Xbox Backtracks on $80 Price Tag for The Outer Worlds 2 Following Public Outcry

@Lowdefal I bet people used their wallet and didn't preorder the game

But you can buy our $100 edition and get the game on its actual launch date!

They'll do it eventually. $70 is just the lowest cost of entry at a later date for most big games these days.

@ThomasHL Yeah their preorder numbers must of been way below par.

@Haruki_NLI Ugh I hate this "early access" era we are currently in.

Quite right too. Of all the games to try and charge £80 for, this was not it, and I say that as someone that really enjoyed the first game and is really looking forward to its sequel.

I think that Microsoft attempted to hide behind 'Market Conditions', and all the tariff rises, but now the dust has settled on that a bit, and after what has probably been lacklustre pre-orders, they have seen that £80 won't fly (at least not for this particular title). And of course, another factor will have been that their main competitor (Sony) have not followed suit in pricing games at £80, meaning Microsoft look terrible in comparison.....

I hope people complain about every $80 game, no matter the developer. But I know that isn't going to be the case.

I'm glad that they got rid of the $80 price, but I'm surprised that Microsoft didn't follow up this price drop with laying off half of Obsidian's team.

I haven’t paid £70 for a game yet. I have no intention of buying games until they are on sale anymore. If any game has a physical copy I like to buy second hand.

“$80 was not the best chooooice……….it’s Spacer’s choice!”

Well. I'm not gonna lie, i'm disapointed.
I really loved The Outer Worlds, but it was a small game. I dreamed of the same game but with way bigger scope/budget.

So when i discovered TOW2 had that price point, in my head i immedialty thought "yeah, it will be like the first one but 10 times bigger and better".

Now i see this, and i'm telling myself that they are not confident with the price point, which maybe means the game will not be as "big" as i expected...

I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the plan the entire time. “Announce it at $80, if there’s no backlash, great go with it, but if there is drop it to $70 and we’ll look like we are pro consumer.”

Mario Kart World did not set a precedent for $80 games. They've been around far longer.

Squeaky wheel gets the grease. Mmmm grease

@Lowdefal nobody should accept it the prices now are to high but if companies Try go any higher they deserve fall and fail badly the judt pyre greed nothing else and I can't understand digital games are more expensive than physical games that's just insulting plus with outer worlds 2 it's needs be a big game for the price it's set at now

No game should cost that price and it’s why physical is still important so that we can wait and buy games in sales and not be held random by a made up digital storefront. Games these days have so much stripped content and extra garbage thrown in that they can’t justify the price increase.

Sony could do the funniest thing now

"Public Outcry" seems a bit of a dramatic phrase. 😂

Still too much, I am still salty for buying the first one for 30$, it didn't worth it and they have been downhill ever since anyway.

I bought Expedition 33 to support games releasing at $50.

Since so many games enter an overly-crowded market, it's wild to me that so many seem keen to march forward with higher pricing.

There's something to be said for giving your customers (real and potential) the perception of good (or great) value by allowing them to feel as though they have "gotten away with" buying a good game for less. More games need to embrace the fact that, yes, they surely can enter the market at $70 just because other big games do it and they want to be seen as peers... but there's also a HUGE space for games - especially those that are unknown IP or from unproven teams - to enter at $60, $50, or even $40. Come in low, be seen as a great value almost immediately and juice those sales #s. You may "lose" out on capital off the top, but you're buying goodwill, more players, and (as long as it's actually good) more free advertising as your broader player base sings your game's praises.

There are some recent hits (like Clair Obscur and Helldivers 2) that understood this and reaped the benefits.

I know the bean counters in these companies think they "get" it, but the flagging sales of numerous seemingly impenetrable titles/franchises proves otherwise.

This is all to say, this is a good move from Microsoft (amidst a flurry of awful ones, of late). But this speaks to a broader problem that they found themselves in the middle of for no reason other than misunderstanding their own market. (And for what it's worth, I don't think the game should be a dime over $60, but that's just me.)

Good news, but give it a few weeks before Xbox screws something up again. Always one step forward, one step (or more) back with them

I wonder if this was a marketing ploy 🤔

It's a great trick. Set an absurd price, and then, if people start complaining, lower it to a slightly less absurd price. The fans are less upset, and the publisher still wins.

