Xbox gamers slam ‘ridiculous’ price hike

Xbox gamers have slammed a “ridiculous” price hike, and that’s putting it mildly.

Despite being in the fifth year of the current console generation, everything is getting more expensive with the likes of PlayStation and Xbox raising the prices of its consoles, which is the opposite scenario at this point in previous generations.

Video games are getting more expensive, too. For months, we’ve heard rumours that prices for games will go up at some point, and by the looks of things, publishers were waiting for someone else to make that first move, and that first move was made by Nintendo.

When Mario Kart World was revealed in the Nintendo Switch 2 presentation, news soon followed that this game will have an RRP of £74.99/$79.99. This has seemingly caused a domino effect that Sony and Microsoft were waiting for.

“Well, the pre-order prices are live and they’re ******* expensive!” exclaimed Redditor Successful_Page_4524, sharing a screenshot of The Outer Worlds 2 page on Steam, which lists $79.99 for the standard edition and $99.99 for the Premium Edition.

“This is absolutely ridiculous! I pre-ordered a game that came out in April, and that price was $50. And that was for the Premium Edition,” they continued. “I had heard rumours that Xbox would be jacking up prices for consoles and digital games, but I didn’t think it would be this quick.”

In the UK, The Outer Worlds 2 is selling for £69.99 and £89.99, respectively, on Steam.

Much like id Software under the Bethesda Softworks umbrella, The Outer Worlds 2 developer, Obsidian Entertainment, is owned by Microsoft and DOOM: The Dark Ages shares the same price for the standard edition.

Compare this to the PlayStation 5 console exclusive, Stellar Blade, which releases on PC via Steam tomorrow. It has a launch RRP of £59.99 for the standard edition and £79.99 for the Complete Edition.

“As long as consumers continue to buy at these prices, companies will continue issuing them, so am I surprised? No. Disappointed? Yeah,” replied sailorharmony.

“I'll buy this when the price drops HEAVILY,” said TheKappieChap, referring to The Outer Worlds 2.

“$80 for the base game makes my eye twitch,” said JustAMan1234567 and I can see why. Publishers are making these prices the new normal, and for some games, additional content will still be locked behind a paywall.

I suppose, at least the likes of DOOM: The Dark Ages is on Xbox Game Pass, and so too will The Outer Worlds 2 when it launches later this year. But that’s only good if you’re a PC and Xbox gamer.

The Outer Worlds 2 will be released on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 29 October 2025.