Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has stated that he believes video games should be priced differently depending on the “expected entertainment usage”, AKA the length of time it takes for players to complete them.
When it comes to video games, the length of an experience can vary anywhere between 10 hours of content to a few hundred. Open-world games such as Baldur’s Gate 3 offer up hours upon hours of replayability while other more streamlined experiences opt for a concise approach instead.
As a result, the topic of games being sold at full price despite these variations in length has been a hot topic of conversation in recent years throughout the industry.
Chiming in, Take-Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, has added his thoughts to the mix, arguing that games should be priced on a per-hour basis.
During the earnings call for Take-Two Interactive’s Q2 2024 period, Zelnick explained why be believes video games should be priced in relation to how much time gamers will need to dedicate to them.
“In terms of pricing for any entertainment property, basically the algorithm is the value of the expected entertainment usage, which is to say that the per-hour value times the number of expected hours plus the terminal value that’s perceived by the customer in ownership if the title is actually owned, not, say, rented or subscribed to.
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“And you’ll see that that bears out in every kind of entertainment vehicle. By that standard, our frontline prices are still very, very low because we offer many hours of engagement.”
The CEO then added, “That doesn’t necessarily mean that the industry has pricing power or wants to have pricing power. However, there is a great deal of value offered.”
While a formula such as the one Zelnick is proposing does not exist at this current time, there is no telling if games will be priced in relation to their usage in the future. Certain MMOs already fall somewhat in line with their premium subscription models, but this approach hasn’t been adopted by more standard multiplayer offerings just yet.
This could perhaps mean that when GTA 6 eventually hits story shelves, we’ll see it arrive with a high price tag given how ambitious the experience is expected to be.
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