It was not outcry. It was pre-order numbers. They were probably horrible. Or it is a sneaky marketing ploy. Make it overpriced. Wait a few weeks. Then drop it. See if pre-orders go over the top as players think they are rewarding a good decision.

If Mario Party Jamboree can be $80 ($79.99US) on Switch 2 then really any game can be $80.

And if you want to make the argument it's $60 + $20 dlc I'm willing to listen, but you need to show me the Switch 2 version in store or online for $60 w/ the dlc sold separately, b/c I think it's only available in an $80 one size fits all bundle. In which case it isn't a $60 game + $20 dlc, it's an $80 game. You can buy the Switch version and upgrade, but there's no $60 Switch 2 version. So it's an $80 Switch 2 game.

And this is made even worse b/c the base game on Switch 2 is still the base game on Switch, they didn't update the graphics or anything, so you are paying $80 for a plain old Switch game + a non-optional $20 Switch 2 dlc. 🤑

What will this be in the UK though. I suspect there will be no price change?

Blunder after blunder. £80 for outer worlds 2 or £70 for. yotie hmmmmmmmmm

Let me state this in a very clear manner for all of you: this game is now costing 400 reais (brazilian currency) on PS Store, which is NOT the equivalent of 70 dollars. This price is the equivalent of 80 dollars. So, you might me wondering, how much was the game before? Did the price change at all? Yes, it did. It went from 450 reais to 400, which means the game was priced higher than the usual, for reasons i can't explain, and yes, I'm talking about the standard edition. I don't know why the price is so high in Brazil but this change didn't benefit us at all, we're still getting ***** by Microsoft, regardless

Doesn't matter, though, I'll skip this one, gladly. Also, Microsoft has been doing a ***** job with their ports on PS5: Doom Eternal performance is worse on PS5 than Xbox Series X, even on PS5 Pro; Age of Mythology Retold is ***** on PS5, with horrible performance issues (according to reddit), Oblivion Remastered on PS5 received most updates way after Xbox did (until the last update, where the game was finally patched on the same day in all in platforms) and so on. I won't buy or support their stuff if they keep doing ***** like this. The only Microsoft game i got to this day on PS5 was Hi Fi Rush

@rjejr The $60 is for the Switch 1 game Super Mario Party Jamboree, which is playable on Switch 2. And yes, you can absolutely buy it at $60 and play that version on the Switch 2 — both physically and digitally. Unless you think every Switch 1 game should receive a price cut now — and PS4 game, for that matter — there's really no reason to bemoan why $60 doesn't entitle you to a Switch 2 upgrade.

The Jamboree TV expansion is Switch 2 exclusive, and costs $20. The game is perfectly playable on Switch 2 without it, so arguing that it's a $80 game is like arguing Forbidden West is a $90 game because of its DLC. The Zeldas would've been a better example of what you're saying. But the original versions are still perfectly playable, meaning they're $60/$70 games with $10 upgrades that argument should've been free.

EDIT: I'm too lazy to check this, but I'm fairly certain the expansion upgrade would improve the visuals of game, like every other S2 edition does. It's likely just a resolution boost, though. I also thought that I might've misunderstood you, and you were saying you can't get the S2 edition technical upgrades at $60. Which would be a more cohesive argument, I think. But your last claim that it's a S1 game without no graphical updates regardless tells me that's not at all what you meant.

It's the new marketing ploy charge high then reverse it to make us look good to sell more copies

@Bsb56 That's a really s*** marketing plot. "Hey, let's make everyone mad at us, so we can retreat like a coward and do the normal thing that wouldn't have made us look good in the first place."

More likely series of events:
Microsoft: "Nintendo is charging $80? It's time we do the same!"
Obsidian: "Well, they're charging $80 for the sequel to one of the best selling games of all time."
Microsoft: "Aren't you coming out with Fallout, or something? Let's charge $80 for that."
Obsidian: "No one is going to pay $80 for our esoteric, barely established IP. You're going to cannibalize our revenue if you do that."
Microsoft: "Haha, $80 it is!"

Months later

Microsoft: "Why aren't people pre-ordering your game!? This is our biggest release this year."
Obsidian: "Why is our obscure RPG your biggest release? Whatever. Probably because you went over our heads and set the price to $80."
Microsoft: "So if it's $70, it'll sell as much as the Switch 2?"
Obsidian: "W-who the hell is in charge over there? Do you guys know anything about this industry?"
Microsoft: "We know it makes us money."

