Microsoft Reverts Price Increase For The Outer Worlds 2, Will Launch For $70 On Xbox

I wonder if pre-order numbers played a part in this? Because no matter what the game, $80 is a lot of money. Either way, I'm glad they've turned this around. Good for them!

On the face of it all though, to really drive down the costs of games, studios across the whole industry need to work out how to lessen the cost of development - and don't tell me it cant be done in one way or another. Look at Expedition 33...

Still the same price on UK store. So cheers for that Microsoft, guess we’re not deemed worthy. And yes, even after VAT is removed £70 RRP (£58.33 pre-tax) converts to $80 (well $79 to be exact). So yeah, I’m not very impressed honestly.

It’s good they backtracked.

But shows the pre order numbers would be extremely low. - there’s no chance they would do it otherwise.

BULLYING👏JUST👏WORKS!!

Finally some good news!

@Kaloudz I think you’re 100% on the money here (on all points made, honestly). But the preorders and pre-release market analysis must have signaled this isn’t going to be a big mover so they cut the price.

No doubt they’re going to revisit this pricing again in the near future, just with a game that they know people “must have.” Once they do that, they condition most consumers into seeing $80 as a “normal” price and can charge it consistently on AAA releases.

Sanity prevails.

@EvenStephen7 I'd definitely say that pre-order numbers was the driving factor here. I mean let's face it, this wouldn't be news if the numbers were at expectations (or higher). I agree too that they will revisit prices at some point in the near future.

See, for a game like this, I don't think $80 is justified. Fable? Absolutely. Forza Horizon 6? Absolutely. This sort of game though? Meh. Much as I love Obsidian, I just don't think it has enough to match the price factor.

Still though, drawing back to developers cutting back costs, that's one avenue I'd love to see utilized more. If a small indie team like Sandfall can do it on a small budget and create something as magical as E33, and charge almost half the price (I believe E33 was £40), then there's no excuse for the rest of the industry.

Sure, some games require much more than others, but that's not to say they cant cut costs too. Don't get me wrong, it's not all on the developer / publisher. This is on us too! That said, they're just my two cents.

I guess pre-order numbers were abysmal. Looking on Steam it’s the 88th most wishlisted game, which is 16 places below Marathon(a game that many think is going to flop).

AKA our competitors are not following suite, so we had to back track.

@SeaDaVie It's going to be lower because you can just use gamepass to play it for a fraction of the price.

@SeaDaVie ARC Raiders looks soo much better than Marathon right now.

@Trmn8r anything looks better than Marathon right now.

See, no matter what if people speak with their wallet Microsoft will listen.

Quite right too. Of all the games to try and charge £80 for, this was not it, and I say that as someone that really enjoyed the first game and is really looking forward to its sequel.

I think that Microsoft attempted to hide behind 'Market Conditions', and all the tariff rises, but now the dust has settled on that a bit, and after what has probably been lacklustre pre-orders, they have seen that £80 won't fly (at least not for this particular title). And of course, another factor will have been that their main competitor (Sony) have not followed suit in pricing games at £80, meaning Microsoft look terrible in comparison..

It’s always ok to bully corporations and call them out on their *****

Pre-orders had to be abysmal. There's no chance Microsoft did this after listening to backlash. This was definitely a panic reaction.

@Titntin good life lesson. Never trust what someone says they'll do, look at what they do do and trust that it will happen again.

Please straighten up your messaging MS and for the love of god reduce console pricing before GTAVI hits if you want to sell anything

@Fiendish-Beaver they weren’t charging £80, they were charging £70 (which is the equivalent of $80 minus tax) and still are. They haven’t dropped the price a single penny in UK. Boo 😒

“In line with market conditions” what a crock of crap…

@PsBoxSwitchOwner I completely agree 100%. A company only lowers price points when they realized the market is pushing back, and the market is the gamers. Furthermore, we are viewing Microsoft & Xbox in a different way now, a negative way, with all of the layoffs, future reliance on AI, etc...

@pepsilover2008 Sure, but the number one most wishlisted game also happens to be a day one Gamepass game.

I wonder if Xbox team can get a bit more control over their affairs after this. The move was stupid from the get go and I have a feeling it was a higher up Corpo decision that they couldn't sway them away from. Clearly it was a mistake, but damage was done and once again mixed messaging and stepping in rakes for no reason.

@somnambulance I think it's surprising because it seems like CoD Black Ops 7 will be $70 this year as well, since Microsoft said its holiday games will not be $80. Microsoft could easily get away with an $80 price tag for a COD game, so it's interesting that they are postponing that price hike to next year.

Huh. Interesting. Guess pre orders didn't do well or everyone already has XGP lol

@Questionable_Duck Reason for that is so they don't have literal riots for stupid skins in an 80$ game.

Backtracking on a decision within 2 months is another example of Microsoft being clueless and steerless. Such a shame….

Some of the technical stuff they did this gen was so good.

