According to the Xbox boss, the company held off price rises as long as it could.
Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed that it would be raising prices for the titles developed by its internal studios from $60 to $70 starting in 2023, so games like Bethesda's Starfield, Turn 10 Studios' Forza Motorsport, and Arkane's Redfall, all of which are set to be released next year, will cost $69.99 at launch.
Speaking at the latest episode of the Second Request podcast, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer commented on the company's decision to raise prices explaining that given the current economic realities and rising costs, the increase in the game prices was just a matter of time.
"Pricing is always something that we’re conscious of and the impact it has on our customers, and there’s multiple things that we can price in our platform," Spencer said. "There’s obviously the price of the consoles themselves, the price of the games, the price of the subscription, and just given our economic realities right now, something had to give in terms of us continuing to run the business with the increased cost basis that we had."
The Xbox head also noted that Microsoft wasn't the first company that raised prices for their games and emphasized that it hadn't raised prices and delayed this moment as long as it could.
Microsoft is indeed not the first company to raise the price of AAA games to $70. Back in August 2020, publisher Take-Two began selling its games for last-gen consoles at $70, starting with NBA 2K21. Since then, other companies including Activision, Sony, EA, Square Enix, and Ubisoft have followed suit.
Elsewhere in the interview, Spencer reiterated that the price increase reflects the increased costs of game development. This was also claimed by a Microsoft spokesperson who, at the time of the announcement of the upcoming price increase, said that the move "reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity" of the upcoming Xbox first-party exclusives.
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