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Gamers Have Scared EA Away From An $80 ‘Battlefield 6'

Gamers Have Scared EA Away From An $80 ‘Battlefield 6'

Forbes2 days ago
We will learn a whole lot more about Battlefield 6 today in a reveal event, which EA is hoping will finally be a legitimate competitor to Call of Duty after being dormant a while, and its past 2042 misfire. But we already know one bit of good news.
In yet another example of this happening, gamer pushback appears to have forced EA's hand to not raise prices of its new games, including Battlefield 6, to $80 instead of $70. This comes from Andrew Wilson in a Q1 earnings call:
This is yet another example of consumer pushback to the Nintendo-driven $80 price point, which began with Mario Kart World at the launch of the Switch 2. It seemed likely that once that dam broke, it would quickly become the standard. But that has not happened, despite some publishers attempting to dip their toes in the water (and finding its scalding):
All of this means that right now, there are no big games approaching with confirmed $80 price points despite Nintendo's move with Mario Kart World. Nintendo may be at trend-setter, but other publishers may realize that a 15% price hike on games is not exactly what players want to see in the current state of the global economy. How long this lasts, however, is anyone's guess.
We will earn more about Battlefield 6 today, including possibly confirmation of its price and release date. My colleague Erik Kain will be covering that reveal.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
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More from Rolling Stone Is Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' Video the Most Copied of All Time? Lucinda Williams Is Opening a New York City Honky-Tonk Complete Unseen: New Doc on History of Newport Folk Festival Announced That was very clear August 1 when Lucinda Williams, and Wilco played truncated sets at Long Island's Jones Beach Amphitheater before handing the evening over to Dylan and Nelson. These are four totally unique acts with fairly different approaches to live performances, and their own massive followings, but they all have a deep love and respect for American roots music that permeated through the entire night. Due to tremendous good fortune, it was an unseasonably cool night at Jones Beach following two weeks of scorching, record-high temperatures, and a massive thunderstorm the prior evening that generated flood warnings all across the region. This placed everyone in a cheerful mood as Lucinda Williams took the stage in the very late afternoon. 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At the theaters, phones are taken away, the houses are completely dark and silent, and ushers roam the aisles with flashlights to pounce on anyone violating the rules. At the Outlaw shows, people are eating chicken fingers, spilling ketchup on themselves, chugging beers, loudly talking with their friends, scrolling through their phones, and taking selfies with Bob in the background. It's the opposite vibe in nearly every imaginable way. As always, practically every song in Dylan's set was rearranged not just from its original version, but the live rendition we heard as recently as last summer. ''Til I Fell In Love With You' is now practically a spoken-word track with sparse instrumentation, 'Gotta Serve Somebody' has a rollicking groove, and 'Blind Willie McTell' has rarely sounded so loose and playful. 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