New Xbox games will cost $70 next year, Microsoft officially confirms

Starting in 2023, Microsoft will join the rest of the games industry and start charging $69.99 for its new games.

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New first-party Xbox Series X/S games will cost $70 from next year onward, Microsoft has told IGN. This includes new games like Starfield, Redfall, new Forza Motosport titles, the upcoming next-gen Fable game, MachineGames' Indiana Jones project, Perfect Dark, Hellblade II, and many other first-party games.

"This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles. As with all games developed by our teams at Xbox, they will also be available with Game Pass the same day they launch."

It's worth noting that none of these first-party games have set-in-stone release dates, and that existing Xbox games are still made to be compatible on Xbox One consoles.

The move isn't a surprise but it's still bad news for gamers and potentially the games industry as a whole, which is being squeezed by an inflation market. Consumers around the globe are having to pare back entertainment options to meet basic costs of living, and this new $70 price point was set back during the holiday coronavirus highpoints of 2020 by Sony, who charged the new MSRP for all PlayStation 5 games, and publishers like Take-Two Interactive and Activision.

Right now there are only a handful of games companies that do not charge $69.99 for their games, including Nintendo, SEGA, and Capcom.

Back in October, Microsoft's Phil Spencer confirmed price hikes were incoming. The company will squeeze out one last holiday quarter with baseline $59.99 game prices before kicking off the new hike in 2023.

"We have to look at the return on our business, the cost of our business. We've held price on our consoles, on our games, and our subscription. I don't think we'll be able to do that forever. I do think at some point we're going to have to raise prices on certain things, but going into this holiday we thought it was really important that we maintain the prices that we have," Spencer said at the time.

"Consumers are more uncertain right now than they have been in a long time, and I want our medium of video games to be something that they find attractive."