Denna generation höjdes spelpriset på fullpristitlar till 70 dollar, ofta runt motsvarande 850 kronor här i Sverige. En konsekvens av att spelen blir mer och mer komplexa och tar längre tid att utveckla samt med inflationen i allmänhet i åtanke. Men Saber Interactives VD Matthew Karch tycker det slår alldeles för hårt mot konsumenterna, och enligt honom är 70-dollarsspel en utrotningshotad art.
I en intervju hos IGN sade Karch såhär om de höga spelpriserna:
"I think that as games become more expensive to make, the $70 title is going to go the way of the dodo [bird]. I do. I just don’t think it’s sustainable.
Look, you remember the hype for Cyberpunk, which I think actually ultimately performed okay, but when the expectations are so high and so much money is put into one title, it’s hugely risky for the company that’s doing it. What if it fails?
You remember what happened when Ubisoft a couple of years ago, all their titles slipped out of the year, and then all of a sudden they were in an entirely different place? It’s hard to recover from that. I think the market is going to shift to development which is not necessarily lower quality, but there’s going to be an emphasis on trying to find ways to reduce costs."
Han tror alltså att kostnaderna för att utveckla spel kommer sjunka (även om det lär ta tid), men Karch tror tyvärr också att vi har en spelbrist att se fram emot under de kommande åren:
"I think that there’s going to be a real shortage of game content over the coming few years. You’ve seen how many layoffs there’s been, you see how many games have gotten killed. But we have a lot of good projects going on that I’m proud of and that I feel really, really strongly about."
Håller du med om Karchs åsikter?
<bild>{Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2} är ett av Saber Interactives kommande spel.</bild>