Xbox lowers price of Outer Worlds 2 to $70, issues refunds

How often does this ever happen: A video games publisher lowers the price of a game? That's what happened today as Microsoft has chosen to lower the price of The Outer Worlds 2 to better reflect "current market conditions."

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The Outer Worlds 2 is no longer the first $80 Xbox game. Microsoft today made a surprise announcement: The Outer Worlds 2 no longer costs $80, and will now instead be $10 cheaper. The new price of Obsidian's upcoming RPG is now $70, which is in line with the new baseline MSRP introduced at the beginning of the PS5/Xbox Series generation. Gamers who pre-ordered The Outer Worlds 2 can receive a refund and repurchase at a cheaper price.

"We're focused on bringing players incredible worlds to explore, and will keep our full priced holiday releases, including The Outer Worlds 2, at $69.99 - in line with current market conditions," a Microsoft rep tells Windows Central.

It's unclear how much the $80 price tag would have affected The Outer Worlds 2's sales, however our own data analysis conducted in 2023 shows that gamers seem unwilling to spend high prices for AAA games. This has been correlated by the increasing rise in free-to-play games on a general basis, however breakout hits like Baldur's Gate 3 and more recently Kingdom Come Deliverance II are full-priced favorites.

The news also comes after Obsidian's latest RPG, Avowed, made a smaller splash in the market and it's possible that this price adjustment was a bid to try to move more unit sales of The Outer Worlds 2 across PlayStation 5 and PC platforms.

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