It has been a rollercoaster of a year for the gaming industry. We’ve had excellent sports games throughout 2025, but on the other hand, we’ve seen price increases to major consoles and the advent of $80 games. All the while, the economy isn’t getting any better, development costs are rising, and surging RAM costs are a concern for price increases to hardware and software.
Among all this industry chaos, GamesIndustry reached out to various analysts to get an idea of expected inflation in the market. The most worrying statement out of this journalistic work comes from Ampere Analysis’s Piers Harding-Rolls:
“As this [in-app purchases] is where most spending is generated across the entire games market, there could be further inflation in this part of the monetisation mix. Generally, I think it’s easier to alter the value of an IAP bundle and a price increase on a cheap bundle is easier to implement without undermining gamer sentiment.”
So, not only do analysts think that games and hardware will get pricier, but they also expect that increase to trickle down to in-app purchases. However, while one analyst confirms that $70 is the new standard for premium games, Harding-Rolls thinks further price increases aren’t guaranteed:
“Do I expect base game sales to go up again in 2026? No, I don’t think so. But there is already some room in the market for AAA titles to shift to $80 if required.”
The $80 Precedent
Back when Nintendo decided to price Mario Kart World at $80, there was quite a bit of outrage. However, something I’ve learned by writing about games for years is that backlash such as this is almost always just a vocal minority. The casual audience isn’t affected much by an $80 price, as they only buy a couple of games a year. That’s not to say that they won’t feel the effect of the increase; it’s just that more enthusiastic gamers will be impacted more. I only say this with confidence because Mario Kart World sold nearly 10 million copies, despite being $80.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also costs $80 on the Switch 2, by the way. That’s a game from 2023, but Nintendo feels like $80 is a fair price for the Switch 2 port. Trying to imitate Nintendo, Xbox tried a similar move with pricing The Outer Worlds 2 at $80. It was actually a bit amusing to watch them walk back the price to $70, as they were more affected by the backlash than Nintendo was.
Let’s not forget GTA 6. Rockstar can easily get away with even a $100 price, as there’s so much hype and FOMO around the game. If that happens, other publishers will certainly try the same, or at least make the jump to $80. Finally, because of the RAM shortage due to the AI bubble, new consoles and handhelds will also get more expensive.
