Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, is explaining why they are pulling a price hike.

We previously wrote about how NBA 2K21’s PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X version will cost 70 dollars instead of 60. Gamesindustry spoke to Zelnick before Take-Two’s quarterly financial report (no reason to discuss it in detail: they got a ton of cash; Grand Theft Auto Online will get a standalone version in the next generation, the PlayStation 5 users can get it for free three months from the console’s launch, otherwise it will NOT be free!).

„There hasn’t been a price increase for frontline titles for a long time, even though it costs a great deal more to make those titles, and we think with the value we offer consumers…and the kind of experience you can only have on these next-generation consoles, that the price is justified. But it’s easy to say that when you’re delivering extraordinary quality, and that’s what our company prides itself on doing,” Zelnick said. Are they proud of NBA 2K20’s MyTeam trailer with gambling?

About Ubisoft (who expressed that they will not increase the next-gen games’ prices this Holiday season), he said: „We just speak for ourselves. We don’t speak for the industry and the industry naturally does not coordinate on these matters, to say the very least. The pricing has to reflect the quality of the experience, and we aim to provide the best experiences in the business. And from our point of view, it’s an extremely modest price change given that prices haven’t changed for a very long time.” During the company’s financial report, he confirmed that they will decide and announce the pricing of the next-gen games on a title-by-title basis.

Will the next-gen console adoption be slower due to the coronavirus? „[It’s] very hard to call it, and historically, we’ve never tried to. We will make our titles available on the best platforms that are out there. We expect great things from these consoles, we, of course, are going to be supportive, and we’ve already said that we have NBA 2K21 coming for the new generation and that we have Grand Theft Auto 5 coming in fiscal 2022 for next-generation consoles. We haven’t made any other announcements, however,” Zelnick replied.

GTA V’s next-gen version will be out in the second half of 2021, making it the THIRD console generation to receive it (as it first launched on PS3 and X360).

Source: Gamesindustry