Inflation Hits Gaming: Microsoft Will Start Charging $70 for Its Biggest Titles in 2023
Microsoft is planning to raise sticker prices for games made by its studios to £70 next year, the company said in a comment, following other game makers who’ve made similar moves amid increasing costs and pressures from worldwide inflation.
The software giant, which makes the Xbox video game console, said new highly anticipated games like the vampire-shooting game Redfall and the space exploration epic Starfield will increase about 15% from the typical £60 sticker price that the company’s maintained for more than a decade. “This price reflects the content, scale and technical complexity of these titles,” a Microsoft spokesperson told gaming publication IGN in a statement Monday. The spokesperson added that all games developed by Microsoft’s Xbox teams will also be available on the company’s Game Pass subscription service, which starts at £10 per month.
The company declined to comment about whether the price of its Xbox will rise next year as well. Microsoft’s pricing move was widely speculated among gamers, who have watched other companies such as Sony’s PlayStation division increase prices of their games to £70. Earlier this year, the electronics and entertainment giant increased the price of its PlayStation 5 video game console in some countries outside the US as well.
Super Mario Bros. maker Nintendo meanwhile has suggested it’s considering price increases as well, while Grand Theft Auto crime game maker Take-Two Interactive has said it will charge higher prices on a “title by title” basis.
For its part, Microsoft telegraphed the move by reassuring fans that it’ll keep the prices of its games and Games Pass subscription through the holidays.
“Consumers right now are more uncertain than they have been in a long time, and I want our medium of video games to be something that they find attractive,” Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming, said in an onstage interview with The Wall Street Journal in October. “I do think at some point we’ll have to raise some prices on certain things.”
