First-Party Xbox One Games Will Cost the Same as Xbox 360 Games

79
Lee Bradley

Microsoft has confirmed that first-party Xbox One games will carry a suggested retail price of $59.99.

That essentially means that the price of Microsoft published games will remain the same as we move into the next generation.

What it doesn’t clarify, however, is the approach third-party publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision will take.

All three companies have been approached to reveal their pricing for next-gen games, but have yet to make any public comment.

However, with Microsoft leading the way, let’s hope everyone else follows.

The retail price of the Xbox One was announced last week during E3 2013. The console launches in November and will cost $499 in North America,  €499 in Europe, and £429 in the UK.

Despite consumer concerns about the Xbox One costing around $100/£80 more than the PS4, Microsoft “couldn’t be happier” with the price point.

Comments
79
  • Saw this a minute ago on IGN, people are still finding something to complain about with it. I for one am happy with that!
  • At least microsoft is trying to help developers, unlike sony. Would've liked a 10 bucks prize drop though, oh well.
  • Does that mean people in the UK will have to pay £59.99 for games ?
  • @1 Really? Ha, what are they complaining about? I don't get the problem.
  • @2 Then wait for a couple of weeks before buying the game, should've dropped $10 by then :)
  • @3, no, it'd be £40 ish as normal. Given the restrictions on these games, I'm glad that there's no increase, they couldn't really of justified a price increase with the way they're axing a large amount of the pre-owned market.
  • I wonder if the prices in Australia will drop, Though i'll probably end up paying $100 for every game.
  • Dope!! :)
  • @4, I don't know. Some people will just complain for the sake of complaining.
  • I wonder what the digital versions will be priced at, will they be full retail price? Will they be over charged like they currently are? Are they going to actually have regularly changing price's?
  • Seems like everything the last 4 or 5 days has been good news, I hope it continues. I really hope they sort out their prices for their on-demand service, in the UK games like "Family Guy" are still £49.99 on there. Most new games come out at £49.99 on there, when you can buy them in the shops for £39.99
  • @2 Sony is looking out for gamers & consumer rights. Will you be able to say the same about MS in 15 years when the XB1 won't even work?
  • @12 in 15 years we'll most likely be on Xbox 3 or whatever they name so there'll be no problem about the X1.
  • What I want to know is if they will still be $80 to $110 in Australia? It wasn't so bad when the Aussie dollar was half the US dollar, but now the Aussie dollar is over US$1, the prices should be a lot better here. At least Wii U consoles and games are not so ridiculously marked up in price, making the Wii U half the price of the Xbox One & just over half the PS4 here.
  • @12 no sony isn't they just seen the complaints and changed there strategy the ps4 has a built in drm that is disabled *sony has about 15 patents on drm* they can easily turn on in a year or 2. and for the digital prices from what that Microsoft engineer was stated they are going to be looking at competing with steam for prices so I assume there digital marketplace will have some great sales
  • The prices for Australia won't likely change. If you look on Ebgames Aus website a few games such as Destiny have lost the place holder tag and have been dropped from the placeholder price of $118 to $88 or $98
  • @4 Isn't one of the reason why PC games are $10 cheaper the fact that you can't trade in/sell the game after using it? Microsoft took away a key-feature of what made consoles so unique. So yeah, the games on MS's PC (XBone) should be cheaper than $60 from now on.
  • @17 you can trade in pc games
  • seen as you'll never actually own a game on xbone they should be cheaper!
  • @15 you know what your talking about, Sony doesn't care about their people at all they just want to beat Xbox this time so they are saying anything to ruin them, when the PS4 releases people will be pissed with day one games or realize it's pay to play online lol
  • @15 I wouldn't take that Microsoft Engineer document seriously. Besides the fact that the info is supposedly comes from a completely anonymous source it also comes from Pastebin meaning absolutely anybody could have created that document which really doesn't give it much credibility at all. @17 PC games aren't cheaper because you can't trade them in. They are cheaper because royalties don't have to be paid to either Microsoft or Sony
  • PS4 all the way. MS can put the xbox one up their ass for all I care
  • @18 I thought pretty much all of them came with a unique code, or am I missing something? Steam Trade system perhaps, but that doesn't apply to the games you bought for yourself.
