Why does Spider-Man PC cost €60 4 years after the original release?

Insomniac’s Spider-Man is about to join the ever-growing collection of Playstation titles available on PC. Nixxes handled the port, as with every other game. It now joins the likes of Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone and God of War.

An unforeseen price increase

Yet it stands out from all these titles in one very annoying aspect: the price. This is what the price tags look like for AAA Playstation games on PC:

So why does Spider-Man cost €60? God of War was ported onto PC almost exactly 4 years after its Playstation release, which makes the timing window very similar to that of Insomniac’s title.

Yes, it includes the story DLCs, but so does HZD’s Complete Edition. It does include some PC-only features, but so do all other ports. DLSS has become an essential part of the package with PS ports, so there’s nothing unique about Spider-Man.

Sony didn’t make any announcement or justification regarding this price change, but PC users are noticing. Keep in mind that €60 is what a AAA game costs on PC. It’s what I and a lot of people paid for Elden Ring on the 24th of February, it’s what Dying Light 2 cost in the same month of this year.

So how can it be justified to ask the exact same value of a port of a four-year-old videogame?

It’s just a port

Ray Tracing isn’t new, the PS5 remastered version already included that upon Miles Morales’ release. Performance has not been ideal, according to most pre-release reviews. Nixxes seems to be getting better with each port, but bugs and weird performance issues are not infrequent.

The settings menu looks pretty decent, and it updates the changes in real-time, but none of what’s been shown so far justifies the price increase. And, to be honest, what could? A 4-year-old port will never have the same value as a new AAA title which has just been released on every platform.

It is great that Sony seems committed to growing their PC library, but trying to mimic their PS5 price increase on PC should be met with disapproval and with people voting with their wallets.

If you want €60, port the games quicker

Nixxes have been doing a serviceable job at porting these incredible games that were locked inside a single system for years, but €50 was and will remain the reasonable price to ask for any game that has gone down to below €20 on PS sales.

If Sony wants to ask for AAA money, ports cannot take 3 to 4 years to be released. Capcom has gotten into the habit of releasing their Monster Hunter games a year late on PC while asking for the usual €60 and no one bats an eye.

I’m not expecting this to happen, the game is already topping steam’s top sellers’ list, but it is disappointing to see nonetheless. It is great to see Spider-Man swing his way to a new platform, but the price increase that he brought hidden in his webs is not welcome.