Sony just announced a ton of new features currently under development. Features such as support for 1440p output have been teased for some time while others, such as the ability to join a Discord voice chat natively, feel like they should have been announced sooner than several years into the console’s life cycle.
You won’t be the first to access these features unless you’ve been selected for the beta, but they seem fairly promising. You’ll finally be able to make Discord calls directly from your PlayStation 5 and display the game that you’re playing to whoever you’re talking to (just like the mobile and desktop versions).
The PS5 will get other notable social features too. You’ll finally be able to request screenshare directly from your friends’ profiles, join gaming sessions through “Party” chats, and see which games that your friends also own on their account. If you’re picky about who gets to join your games (like me), don’t fret: Sony is giving PS5 owners the ability to dictate who does and doesn’t get to join your games.
These additions are potentially huge boons to the multiplayer ecosystem that Sony has been trying to build out ever since it acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion. And according to a financial call from last year, multiplayer was the biggest reason that PlayStation Plus users kept paying to use Sony’s gaming subscription service every month.
Even if you’re not big on multiplayer, Sony is developing features that are applicable to all PlayStation owners. The one I’m most excited about is the ability to use a voice command to capture video. You wouldn’t fiddle with details manually either; you can make presets for how long an average clip should be.
If you upgraded to a current-gen console recently, you probably remember game save transfers being a huge pain point. Currently, the only way to shuffle your PlayStation 4 saves to your new console was to dig into your cloud storage. PlayStation Plus subscribers will eventually be able to transfer save data automatically. Even if you’re not paying for Sony’s gaming subscription service, you’ll soon be able to transfer data between individual PS5s. You know, now that it’s supposedly possible for the average person to secure more than one console.
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If you’re lucky enough to receive a beta sign-up email, then you can preview these features before anyone else. So check your inbox carefully.
Things haven’t been going great for Xbox recently. Microsoft is facing stiff resistance in its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard. It released hardly any big exclusive blockbusters last year. And it just cut over 10,000 jobs last week, including many senior developers at Halo Infinite studio 343 Industries. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer tried to remain upbeat and do damage control on each of these points and more in a new interview with IGN.
“Every year is critical,” he said. “I don’t find this year to be more or less critical. I feel good about our momentum. Obviously, we’re going through some adjustments right now that are painful, but I think necessary, but it’s really to set us up and the teams for long-term success.”
This week captured both the peril and promise facing Xbox right now. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a drop in net-income of 12 percent for the most recent fiscal quarter compared to the prior year. Xbox gaming hardware and software were down by similar percentages, and Microsoft said nothing about how many new subscribers its Game Pass service had gained since it crossed the 25 million mark exactly a year ago.
Then on Wednesday Microsoft provided a sleek and streamlined look at its upcoming games in a Developer Direct livestream copied right from the Nintendo playbook. Forza Motorsport was seemingly quietly delayed to the second half of the year, but looked like a beautiful and impressive racing sim showpiece. Arkane’s co-op sandbox vampire shooter Redfall got a May 2 release date. Real-time strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends will hit in April. And to cap things off Tango Gameworks, maker of The Evil Within, shadow-dropped Hi-Fi Rush on Game Pass, a colorful rhythm-action game from left field that’s already become the first undisputed gaming hit of 2023.
Screenshot: Tango Gameworks / Bethesda
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“2022 was too light on games,” Spencer confessed in his IGN interview. 2023 shouldn’t be thanks to Redfall and Starfield, Bethesda’s much-anticipated answer to the question, “What if Skyrim but space?” But both of those games were technically supposed to come out last year. Meanwhile, Hi-Fi Rush, like Obsidian’s Pentiment before it, is shaping up to be a critically acclaimed Game Pass release that still might be too small to move the needle on Xbox’s larger fortunes.
Spencer remained vague when asked how successful these games were or their impact on Game Pass, whose growth has reportedly stalled on console. “I think that the creative diversity expands for us when we have different ways for people to kind of pay for the games that they’re playing, and the subscription definitely helps there,” he said.
Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall, Starfield, and a new The Elder Scrolls Online expansion due out in June are also all from Bethesda, which Microsoft finished acquiring in 2021. The older Microsoft first-party game studios have either remained relatively quiet in recent years while working on their next big projects, or, in the case of 343 Industries, were recently hit with a surprising number of layoffs.