  • @13 Ok, that may be true. But will THAT Xbox have backwards compatibility? You better hope so. What I'm saying here is that the XB1 as a working piece of equipment will cease to function unless they change the current policy. It literally has an eventual expiration date & means that it will have zero value when they turn the data off. All you'll be able to do is look at it, turn it on, and wish it was still supported by XBL because after 24 hrs of them shutting the service down you won't be able to do ANYTHING with it.
  • I understand there lots of console war fanbase everywhere in world. Why not we ask Queen, "do you ever play games in secret life?"
  • @21 Makes sense. Also easier/less expensive to develop a game for PC.
  • @13 you are totally missing the point and have no idea what you are talking about.
  • @24 - Maybe this is me being a little too optimistic but I would assume the X1's "log in once every 24 hrs" restriction will be lifted once the "Xbox Two" is released. Microsoft have a tendency to shun their older consoles once a new one launches so they probably won't care about piracy, etc so much by that stage. The better solution though would be for them to amend the existing policy so you don't need to check in, providing you have the original media in the tray.
  • Wow this thread going down hill fast! Everythings turning into a bashing contest between the 2 groups lol. This post was literally about games pricing! Jesus Christ! lol.
  • On topic: I hope if digital DL's are going to be a pushed format in the future AND there are trade in restrictions I hope they do get real with pricing. My understanding was that pure digital content has no overhead costs, i.e. plastic for cases, paper, ink, printers, distributers and fuel/transport costs...So how comes its always so high? It is a slight bit annoying when you see a on demand title you'd like go to buy and its still like £40 5 years on! and go in to a shop and pick it up for £20 new or £10 second hand. I just assume people keep blindly buying at that price so they don't want to lower it? But I know nothing about this side of the industry so apologies in advance if Im talking crap lol.
  • It really should be less than $100 here in australia
  • Does anyone trust Microsoft anymore? Amazon game's for Xbox One/Ps3 = £55, Xbox360/PC = £40 Clearly Microsoft are full of BS, source go look up Battlefield 4. http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11/276-0218161-9476230?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=battlefield+4&sprefix=battlefield%2Caps%2C255
  • Gaming companies should give consumers more choice. Something like You can download and keep as digital copy for half the price ($30) and risk the servers or company shutting down. OR You buy disk copy ($60) and be able to play it whenever you want even if the console servers are shut down.
  • @32 Battlefield is not published by MS. All games published by MS will be at the current price point. The article even says Activision, EA, and Ubisoft haven't released information on pricing yet.
  • @34 That's not the point that I'm trying to make, you can get the same price's mentioned with any standard Xbox360 or XboxOne game including Ps3/PS4.
  • #32 - reading is fundamental.
  • @36 Feel free to prove me wrong when they show the price for Halo Xbox One. It's not the first time Microsoft have lied, misleaded people.
  • Since Microsoft are essentially trying to be Steam of the console market, I wonder how much they will charge for Digital copies of games? My guess is that they won't charge any less. Even though it gets rid of the whole idea of trading games in and not paying for a disc or case, etc.
  • I've seen the price of Dead rising 3, and that was for £44.99, but I don't know if that's going to be M$ published.
  • Ronnie did the possibility that Amazon simply hasn't updated the price yet ever enter you head. They still list both the X360 and X1 versions of Titanfall at £55 despite the fact that Game has the X360 version at £40
  • @37 No prices for games have been announced , prices quoted on Amazon will change to reflect the RRP when confirmed.These are just placeholders, I'm not sure why people are treating these prices shown as gospel..
  • @40 Maybe your right, since the conversation seem's rather odd since US is charging around £39 converted while Uk is charging at around £55. It's why bit mad about Next gen cost's but if it's changing then back to normal pricing then Sony/Microsoft should both update their game's list soon since £55 for a game is a lot.
  • @34 I don't know how the prices will work out in the UK, and maybe y'all will get screwed, but the US amazon prices are in line with what MS said. Ryse (published by MS): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CMQTU74/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1371474404&sr=8-1&pi=SL75 Battlefield 4 (EA): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00CXCCB64/ref=pd_aw_sim_vg_10?pi=SY115
  • @37 the confused part is the XboxOne held placeholder's before the price announcement but the UK page for the game's do not carry the usual placeholder notification and are charging more then the US page.
