gaming industry has drastically changed over the past few years, and it has been affecting gamers directly. Video games are becoming expensive, and their experience is often disappointing. Gamers hope that expensive video games offer replayability, but it is hard to tell if all these upcoming games with a crazy price tag will offer it.
Without a doubt, Nintendo can be blamed for starting this trend because everyone was shocked when it announced Mario Kart World, one of the first games to release on Switch 2, would cost $79.99. Xbox also confirmed that the prices of its consoles and its first-party games would be increased. All major developers are now following this trend, but there is one that believes in delivering a great co-op experience with a reasonable price tag: Arrowhead Game Studios.
Arrowhead Game Studios’ Helldivers 2 will stick to its $39.99 price tag
The prices of new video games are slowly increasing, which makes sense as a lot of money goes into the development of AAA titles. However, it doesn’t feel justified when the final product fails to captivate the fans. Most upcoming games are expected to be priced around $80$, but that will certainly increase in the future. GTA 6‘s rumored price tag just fuels this theory.
Even existing video games are becoming expensive as developers try to generate revenue from their popular titles, but Arrowhead Game Studios, despite having one of the most popular co-op games, will never increase the price of Helldivers 2.
Fans on Reddit are praising Arrowhead for sticking to the $39.99 price tag for Helldivers 2. Plus, the expansions and updates for the game are offered to all players for free. The game allows players to buy Super Credits with real money for Warbonds, but the game also gives players the opportunity to earn Super Credits by playing the game.
Nintendo can be blamed for setting a new industry standard
Earlier this year, Nintendo revealed the Switch 2 with a price tag of $450, but it wasn’t just the hardware’s price tag that left everyone shocked. One of Switch 2’s first games, Mario Kart World, was confirmed to be priced at $79.99, which is a lot higher than the prices of a few AAA titles that were released in 2025. Nintendo was criticized on social media for setting a new standard, and as expected, Xbox also announced the increase in the price tags of its first-party games.
Not just games, but Xbox has also increased the prices of all of its consoles, controllers, Stereo Headset, and Wireless Headset. As for the increase in the video game price tags, that applies to all of Xbox’s first-party games that release around and after the holiday season.
Most gamers refuse to buy video games at launch because they prefer to use the Xbox Game Pass or PlayStation Plus Catalog to play those games later. This has been a horrible strategy for developers, as those games must meet their sales targets to keep the company afloat. Releasing video games on the Game Pass on day one is great for gamers, but not so good for developers.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
