I think that is partially what he's saying. When you price a game at $70, it means that people will have higher expectations of it then a $20-40 game. You're even expected to justify why it's worth $10 more than a $60 game.

So you have all these AAA games that had huge budgets, and are being priced at $70, but because of the budget it's highly risky for the company if it fails. But the high price also means higher expectations, and high expectations/hype will sink a game if it doesn't live up to those expectations.

Basically you can sell a game for $30, and people will enjoy it for what it is. Sell a game for $70 and it better be perfect.

The article doesn't really say pricing will go up. Just that the current AAA $70 isn't sustainable. Even says he doesn't want to sell their next game at $70, but is afraid of it being perceived as a lower quality game if cheaper. I think hellblade 2 will be a good test if a cheaper game price is seen as a negative. Personally, I loved 1, with their AA idea. Which is just AAA quality, in a shorter length. After the first hellblade, I was really hoping we'd see more high quality games releasing at different price ranges. Seems only indies, really move away from $70 though. I just beat immortals of aveum on ps+, and I think that would have been a perfect example of a game that should have released at $40. It wasn't worth $70, but was a pretty fun experience for the right price.