Preorder sales/numbers must’ve been *****. That’s the only “feedback” that would sway them.

Still paying 69.99 for this is crazy 50 at max

@Fiendish-Beaver All of that, and speaking as a pretty pissed off fan right now, I don't think the head honchos at MS (I'm talking above Phils head) had any idea just how big a ***** storm/back lash they'd receive after those layoffs. People largely forgave them pretty quick after last year, once is maybe understandable (Especially after Redfall), but oh boy are we not going to now it's seemingly a yearly pattern and they're cancelling their most interesting projects left right and centre.

Probably giving up Gamepass once I finish off Clair Obscur, and I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of other people have too.

If I was Xbox leadership I'd just quit at this point, given no matter what they do, the company is going to force them to undermine all the goodwill they've ever gained from the fans on a seemingly yearly basis.

OK, that’s better. Still, won’t be long before MS does something else stupid.

You've got to really want a game to spend $70 considering their launch state, our collective backlogs and the fact it'll be $20 less within a few months. Saying that, if the value is there for you then that's all you need. However I simply don't believe these companies are making the revenue they could at that price.

@Fiendish-Beaver it hasnt been 80£. It was and is 70£. All price increase at this moment is only towards US and $. Yes, it could push £/€ up eventually but still at this moment it is not true about 80£

@RoomWithaMoose Except for Mario Party Jamboree, the upgrade pack doesn't upgrade the resolution and framerate of the Switch 1 content. Jamboree TV is 1440p, but the rest of the game is still 1080p docked and 720 undocked. In fact, the upgrade for Jamboree is not worth it.

As for the The outer worlds 2, it's not even worth pirating. The first one was bad and I doubt Obsidian are good enough to have improved on anything.

@GigaGaia Then it's literally a $60 S1 game with a $20 expansion exclusive to the S2. So why is OP calling it an $80 game?

Like, we can criticize the worth of JTV (Lord knows I had no plans on buying it to begin with). But, focusing on the premise of OP's argument, all this information does is reinforce that Jamboree is indeed a $60 game.

Big news confirming that they’re keeping CoD at $70 this year too. Was feeling confident that would def get the bump too.

After Avowed coming & going, trying to sell this at $80 seemed crazy. Could have tried to get an E33 reaction by going $50, maybe $60, hoping that helps it sell better.

@StandardMario No idea where your going for your sandwich and tea, but Arizona bottles are 99 cents and a sandwich by a deli near me is at $5

Still going to be a AA mediocre game from Obisidian. I wouldn't touch it for more than 30 and not even that.

@Odium I don’t think it’s not deep. Not everyone has your level of foresight and an elaborate diagram to reference. I just think they got greedy after Nintendo’s move with Mario Kart.

@Glassneedles well played, join me and I’ll take your gaming pain.

First game was 60$ and year later it dropped to 36$

and this sequel doesn't look that better to be worth more than 60$

@RoomWithaMoose I read in the review on Nintendo Life that the Switch 1 base game was the same base game on Switch 2, no difference.

"Jumping into the base game, nothing has changed, right down to — it seems — the crispness of the textures and resolution, as this older mode is slightly blurrier and not as slick as the newer addition."

https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch-2/super-mario-party-jamboree-nintendo-switch-2-edition-plus-jamboree-tv

I looked in the Nintendo eshop and there is no Switch 2 version of Mario Party Jamboree for $60. There is a $60 Switch version, an $80 Switch 2 version, and a $20 upgrade. I'm pretty sure you can buy the base Horizon FW game on PS5 stand alone w/ the dlc.

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/super-mario-party-jamboree-nintendo-switch-2-edition-plus-jamboree-tv-switch-2/

You are correct about Nintendo doing the same thing w/ the 2 Zelda games on Switch, BotW and TotK, you can only buy them bundled with the dlc. I'm not a fan of that either, but I suppose it's good Nintendo is consistent in forcing dlc onto their paying customers whether they like it or not. $70 for BotW in 2025 is insane, it's a Wii U game, it's almost 10 years old. 🤑

https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-nintendo-switch-2-edition-switch-2/

@rjejr You can absolutely buy that $60 S1 game and play it on the S2. If you're saying there should be a S2 upgrade, that's a different argument. You can play Jamboree on the S2 without buying JTV, that version just isn't marketed as the S2 version.