Following news of the cuts last week, rumors and speculation began to swirl that 343 Industries—which shipped a well-received Halo Infinite single-player campaign in 2021, but struggled with seasonal updates for the multiplayer component in the months since—was being benched. The studio put out a brief statement over the weekend saying Halo was here to stay and that it would continue developing it.
Image: Bethesda / Microsoft
Spencer doubled down on that in his interview with IGN, but provided little insight into the reasoning behind the layoffs or what its plans were for the franchise moving forward. “What we’re doing now is we want to make sure that leadership team is set up with the flexibility to build the plan that they need to go build,” he said. “And Halo will remain critically important to what Xbox is doing, and 343 is critically important to the success of Halo.”
Where Halo Infinite’s previously touted “10-year” plan fits into that, however, remains unclear. “They’ve got some other things, some rumored, some announced, that they’ll be working on,” Spencer said. And on the future of the series as a whole he simply said, “I expect that we’ll be continuing to support and grow Halo for as long as the Xbox is a platform for people to play.” It’s hard to imagine Nintendo talking about Mario with a similar-sounding lack of conviction.
It’s possible Microsoft’s continued struggles with some of its internal projects is partly why it’s so focused on looking outside the company for help. Currently that means trying to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion and fighting off an antitrust lawsuit by the Federal trade Commission in the process. Microsoft had originally promised the deal to get Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush would be wrapped up before the end of summer 2023. That deadline’s coming up quickly, even as the company continues offering compromises, like reportedly giving Sony the option to continue paying to have Activision’s games on its rival Game Pass subscription service, PS Plus.
Spencer told IGN he remains bullish on closing the deal, despite claiming to have known nothing about the logistics of doing so when he started a year ago. “Given a year ago, for me, I didn’t know anything about the process of doing an acquisition like this,” he said. “The fact that I have more insight, more knowledge about what it means to work with the different regulatory boards, I’m more confident now than I was a year ago, simply based on the information I have and the discussions that we’ve been having.”
Justin Roiland is leaving Squanch Games just a month after comedic shooter High on Life became 2022’s most popular Xbox Game Pass launch. The studio co-founder who voices many of High on Life’s characters is currently facing two felony domestic abuse charges from 2020.
Squanch Games announced the news late on Tuesday, shortly after Adult Swim revealed that it was dropping Roiland from Rick and Morty as well. But the CEO’s resignation apparently actually occurred over a week ago on January 16, four days after news of the domestic abuse charges first surfaced (which Roiland pled not guilty to), and three days after Kotaku first reported on a 2018 lawsuit accusing the studio of workplace harassment and discrimination (and which it settled in 2019).
“The passionate team at Squanch will keep developing games we know our fans will love while continuing to support and improve High On Life,” the studio tweeted yesterday. Squanch Games did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why Roiland resigned, whether it was aware of any other allegations related to him or the studio, and whether he still holds any equity in Squanch.
Co-founded by Roiland and former Epic Games executive producer Tanya Watson back in 2016, Squanch Games’ early projects included virtual reality games Accounting and Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes. Those were followed in 2019 by action platformer Trover Saves the Universe. Each of them leaned heavily on voice performances by Roiland that were heavily reminiscent of his work on Rick and Morty.
Last year’s High on Life, which began as a Google Stadia exclusive, was the studio’s biggest game by far, however. In Kotaku’s own review, writer Alyssa Mercante found the humor grating and felt that the running gags overstayed their welcome, but she was pleasantly surprised by the visual style and gunplay. The game similarly divided other critics, but audiences flocked to it on Xbox and PC where it was available day-one on Game Pass.
Whether because of the game’s own merits or the fact that it showed up at the tail end of an otherwise anemic year for Xbox exclusives and blockbusters, it immediately shot up to the top of the charts on Game Pass. Shortly after release, Microsoft crowned it “Xbox Game Pass’ biggest launch of 2022, the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch of all time, and the biggest release of a single player-only game in the service’s history.”
