Xbox Series X/S First-Party Games Will Cost $70 Next Year

Microsoft has announced that it’s raising the price of first-party Xbox Series X/S games to $70 beginning in 2023. 

IGN First confirmation of the news came from Microsoft. A spokesperson for Microsoft stated to the outlet, “This price reflects content, scale and technical complexity these titles.” When they launch next year, the Xbox Series X/S titles Starfield, Redfall and Forza Motorsport, will be the first to receive the $70 price tag. The price of Xbox Game Pass appears unaffected, and the Microsoft spokesperson continued by saying, “As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch.” 

Given the increasingly exorbitant cost of triple-A game development, the price rise was only a matter of time. An October Live Interview with The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft head Phil Spencer said as much when he stated that the company couldn’t keep its products at the same price forever. I do believe that we will eventually have to increase the price of certain items, but we felt it important to keep the prices the same going into the holiday. 

Sony was the first console company to begin charging $70 per PlayStation 5 first-party offering at the launch of this generation. In August, Sony raised the price of the PS5 in multiple international territories, citing inflation as the primary reason; Microsoft immediately responded to this by saying it had “no plans to raise the price of the Xbox Series X/S consoles.” Of course, that statement was made before Spencer’s comments to the WSJMicrosoft and he declined to comment. IGNAsk about the possibility of raising hardware prices.

As a reminder, the $70 tag only applies to current-gen titles. PS4 and Xbox One games have and will remain $60, the former standard established during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation. 

[Source: IGN]

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