IT Home December 6th news, Microsoft confirmed that it will increase the pricing of its first-party Xbox game new games starting next month, but the new game will still be released and added to the XGP subscription service.
Starting from 2023, the new Xbox Game Studios games, such as Starry Sky, Blood Arrival and Forza series, will rise from the usual $59.99 to $69.99, which is the same as the pricing of competitor games such as Sony , Ubisoft and Take-Two.
Microsoft issued the following statement on the price increase:
We postponed the price increase plan until after the holiday, so that everyone can enjoy the gifts brought by the game when their families are reunited.
Starting in 2023, our full-price game for the next generation will be released on all platforms at a price of $69.99. This price reflects the content, scale and technical complexity of these games. Like all the games our team has developed on Xbox, these games will also be available on Game Pass on the day of release.
It is worth mentioning that Sony and other manufacturers announced the arrival of the $70 game era two years ago, while Take-Two, Activision, EA and Square Enix have all announced price increases, while Ubisoft said that its subsequent works are also the $70 standard. IT Home learned that Sony PS5 games are currently mainly between $49.99 and $69.99.
It is worth mentioning that Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft Xbox, had previously hinted that prices may be raised after the holiday.
"Our consoles always keep this price, and games and subscriptions always keep this price. But I don't think we can do this forever, I do think that at some point we have to increase the pricing of something, but during this holiday, we think it's very necessary to maintain the existing pricing."