That accolade came after a big promotional campaign for the game on the platform, including a podcast interview between human Xbox mascot Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb and Roiland, where the latter discussed the game and its influences. That’s gone quiet now, with the Xbox Game Pass Twitter account not tweeting about High on Life since news of the domestic abuse charges first broke.
Now that 2022 is over (thank God), the NPD group has done its thing, collecting and processing all the resulting sales data. Now we can look back at the last 12 months and see what games and consoles sold best, and how much money people spent on this stuff. Shocking nobody, Nintendo had another successful year while Elden Ring nearly topped the charts, beating out both God of War and Madden.
Yes, it’s once again that time of the year when the NPD Group—a decades-old retail tracking and market research company—releases data on what people bought last year. While the group tracks and monitors many different industries, since 1995 it’s monitored the sale of video games and consoles in the United States, and usually publishes some of this data every month.
Nintendo is likely pleased to see that in 2022 the top-selling video game console in the United States was the Nintendo Switch. The NPD doesn’t release specific sales numbers publicly, so we don’t know just how many Switch consoles were sold this year, but Nintendo’s aging console outperformed the PlayStation 5, which was the second best-selling platform last year, and Xbox Series X/S, which came in third. It should also be noted that the Switch was the best-selling console of December 2022 so it appears the Switch is still the hot item to get around Christmas. And two new Pokémon games in 2022 (even if they were buggy) probably helped, too.
Late last week, the NPD Group also released its list of the 20 best-selling games of 2022. Before we jump into the list, remember that Nintendo doesn’t share its digital numbers with the NPD, potentially hurting its own games’ rankings. But anyway, here’s the NPD top 10:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Elden Ring
Madden NFL 23
God of War: Ragnarök
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet
FIFA 23
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Horizon Forbidden West
MLB The Show 22
While Elden Ring was on a roll this year and still ends up as the second best-selling game of 2022, it wasn’t able to defeat the juggernaut that is Call of Duty. There’s a reason Activision continues to focus almost all of its resources and studios on Call of Duty: because it makes a lot of money. And as always, some big-name sports games and console exclusives fill out the rest of the list. This data is also a great reminder that most folks outside of the people reading this or commenting below don’t care about bugs, as Madden NFL 23 and the new Pokémon games launched in fairly rough states yet they still cracked the top 10.
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Now that 2022 is over and done with, it’s time to place your bets for the best-selling game of 2023! The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom seems like a solid bet…assuming it releases this year.
If you haven’t heard, Google Stadia is shutting down and closing shop next week. But before the never-quite-successful game streaming service dies, it has provided one neat (and free) little gift you can only play for a few days before it all goes offline.
Launched back in 2019, Google Stadia was a costly and massive investment from Google into the world of video games. Powered by the cloud aka a bunch of servers and off-site computers, Stadia’s big promise was instantaneous gaming on the go. No more updates or expensive consoles. And while it sometimes worked, the high cost of games, lack of features, small library, and internet costs ended up dooming the service. Sure, some superfans logged thousands of hours into it, but for most, it just wasn’t what they wanted or needed from a video game platform.
So it wasn’t surprising that in September of last year, Google announced the end of Stadia. In five days, on January 18, the video game streaming service will shut down. With the end so near, it seemed unlikely that Stadia would receive any new game releases. Yet, Google has published one final game. But don’t expect some big open-world RPG or remake. Instead, the final Stadia game is Worm Game, an internally developed title used to test Stadia long before it became a public service.
We probably were never meant to see or play this Snake-like test game as it sports fairly rudimentary graphics and kinda ugly menus. But in the final days of Stadia, it appears the devs working on the project were able to provide its community one final treat. Even better, anyone can play Worm Game as it’s free. (Which makes sense considering the Stadia store stopped working already.)
The game’s store page features this nice and touching description of the game and what it was used for:
Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.
Is Worm Game some incredibly important or amazing thing? Not really. However, it’s still really cool to get a peek behind the scenes, and thanks to videos of Worm Game, this little piece of test software will be somewhat preserved for folks to look back at years from now.
In other cool End Of Stadia news, Google has confirmed that starting next week, it will start allowing players to unlock the Bluetooth functionally of its Stadia controller.
This is a nice way to make the controller—which has one of my favorite modern D-pads on it—more useful and easier to hook up to more devices. I doubt the devs who worked on Stadia for years were planning for the controller to be the only thing left of Stadia in 2023, but here we are.
