With games becoming more and more expensive to make as time goes on, figuring out how to price them is undoubtedly a daunting task for publishers that have to balance profitability with giving players a fair, reasonable deal.
As with any business, a part of that process is manipulating what a price feels like versus what it actually is. And according to a theory from one of the lead developers on one of 2025's best, most-popular games, the difference between the perception and the truth can actually be quite significant.
The dev in question is Nick Kaman, studio head of the indie developer Aggro Crab (known for Going Under and the Xbox Game Pass Soulslike Another Crab's Treasure) that co-developed last year's beloved comedic co-op climbing title PEAK with Landfall Games (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Content Warning).
Speaking with Stephen Totilo of Game File in a new interview, Kaman went on a bit of a ramble about how the PEAK team ultimately settled on the game's $7.99 pricing while working on the title.
“We had this joke of, like, how much is a game really? In a player’s mind, what does it mean to spend five bucks? Well, that’s five bucks. But six bucks? Well, that’s still five bucks," he explained. “Four bucks is also kind of five bucks. Three bucks is two bucks. And two bucks is basically free."
“So we’ve got these tiers: You know, twelve bucks….that’s ten bucks," he continued. "But thirteen bucks is fifteen bucks. And we found that eight bucks is still five bucks. It doesn’t become ten bucks. Seven ninety nine, that’s five bucks, right? So, eight bucks going to five bucks is the biggest differential we could find in pricing, so we found it very optimal.”
That explanation reads like Kaman went off the deep end at first, and it was likely intended to, being called a "joke." I couldn't help but think of the iconic "Pepe Silvia" scene from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and the meme of Charlie Kelly going on a conspiratorial rant in front of a wall of papers haphazardly connected by red string.
What was said here did make me reflect on my own game-purchasing habits, though, and ultimately, Kaman's explanation actually makes perfect sense. I find myself rounding certain prices up or down to "neat" prices like $5 or $10 all the time, and doing so can often make it feel like you're spending less money on a game than you actually are.
PEAK, then, has been sold for $7.99 because it's often perceived as being like $5, even though it's actually closer to $10. Granted, not everyone thinks about pricing in the same way, but regardless, the price point has worked out incredibly well for PEAK, as it sold over 10 million copies last year.
Notably, a good portion of those sales came when PEAK was discounted down to $4.95 before launch and during limited-time deals afterwards (one of which is active now, by the way). Why not $4.99? I suspect that's another clever pricing scheme, with $4.95 feeling like it's farer below $5 than $4.99, even if it's actually just four cents cheaper. Interesting to think about, no?
How do you think about the prices of video games when you go to buy them? Do certain prices like $5.99 or $6.99 feel like five bucks to you? Let me know in the comments.
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