Microsoft has confirmed that starting next year, the price of new Xbox games will increase by about 16% to $70, following recent moves by its peers. This means that new prices will apply to titles like “Starfield” due out in 2023.
Microsoft said in a statement that the price of new games arriving next year would increase from $60 to $70 “to reflect the content, scale and technical complexity of these games.” The Xbox is priced differently in different regions, but Microsoft hasn’t yet explained the pricing in each region.
According to the statement, the new generation of games, including Starfield, Forza Motorsport and Redfall, will cost $10 more than existing titles across all platforms. These new games will also be available on Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service, which costs $9.99 a month, the same day they go on sale.
From Ubisoft (UBI-USA), Sony to Take Two (TWO-US), major game companies recently raised new games to $70, and Sony executives even hinted that the price could be upwards of $70 depending on the game. Today Microsoft (MSFT-USA) has joined the ranks, but the company said the new pricing won’t be implemented until after the year-end holiday, “so that everyone can enjoy the fun of the game.”
For nearly 20 years, the price of many top-tier games has remained in the $60 range. Microsoft Xbox head Phil Spencer hinted in October that a price hike could be imminent, and in early 2020 Sony executives and Microsoft debated whether prices should be raised to reflect inflation and the rising cost of game development.
But it is not yet known whether the Xbox series X and series S game consoles will also increase in price. The rival Sony PlayStation 5 has increased its prices in many countries and Nintendo Switch is not ruling out price increases.
When asked about it in September, Spencer said he would keep the current prices, but in October the wording had been different, saying at the time: “We kept the prices of consoles, video games, subscription services, but I don’t think we can forever, I think at some point there will be a time when the prices of some items need to be raised.”
