Shuhei Yoshida Defends Gaming Price Hikes

Shuhei Yoshida spoke about the price hikes in games. The former PlayStation executive, who worked in the industry for many years, emphasized that these increases were not a surprise but an expected development. Stating that development processes increasingly require more resources, Yoshida said that prices that remained constant with high expectations were no longer sustainable.

According to Shuhei Yoshida, Increasing Prices Were Inevitable

Yoshida said that game projects that became larger and more ambitious each year also brought with them serious cost increases. He stated that many elements, from graphic quality to the width of game worlds, now require much more investment. He stated that price increases were inevitable as a natural result of these developments.

Yoshida, who emphasized that the price increase will be felt more on the software side, not the hardware, implied that gamers may no longer be able to get used to $60 game prices. He said that this situation applies not only to large companies but also to medium-sized developers, and that cost pressure affects everyone.

Yoshida stated that it is unrealistic for users to expect large-scale, high-quality games at the same time and want prices to remain unchanged. Stating that this equation is no longer valid, the former manager stated that production processes have become much more expensive, and therefore decisions to increase prices are a necessity.

Reminding that the budgets of some productions have reached billions of dollars, Yoshida said that price increases are inevitable in such projects. In this context, he stated that big games may be released with higher labels. Emphasizing that gamers also need to get used to this new order, Yoshida added that this process is part of a general transformation in the sector.

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