Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson Answers Whether Company Will Increase Game Prices To $80 Like Nintendo And Microsoft
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson revealed whether or not the company will follow the example of Nintendo and Microsoft and increase its game prices to $80 moving forward.
Nintendo revealed it would be pursuing a variable pricing strategy with its Nintendo Switch 2 games with some like Mario Kart World costing $80. Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser explained to The Washington Post, “We’ll look at each game, really look at the development that’s gone into the game, the breadth and depth of the gameplay, if you will, the durability over time and the repeatability of gameplay experiences,” he elaborated. “Those are all factors, and there’s many more that go into consideration of what is the right price point for the game. So I think you can anticipate that there will be variable pricing, and we haven’t set a benchmark.”
Microsoft and Xbox followed suit announcing at the beginning of this month in a blog post, “We also expect to adjust the pricing of some of our new, first-party games starting this holiday season to $79.99.”
Now, during the company’s Q4 FY 2025 Earnings Conference Call, Wilson was asked, “We’ve seen your peers announce games at higher price points, how do you think of the pricing power for your own IP and could we see you take a similar approach with your key franchises going forward?”
He answered, “In terms of pricing power, again, our business is very different today than it was even just 10 years ago. In a world where everything we did 10 years ago was about selling shiny discs in plastic boxes in retail shelves. Well, that's still a part of our business, it's a significantly smaller part of our business. And we now have pricing representing everything from free-to-play all the way to deluxe editions and beyond.”
“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 delivering incredible quality and exponential value for our player base,” he continued. “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.”
The company’s CFO Stuart Canfield then added, “From a games perspective, we have reflected no changes in our current strategy at this point.”
EA revealed in its Q4 FY24 Earning Slides that its “Live Services represented 73% of total FY25 net bookings.” In fact, it had live service net bookings of $5.3 billion and full game bookings of $2.01 billion for the entire fiscal year.
What do you make Wilson and Canfield’s comments?
They could reduce the base prices and I still wouldn't buy anything from EA.
They have no choice in the short term. They must pander to soaking the Live Service aspect of their business.
Good luck with that...