Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that video games should be priced differently depending on the “expected entertainment usage”, AKA the length of time it takes for players to complete them.
Video game experiences can vary in length from 10 hours of content to several hundred. Open-world games like Baldur’s Gate 3 offer hours of replayability, while other games opt for a more concise approach.
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The topic of games being sold at full price despite variations in length has been a hot conversation in the industry in recent years.
Rockstar Games
Take-Two Interactive publishes many popular games including the GTA series.
During the earnings call for Take-Two Interactive’s Q2 2024 period, Zelnick explained why he believes video games should be priced in relation to how much time gamers will need to dedicate to them.
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Zelnick stated, “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.”
He also 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 for pricing games based on usage doesn’t exist at this time, certain MMOs already somewhat align with their premium subscription models. But this approach hasn’t been adopted by more standard multiplayer games yet.
This could mean that when GTA 6 eventually hits store shelves, it will arrive with a higher price tag due to the expected ambitious experience.
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