Two months after announcing a price hike for new first-party Xbox titles to US$80 this holiday season, Microsoft has walked back on its decision and is keeping upcoming games at their current price point, starting with Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2.
News of this pricing reversal first came directly from Obsidian, which announced that its upcoming sci-fi RPG sequel would now cost US$69.99 instead of its previous US$$79.99 price tag. “We have received your SOS via skip drone about the pricing,” the studio wrote on Bluesky. “As an organisation devoted to making sure that corporations do not go unfettered, we at the Earth Directorate have worked to revise the price of The Outer Worlds 2.”
Following this statement, Microsoft confirmed that this price adjustment wasn’t unique to The Outer Worlds 2, and that the studio was indeed backtracking on its previous price hike decision. “We’re focused on bringing players incredible worlds to explore, and will keep our full-priced holiday releases, including The Outer Worlds 2, at US$69.99,” an Xbox spokesperson told Windows Central, although they did not cite any more specific reasons other than that it was “in line with current market conditions”.
Furthermore, anyone who had already pre-ordered the game before the pricing announcement will be eligible for refunds in the coming days if they had already made the purchase at its previous US$79.99 price point, after which they can then pre-order it again at the new lower price.
Today’s news makes an absolute win for gamers, especially in the current video gaming landscape where everything is steadily getting more expensive year by year. Nintendo, for example, recently slapped on a hefty US$80 price tag on its Switch 2 launch title, Mario Kart World, although it thankfully didn’t follow suit for Donkey Kong Bananza, its other recently released exclusive, which is priced at US$69.99. Despite this, the company stated that it was adopting a “variable pricing” system moving forward, which still doesn’t look good for future releases.
Only time will tell how expensive video games will get, and if Microsoft’s price reversal will only be a temporary decision, or a sign that the wider games industry is taking a step back to balance game prices with player expectations. Hopefully, it’s the latter.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
