Next-gen game prices to rise thanks to add-ons, analyst warns

Analyst firm Sterne Agee & Leach believes US prices for console games will climb to $90 in the coming hardware generation, when you take all the extras into consideration.

"Our sense is next-gen games will launch at the same $60 retail price point as the current-gen games," the firm said in a note reported by Gamasutra.

"However, increasingly, publishers are striving to enhance the ARPU [average revenue per user] closer to $80 or $90 for their triple-A titles through greater focus on DLC and in-game micro-transactions, etc."

The firm also noted that digital purchases are likely to become more dominant, but that this generation isn't ready to ditch boxed releases.

"While the switch to digital is inevitable, it seems the conditions are not quite ripe for that yet and discs will likely dominate in the foreseeable future," the company said.

"This should benefit GME [GameStop], at least in the early part of the next cycle."

Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are both expected to launch in 2013 - in the US and Europe, anyway.