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2020/08

Star Wars: Squadrons’ Low Price Point Is Due To Scale And Value, Claims Blake Jorgensen

Given that publishers and developers are gearing up to increase prices moving into the “next-generation” of gaming, talk of $69.99 and $79.99 becoming the base price to purchase a new game is growing all the more prominent around the games industry. However, EA — a company on the ever-growing Traitors of America list — and Motive Studios are looking to ship Star Wars: Squadrons at almost half the standard price come this October.

The latest entry in the defiled Star Wars video game series is “Squadrons.” In this game, players will find that it sports a single-player campaign and a multiplayer mode — where five people compete against five other players in air and space battles. The game is all about piloting crafts such as X-Wings, A-Wings, Y-Wings, TIE Fighters, TIE Bombers, and other iconic Star Wars ships.

All of the above with the side of diversity will ship across PC, and home consoles for $39.99 at launch, which gameplay footage showing off the upcoming title sits below:

Thanks to publication site mp1st.com, Blake Jorgensen — who happens to be EA’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer — explains the “why” behind the pricing story regarding Star Wars: Squadrons during a recent investor relations call.

The site kicked-off the explanation process with Mario Lou asking the CFO the following question:

Mario Lou: That’s great. I haven’t asked the second one yet. That’s very helpful, Blake. So the second one is on Star Wars. Can you provide some color behind the decision process regarding pricing squadrons at $40 with no additional MTX? So I do think all games are not created equal, so overall I’m surprised how the standard has been for $60 video games in the last years 15. So why go $40 all in and not free to play or just in general what are your thoughts on potentially pricing next gen titles at a higher price point of $70 instead of $60.

Jorgensen’s response sits below:

Blake Jorgensen: Yes and I’ll have Andrew just sort of help out on this as well because it’s important here for both of us. I mean we always look at the top — the games and we want to make sure we are providing the greatest value for our players. And games all have different scales and most of our games right now have huge scale. We designed this game to really focus on what we heard from consumers, which is one of their greatest fantasies and that’s to be able to fly ex wing fighter, fly fighter and be in a dog fight and so it doesn’t have the breath of some of our games but it is still an incredible game and so that’s why we chose to price it at a slightly lower level to also allow access to as many people as possible who had that Star Wars fantasy.

And lastly, the game in question will launch for PC (via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Origin), PS4, and Xbox One on October 2nd, 2020.

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