If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you’re in for a pretty sweet time starting on January 17. And if you’re not, the first catalog update for 2023 is tough to say no to. The latest injection of games to Sony’s subscription service features some undead co-op slaying, Super Saiyan shenanigans, a couple of classic games, and much more.
The PlayStation Plus subscription service, much like other gaming subs, regularly updates with new games every month. The service is spread across three tiers, Essential, Extra, Premium, which each cost $10, $15, and $18 a month respectively. Premium gets you the largest catalog (it’s the only tier that nets you access to PSX games) as well as letting you take advantage of Sony’s game streaming service (once known as PS Now). This month’s highlights include Back 4 Blood, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Devil May Cry 5, Just Cause 4, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, and Syphon Filter 3, among others.
In a blog update, Sony laid out the following additions to PS Plus Extra and Premium tiers:
PS Plus Extra and Premium PS4 games
Back 4 Blood Dragon Ball FighterZ Jett: The Far Shore Just Cause 4: Reloaded Life Is Strange: Before the Storm Life Is Strange Sayonara Wild Hearts Omno Erica
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PS Plus Extra and Premium PS5 games
Back 4 Blood Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition Jett: The Far Shore Just Cause 4: Reloaded
If you’re on the Premium tier, you’ll also get the following PlayStation One classics:
Syphon Filter 3 Star Wars Demolition Hot Shots Golf 2
If you haven’t played Devil May Cry 5 yet and you like stylish hack-and-slash action, it should probably be your first download of the lot. Otherwise, I definitely recommend giving Syphon Filter 3 a spin. The stealthy action series never reached critical acclaim quite like Metal Gear Solid did, but it’s definitely a pleasant trip down PlayStation memory lane. Let’s not resurrect the Snake vs. Gabe wars in the comments though, please. (Obviously Snake wins.)
After two years on the market, you’d probably think scooping up a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X would be simpler by now.
Sure, there’s the semiconductor shortage the world is still contending with and a supply-chain bottleneck that’s expected to last until 2023 (if not 2024 according to some estimates). But, as Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan said at the annual PlayStation Partner Awards ceremony in Japan on December 2, the company has apparently “resolved the long-term supply issue of the PlayStation 5” in Asian markets.
Oh yeah? Then why, when Kotaku called several brick-and-mortar stores just a few days before Christmas this year were we told inventory for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles was either very limited or completely gone?
The truth of the matter is, while it has become somewhat easier to get your hands on new-gen consoles, doing so still requires diligence and patience—unless you want the smaller, cuter Series S, or can wait for shipping. Otherwise, much like last year, if you were hoping to walk in and out of a store with a brand-spanking-new console in hand, you’re likely out of luck.
Inventory In Brick-And-Mortar Stores Is Unreliable
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You might be tempted to call up your local physical retailer like Best Buy or GameStop with the goal of buying a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in the store. That’s certainly a possibility, though it depends on the console you’re going for.
A GameStop associate at a Manhattan, New York location told Kotaku over the phone that Sony’s system is “rarely” in stock and when it is on the store shelves, it’s gone within the week. The Xbox Series X is “a little more common,” the associate said, but the same inventory issue arises: When it is available, it’s sold out in just a few days’ time. This situation is repeated at other physical stores, including Best Buy and Walmart, with store associates at both retailers telling Kotaku in brief phone interviews that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are “occasionally” in stock but quickly sell out.
Surprisingly, things are a little different at Target. An employee at a Manhattan store said that the PlayStation 5 was actually sitting on the shelves “right now,” but folks looking to buy one couldn’t just walk in, take one to the counter, and check out. Instead, you have to do an in-store pick-up through the company’s website and, if inventory was available, then you could walk in with money and walk out with a PlayStation 5. In an eye-popping twist, the Xbox Series X was immediately available. The employee said, if I really wanted to, I could go buy Microsoft’s console this instant. They were quick to point out, though, that all system purchases—especially on the PlayStation 5—were limited to one per person due to “security concerns.” Yikes.
