User blog comment:Commdor/More ME3 Details from the BioWare Forums/@comment-3578615-20110427143551/@comment-743796-20110427173035

I don't know the specific reasons why most game prices especially on games made by EA jump so much (general reasons are likely the economic conditions and inflationary concerns), but I know that for instance, the Madden NFL series is EA's flagship sports title, and since EA was granted an exclusive partnership with the NFL a few years back, the average game prices for sports games (starting with EA's games) shot up by at least $25.00 CAD since 2006-2007. Now that's just plain greed, and exclusive partnerships are the exact same as exclusive marketing, a dangerous strategy used to market goods to certain stores that are bound by contract to sell only those products; closely related to monopolistic strategy.