The highest value of latest video video games is out of the blue a scorching matter, with many publishers pushing for the next $80 price ticket only a yr or two after $70 out of the blue grew to become commonplace. Notably, Nintendo’s value ceiling for Swap 2 video games like Mario Kart World is $80. Microsoft had deliberate to leap on this specific bandwagon beginning with The Outer Worlds 2, however now appears to have reversed course.
Again in Might, Microsoft had introduced that base costs for its greatest video games for the 2025 vacation season can be rising to $80 (or $79.99, if you happen to ask the entrepreneurs).
At present, The Outer Worlds 2 social accounts introduced that it might get a preemptive value reduce, all the way down to the present $69.99 commonplace for brand new, heavily-promoted triple-A video games. Microsoft confirmed to Home windows Central that its first-party video games for PC and Xbox will stay on the $70 USD stage this yr, with related pricing in different markets.
Pricey Galactic Residents!⁰⁰We have acquired your SOS through skip drone concerning the pricing. As a corporation devoted to creating certain that companies don’t go unfettered, we on the Earth Directorate have labored with [REDACTED] to revise the worth of The Outer Worlds 2. Whereas this… pic.twitter.com/skOjxWBXIB— The Outer Worlds (@OuterWorlds) July 23, 2025
There are loads of components at play right here. Nintendo is definitely pushing costs larger… however Nintendo is Nintendo. Whereas not an untouchable behemoth of the gaming trade, Nintendo’s clients are way more loyal than on different platforms and prepared to pay a premium for first-party Nintendo video games. The Swap 2 has change into the fastest-selling console in historical past, at the same time as many balk at its $450 base value.
So making use of Nintendo’s strikes to the market as an entire may not be clever, particularly as customers are hurting below elevated costs for mainly every part. Gearbox CEO and enthusiastic autopodomasticator* Randy Pitchford floated the thought of releasing Borderlands 4 at $80, earlier than likewise backing down. Your entire trade appears to be fearful of the upcoming launch of Grand Theft Auto VI, which has been rumored for a $100 launch, seemingly on the premise that it’s prone to break gross sales data at nearly any value. (*He likes to place his foot in his mouth.)
Now take into account that Microsoft doesn’t appear notably taken with promoting video games at retail, and even promoting consoles at retail, because it’s now nearly totally centered on the Recreation Move subscription mannequin. With the Xbox being the clear present loser within the console battle, Microsoft is leaning on its PC prowess to attempt to promote Xbox as a platform as a substitute. Notably, the “that is an Xbox” marketing campaign has stretched to laptops, telephones, and handheld PCs just like the co-branded ROG Xbox Ally, plus an Xbox-branded Meta Quest VR headset. Getting individuals signed up for Recreation Move is far more of a precedence than promoting triple-A video games from its myriad studios, together with Outer Worlds developer Obsidian.
On prime of all that, avid gamers have by no means had extra choices in any respect value ranges, particularly on the PC. There are tens of hundreds of latest video games touchdown on Steam yearly, most of them properly under these $60/$70/$80 ranges. A substantial chunk of them are free-to-play, a mannequin that’s not with out its points but appears more and more interesting as customers are compelled to pinch pennies. Recreation Move itself is a reasonably economical various, particularly because it has streaming choices for individuals who lack highly effective {hardware} and might be cancelled at any time.
So it doesn’t appear too stunning that Microsoft bought chilly toes for $80 video games, at the very least for now. However video games aren’t getting any cheaper to make, and Microsoft has additionally change into one thing of a slaughterhouse after slicing hundreds of jobs, together with these at its many developer and writer acquisitions (reportedly to pay for elevated AI funding).
Don’t be shocked if that $80 price ticket comes again after Rockstar drops GTA VI on the vacations like a bunker-buster bomb. The truth that this kerfuffle has surrounded The Outer Worlds 2, a sequel to a recreation impressed by the Fallout sequence and completely soaking in Gilded Age imagery and critique of unchecked capitalism, is maybe a pleasant little easter egg.