Online Retailers Are A Bit Better, But Not By Much
If brick-and-mortar stores are unreliable in terms of physical inventory, you may have a better chance at buying a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X online and shipping it to your home. All the major retailers typically have both consoles in stock and if they aren’t available by themselves, you can usually get it bundled with a game or subscription. There are some exceptions here, of course. GameStop, for example, is completely sold out of individualPlayStation 5s and Xbox Series Xs online right now. As is Best Buy on the PlayStation 5, though you can order the Xbox Series X if you have an account.
It’s always finicky ordering something from Walmart, as the company tends to partner with third-party sellers to complete transactions. But, as I’m checking the company’s website right now, PlayStation 5s and Xbox Series Xs are mostly available to purchase online—though the prices for these consoles seem to vary wildly. Target is similarly strange, withbothsystems either being “discontinued for shipping” or relegated to in-store pick-up only—if they are even available at all, of course. One quick note here, though: You could also order the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X directly from Sony and Microsoft’s official websites, and they appear to be in stock. Shipping here seems to be comparable to other major retailers as well, with orders placed now arriving just a few days after Christmas. Not bad.
Hey, You Could Always Just Get An Xbox Series S
It’s just so cute, even when zoomed in.Image: Microsoft
You may have noticed I skipped one whole console: the Xbox Series S. That’s because, as I wrote earlier, Microsoft’s cheaper, smaller system is almost always available. Several associates across the brick-and-mortar stores told Kotaku over the phone that they had “plenty” of Xbox Series S’s sitting on their shelves at the moment. And while I was browsing around multiple online retailers, including Microsoft’s own website, the slimmer sister to the behemoth shoebox Xbox Series X was ready to be ordered.
Sure, it’s not the monster powerhouse that is the Xbox Series X. It can’t output native “true 4K” and only has four teraflops of processing power when compared to the bigger sister’s 12. And yeah, you do only get 512 GB of internal storage instead of 1 TB. But what the system lacks in power is made up by its impressive form factor and accessible price point. If you’re willing to make those minor trade-offs, then the Xbox Series S is an excellent way to get into this current generation of console gaming.
Another year is in the books, y’all. We made it through. The entertainment and technology industries are still getting battered by both the ongoing pandemic and semiconductor shortages, but it does appear that things are smoothing over a little. Maybe this time next year, the forecast of getting a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X will be significantly better. At the very least, we don’t have to worry much about bots anymore.
Wacky shooter High On Life, only a week after its initial release on PC and Xbox Game Pass, is currently the most popular game on the service, beating out big-name Xbox titles and long-running games like Minecraft. It’s a sign the shooter has a lot of fans, but also an indication of just how sparse Xbox’s big, first-party offerings have been in 2022.
Released on December 13 on Game Pass, High On Life received mixed reviews from critics and initially was a mess at launch. Shortly after release, a patch fixing some of the worst performance issues hit and the game is more playable now (if you don’t mind Rick and Morty-like humor.) And it seems a lot of people have decided to give High On Life a go, according to the limited data we have via Xbox.com and the Game Pass app.
On the official Xbox website, you can see a general list of the “Most Popular” Game Pass games, and according to that site—as of 5:20 p.m. EST on Dec. 19—High On Life is the most popular title out of the entire Game Pass collection. A glance at the Game Pass app on Android and iOS reveals a similar story, though the list on the app is slightly different, with Lego Star Wars not in second but sixth. (My guess for the slight discrepancy: the app and website are pulling from the same data but at different times.) Meanwhile, on the PC Game Pass app, High On Life is also at the top, ahead of Darktide and Microsoft Solitaire.
Screenshot: Xbox / Kotaku
So on the one hand, this is a great thing for High On Life developer Squanch Games and Justin Roiland. A lot of people are playing the new shooter across Xbox and PC. That’s great for all the folks (and AI algorithms) who worked hard on the game, and it’s nice to see a new IP doing well in an era of gaming where it seems everything is a remake, sequel, or reboot. But on the other hand, this also seems like a small indictment of Game Pass’ current state and its lack of strong, recent first-party releases. While Sony and Nintendo are putting out big exclusives like God of War and Pokémon, Microsoft in 2022 has been unable to ship its own similar big-name titles.
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This year, Microsoft has only released one new game for Xbox and PC that was developed by one of its own internal studios: the historical narrative game Pentiment by Obsidian. Regardless of what you think about that game, that’s not a great output when compared to Sony or Nintendo.
