Xbox has backed down and pulled a U-turn from charging upcoming games at a ridiculous $80 USD price point, a $10 USD increase from the current standard price of $70 USD.
The Outer Worlds 2, the first game that would be impacted by this new pricing, will now cost $70 USD in the US.
“We’re focused on bringing players incredible worlds to explore, and will keep our full priced holiday releases, including The Outer Worlds 2, at $69.99 – in line with current market conditions,” a statement provided by an Xbox spokesperson to Windows Central reads.
Game prices have gone up earlier in this 9th generation console cycle starting in late 2020 from $60 USD to $70 USD. The price hike was brought upon by PlayStation, with various third-party publishers following suit. In Malaysian Ringgit, the price hike changed game prices from RM249 (which is already expensive- it’s about 12 McDonald’s Big Mac sets worth) to RM299.
Five years later, within the same console generation, we’re facing another potential price hike. Though in fairness to Microsoft and Xbox, the price hike to $80 USD was not going to hit as hard compared to other regions.
The Outer Worlds 2 is now priced to the current industry standard price of RM299 in Malaysia, as opposed to RM329 on Steam, rather than say, RM349, to match the previous price hike increment.
As it stands, Nintendo is now the sole outlier for charging $80 USD for a standard edition game with Mario Kart World. In Malaysia, as per the Nintendo Official Store on Shopee, that is translated to RM398—almost a 50% price increase of regular games.