People shouldn’t complain about £80 games says ex-PlayStation boss

Sony veteran Shuhei Yoshida has defended the rising costs of games, as he supports the idea of variable pricing.

Between the anger around Nintendo’s £74.99 price tag for Mario Kart World and increased costs across Xbox games, it’s clear game prices will be a big topic for months to come.

GTA 6 looks set to become a key talking point in this debate, with analysts predicting it could cost upwards of £100 when it launches on May 26, 2026. Rockstar hasn’t officially announced the price, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently stressed its commitment to variable pricing, with Mafia: The Old Country launching at £44.99 later this year.

In a new interview, former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida, who recently expressed his disappointment with the Switch 2, has addressed concerns around rising game prices – and he doesn’t think it’s a bad thing.

Speaking to Critical Hits, Yoshida expressed his support for variable pricing: ‘I don’t believe every game has to be priced the same. Each game has different value it provides, or the size of budget. I totally believe it is up to the publishers – or developers self-publishing – decision to price their product to the value that they believe they are bringing in.’

While he believes there should be no standard price for games, Yoshida states that the most expensive titles – now priced at $70 or $80 (UK prices are expected to work out as £80, based on prior conversion rates) – are still a bargain when compared to other forms of entertainment.

‘In terms of actual price of $70 or $80, for really great games, I think it will still be a steal in terms of the amount of entertainment that top games, top quality games bring to people compared to other form of entertainment,’ Yoshida said.

‘As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money, I don’t think they should be complaining about [it].’

While defining a game’s worth based on its length is always messy, if you use this metric, most games outclass film and television in terms of value for money.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, for example, is moderately priced at £50 and takes around 30-40 hours to beat. When compared to the average £15 cinema ticket for a two hour film, there’s no contest.

In terms of franchises like Mario Kart, which releases new games very infrequently, there’s an argument the £74.99 price point for Mario Kart World is justified, based on its quality and staying power as a multiplayer title; especially given £70 titles like EA Sports FC and Call Of Duty are released every year.

However, the acceptance of these price points has perhaps become difficult to swallow due to the influx of free-to-play titles. When you can play Fortnite or Apex Legends for free, the idea of paying £80 for a game suddenly looks outdated and unappealing.

It remains to be seen if these increased price points will actually affect sales, but it’s easy to see Yoshida’s point of view – even if it’s not one that will be greeted with much enthusiasm by the average gamer.

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