In comparison, in 2021 Xbox Game Studios released Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, and Age of Empires IV. Would High On Life have done nearly as well and been as popular on Game Pass in 2021 going up against those titles? I don’t know. I can’t look into alternate dimensions. But I do think a lack of big games from Xbox (and in general this year) has helped smaller and medium-sized titles, like Evil West and High On Life, do better than usual. Which, in the long run, is a good thing. But how much longer will a large chunk of Game Pass subscribers keep paying for the service if the biggest games that arrive on it arrive elsewhere and Xbox’s big hitters, like Gears and Halo, are nowhere to be seen?
If you own a PlayStation 4 or 5, you can view your yearly Wrap-Up starting from today. The PlayStation equivalent of Spotify Wrapped and other year-end summaries of user activity on a platform, the Wrap-Up lets Sony once again shame you for your gaming choices as it’s done in prior years. Simply go to this link and log into your PlayStation account.
That’s right. The corporation that owns your console data knows that you only played three hours of Horizon Forbidden West before losing yourself in Elden Ring. You can check stats such as the individual number of hours played on each game, the percentage of that as a part of your total playtime, earned trophies, and the number of PS Plus games that you downloaded (if you’re one of the 45 million subscribers to Sony’s premium gaming service). The last one feels oddly specific. I guess in the midst of declining membership numbers, Sony needed some way of trying to remind you that PS Plus is actually worth it.
Of course, this comes with some caveats. You need to have played games on your console for at least 10 hours, and you need to have consented to giving Sony your data. I don’t remember ever doing something like that, so it was probably just on by default. Haha, that was so sneaky and totally ethical of them. At least I get to see how much I really got out of my console. (The answer: Not much—I’m mostly gaming on my PC or my Switch.)
If you’ve ever played any PlayStation exclusives, you’ll also be able to view community-wide stats, such as the number of Thunderjaws slaughtered in Horizon Forbidden West, or the miles driven in Gran Turismo 7, or the axes thrown in God of War Ragnarök.
You’ll be able to view your stats until January 13, and the Wrap-Up will continuously update until the end of the year.
Starting next year, Microsoft will raise the price of its first-party games from $60 to $70, joining other publishers and video game companies who are doing the same. Welcome to the era of the $70 game, folks.
For a few years now publishers and developers have hinted at game prices increasing as development costs rise and expensive-to-maintain online games become more and more popular. And while some $70 games popped up with the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2020, it wasn’t until this fall that we saw more of the industry move toward this new, higher price with the release of $70 games like Gotham Knights, Modern Warfare II and God of War Ragnarök on PS5. And next year, Microsoft—which has held back on raising prices this holiday season—joins other publishers and developers in this new, pricier era of video games.
As reported by IGN earlier today, Xbox has confirmed that its future first-party games developed for its next-gen Xbox consoles will cost $70 starting next year. This includes titles like Bethesda’s highly-anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield as well as Arkane’s vampire shooter Redfall and the next Forza Motorsport.
Xbox / Arkane
“This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles,” a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. “As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch.”
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft about the price increase.
This increase isn’t too surprising as the entire industry seems to be shifting to $70 games and subscriptions. Even Xbox boss Phil Spencer hinted toward the increase in October, suggesting that the company couldn’t and wouldn’t hold its prices forever, adding that the cost of games, Game Pass, or Xbox consoles would likely increase after the 2022 holiday season. And now, as the year winds down, here we are, and here come the $70 Xbox games.
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Some may be quick to point out that this price increase won’t matter to many as Xbox Game Pass will continue to provide access to all future Xbox first-party releases across console and PC. In 2020, Xbox head of marketing Aaron Greenberg wondered if the price of a game even matters with Game Pass. But for folks who prefer to buy just one or two games a year or who like owning their games and don’t want a monthly subscription, things are about to get a bit more expensive.
It’s also interesting to wonder what price point Starfield or Redfall would have launched at had they made their originally planned 2022 release dates instead of being delayed into 2023. Would Microsoft have made the $70 shift this year, or would it have let Starfield and/or the vampire shooter release as its last first-party $60 games before making this change?