I suspect part of this was the combo of the price jumping up with the fact the retail version was download only going down "real well" with everyone.

Good decision. Fan backlash works.

I'm not saying $80 for Mario Kart World is okay, but I think it's funny Microsoft thought that the Outer Worlds would be as popular as a classic Nintendo Franchise.

For the record, I'm excited for OW2.

You've got to really want a game to spend $70 considering their launch state, our collective backlogs and the fact it'll be $20 less within a few months. Saying that, if the value is there for you then that's all you need. However I simply don't believe these companies are making the revenue they could at that price.

@Cakefish MS and Sony always keep the UK and US prices the same for 1P games at 69.99.

@Fiendish-Beaver MS never increased the UK prices; they have kept them at £70. They just dropped the US price back down to $70 to keep in line with what Sony is doing at the moment. Only Nintendo is charging the actual conversion rate for US customers at the moment.

It’s like a stay of execution. Prominent, big budget games will rise in price eventually to be sure, but at least it isn’t imminent any longer. Yay.

Just as a side point, isn’t this ‘in line with market conditions’ verbiage the same wording the Moon Studios guy just got raked over the coals for when citing the reason why his (admittedly lacklustre looking) game is skipping Xbox for the time being? I guess there’s only outrage when it’s perceived as bad news, and the exact same reasoning is ok when it produces positive results 🤔

LMFAO at least they realized they were being too greedy, now can they revert closing studios and cancelling games?

Yeah Xbox does NOT have tbe political clout of Nintendo. Ain't no way they can jump on $80 games at the start. Everyone got mad at them when they were one of the very last publishers to do $70 games. That said it is still clear where this is going and the massive success of Mario Kart World (Nintendo exploits how loyal their fans are HARD) cements that. $80 games are coming. Xbox just doesn't have the popularity points to do them first.

Im not spending 80 on any game in the near future.

Was their previous comment about $80 before GTA VI got delayed to 2026? That would make sense for publishers to be watching what GTA VI launches at and how it performs. (GTA isn't comparable to any other AAA game but they would view it as a business benchmark to aim for, similarly to when everyone chased the live service dragon because Fortnite made money)

@darylb24 £59.99 for The Outer Worlds 2 Standard Edition

Whether they charge $80 or $70, I won't be paying that much to play ANY game. I'd rather wait for a sale or miss out entirely regardless of the IP, Publisher or Developer!!!

Fortunately, there is an alternative to paying $70+ upfront to play Xbox Published games as they are on Game Pass day/date. That enables me to play games like the Outer Worlds 2 from Day 1 without paying anything more than I would already spent on my monthly GPU Sub fee.

That way I don't have to miss out on the Day1 experience or pay up front to find out whether the game is actually worth the money I paid or not, don't have to make do with my large backlog of unfinished or 'newly' purchased Sale games until this becomes a 'reasonable' price to me.

In a year or so, it will no doubt be much cheaper so if I decide I want to 'keep' it, I'll add it to my Digital Library, otherwise I'll likely be playing something else and waiting for other games to drop in price LOL

@Millionski you forgot EA FC, Madden and NBA 2K on that list.

I don't even know why anyone would pre-order a game now. You pay top price (wait a few months) & you get to do free QA for the company (wait for the bugs to get sorted out).

There are already so many good games to play & people must have huge backlogs, go play something else for a few months. Price is guaranteed to drop even if this comes in at $70 instead of $80

@darylb24 the US dollar has weakened throughout this year so 1:1 pricing no longer respects current market conditions.

Ah seems I spoke too soon, they’ve changed it today to £60. Great! Glad they saw sense. I hereby retract all my grumbling at Microsoft.

I instead direct my moaning at any publisher attempting to charge £70 RRP for new games. £70 is $80 now. The exchange rate changed and companies need to acknowledge this fact (they never hesitate even for a second when pound weakens).

Now I'm starting to feel like I overpaid for Donkey Kong Country, $69.99 in 1994.

@Cakefish Yep very true, us in the UK and Europe get well and truly ripped off when compared to the USA on game prices.

@WildConcept6 it’s actually sick how much of a pass nintendo gets. if you dare see them as any other corporation (sony/ms) and have no bias for them, and worst of all, criticize - then you’re looked at as a bad person and troll

@Millionski So you’ve gone back to tribalism where it doesn’t matter all the BS that Microsoft is doing because Sony has had their own missteps? Smh.

And just to be clear I’ve been criticizing Sony’s live service BS since the very beginning and it already costed half of the PS5 catalogue, and yet that doesn’t excuse the decimation at Microsoft Gaming every 3-6 months.

@Millionski Yeah I just made a comment there criticizing the author for his double standards, you keep flip flopping between being critical or excusing/defending a corporation, I’m critical of both because I own both and I want both to compete, not one to dwindle into irrelevance and the other to abuse its position and pursue bad ideas.

Pre-order numbers were probably low.