With the advent of the current generation consoles, game prices have unfortunately gone up. Games used to average out at US$60, with some differences when localised pricing is taken into account, but that average has gone up to US$70. One notable holdout from this trend is Microsoft, with most of its Xbox first party games still keeping to the old price. But when the new year rolls around, even Xbox will be joining in the price hike club.
In a statement to The Verge, Microsoft says that the company is holding off the price increase “until after the holidays so that families can enjoy the gift of gaming”. But come 2023, the company’s first party titles, like Forza Motorsport, as well as upcoming ones like Redfall and Starfield, “will launch at US$69.99”. Like the other publishers who have pushed their game prices up, the company says that the new price “reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity” of the games.
For what it’s worth, games published by Xbox Game Studios don’t usually get priced at the US$60 equivalent on Steam for the local market anyway. For context, Forza Horizon 5 and the campaign of Halo Infinite launched with a price tag of RM199. So it’s unclear what the price hike would mean, but one would assume that it would hit RM249, which was the US$60 equivalent for most other publishers.
Beyond that though, the ultimate PC gaming value proposition that is the PC Game Pass won’t be seeing this price hike. And since Xbox first party titles will be available on PC Game Pass on launch, and are unlikely to ever leave the subscription service’s library, it remains a pretty good deal. Assuming of course you have the time to make full use of it.
(Source: The Verge)
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