  • @28 That would certainly be a good thing but you're talking about an entire console generation going by before this would happen. Also there's the license validation for XB1 games that won't be possible without XBL support, so the issue persists after they cut the service. So yeah, if the disc in the tray acts as the "key" like how it does now for installed games then all would be good.
  • @24 Major Nelson himself said that they are not going to just "turn off" the One. I honestly can't believe anyone would really think that they would do such a thing in the first place. 28 has the right idea. When the One comes to the end of its lifecycle, the DRM will most likely either be removed completely or you will have to have the disc in the drive. http://kotaku.com/microsoft-we-wont-render-your-xbox-one-games-unplayab-513602148
  • Currently on Amazon next gen games for both consoles cost £55.
  • I dont know how they work out prices but every XBox One game and PS4 game that I have seen on EBay or Amazon so far is priced at roughly £55 not £40. Am I just dreaming that the price for a game might drop before the release date?!?!?
  • Also people really need to stop looking at conversion rates as that's not how business prices work, just cause so and so costs a certain amount in America doesn't mean we'll get what that convertes to into pounds, Euro's or whatever your currency is.
  • Sounds good in theory, but what are other publishers gonna charge? btw, Shopto have Xbox One games available at £44 here in the UK.
  • @18 no you can't. All PC games have a CD key to unlock the full version. And there can only be one key per online user(if you were playing offline). The only time you were really able to trade PC games was in the early 90s I remember because I let my friend borrow the original Diablo for a few months and got Warcraft 2 from him.
  • So, that means $59.99 = £59.99 for the UK then?! :-(
  • I don't see a problem with this. I think those who are hopping on the PS4 bandwagon just want to turn everything MS does now into something terrible so they feel better about being "cool" like the others who are switching.
  • @55 .. Oh god there's morons calling the switch of the console's the 'cool thing' already... We don't need snippets of info like this really, it just keeps raising more and more questions, we need full and detailed answers, no dogging things, just facts, one massive and very detailed document detailing everything, answering any question that could be asked.
  • wow. 60 dollars for a game you can only trade once. What about games that will be available on the console day one? There's no middle man and M$ still wants more money. Good thing I'm sticking with my 360. And when the 360 isn't supported anymore, I'm out of the gaming community.
  • 60 dollars for a game you dont own epic fail
  • at leebradly I see the problem as cloud and digi purchases drives cost to produce and sell down that 60 bucks is a rectal exam. in fact I see 360 games in bins for 12.99 that don't have that kind of value.
  • about conversion rates in the town 6 hours north of me milk cost 2.99 more than here, same country. exchange rates has nothing to do with prices or value of any product.
  • I wonder if 360 games will go down in price even a little bit....won't get my hopes up though lol
  • Im happy i preordered my x1 first day i could and that i cancelled my ps4 preorder after e3; all those x1 exclusives convinced me to get the x1 but the only 2 good ps4 games infamous 2nd son and order 1886 dont even come out at launch so ill wait till they come out to get that. As always suck it nintendo you dont even make a real gaming console anymore.
  • it's unfortunate that this is considered good news, I knew it wouldn't happen but I was hoping as a show of good faith about their "plan" games this generation would actually see a small price cut, nothing drastic but $5-10 less just so they could attempt to show people they were actually on our side
  • interesting, if sony follow suit though then their still ahead in my book if sony raise prices it may tempt me back to xbone
  • Good news but ill be sticking with the mighty 360 until M$ get there act together.
  • Charging same price for a digital disc with the end result of being worthless. Whats the trade in value on an xbox one games, oops sorry that's a used game good friken luck...
  • 12: I dunno how Sony is helping out consumers but Microsoft isn't. That's a silly unthinking thing to say. Sure, Sony's device is $100 cheaper than Microsoft's. Sure, Sony's first-party game will be free to play and trade and play offline. So what? That took almost no effort from them. Microsoft isn't trying to rob consumers - they're trying to move their console into a whole new infrastructure while still trying to preserve our rights. Consoles only need to be online every 24 hours because they store our games in the cloud so we can play them without the disc or even purchase them digitally - this is for consumer convenience. Because of the disc-free nature, they need to verify our licenses. But they wanted to preserve consumer ability to be able to resell games, so they did it - they allow license transfers. You'll sell your game, and you can go home and keep playing it offline for 24 hours, but right when you connect to the internet again, your license will be revoked, as you sold your game. They need to have the check-in to retain the ability to resell games, while still preserving their vision for their console. And really, they made huge efforts to retain our rights as much as possible. "Always-online" was a jump they had to make. They didn't have to allow us to resell our games, or even keep discs on the market - but they did because consumers feel more secure in these kinds of transactions. They were looking out for consumers there.
