Xbox to continue evaluating its approach to game pricing, after walking back $80 RRP for Outer Worlds 2

The head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, has said that the company is continuing to evaluate how it prices its new releases.

Speaking to Variety, the executive said that the firm hoped to “meet people where they are” when it comes to how much its launches cost.

This follows Microsoft’s June announcement that Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds 2 would retail for $80. Following a user backlash, the company reversed this decision in July and the sci-fi RPG launched with a price tag of $69.99.

“Our whole focus is on delivering player satisfaction and delivering player value. And we’re always going to be listening to what people want there,” Booty said.

“We’ve reacted in the last year, and I think for us, the real focus is going to be — I’ll come back to the phrase meeting people where they are. I think there’s going to be less of a focus on what’s that top line price of a game, as people start to engage in different ways with games. From our point of view, monetisation just happens in so many different ways right now. So we’re going to continue to listen to the feedback from fans. We’re going to continue, to balance that with needing to run the healthy business. But right now, on the content side, we don’t have any pricing updates.”

Xbox was not alone in considering price increases. Fellow platform holder Nintendo has argued that the $80 price tag for Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World is a “fair price”. Analyst Matthew Ball has previously mooted a $100 price tag for GTA 6.

Booty also discussed the recently-released Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, saying that it is “one of the most-played games” on Xbox at the moment. The company’s Activision division announced earlier this week that it is moving away from an annual release cycle in the face of what appears to be a poor critical and commercial reception for the latest title.

“I’m really proud of what the team did, in terms of feature innovation, moving the franchise forward,” Booty said.

“Shipping a major franchise like clockwork every year is a really difficult task, and I’m really proud of what the team did to move the franchise forward in that way. And the interesting thing about Call of Duty is, I think that as an IP, it is really well positioned to continue to deliver content for players going forward; the system of seasons. And it’s not just about the launch, but it’s kind of in its own unique category and ability in terms of how the team keeps delivering content throughout the year. So we’re real happy with where we’ve landed with that.”