As these new consoles start coming out next month, there’s much to be very excited about, but one thing that has been a damper for a lot of people has been the issue of price: specifically the raise from $59.99 to $69.99. The price has been standard in the US for over a decade now, but the industry has decided it’s time to hike (with other regions getting an even bigger spike). Sony, as the biggest current platform holder and the effective market leader, announced that they would be also be part of the hike, seemingly causing the biggest domino to fall. But what about Microsoft? Well, they have other ideas.
Xbox’s Aaron Greenberg spoke about price in the past, saying it was complex issue to consider. While he dodged the core question of whether Microsoft first party titles would also go up to $70 once they ended cross-gen development, he also seems to think it doesn’t matter much. On the Real Deal podcast, Greenberg said with the Xbox Game Pass, you get all of those titles for a flat subscription fee, so he wonders…does it even matter?
“It’s a different approach, and they have a right to do whatever they want to do with their pricing. But for us, we’ve really taken a fan-centric approach, first with Smart Delivery, and most importantly, you get all our games at launch with Game Pass. So does the price of a game even matter, if it’s included in your Game Pass subscription?”
Ultimately, Greenberg has a point here, and Microsoft is clearly pushing Game Pass in a big way. But there are always people who will prefer to buy games one at a time for whatever reasons, and even though all first party Microsoft titles will be on Game Pass (which is vast and growing bigger by the day it seems), there’s still a lot of big third party titles that will either never come to Game Pass or at least not until long after release. So, for some, it does matter. Does it matter enough to make a difference in the end? Who really knows, but either way, for those who chose not to get on the Game Pass train, I’d ready myself for that $69.99 price tag eventually.