Microsoft has said it will raise the price of its own games to $70 starting in 2023. Currently, such games are sold at a price of $60. The new pricing rules will apply to upcoming games such as Starfield, Redfall and the upcoming Forza Motorsport that are designed for Xbox Series X and S and will not be coming to Xbox One.
Microsoft’s decision echoes similar moves by other major players in the gaming industry. Sony sells its own games for the PlayStation 5 for $70 and for the PlayStation 4 for $60. Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive also made similar decisions, taking into account the rising costs of game development.
However, the price increase may not affect the Xbox due to the differences between the business strategies of Microsoft and Sony. Sony applies a $70 price for games available on different generations of consoles, and charges customers $10 when upgrading a game to a next-generation console version (from PS4 to PS5). Xbox games upgrade from Xbox One to Xbox Series for free. At the same time, Microsoft games, available on consoles of different generations, still cost $60. In addition, Microsoft is betting on Game Pass, which gives subscribers access to all games that fall under the new pricing rules. And subscribers who buy these games separately from Game Pass get a discount. A Sony PlayStation Plus subscription includes discounts, but not new third-party games.
Although the cost of games has been increasing in recent years, the price of $70 is not a new high. In the 1990s, new games regularly sold for $60-70 or more. Even without adjusting for inflation, prices were comparable or higher. Prices started to come down when games switched to optical discs, which are cheaper to manufacture than cartridges.
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New game prices settled at around $50 for the year on the PlayStation 2, but rose to $60 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Since then, price increases have been attributed to inflation and more expensive game development, although there were factors that contributed to lower prices such as reduction of sales costs and rejection of retail sales on physical media.
Source: techspot
