Xbox has had its fair share of PR disasters in 2025. It started with massive layoffs, game cancellations (rest easy, Perfect Dark), and price increases for Game Pass and consoles. While their content and service sales have allegedly remained strong, many fans were unhappy when the company tried to push $80 games on them. They first attempted this with Outer Worlds 2, quickly walking back the price to $70 after backlash.
In an interview with Variety, the head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, recently stated the following when discussing game pricing and value:
I’ll come back to the phrase meeting people where they are. I think there’s going to be less of a focus on what’s that top line price of a game, as people start to engage in different ways with games. From our point of view, monetization just happens in so many different ways right now. So we’re going to continue to listen to the feedback from fans.
So, No More $80 Games On Xbox?
People already aren’t too happy about paying $70 for an AAA game, and they were certainly never going to give up $80 that easily. It’s also interesting that Microsoft completely overestimated the hype for the Outer Worlds series, as the original game was considered “good” but not exactly a masterpiece. Now, while the sequel is miles better in my opinion, none of that was apparent from the build-up to its release.
On top of that, with Xbox pretty much shoving every first-party title to Game Pass on day one, many felt like they were being punished for not subscribing. Why buy an $80 game when you can just try it out with Xbox Game Pass? Even if you’re a physical game collector, Xbox Game Pass costs $30, so that $50 difference is really hard to justify.
Matt Booty went on to say that Xbox doesn’t have any pricing updates for future games “right now.” While that’s not exactly the most worrying statement, it does leave the door open for a price increase in the future. Xbox is never bothered by jumping on a bandwagon that makes them more money, as this is the company that first started charging for online multiplayer.
Booty also expressed appreciation for the team behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, calling it one of the most popular titles on Xbox right now. The numbers may be strong, but fans and critics’ reactions haven’t been positive for CoD this year. Honestly, I just hope the next year for Xbox is a quiet one: great games, no controversial decisions, and less slop, please.