  • ShopTo Have got Battlefield 4 and other titles priced at £47
  • $59.99 to rent a game is pretty steep. Since of course the DRM means you will never own it. People still aren't getting this point are they.
  • @sgtleehead right with you it's like TV for the blind, i guess some people just like throwing money out the window....
  • I see a lot of talk about how the xbox one will never be permanently "shut down" and become nothing but an oversized paperweight. It makes sense to think that this would happen eventually, after all it happened with the original xbox and is bound to happen to the 360. Servers shutting down is inevitable with the advancements of technology... However, i also see talk of MS simply just shutting off DRM completely eventuallly. I like the sound of this, and if it happens ill probably buy an xbox one. I just dont want to deal with all of this stuff, DRM and onliine check in and all that. If one day MS decides to get rid of all that, then awesome! ill probably pick up an xbox one. but for now, as it stands, they still have all this trash, so i wont be getting one anytime soon. i can wait with my ps4.
  • @67 ever heard the saying "if it aint broke, dont fix it"? consumer convenience you say? what about the consumers with no internet? is that convenient to them? or if they have a slow broadband speed because of their location (like myself), it takes hours to download a game over xbox live, is that convenient? your point of consumer convenience completely contradicts your argument. some people(idiots) will see it your way, but anyone with an ounce of common sense, will KNOW that this is all about squeezing every single penny they can. i for one, am gonna wait until both consoles are released then make my decision who to go for, i am no MS or sony fanboy, so im not gonna pledge my loyalty to a product that aint even finished yet. i just hope i dont live to regret not pre-ordering so i can receive my day one achievement HAHAHAHAHA
  • 72: Microsoft saw room for expansion in a specific way, and they've gone for it. When I say "consumer convenience", I'm talking about Xbox One consumers. People who can use the console. All of the features I talked about are for their convenience. Without sacrificing the integrity of their vision (I'm not trying to debate the vision necessarily, as it hasn't even come to fruition or been released yet), Microsoft managed to create a console where we can still resell our games and all that. They did that because the gamers wanted it. They wanted an infrastructure modeled after Steam - that was their goal. Instead, they took that model and combined it with their own. Who knows how well it will work? I don't. I'm not trying to debate that. What I'm trying to say is that Microsoft took the time to think these features through - features that gamers wanted and that publishers hate. So how are they not serving the consumers?
  • Addendum (oops): It doesn't matter if your Internet speed is slow - you only need to connect once a day in order for them to verify that you haven't sold your game license. This isn't a download or anything.
  • bravo Microsoft... now just tell me that the third party games will also be 60 bones. and give me the release date for the console would be great info
  • @32 i would trust amazon as far as i could throw them fella, these are the people who were taking pre orders for the XO at £600+ which is how the rumors started about the price. Look for confirmed info in the future fella, not sites that guess prices.
  • Good that Microsoft has set the games at the standard price, but I have a feeling that the prices from EA and Activision will go up, since they both are the biggest money whores in the games industry when it comes to charging for games and DLC.
  • @73 'features that gamers wanted and that publishers hate. So how are they not serving the consumers?' i think im on a different planet, if you swap 'gamers' and 'publishers' in the above sentence, that is whats really happening. i get the point they are trying to make something fresh and innovative, but they are goin about it the wrong way.
  • 78: So you don't want to be able to resell your games, share your entire games library with your family, and play all of your games without having to switch a disc? You cherry picked my one sentence, getting the context wrong. I know gamers don't want always-online - I wasn't talking about that consequence of Microsoft's new infrastructure. The features I mentioned above - selling gamers, sharing games, and a few more - are the features I was talking about, and those were built specifically by Microsoft to accommodate gamers in their new infrastructure.
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