Microsoft Will Announce Their New Pricing Soon
With the recent release of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5, several developers have confirmed a price hike in their games, typically by $10. Take-Two Interactive has confirmed the new price increase on select games, big first-party PlayStation titles will also get the $10 price hike, but Microsoft is holding off on confirming what first-party Xbox Series X/S titles will cost. Part of the lack of new exclusives this generation give Microsoft some time to decide on their new pricing model. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate brings the extensive Game Pass lineup to Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and mobile right now.
“I think we’re not making specific announcements on first-party pricing yet,” said Xbox CFO Tim Stuart during the recent Jefferies Interactive Entertainment conference. “So we’ll do that sort of in due time… Prices have not gone up in, what, for a couple of generations now, so it’s not unheard of to see things like this going on.” Capcom and Take-Two Interactive are using similar approaches to next-gen pricing, with a case by case basis planned, while companies like EA and Xbox have yet to decide what their pricing model will be for the new generation of consoles.
“And to the point earlier, content creation costs go up. And these publishers and content creators, including ourselves, want to make sure you’re driving the right gross margin profiles, the right earnings profiles of what it takes to build these new, awesome, amazing games. And you want to make sure you have a good topline to support that.” While we can understand why some developers are rising their prices on next-gen games, we can understand why some titles that are cheaper to develop may not need the price hike.
Do you expect first-party Xbox titles to increase in price on Xbox Series X/S? Let us know in the comments below!