Following Sony and others, Activision brought its $70 game to Steam (opens in new tab) this year with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Next year, Microsoft will follow suit: the company told IGN (opens in new tab) that after 2023, it will raise the standard price of new first-party games, including Starfield (opens in new tab) and Redfall (opens in new tab), from $60 to $70 He said he would raise the standard price from $60 to $70.

"This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles," a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN."

"As with all games developed by the Xbox team, these games will be available on Game Pass on the same day as their launch.

Of course, these are US prices. For example, "Modern Warfare 2" is currently $90 in Canada, but Microsoft did not comment on how this price increase would be reflected in other countries; in a separate statement sent to PC Gamer, Microsoft confirmed that the price increase would be applied "across console and PC storefronts" . across console and PC storefronts.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer had hinted at the possibility of a price increase at a Wall Street Journal Live conference earlier this year (via Tom Warren), when he said that Microsoft had "maintained [current] prices through the 2022 holiday season He stated that Microsoft had decided that it was "important to maintain [the current] price" until the 2022 holiday season.

Development budgets for big titles like "Starfield" continue to balloon, but prices have more or less stabilized: since 2015's "Black Ops 3," the price of literally every "Call of Duty Game," whether on Steam or Battle.net was $59.99. No one likes a price increase, but it is hard to argue that, at least from that perspective, the price should be raised at least a little. It is also worth noting that Microsoft is not leading this charge, but following suit: Sony (open in new tab) and Take-Two (open in new tab) have already raised the price of some games, and Ubisoft (open in new tab) announced earlier this year that its upcoming major releases will also be $70.

And since I'm of a certain age, here's how much The Bard's Tale cost when it was released in 1985.

This $76.95 would be about $204 today, according to various online inflation calendars. The Canadian dollar traded around 85 cents until 1985, so the conversion would be $174.

The upcoming price increase makes Microsoft's game pass look even more attractive than it is now. It's a tremendous value service (open in new tab), but it's reasonable to assume that if Microsoft is satisfied with the size of its subscriber base, its prices could go up as well Netflix's prices have steadily increased over the past decade. Microsoft declined to comment on this point.

"We are constantly evaluating our business to provide fans with great gaming options at prices that are commensurate with local market conditions. With today's economic climate, we may need to adjust our pricing in the future to continue to provide the quality experience gamers have come to expect from Xbox. We have nothing to announce at this time."

Incidentally, no release date has been set for Starfield, but it is currently expected to be available in the first half of 2023.