You can also play BotW and TotK on the S2 without the upgrade packs. Repeat: you DO NOT have to buy the upgrade packs. And I have been playing Kirby and the Forgotten Land on the S2 without its upgrade pack (which isn't even out yet. It's not like Jamboree has been incompatible with the S2 for the last month).

EDIT: In fact, with the Zelda games and a good chunk of BC titles, even the S1 versions see a performance boost natively on the S2 (more like they hit they max targets if they struggled before). For free. There's also several Nintendo games that did get free S2 updates that increased their resolution and/or performance — like Odyssey. Honestly, it just sounds like you have no idea what you're talking about.

Even to answer your original request ("show me the S2 version sold w/o the DLC digitally..."), you already found that. It's the page for the S1 version. It's like how you can play the PS4 version of Forbidden West on the PS5 — literally the same thing.

@RoomWithaMoose Are you just being wrong on purpose to be annoying or do you really not understand. Sometimes it's hard to tell.

Here's the PS5, not the PS4 the PS5, page for Horizon Forbidden West. There are 2 versions, the base game for $50 and the bundle with the dlc for $60.

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/horizon-forbidden-west/

So yes, you CAN BUY the PS5 version of HFW base game w/o the dlc, you have a choice w/ or without. You CAN NOT buy a Switch 2 version of Mario Party Jamboree w/o the dlc. Yes the Switch 2 plays Switch 1 games, that backwards compatibility, an entirely different issue. We're talking about Switch 2, not Switch, Switch 2 versions of games w/o the dlc. Like HFW you keep bringing up, even though all it does is prove you wrong.

Backwards compatibility w/ Switch 1 games is not the same as a Switch 2 box w/ the base game that you can buy w/o the dlc. Like you can on PS5 with HFW. Nintendo is forcing people who want the Switch 2 box on their shelf to buy the dlc w/ the base game. At which point it isn't even really dlc, it's part of the game.

@rjejr Sooo, there isn't really a S2 version of Jamboree. There's a S2 exclusive expansion that doesn't alter the OG game at all — counter to what I wrongly assumed.

"I also thought that I might've misunderstood you, and you were saying you can't get the S2 edition technical upgrades at $60. Which would be a more cohesive argument."

This is why I suggested Zelda would be a better example of this specific thing. Because there, the S2 editions are specifically for technical upgrades (I mean, Nintendo wants us to think it's for Zelda Notes. But nah). JTV, on the other hand, is essentially standalone game modes and extra mini games. But then you criticize how JTV doesn't upgrade Jamboree's performance, which is another argument entirely that contradicts this "S2 edition is $80" point.

You're just saying a lot of random things that, apart from another, are sensible criticisms, but together obfuscate exactly what your point is. Now you're taking specifically about getting a box that says Switch 2 on it. Which — I don't know — can't they just buy the S1 version and put it on their shelf? Does it really matter that they aren't offering a S1 game branded as a S2 game? If someone's so OCD about it, I'd hope they know they can easily make their own case inserts at a print shop...

I don't know — I guess let me tersely address every point I've deciphered. Just so my stance is clear:

Jamboree is an $80 game: Jamboree+JTV is $80. That's a $60 S1 game and a $20 S2 expansion.

You can't get a physical copy of S2 Jamboree: Literally don't care about case branding. There isn't really a S2 Jamboree, anyway. And if there was...

The S2 Editions of games cost $70-$80: Yes they do. It's debatable if they should. And I still think that's different from, 'these games cost $70-$80. Nintendo at least seems to think that they should have extra content of some sort if they're charging money for upgrades. But that leads to the problem...

S2 technical upgrades are locked behind premium DLC (Some of them, at least): Nintendo didn't start the practice of charging for next-gen editions. So I wouldn't say $10 asking price is too egregious. If it comes with extra content, cool. As for the $20s, I don't really see why it can't be a la carte; $10 for technical improvements and $10 for new content. I'm guessing Nintendo just didn't want to make this more confusing than it already is. But still, I support them offering it separately.

Nintendo is forcing you to buy these packs on S2, making these games $70-$80: I mean, not really. You don't have to buy the upgrades for any of these games if you don't think it's worth it. They're all still very playable on the S2.

Crazy to have to be laying off so many people and then deciding that the consumers who will call you awful for doing that should get to decide your pricing structure