Wedbush Securities analyst and go-to gaming industry pundit Michael Pachter thinks gamers should get ready for an industry price hike once the next-gen platforms launch. Pachter, speaking at a gaming industry panel at SXSW this weekend, said he thinks Sony and Microsoft will have to raise the standard retail price for games to $70.
Gametrailers' Geoff Keighley tweeted Pachter's thoughts from the event: "At #SXSW panel @michaelpachter says PS4 and next Xbox games will likely cost 70 dollars, 10 dollars more than current gen."
Even with the PS4 in the open and new Xbox rumors coming out of the woodwork, the cost of next-gen gaming is still largely undefined. SCEA CEO Jack Tretton told CNBC that PS4 games would cost between $.99 and "the traditonal $60 range" just days after Sony unveiled the PS4. While it suggests that PS4 games won't see a price increase, Sony's cagey language does leave the door open for them to tweak the price.
Michael Pachter's predictions are a special breed of rumor: As a securities analyst covering the games industry, Pachter is very informed, but is still technically guessing at what's coming. Pachter has made a lot of predictions over the years, and his track is far from perfect. Case in point, Pachter predicted the last video game price hike, suggesting that publishers would raise the standard price of games from $50-$60. He jumped the gun a bit, though claiming the hike was imminent in 2004. Sony and Microsoft held back on raising the price until the beginning of the PS3/Xbox 360 console generation.
A software hike was only one of a long list of Pachter's next-gen predictions, including that the next Xbox would "win" what will be the final dedicated console generation.
