Xbox U-Turns on The Outer Worlds 2 $80 Price Point, Reverting to $70 and Reimbursing Pre-Order Customers

Xbox has announced that it volition not beryllium selling The Outer Worlds 2 - oregon immoderate of its vacation games, for that substance - for $80 aft all. Instead, it volition beryllium kept astatine $70.

An Xbox spokesperson shared the pricing changes with IGN today: “We’re focused connected bringing players unthinkable worlds to explore, and volition support our afloat priced vacation releases, including The Outer Worlds 2, astatine $69.99 – successful enactment with existent marketplace conditions.”

Refunds and reimbursements for those who person already pre-ordered the crippled for $80 volition beryllium disposable via immoderate storefront oregon determination the crippled was bought at. Xbox says that customers should expect refund notifications from the constituent of purchase, and immoderate sellers whitethorn instrumentality a fewer days for refunds to beryllium available.

This comes aft an announcement earlier this period that The Outer Worlds 2 would beryllium Xbox's archetypal $80 game, portion coming to Xbox Game Pass upon merchandise arsenic well. At the time, Xbox cited "market conditions and the rising outgo of development" arsenic the crushed for the terms summation connected its biggest titles. The archetypal The Outer Worlds outgo $60 astatine launch, and a fig of fans criticized the determination particularly successful airy of The Outer Worlds' mostly anti-capitalist themes and story.

Xbox raised the terms of its first-party AAA games from $60 to $70 for the archetypal clip officially successful 2023. Its announcement earlier this period followed successful the footsteps of Nintendo, which released Mario Kart World past period arsenic its archetypal $80 crippled and efficaciously opened the floodgates for different publishers to travel suit.

Despite attempts from executives and analysts to explicate the reasons down continued terms increases of video games, consoles, accessories, and services industry-wide, gamers person remained frustrated astatine the increasing disbursal required to enactment successful the hobby. Earlier this year, Gearbox caput Randy Pitchford faced disapproval for suggesting that if idiosyncratic was a "real fan" of Borderlands 4, they'd find a mode to bargain it astatine $80 (the crippled was aboriginal announced to lone outgo $70).