Microsoft made a controversial announcement in The Outer Worlds 2 Direct that followed yesterday’s Xbox Games Showcase.
Obsidian’s next big sci-fi action RPG starts at $ 79.99 for the Standard Edition, and $ 99.99 for the Premium Edition. While we have already gotten used to $ 100 special editions for AAA games, this is Microsoft’s first AAA selling at a base price of $ 80.
This follows Mario Kart World, the big AAA launch title for the Switch 2. While Mario Kart 8 still retailed at $ 60 on both the Wii U and the original Switch, the next big Nintendo racer went up to a steep $ 80. Nintendo defended their pricing, explaining that they would price different games differently based on the value they believe each title will offer.
On the other hand, Microsoft has taken more drastic actions across the board. As they revealed a little over a month ago, they chose to raise prices of their Xbox consoles and accessories. It’s clear now that they also intended to raise prices for their games as well.
But to be clear, their approach is a little similar to Nintendo’s on game pricing. Gears of War: Reloaded, which Microsoft revealed a few days after Xbox price increases, was announced for a retail price of $ 39.99. So we should probably expect that Microsoft will still sell $ 60 games, but games on the upper range of scope and scale will go above that price range moving forward.
The conversation around $ 80 games got started in January of this year. Matthew Ball of Epyllion shared a state of the video game industry report, which included the insight that developers were hoping to raise base prices for some time now.
To explain, this is completely different from developers using monetization models that are proven to provide steady income, such as battle pass, gacha, or lootboxes. Ball cites several factors, such as higher game budgets, and the lower amount of growth in new gamers. Most importantly, he argued that game companies were spending more to make less money across the years, because game prices didn’t adjust with inflation.
Some people seem to believe Ball’s report was used to make higher game prices acceptable. It’s safe to assume most consumers who bought a Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle didn’t read that report, or know how Ball is. Agree or not, Ball simply shared his analysis of the industry based on market trends.
We don’t know quite yet how much Mario Kart World’s sales have been affected by the higher prices, but Obsidian will now be seeing their next big game try to pass the same standard. Given that they released Avowed earlier this year at $ 69.99, they sell themselves on their ability to make those bigger worlds. We’ll see how well The Outer Worlds 2 will do this October 29, 2025.
