A £70 price tag in the UK has long signalled a AAA release: large teams, cinematic visuals and dozens of hours of gameplay. Nintendo pushed that ceiling higher in 2025, listing major Switch titles at £74.99. Industry speculation suggests the next Grand Theft Auto could even reach $100, though its publisher has yet to confirm pricing.
Yet several critically acclaimed titles with AAA polish — including ARC Raiders, Split Fiction and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — launched at £30 to £40.
Clair Obscur’s publisher made that decision deliberately.
“Ultimately we’ve seen a number of larger companies increase prices quite regularly. And we’ve kind of taken the opposite action,” Alexis Garavaryan of Kepler Interactive told BBC News.
“We try to think, ‘What do we think the price should be?’ And then we price it lower.”
Garavaryan argues players now value how “exceptional” or “novel” a game feels, rather than simply the scale or the “number of hours you get out of the content”.
Market data supports the pressure on pricing. A recent study found most gamers are spending less, with only 4% of US players buying a new title more than once a month. Meanwhile, rising hardware costs — including a sharp increase in RAM prices — squeeze budgets further.
Kepler positions lower pricing as a mark of respect.
“We want them to feel like we are respectful of their money, respectful of their time, and that fundamentally every time they buy a game from us, they’re getting a great deal,” Garavaryan said.
“And we’re excited for players to be able to play five, six different experiences with the same amount of money than a traditional AAA game would bring them.”
Not everyone sees a shift away from blockbusters. “Forever” titles such as Fortnite and Call of Duty, which update regularly and dominate player numbers, “consistently have the most players, month after month after month,” according to IGN’s Rebekah Valentine.
Christopher Dring of The Game Business argues success depends less on price and more on visibility: “In a challenged attention economy, where consumers are awash with choice, doing something interesting is key.”
The central question remains. If players reward originality and value, will publishers keep pushing prices higher — or rethink what a blockbuster should cost?
Author: Pishon Yip