Xbox's first $80 video game officially confirmed, brace yourselves

Xbox has just confirmed its first $80 release, making that Game Pass subscription all the more enticing.

In a world where everything is getting a little more expensive, it looks like another video game price hike is about to become standard.

Between Nintendo selling Mario Kart World for $80 and rumours that GTA 6 could also be massively expensive, it’s a bad time to be a gamer on a budget.

Now, it appears that Microsoft is also geared up to sell its first game at $80 retail price, and it’s coming later this year.

As news about the new Xbox handheld and that a new Halo might be launching next year were announced, Xbox also revealed that The Outer Worlds 2, the next RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, is coming later this year.

It’s a first-person RPG from the developers of Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, and particularly takes a lot of cues from the former.

Pre-orders were also opened after the showcase, revealing that The Outer Worlds 2 will cost $80.

The standard edition costs $80/£70, while the more expensive premium edition is an extra 20 bucks on top of the original price.

We knew this was coming, of course, as Microsoft had confirmed a price hike earlier this year. It also raised the price of new Xbox hardware at the same time.

But with games already being quite expensive as is, this’ll probably price out more people than before.

It’ll also make that Xbox Game Pass subscription all the more necessary for those who can't afford retail prices, as The Outer Worlds 2 will launch on the service’s Ultimate tier on the same day as release.

The Outer Worlds 2 will be released on 29th October, 2025 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and PS5.

Expect it to also hit Xbox Game Pass Standard at some point, around a year or two after release.