Gaming News

EA Won’t Join The $80 Video Game Pricing “At This Point”

On May 07, 2025 12:35 pm, by NuclearCoffee

Summary

With worries about video game prices getting even higher in the wake of Mario Kart World’s $80 price tag, EA said that it has no plans to change its approach right now.
In the company’s latest earnings call, it instead reflected on the enormous success of Split Fiction, EA College Football 25, and The Sims 4.

Five years ago, the PS5 and Xbox Series X set a new standard — $70 games. But already, as we near the end of this generation, prices are going up again. In April, when Nintendo finally unveiled the Switch 2, it revealed that Mario Kart World will retail at $80, and there are murmurs of GTA 6 following suit, with analysts claiming that there’s “hope” in the industry that it will cost as much as $100.

Many are concerned that if GTA 6 were to hike the price further, other developers would follow suit, especially in light of Trump’s tariffs, which have already seen consoles significantly rise in price (so much so that the PS5 Pro is no longer the most expensive console after less than a year). However, as reported by VG247, one publisher has already denied that it will raise its triple-A prices to match Nintendo.

During the latest EA earnings call, CFO Stuart Canfield said that the company “reflected no changes in our current strategy at this point”. That means, at least for the time being, it won’t be selling its games for $80.

“Our Objective Is Always To Deliver Incredible Quality And Exponential Value”

During the call, which went over Split Fiction’s resounding success, selling over four million copies, and the upcoming new Battlefield release, CEO Andrew Wilson addressed how “pricing power” has altered over the years, and where EA sits in the conversation:

“At the end of the day, whether we’re doing something that costs a dollar or we’re doing something that costs $10, or we’re doing something that costs $100, our objective is always to deliver incredible quality and exponential value for our playerbase. And what we’ve discovered over the course of time is whether we can marry quality and value together, our business is strong, resilient, and continues to grow.”

He noted that EA Sports had “another record net bookings year”, driven by the “incredible success of College Football”, while The Sims had a “historic Q4”. $70 price tags don’t seem to be hindering EA much at all. However, despite what sounds to be a healthy and profitable year for the company, Respawn just had two games cancelled, and an unknown number of developers laid off. BioWare, on the other hand, is hiring again for Mass Effect, despite the recent bout of layoffs following the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.