{"id":33295,"date":"2025-07-24T08:32:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/33295\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T08:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:32:08","slug":"microsoft-backtracks-on-80-the-outer-worlds-2-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/33295\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft backtracks on $80 The Outer Worlds 2 pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s hope that the gaming industry won’t follow Nintendo’s lead with $80 pricing. (Well, at least not yet.) On Wednesday, Microsoft backtracked<\/a> on the price increase for The Outer Worlds 2<\/a>. The game now costs $70, which itself was considered outrageous<\/a> only a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Microsoft told<\/a> Windows Central that those who already pre-ordered Obsidian’s shooter at $80 can get refunds at the point of purchase. Unfortunately, you can’t simply get a $10 price adjustment. You’ll have to refund the full $80 and then pre-order again for $70. I’m beginning to think consumer-friendliness isn’t the priority here.<\/p>\n

The $80 pricing push began with Mario Kart World<\/a>. Comments by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford initially suggested Borderlands 4<\/a> might have followed. Fortunately, 2K Games saw something in the backlash that made it balk; it’s launching at $70<\/a>. A Bluesky user summed it up in a reply to Obsidian’s U-turn. “Consumer advocacy in this awful state of the industry WORKS,” \u202a@johnbrebbia posted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Nintendo<\/p>\n

Nintendo<\/p>\n

The gaming industry is caught in a godawful whirlwind of layoffs<\/a>, studio closures<\/a> and price increases<\/a>. That’s happening against a backdrop of rising costs<\/a> for consumers. Meanwhile, the gaming industry is projected<\/a> to reach $189 billion this year, a 3.4 percent increase. That’s a combustible mixture if ever there was one.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG deals with themes of late-stage capitalism. The developer even deployed in-world satire to announce the pricing change: “Dear Galactic Citizens! We have received your SOS via skip drone about the pricing…” Winking at one’s audience is usually a good thing, but this strikes me as more of a “dude, read the room” moment.<\/p>\n

Regardless, The Outer Worlds 2 is set to arrive on October 29<\/a>. It will be available for Xbox Series X\/S, PS5 and PC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There’s hope that the gaming industry won’t follow Nintendo’s lead with $80 pricing. (Well, at least not yet.)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[559,3,27758,74,27757,1298],"class_list":["post-33295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gaming","tag-news","tag-obsidian","tag-technology","tag-the-outer-worlds-2","tag-xbox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}